I had planned to blog from the Craft Brewers Conference, but less than stellar wireless and the time constraints changed my mind.
Reports from the field will begin Monday.
musing
Sorry Denver, Portland gets my vote
I’m with Jeff Alworth on this.
He elegantly rebutts — with help from Brian Butenschoen of the Director of the Oregon Brewer’s Guild — an article in Time Magazine that declares Denver the best place for beer touring.
Doesn’t need any help from me, but I did have this additional thought when I first saw the article.
Denver has been “dubbed the Napa of beer.” Dubbed by who? Somebody in Colorado I suspect. And a PR person to boot.
Monday morning musing: Got a beer question?
Wednesday I am off to the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego.
Yes, this involves drinking beer. It also involves a lot of asking questions. In my case many will be wheat related, since I’m starting work on the previously mentioned book for Brewers Publications.
But if you were going and could ask craft brewers or brewing industry suppliers a question (or questions) what would you ask?
Here’s the lineup of speakers and topics.
The week begins with judging for the World Beer Cup, with awards handed out Saturday. That means brewers from around the world will be on hand to judge.
Feel free to use comments or email the question(s).
– The St. Louis Post-Distpatch visits “extreme beers,” mostly locally produced and including the area’s micros as well as brewing giant Anheuser-Busch.
Great quote from Pat McGauley, vice president innovation, who is talking specifically about A-B’s 8% blueberry lager but makes what’s really a general observation.
“It lives in a much different world than most of the beers we deal with.”
Ready to settle down with one beer?
Research commissioned by UK brewer Greene King found “35 is the age at which British men typically settle on their ‘usual.’ ”
So I guess I’m a little slow. I don’t even have a “usual” style.
On the other hand perhaps I’m precocious, because “they trial an average of seven different brands before developing a loyalty to their favourite beer.” Only seven beers? Check out Luke Nicholas’ Twitter feed from last night. (And he’s from New Zealand.)
Obviously some across-the-pond cultural differences here. Nonetheless, more from the survey:
– One in five men try up to 14 different kinds of beer before settling on their favorite, and that is determined “on quality and taste above all other factors – including price, brand, strength and peer pressure from friends.”
– Peer pressure? Twenty-nine percent of those 18 to 24 order the same beer as their friends. Just 7% of men over the age of 35 are similarly influenced.
– While men in London are the most likely to rate quality as the key factor in their beer preferences, Londoners are also most influenced in their choice of beer by their mates (16%), and men in Yorkshire the least (4%).
If this is Beer Heaven, what are they drinking?
I was hoping that the new Miller Lite commercials would run during the NCAA basketball tournament because that’s the best chance I figure to have of seeing them for a while.
Turns out Miller has posted them at its website (you’ll probably have to do the age check thing along the way), but not at YouTube.com.
BrandWeek has the details:
The other effort, “Ultimate Light Beer,” features a man walking into beer heaven. It’s a bar where the bartender recognizes him by name and he has a monogrammed stool, which turns into a recliner upon sitting down. Two patrons are playing air hockey on a table that also is broadcasting a basketball game. Others are shooting pool at a table with moving pockets that catch any shot. When our protagonist orders two Lites, two waitresses deliver.
Beyond the theological questions the commercials pose they got me wondering . . . Why, if this is heaven, is there a need to drink low-calorie (i.e. light) beer?