Monday catching up: Us beer bloggers

Too much time on the road? I thought I posted this and some other bid of news last week, but just found it in my draft cue. With a few revisions, because Jonathan moved to quickly to get the Google group going, here’s the top item. The others also need a little updating, perhaps later today (today being Croatian time).

Chatter continues here and there about the possibility of a beer blogging conference, mentioned here a while back, and also opportunities for bloggers to work together. So a couple of quick thoughts:

* It won’t happen over night, so maybe we begin with regional meetings as suggested here by Alan.

* Such meetings would be facilitated by the Google group suggested and quickly created by Jonathan Surratt. This is something that would help us all every day of the week. It would also make it easier, for instance, for five bloggers to discover they’ll be at the Great Taste of the Midwest and arrange a meeting. Or perhaps a group Twitter effort. One note I read from the American Wine Bloggers meetup is that everybody was twittering.

* If we all end up at a American Beer Bloggers Conference the event will be a reflection of the beer blogging community, and while our blogs have a lot in common with wine blogs I think the agenda would be much different than at the wine conference. One of the best posts out of that one came from Steve Heimoff (be sure to read the comments as well.). I like wine and I like wine blogs, but one of the joys of life is that beer and wine are different. There’s no reason beer and wine blogs shouldn’t be as well.

#16 – Where in the beer world?

Where in the beer world?

Do you think you know where in the beer world this photo was taken? If you’ve been there and see a bartender pour beers for this sample tray and deliver it to a table you should remember.

In case you aren’t familiar with this almost weekly feature, here’s the background. It’s not a contest to see who can answer first, but intended to show you a few photos from our journey and to inspire some comments.

The weekly hint: This picture isn’t particularly new, so don’t be thinking it was taken in Italy. On the other hand, it wasn’t shot in the United States.

 

Session #21 roundup posted, and why I was absent

The SessionCan I plead a dog lapped up my beer homework?

I just plain missed The Session #21 and the obviously provocative topic: Name you favorite beer.

I was prepared to pick that magic, but now I don’t have to because Friday came and went while I was tracking down still more Italian small-batch beers in Venice.

See what everybody was writing — sometimes picking a favorite, often times not &#151 in Matt’s roundup.

 

A little more about Italian beer

We’re far enough south in Italy right now that we’ve spotted the water buffalo responsible for Buffalo Mozarrella. I’ve learned that Italy grows 300 different kinds of chestnuts and that Italian brewers make at least 40 different chestnut beers.

More later, but if you need to read more about Italian beer now, check out Evan Rail’s New York Times story Savoring Italy, One Beer at a Time.

Makes me want to swing back north and visit the spots we missed.

 

Monday beer musing: What’s ahead in Italy?

Last night we ate in a restaurant in Florence that, like plenty others in Italy, boasts it serves “products of the region.”

More than half the customers were American tourists — it’s Florence — but if you didn’t listen too carefully the place didn’t feel touristy. There were local meat dishes to choose from as well as pizza (Daria declared her’s the best she’s had on our trip), calzones, all that you would expect.

We drank Chianta. We’re in Tuscany, it was poured from a barrel and it cost €4.80 for a half liter.

But as I paid the bill at the bar I noticed a dang fine beer selection lined up above. Rochefort 8, Orval, Duvel, Achel, St. Bernardus Tripel among others. But no Italian craft beer.

I’ve heard more than one non-Italian brewer compare what’s going on with Italian beer to 20 years ago in the United States. Sometimes that’s not intended as a compliment, but as a reference to a technical brewing gap. Mostly it’s about the excitement generated by brewers and their fans.

It’s grown because Italians haven’t tried to recreate America circa 1988, when U.S. brewers were just beginning to explore basic styles. They are drawing from the world, adding flowers, using chestnuts, tossing in tobacco . . . basically being Italian. They are making some really interesting beers we all want to drink.

However they remain small and, like American craft breweries in 1988, not all that well known in their own country. This might surprise American drinkers, because new Italian beers seem to arrive daily. And their beer sells for more in Italy than, for the sake of comparison, Trappist beers do in Belgium (or Orval does in Italy, for that matter). Additionally, Italy began feeling the economic downturn before many other countries.

To cut to the quick, this is not as simple as “brew great beers and they will come.”

More thoughts on this in a week or so, including why this is important to pay attention to even if you don’t drink in Italy. In the interim, I’ll be in research mode.

– History according to Stella. Lager contains “only the four traditional ingredients of beer” — malt, water, hops and maize. Learning stuff like this is why Boak and Bailey’s Beer Blog is essential reading.

– Get well, Uncle Jack. Fortunately, Jack Curtin “only” lost an appendix, a lot of time to the hospital and some weight. Send him your best.

– Pissing in the steets. There are many good reasons to read Pete Brown’s blog. I recommend subscribing to his rss feed because he might go three weeks between posts. Always worth the wait. I had a damn hard time deciding what to quote from the most recent.

Hands up – every now and then, maybe once every couple of months, I take a leak in some dark street corner on the way home. I’m not proud of it. I’m faintly disgusted by it. But here’s the thing: the British Public Toilets Association (yes, there really is such a thing) reckons 45% of public conveniences have closed in the last couple of decades. They occupy prime real estate – one former public toilet was recently sold for £125,000 as a flat.

And be sure to read the comments.