Buy American, Buy Local

Jeff over at Blue & Gray Brewery has this commentary on his website:

The federal government is sending nearly each and every one of us a $600 rebate. If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, the money will go to China. If we spend it on gasoline it will go to Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, or Canada, if we purchase a computer it will go to India, if we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala, if we purchase a good car it will go to Japan, if we purchase useless stuff it will go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy.

The only way to keep that money here at home is to buy beer, since it is the only product still produced in the US. Thank you.

I like the way the man thinks.

Seasonal Shifts - Sierra Nevada Summerfest

Seems the seasons are shifting on the calendar. Last January, while in the throes of Winter, we were enjoying Sierra Nevada ESB. In that case, the brewer tells us ESB stands for Early Spring Brew. Recently while shopping for beer, I came across Sierra Nevada Summerfest. It's May! We're in the middle of Spring!

Okay, in all seriousness, I know it's about marketing, and the brewers need to get their beers in front of people. That's why we see the Fall beers starting around July or August. So, let's cut right to the chase and take a look at this Summer release from Sierra Nevada. The beer pours a straw-yellow with a thick, creamy head. (The color is actually a bit lighter than is shown in the photo to the right.) I'm glad I decided to dig out the Pilsener glass for this one. Even with an easy pour I had to empty the bottle in stages. The aroma is grainy with faint floral hops. I found the flavor light and refreshing, with bitter hops and an ever so slight citrus zestiness. A crisp, bready maltiness keeps everything in balance. The finish is dry and clean.

This is a crisp and refreshing Pilsener. I half expected something a little more heavy on the hops, coming from Sierra Nevada. However I am quite pleased that those expectations were unmet. At a mere 5.0% ABV this will be easy to enjoy during the heat of Summer. I do wonder how many beer drinkers will miss the attractive and flavor-releasing head by consuming directly from the stubby bottle. Me, I'll keep the Pilsener glasses handy and enjoy this one throughout the actual Summer.

Three Sheets Episodes Free on iTunes

There are currently two episodes of Zane Lamprey's Three Sheets available for free download from iTunes. Zane's adventures are not always prime examples of responsible drinking, but often interesting none-the-less.

Beglium: Flaming beer, a shot made of Brussels sprouts, and a chocolate hangover cure – Zane tries it all in Belgium, home to a huge variety of beer. Dodging the notorious beer hunter and hanging with beer-brewing monks, it’s all in a day’s work for Zane.
Croatia: Zane steps behind the fortress walls of Croatia to find homemade Grappa and Marask flowing. When he arrives in Dubrovnik, Zane crashes a pub-crawl and does his best to keep up with some hard-drinking Croats through a very long night.

Get them while you can, if you are so inclined, and iTunes-enabled.

Beer Can Coffin

This is carrying one's love of PBR just a bit too far. The Washington Post reports:

Bill Bramanti will love Pabst Blue Ribbon eternally, and he's got the custom-made beer-can casket to prove it.

"I actually fit, because I got in here," said Bramanti of South Chicago Heights.

The 67-year-old Glenwood village administrator doesn't plan on needing it anytime soon, though.

He threw a party Saturday for friends and filled his silver coffin _ designed in Pabst's colors of red, white and blue _ with ice and his favorite brew.

"Why put such a great novelty piece up on a shelf in storage when you could use it only the way Bill Bramanti would use it?" said Bramanti's daughter, Cathy Bramanti, 42.

Bramanti ordered the casket from Panozzo Bros. Funeral Home in Chicago Heights, and Scott Sign Co. of Chicago Heights designed the beer can.

Mr. Bramanti has tried it on for size, and he's used it as a cooler, now that's creepy. Maybe if it was painted to look like a Dale's Pale Ale can...

Kicking Back With a Moylan's Hopsickle

Saturday was a typically busy weekend day and it was late in the evening when Colleen and I finally sat down to relax. We were both hungry, and in the mood for a hoppy, big beer. So while Colleen sliced up some very nice Irish Cheddar Cheese, I perused the beer selection in the basement and came up with a bottle of Moylan's Hopsickle Imperial Ale. Moylan's beers are recent arrivals to our area and I recall it was the label bearing the words "Triple Hoppy" that had intrigued me to make the purchase.

