musing

Would you pay for better glassware?

Proper glasswareAndy Crouch writes Breweries And Bars Should Kill The Shaker Pint . . . which is a fine idea.

I posted a comment at hit site that economics could get in the way. At issue is not just the shape and size of the glasses, but the quality of the glass itself. Check out wine stemware some time, and you’ll see the lighter, easier to break, stuff costs more. While I would agree that Riedel seems to have a scam going by suggesting you need a different shape glass for every variety of wine grape I also agree that lighter glassware better serves flavor and aroma — of beer or wine.

Before I wander off on a tangent about how breweries could learn a little about glassware, because the Hoegaarden glass Pierre Celis is lousy for drinking Belgian Whites or that I’d rather drink Chimay from a Rochefort goblet than the Chimay branded one . . .

Although Andy’s comment about my comment would indicate he disagrees about the economic issue pleasure humor me. Pretend you are sitting in a pub or restaurant and your beer arrives in a shaker glass. You ask the server to put it into something better. Could be a glass reserved for other beers. Could be good wine stemware (obviously a hypothetical because plenty of restaurants stick with small, cheap, hard to break glasses).

You are told that will cost another quarter.

Is it worth two bits to you?

Jackson honored; And what do British beer writers drink?

The British Guild of Beer Writers has renamed its Beer Writer of the Year Award the Michael Jackson Gold Tankard Award, in honor of the world’s greatest beer writer, who died two years ago.

The announcement was made at a guild gathering on the eve of the Great British Beer Festival. To celebrate the guild’s 21st birthday 21 beers were selected by some of the country’s leading beer writers and brewers. A fun list to look at.

Anchor Steam, Anchor Brewing
Explorer, Adnams
Brain’s Dark, Brains
Brakspear Triple, Brakspear
Chiswick Bitter, Fuller’s
India Pale Ale, Meantime
Landlord, Timothy Taylor
Liquid Sunshine,St Austell’s
London Porter, Meantime
London Pride, Fuller’s
Pedigree, Marston’s
Red Shield, White Shield Brewery
Ridgeway IPA, Ridgeway Brewery
Rivet Catcher, Jarrow Brewery
Russian Imperial Stout, Harvey’s
SA Gold, Brains
Scapa Special, Highland Brewery
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada Brewing
Spitfire, Shepherd Neame
Summer Lightning, Hop Back
Victory Ale, Bateman

 

Highly rated beers and boring beers

With a rather provocatively headline, “Rate Beer vs. Beer Advocate: The ratings war!,” Top Fermented takes a lengthy look at how the top-rated beers at Rate Beer and Beer Advocate compare.

Is there anything to conclude other than “it’s an interesting look at the tastes of the user base at both sites?” You decide.

If you have the new All About Beer magazine (“Brewing in Wine Country” is the top story”) in hand the story about the super raters at Rate Beer and Beer Advocate makes interesting supplementary reading.

And for perspective check out Ron Pattinson’s post about boring beer (it’s short).

Now I’m back to writing about wheat beer, fortunately not boring to me.

 

When rare ceases to be rare

The assistant managing editor in charge of being cranky at the last newspaper where I worked used to have a note posted on a bulletin board in his office: “All boldface is no boldface.”

For instance, consider just one entry today at beernews.org. Four more rare beers, including one (Brooklyn Sorachi Ace) brewed with now-rare hops. Good breweries all; undoubtedly good beers. And even if we never taste these beers good things may result — when I was at Stone Brewing a few months ago brewmaster Mitch Steele and I talked about how much he learns during one of these collaborative projects.

But I can’t help but remember that quote attributed to Goethe (though I suspect it was made up). At some point being rare ceases to be rare.

Preserving history, Allagash style

When somebody writes a big ol’ history of small-batch, micro, whatever-you-call it brewing Sierra Nevada will be a chapter and Rhinochasers a footnote. But what’s clear in retrospect isn’t always clear at the time.

So I love it when I see stuff like a photo Rob Tod referred to on Twitter. Here’s the link to the picture of Mike Dixon of the Great Lost Bear in Portland, Maine, with the original handle that poured the first pint of Allagash White at the GLB on July 1, 1995.

Tod was a one-man brewery at the time. I sure as heck hope he knows where that tap handle is.