As long as you are picking up the current issue of All About Beer magazine to read Lew Bryson’s article on session beers you might flip to the back page where they let me chat a bit about “The Importance of Drinking Local.”
Considering it was filed from Bamberg the little essay should have been more focused. But more than nine months into our adventure I’m still figuring this out. Asking questions like . . . Does any old beer brewed “in town” qualify as local? Do we think more highly of local beers because they are “green,” because they are fresher, because breweries are locally owned and the profits stay in town, because they use local ingredients? Can you still be a local brewery if ship your beer across the country?
No need to make it that complicated. You don’t have to think about any of those questions if you want to walk into a local bar, talk to local people and enjoy the local beer. Works fine.
Meanwhile, I direct your attention to a series of posts by Rob Denunzio called “Localize it” (I’m linking to the fourth and last, but read them all). One nit to pick, Rob. More pictures of people to go with the beer. That’s a lot of what local is about.
Stan, the picture illustrating this entry — Brauerei Keesamann? The windows and lighting remind me of Keesmann or Mahrs, across the street from each other — and I can’t remember which is which.
Sorry, Steve. I didn’t man the photo was from Bamberg. It does look more like Keesemann than Mahrs I think. But the photo was taken in Prague. The beer in front is “tank” Pilsner Urquell.
I’ll concede to that nit – fact is, I’m a bit shy about snapping folks and have a camera that tends to make anything that moves faster than a glass of beer look a bit fuzzy. But yes, the people are at the heart of it, agreed.
“But the photo was taken in Prague.”
Heh — but you certainly have to admit that there’s something about the light and the look of the tables that remind you of Keesmann!
I couldn’t remember what sort of glassware we were served there. It was at one of the other spots where we were served in .5l Krugs (solid clay) and when finished, couldn’t figure out how the Fraulein would know we needed another — until we saw others lie their Krugs prone on the table (if you didn’t want another, you placed the mat on top of the upright Krug). Talk about local customs and local drinking.
That’s U Cerneho Vola up by the castle, isn’t it? I liked it there, but didn’t go very often (it didn’t really fit in with a night on the revel).
Actually I’m not sure if it is the Black Ox, because the tables weren’t laid out like that, and they didn’t sell Pilsner Urquell from the tank (it was mainly a kozel house).
Stonch – It is the Black Ox. Still a Kozel house, but the first place that we came across the tank PU so had to go with it.
Bum. I was hoping I’d be able to guess where the photo was. Because it’s unmistakably U Cerneho Vola. What a wonderful pub.
Rob – We were in a restaurant in Luxembourg where Daria worried the guy at the table nearby was about to come over and punch me out for taking a picture of him eating. So I understand you being shy.
As you can see by the angle of this photo I set the (small) camera on the table, and I was quick about it. You change the environment if you walk around waving a camera.
Funnily enough, last time I was in U Cerneho Vola a local started having words with one of my companions after he took some photos. When I said we were “Anglicane”, he didn’t seem to mind any more. He apologised later as he was leaving.
One nit to pick, Rob. More pictures of people to go with the beer.
A little late commenting on this but here goes…
I often secretly lament when my blog goes weeks without people in the pictures. But be careful Stan: among the last 40 posts in Appellation Beer there are only 3 pictures with people in them (and only 1 with people drinking beer).
Ah, come on, Bill. Don’t expect accountability. This is a blog.
My mistake :-). Think I’ll have a beer and shut up.