Archive for the 'Drinking notes' Category

Drinking local: Damn fine in Seattle

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Seattle deserves to be in any discussion about the nation’s best beer drinking cities, but we’re not going there again.
Our recent brief stay in the region wasn’t about beer — in stark contrast, for instance, to 1995 when we visited dozens of places while working on the “The Beer Lovers Guide,” sometimes feeling frantic but [...]

Drinking local: Terminal Gravity Brewing

Sunday, May 25th, 2008

Peek behind the curtain and you’ll see Terminal Gravity Brewing in Northeast Oregon is bursting at its micro-seems, but you aren’t required to look. The pleasure here is, well, right here.
Every seat inside the pub-restaurant was taken within half an hour after it opened Saturday, although that only amounted to about two score customers. When [...]

Friday morning linking: That’s no monk

Friday, May 16th, 2008

A few links to get you to Happy Hour.
- The first is to my own post about Flying Dog Kerberos, because it’s a tripel and those are the sorts of beers Brew Like a Monk is about. Flying Dog recently shipped bloggers a package with the new beer plus others in the Canis Major Series [...]

Time to open the 1968 Hardy’s Ale

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

Doesn’t look the message to wait until July of 1969 is going to be a problem . . .
The time has come to open the 1968 bottle of Thomas Hardy’s Ale.
Daria gave me this bottle for Christmas more than six years ago, and the immediate question was what to do with it. It’s not [...]

Monday morning musing: Grading on a curve?

Monday, April 28th, 2008

To jump start your brain this morning: Two beer posts and a wine link that provoked one of the posts.
Stephen Beaumont on Great Beer vs. Popular Beer.
The number one beer in the United States, for example, is Bud Light, a pale lager with, frankly, some complexity of character, but a flavour profile so that [...]

Flying Dog Garde Dog: Thumbs up or down?

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

Let’s start with what the brewer has to say: Matt Brophy of Flying Dog Ales talks about the intent behind the seasonal Garde Dog, as well as the way it tastes to him.
Please notice that near the end he says, “We put our own spin on it.”
Not to duck Christopher’s call for less description/background and [...]

Palo Santo Marron: A beer and a movie

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

So would you pair Palo Santo Marron (shortened to Palo Santo for the rest of this post), the latest release from Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, with popcorn?
Probably not, but it is tempting simply because the beer comes with a movie. Dogfish Head has enclosed “Take Time” with the first 10,000 four-packs of Palo Santo with [...]

The Session #13: Green Lakes Organic Ale

Friday, March 7th, 2008

Don’t know how many of you frequent growers’ markets, so a quick description of how buying sweet corn works around here.
Quite often vendors will have the top of ears pealed back. This is so you can see how much damage the ear worm has done. When we get home we lop the portion the worm [...]

Miller Lite Collection: Which one is the ale?

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

Continuing from yesterday, you and I will not determine if one or all three of the beers in the Miller Lite Brewers Collection survives testing and ultimately thrives or not. Light beer drinkers, or consumers not currently drinking beer, will.
Presumably it will be on flavor, but certainly marketing will be a factor. The other day [...]

Gordon Biersch X 4: Compare and contrast

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

“Brew” Blog reports that Costco has received label application approval to sell three beers under the Kirkland brand name.
This has all kind of implications. In brief:
- Costco is a poster child for “trading up.” You go there to buy products you are brand agnostic about in bulk (often the dependable Kirkland brand), leaving you money [...]