musing

Damn Pete Brown: The best beer trip ever

Pete BrownAuthor Pete Brown – who is having way too much fun in his role as “the second-best beer drinker in Britain!” – has talked Coors into letting him take a pin (small cask) of India Pale Ale from its White Shield brewery in Burton-on-Trent and transport it to India in much the same manner the highly hopped beer would have traveled in the 19th century.

Not everybody would consider this the best beer holiday ever, but if you care about IPA and its history this might be better than a visit to Belgium or one to Bavaria. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime trip. You can go to Bamberg next year.

The Morning Advertiser provides the details (they wrote “pint” but must mean “pin”):

He’ll follow the route round the Cape of Good Hope, taken throughout the first part of the 19th century before the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 shortened the journey.

Working with Coors brewer Steve Wellington, Pete will take to Bombay a pint of IPA brewed by Steve in Burton-on-Trent, Staffs, exactly as it would have been in 1820.

He sets off from Burton by canal in mid-October, spends a month on a P&O cruise ship, jumps on a 19th-century three-masted tall ship for the passage round the Cape, then spends a month on a giant container ship before arriving in India in late December.

Martyn Cornell provides more perspective:

“I’ve been saying for several years that a British brewer really ought to take a cask of well-hopped IPA and ship it to India to see what happens to the flavour – the Norwegians still do a similar thing with Linie Akvavit, though that goes to Australia and back, rather than the sub-continent.”

Which brings us to . . . an article in the new All About Beer magazine (dated September and with Dave Alexander on the front) titled “IPA Master Class.” From Roger Protz. But only half the story.

The cover touts the “Search for Authentic IPAs.” That means, I guess, that Stone IPA, Victory HopDevil and Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale aren’t authentic.

Te article provides important historical perspective about both IPA history (credit London before Burton-on-Trent) and the impact IPAs had on pale lagers. You need to read more, right?

I just wish that Protz, or AABM with a companion story, had got to American IPAs. A heck of a lot more drinkers consume US-brewed IPAs these days than those brewed in the UK. And these are beers that showcase Northwest hops.

Protz lists his personal Top Ten IPAs, with five from America:

– BridgePort IPA
– Brooklyn East India Pale Ale
– Goose Island IPA
– Sierra Nevada IPA
– Pike IPA

Great beers every one, but are they the first ones you think of when you say I’ll have an IPA?

But back to the top, the Morning Advertiser reports that Brown intends to write a travel book, rather than a beer book, about his journey. I can’t wait.

The Miller Chill Challenge

Corona MicheladaOK, I have a plan.

I’ve written several times that I think I should try Miller Chill. I’ve been seeing advertisements for six months (New Mexico was a test market) and sales are rockin’. And today I received a press release from an agency that represents Corona with recipes for Michelada, Michelada Roja and Chelada. (Miller Chill is based on the “cheleda” – with lime and salt already included.)

So I see an organized blind tasting in the near future. Since we are headed East it might be a few weeks – or perhaps I’ll rope friends and relatives in Massachusetts into taking the test.

If you check out Rate Beer, Beer Advocate or founding brother Jason Alström’s rant this isn’t going to seem like such a good idea. Guess we’ll find out.

The press release is another sign that Mexican breweries are feeling the impact of Miller Chill.

The Michelada, and variations such as the Michelada Roja and the Chelada, are classic Mexican beer cocktails typically made with an authentic Mexican beer, such as Corona, Pacifico or Negra Modelo, and varying combinations of lime, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce and salt, served over ice. The lime and spices complement each other and provide a spicy, flavorful kick to the traditional Mexican beer. Recipes vary throughout Mexico and the origins of the michelada are not widely known, although most agree the name came from “mi chela helada,” slang for “my cold beer.”

Corona recommends the following recipes:

Michelada
Recipe courtesy Adobo Grill in Chicago (and pictured above)
– Chile Piquin
– Salt
– Juice of ½ large fresh lime
– 1 oz. Sangrita**
– 12 oz. bottle Corona
– Garnish: fresh lime wedge

Salt the rim of a large, frosted glass with the coarse salt and chile piquin. Fill the glass halfway with ice and then add the lime juice. Add sangrita and top with beer. Garnish with a lime wedge.

** Sangrita is a tomato-based drink with hints of orange and lime juices, chiles and peppers. It can be purchased at Mexican specialty stores.

Michelada Roja
– Coarse salt
– Juice of 1 large fresh lime
– Dash to taste of Worcestershire, hot sauce, soy sauce
– 2 ounces tomato juice or Clamato juice
– 12 oz. bottle Corona or Pacifico
– Garnish: red and yellow cherry tomatoes on a pick

Salt the rim of a large tall glass with the coarse salt. Fill the glass with ice and then add lime juice and Worcestershire, hot sauce and soy as desired, and then add the tomato juice. Top with beer – serve any extra beer on the side. Garnish with tomatoes on a pick.

