musing

Session #35 rounded up; #36: Cask-conditioned

Beer for Chicks has posted the round up for Session #35: New Beer’s Resolutions, a combination of 2009 highlights, occasional lowlights and actual resolutions . . . and already it is time to think about Session #36 on Feb. 5.

Because host Tom Cizauskas expects us to take it seriously. The topic: Cask-conditioned ale.

Above all, let’s have perspective folks, perspective! Cask-conditioned ale is not a matter of life and death; it’s much more.

The SessionHe means it. There will be no showing up for class Feb. 5 and telling the teacher you couldn’t come up with an idea related to the topic because he’s supplied a long list of potential topics: make it about lifestyle, culture, ale vs. lager, saison (really!). . . “Make it a sad story. Make it a love story.”

Did I mention my first beer of 2010 was cask-conditioned Big Sky IPA Papago Brewing in Scottsdale? If you’d told me in 1996 at the first Real Ale Festival in Chicago that 13-plus years later I’d be sitting in a bar in Arizona drinking a cask-conditioned beer from Montana (you might know Big Sky Brewing better for Moose Drool) I’d have suggested that chances were better somebody would invent something called Facebook, where festival cellarmaster Steve Hamburg and I would be friends.

This is going to be fun.

 

Monday musing: So long to a great blog

Questions to consider on a Monday morning: Is there life after beer blogging? What trend did Rock Art Brewery set?

  • Jeff Bell authored The Last Post at Stonch’s Beer Blog yesterday. As you can see from the comments that follow he will be missed. Keeping up with UK beer blogs consumes more of my time each day, and I blame Jeff.
  • Not sure that 293 votes constitutes a mandate from a “Beer Nation” but a poll at USABeerTrends indicates that Rock Art Brewery was the No. 1 craft beer trendsetter in 2009. Ska Brewing in Colorado finished second.
  • Best beer related gift ever? A quilt made from beer T-shirts.
  • What country was this man returning to? “Yep. Back home again, in brain-dead beer land.”

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    Say so long to 2009 with a few beery links

    See you in 2010, but since you stopped by I’ll leave you with a few beery links.

    I had planned to riff a bit on “world classic” and “world class” beers, but that’s going to have to wait until a few days into the New Year. I decided to give my brain an early Christmas present: no thinking today (don’t say it, Alan). Then we’re traveling for a bit after Christmas. While I’ll give it a shot to have a post Jan. 1 as part of The Session regular blogging won’t resume until at least Jan. 4.

    Happy holidays, don’t drink too much too often, and stay safe.

    The links:

  • Given the success Stone Brewing exhibited in the past when it came to April Fool’s pranks didn’t you pause a moment when you saw the news (and video) about a possible brewery in Europe? This is the sort of thing business folks used to pursue quietly, but in this Facebook/Twitter/transparent world keeping secrets is next to impossible. It made more sense for Stone to shoot a video and tell the world.

    The reaction in the U.K.? Pete Brown loves the idea, but Woolpack Dave would rather support BrewDog (a partner with Stone in brewing collaborations). Check out the whole conversation.

  • Microsoft has banned an app that lets phone users “drink” a virtual beer. This is the same app that’s available for the iPhone in the App Store. Microsoft made the decision based on its self-imposed “morals-based” content policy.
  • Here’s how you introduce a “best” list: “Is it stupid to list the 15 best TV shows of the decade? Most definitely! Is it fun to list the best 15 TV shows of the decade? Oh, yes, a thousand times yes!” And, given my limited contact with television, it looks like a pretty decent list to me. Other than failing to mention “Breaking Bad.” (Thanks to Uncle Jack for making me aware of this.)

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    And still another beer book suggestion

    One more last beer gift suggestion, at least until I remember something else.

    You can download Beer Lover’s Britain for £5.99. Jeff Evans includes all the vital information you’d expect but also address the questions you really want answers to.

    Should there be a head on my pint? Is it in the right glass? Is it meant to taste like that? How much does a pint cost? How do I pay the bill? Can I join in the games? Am I allowed to drive after drinking? What can we eat? Can we bring the children in? Is smoking allowed? Can I expect table service? What time does the pub close? Can we stay at a pub? How do we get there?

    I also discovered you can download his Book of Beer Knowledge, one of ten really good beer books I already recommended.

    As long as I’m suggesting guide books (avoided in making the list above because of their specialized nature) I should mention Good Beer Guide Prague & the Czech Republic. There’s a chance we’ll make it back to the south of Germany and the Czech Republic sooner than later, so already committing this book and Trips! (South) to memory.

  • Congratulations to Gary Melenhorst and John Stephenson from Ontario’s Creemore Springs Brewery for winning the copy of the upcoming Brewing with Wheat I donated to Alan’s Good Beer Blog Yuletide Photo Contest. Clever that they won a book about wheat beer with a picture of a wheat beer truck. The book will be available at the end of February.
  • Stephen Beaumont has crowned a Beer Glass of the Year. No further comment.

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    A beer niche is a niche is a niche

    The United States was not exactly a beer drinking nation in 1810. According to American Breweries II per capita consumption amounted to less than one gallon per man, woman and child.

    The number grew to about 20 gallons shortly before Prohibition and amounts to 21-plus gallons today. Or roughly 81.6 liters, compared to 157 liters for the Czechs (Bavarians drink about the same amount).

    It depends a little bit on how you define craft beer, but if we throw Blue Moon White into the mix then per capita consumption of craft beer amounts to about one gallon.

    Two hundred years later.