musing

And just when I promised to play nice

Now the Village Voice has a list, Our 10 Best Beers. Great fodder — they include a “plebian” list and a “connoisseur’s list” — but a promise is a promise so nothing snarky from me.

Instead I’ll take it out on . . .

An opener for screwcap wines. Did some wine drinker miss the memo? They’re screwcaps. Granted, there is a legitimate use for people with arthritis. But “keeping the romance alive?”

Now back to be the nice guy who buys the next round and a link that should have you smiling right into Happy Hour.

Pete Brown celebrates. As far as I am concerned this paragraph alone makes him worthy of Beer Writer of the Year:

I fucking love beer. I love the taste and appreciation of it. I love the society and culture that surrounds it, and the way it influences society and culture more broadly. I love the history of it, and what that history tells us about ourselves. I love the way it’s an international standard, a universal signifier of unpretentious sociability. I love the fact that I’ve made scores of genuine new friends through it – many of whom I’ve yet to meet physically. I love the way it inspires and intoxicates me – both in a physiological sense and an intellectual one.

But wait, there’s another.

Today I’m going to write my final column of the year for the Publican and then I’m going to a beer festival and/or a bar and I’m going to exceed the recommended daily guidelines of alcohol unit intake. I’m going to get drunk. I’m going to get shitfaced, sozzled, pissed, bladdered, cunted, wankered, soused, and most of the other 1346 words for inebriation I’ve collected over the years. I’m going to have a good time doing it, and the people who are with me are going to have a good time too – a better time than they would if they stayed in and watched the telly. And when I come home with The Beer Widow and a few mates, I’m going to share with them a bottle of Bass Kings Ale, brewed in 1902, which cost me over a hundred quid, and I’m going to marvel at the miracle of beer all over again.

The nice thing is this evening we’ll be drinking something local, maybe on cask, and it will be part of the same miracle.

 

Thank you, Molson, for stopping by

Since most of you read this blog through a feed reader or perhaps only the most recent post I direct you to the comments that followed the one last week about Molson “microcarbonated” lager.

Most particularly because a representative of Molson M stopped by with more information (then even more).

By chance — and this is another sign I might not be normal — I was just reading notes from a presentation Tom Nielsen of Sierra Nevada made at the 2008 Craft Brewers Conference about how carbon dioxide can scrub out hop aroma. This isn’t Miller talking about “triple hopped” beer. I’m not guaranteeing you’ll love Molson M, just saying it’s a real issue.

 

Innovation defined: Microcarbonated(TM) lager

Molson Coors has announced the launch of Molson M, the world’s only “microcarbonated” lager beer.

Microcarbonization is a revolutionary process implemened by Molson Coors at the company’s brewery on Notre-Dame Street in Montreal, a process during which the beer is injected with CO2 through smaller, finer bubbles with a high level of precision and consistency.

“The injection of smaller CO2 bubbles makes it possible to preserve not only the taste of the hops but also the delicate flavours generated by the yeast during fermentation,” explained Karine Brunelle, brewer with Molson Coors.

A patent is pending.

 

Weekend tidbits: Bass Museum saved

Roger Protz has the exclusive: “The (Bass) brewing museum and visitor centre in Burton-on-Trent has been saved and will reopen in 2010, possibly as early as Easter. This major victory is the result of a sustained campaign by beer lovers, brewery workers, the local MP and the Burton daily newspaper.”

Molson Coors had announced it would close the museum and historic brewery.

The key attraction will be a working 30-barrel brewery run by Steve Wellington, who currently runs the on-site White Shield Brewery. Visitors will see beer being made and the brews — all cask-conditioned beers — will go on sale commercially.

Yes, beer makes a beer museum a whole lot cooler.

– The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that Tom Pastorius, founder and former CEO of the Pennsylvania Brewing Co., has been assured a $300,000 loan that will allow him to buy back Penn Brewing.

“I’m very optimistic” the deal to buy the business will be complete in December,” Pastorius said. “We need to brew some beer. Christmas is coming.”

Pastorius sold the business to Birchmere Capital in 2003. Birchmere since closed the brewery — although the equipment is said to be intact inside — and has the brands brewed under contract at the Lion Brewery in Wilkes-Barre.

– This factoid from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Budweiser sells for about eight times more than that of local Chinese beers, according to Anheuser-Busch InBev global advertising director Andrew Sneyd. He said one reason may be that the American brand seems to represent the American dream, which resonates with many hard-working and ambitious Chinese consumers.

Provide your own punch line.

 

The business of beer (redux)

This time from the Business of Big Beer.

Jeremiah McWilliams of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes about the possibility AB InBev could damage the Budweiser and Bud Light brands with line extensions, in the latter case Bud Light Lime and now Bud Light Wheat.

. . . critics argue that Anheuser-Busch’s line extensions may encourage once-loyal drinkers to wander away from the company. Line extensions, they say, remind drinkers of the endless variety on the beer menu, and may lead them to try offerings from other brewers.

Consultant David “Bump” Williams, who called the strategy of adding line extensions “a big mistake.”

“You’re now encouraging a loyal Bud Light shopper to try something new,” said Williams. If that drinker likes Bud Light Lime, Anheuser-Busch runs the risk of losing that once-loyal Bud Light shopper to other lime beers from other brewers.

And the next thing you know they are drinking IPAs?

(A bit of disclosure: Brewing with Wheat is due to reach bookshelves at the end of February, so perhaps I would benefit from the millions AB InBev is spending on advertising Bud Light Wheat. So I promise not to start drinking or endorsing it. I do, however, like the 2009 vintage of Michelob Bavarian Style Wheat.)