Chelada
– Coarse salt
– Juice of 1 large fresh lime
– 12 oz. bottle Negra Modelo or Corona
– Garnish: fresh lime wedge

Salt the rim of a large tall glass with the coarse salt. Fill the glass with ice and then add the lime juice. Top with beer – serve any extra beer on the side. Garnish with a lime wedge.

While you are waiting for the results you might want to check out some of the experiments Donavan Hall conducted earlier this year.

Getting your glasses ‘beer clean’

Boston Lager glassThe specially designed Samuel Adams beer glass is back in the news – because Boston Beer has shipped thousands free to subscribers of Beer Advocate and All About Beer magazines as well as American Homebrewers Association members

So that gives me a chance to add something missing from the first review: The new glass is hard to get “beer clean.” It might make you think those complaining about the unusual shape have a point.

And yes, “beer clean” is an actual term in the bar and restaurant industry vocabulary. (Something I wrote about in Real Beer’s Beer Break newsletter back in the day.)

If you haven’t already noticed the difference a clean glass makes, try this. Drink a glass of milk from a glass you don’t intend to use to serve beer. Wash it out a few minutes with hot water (no soap). Pour a beer. Is that the head you are used to seeing? The Belgian lace?

Now wash the glass with soap. Pour another beer. Same problem? Soap film can be just as nasty a villain as other residue. Now wash the glass with baking soda. Pour another beer. This one probably looks better.

Detergents may contain various fats or glycerin, which is why you are better off using baking soda. Another choice is dishwasher detergent (and then maybe baking soda).

This is easier if you designate glasses only for beer – beside milk looks a little strange in the Trappist goblet. After washing them let the glasses air dry in a dish rack. If water droplets cling to a glass or if spots show while drying, then the glass is not clean. Wash it again.

Beer by the numbers: Bad idea

Cheers to Don Russell, who this week asks why we need a score to choose a beer. The headline: 100-point scale for beer ratings a rank idea.

Specifically, he writes about Pislner Urquell hanging an advertisement on its bottle necks declaring it the world’s “highest-rated pilsner.” That according to the Beverage Tasting Institute, the same guys who sparked the Anheuser-Busch vs. Capital Brewery silliness.)

Russell doesn’t like ratings based on a 100-point scale taken from wine, because:

– They’re unneeded.
– They’re inflationary.
– They’re anti-beer.

On the last count he writes:

The mere process of rating wine, in which a few experts – whose standards do not reflect the masses – influence the marketplace, is elitist and autocratic.

Beer is democratic by nature and should reject any high-handed incursion by taste-makers who insist they know better.

Russell gives Jerald O’Kennard, who runs the Beverage Tasting Institute, a chance to speak up for using the 100-point scale. And I know first hand that consumers like the ratings. They are one of the most popular features in All About Beer magazine, which I write for regularly.

No arguing that people like numbers and use them. So they good or bad for small breweries?

This is an area where we can look to wine, because the 100-point scale has been debated far longer. And since I’m biased I suggest you check out an essay by W.R. Tish: Ten Reasons We All Lose When Numbers Dominate the Marketplace.

Most of the time you could just plug in beer when he writes wine and the sentences make perfect sense.

Try it with his final point: “We are living in the Golden Age of wine; quality and selection of bottlings available in the US are both unprecedented. If we all stop slinging numbers around so frequently, more people would be able to enjoy this Golden Age.”

Miller promotes ‘The Craft’

Miller beer musicMiller Genuine Draft is partnering with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to sponsor music artist interviews and performances. The series is called “The Craft,” which should get the attention of small breweries, and particularly their fans, who figure the word craft belongs to them.

“The Craft” series of interviews, developed in conjunction with promotional agency Arc and executed by GMR Worldwide and digital agency Digitas, aims to explore the experiences that shaped the songs written by popular musicians. (The Craft refers both to songwriting and brewing beer.)

“People got the connection between making music and making beer,” said Jonathan Sickinger, associate manager for sports and entertainment marketing at Miller. “And they wanted to know more about both.”

For years we’ve appreciated that Miller supports live music. I’ve got a poster of Terence Simeon from an MGD-sponsored tour above where I store grain for homebrewing.

But I also know when you ask “What is craft beer?” you get passionate responses. Witness the 67 comments at Seen Through a Glass or a shorter discussion here. No need to revisit that topic.

Instead a short story from Tony Simmons of Pagosa Springs Brewing that I used in the little essay about if your brewer is an artist.

Simmons was once in a class at Siebel Institute with a woman who worked at Miller Brewing. Out of curiosity, not intent, he asked her what it would take for him to get a job brewing at Miller.

“You couldn’t,” she told him. “We hire engineers and train them to brew our way.”

So you think that is the way a great guitar player interviews drummers?