musing

As it did after Katrina, Abita Brewing in Louisiana has brewed a beer to benefit victims of disaster.

This time 75 cents from the sale of every 22-ounce bottle of Save Our Shores (S.O.S.) Charitable Pilsner will will go to a fund that will be used to support those devastated by the BP oil disaster. But here’s the rub, via The Mississippi Brew Blog, Abita can’t sell the beer in two of the states most affect by the spill.

At 7 percent the beer is too strong to sell in Mississippi and the 22-ounce bottles are too big to sell in Alabama.

Think about it.

Abita first brewed Restoration Ale after Hurricane Katrina — a beer remains on the market — and also sold a variety of related items to raise money to benefit Katrina victims. Likewise 100 percent of the net proceeds from the sale of SOS gear will go to the SOS Fund. I’m pretty sure they are even legal in Alabama and Mississippi.

As my wife and daughter know I’m a sucker for a quick wink or even a half smile (from them — this doesn’t work for every one).

Hold that thought.

Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City recently began selling a new beer, Amber Ale. You can buy it in draught in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska, or find it in bottles in Boulevard’s 12-Pack Sampler. I received a couple of bottles from the brewery and drank one last night.

I have a friend who does not approve of drinking beers named after colors. He gets around the fact that he loves Belgian Whites by calling them witbiers. I have no such problem, but I did taste at least one too many amber ales on brewpub sample trays in the 1990s and never quite recovered.

Too often they have a sticky sweetness that no amount of hops can balance (some being IPAs by name). No such problem with Boulevard Amber. Its biggest fault might be that the “sell sheet” describes it as quaffable. Because it is 5.1 percent abv I guess it doesn’t qualify as a “session beer” under the Bryson Rules, but it sure meets his other criteria.

Flavor when you look for it; doesn’t get jealous when you want to talk about something other than what’s in the glass.

And, for me at least, a bonus. There’s a bright, spicy note on the nose that yields to the malt, then returns on the palate. Looking at the list of ingredients I suspect the protagonist might be the Saphir hops (a relatively new variety from Germany’s Halltertau region). Bottom line, I don’t really care.

I’m simply delighted my beer winked at me.

Send the posse ofter the guys in this rather scary photo.

Disregarding the sometimes ominous hints in the sphbc Twitter feed I’m off to the National Homebrewers Conference in Minnesota. I’m not even going to pretend I’ll have the time or the inclination to manage posts from Minneapolis.

I will try to ship a few pictures to my Posterous “site.” Those should also show up in my Twitter feed, so I am replicating it on the right for the duration of the conference. I may also add direct tweets. Otherwise I hope that regular transmissions (including to you rss subscribers) will resume Monday. If not, you have a photo of the suspects.

Meanwhile, a bit about the next book project.

Quaffable.

Recycle Week will soon be about (June 21-27) in England and for whatever reason RecycleNow thinks I’m a good one to tell you about it.

So even though not many of you live in the United Kingdom I’m passing along a couple of videos about what happens to bottles and cans once they are picked up and delivered to the local recycling facility because recycling is good for all of us.

You may now resume emptying those bottles and cans.