The beer pours an attractive copper-orange color with a tan head. Sticky lacing is left behind as the glass is emptied. The aroma is that of strong citrus hops with a good bit of sweet malt thrown in. The hop aroma comes across as "wet" and fresh. Hopsickle supplies a hop explosion in your mouth. It's not all citrus though. You are hit with pine and bitter notes as well. The finish is bitter with a lingering sweet malt stickiness. At 9.2% ABV the alcohol flavor comes through in the aftertaste. The flavor and mouth feel remind me of what you get from wet hopped beers such as Great Divide Fresh Hop Pale Ale or Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale, though on a much bigger scale. The Moylan's web site doesn't offer any clues if the fresh (or wet) hopping is used, although the label mentions "fresh hops."

Moylan's Hopsickle Imperial Ale is a very nice Double IPA. Often these Double, or Imperial IPAs present characteristics that whisper Barleywine, but the big hop profile in "Triple Hoppy" keeps it solidly on the DIPA side. The dry, sharp cheese was an excellent foil for the big flavors and syrupy finish of the beer. If you are a fan of the Double IPA, this is one you should try.

Spring Cleaning

I've been doing a bit of Spring Cleaning recently. We found ourselves with a lot of singles in the beer fridge. These consisted of the one, occasionally two, remaining bottles from numerous 6-pack purchases. I'm sure I'm not alone in acquiring new beers before having finished what's on hand. Before you know what's happened, there's big collection of one-offs in the refrigerator. So, for the past month or so, I've not bought any new beer, but have been working my way through the older beer in the fridge. It's been fun to revisit some of these beers. The downside is there's usually only one bottle of each, so some evenings we might enjoy an eclectic mix. On the upside, none of the beer has been old enough to have gone bad. And there's been a nice surprise or two. After I thought I had consumed my last one, I found one more bottle of Clipper City Winter Storm. Ooh! I see a Slaapmutske Triple Nightcap tucked in the back.

We've pretty much worked our way through all the leftovers now. There are still plenty of big beer singles, but that's a different story all together. And the really exciting news is I'm ready to go shopping!

VBC Beer Fest Postponed

Received this email this morning:

Greetings,

To ensure compliance with Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control regulations, the Virginia Brewing Company (VBC) is postponing its Beer Fest to a date in the near future. Watch www.virginiabrewingcompany.com for news and updates.

See you soon!

--Your friends at ZeroPak / Virginia Brewing Company

The Session #15: How did it all start for you?

The blogging duo of Boak and Bailey is hosting this month's round of The Session. The London-based writers ask the question "How did it all start for you?

Continuing the “Beervangelism” theme, we’d like you to write about the moment when you saw the light. At what point did you realise you were a beer lover / geek / enthusiast? What beer(s) triggered the conversion? Did someone help you along your way, or did you come to it yourself?

In short; how did you get into good beer?

That's a question I'm asked pretty often when folks find out I enjoy craft beer. I have given it a fair amount of thought but still, the start is nebulous. Colleen and I have been drinking better beer for quite some time. See, the thing is, we didn't know there was such a thing as "craft beer." Some beers we just liked better than others. Didn't everyone? I wasn't so much disgusted by the big factory beers, as much as I liked other beers better. (I'm not saying our early choices were excellent beers, just better.)

Yes, I used to be a big Budweiser drinker. I could walk in to my local watering hole and the ice-cold bottle would be open and on the bar before I got to my seat. ("Glass? I don't need no stinkin' glass.") On thinking back, I absolutely hated warm beer, it had to be very cold. Of course today I know why my beer was so undrinkable if it wasn't ice-cold. One of the first other beers I can recall drinking regularly was Pete's Wicked Ale. This "dark" beer, what I now know was a Brown Ale, offered more flavor than I was used to from my macro-choice, and I liked that. We bought a lot of Pete's back then. I can recall the day I stopped in the beer aisle while we were grocery shopping and found no Pete's in stock. We looked for something else and eventually selected Redhook Nut Brown Ale. Soon we couldn't find our latest favorite beer as it was apparently a seasonal (Spring) release.

The first major hint we had that there was even more to be discovered was when we wandered into a local beer & wine store in search of the aforementioned Redhook Nut Brown Ale. Not finding it, we somehow settled on John Courage Amber, an English Pale Ale, or perhaps it was an ESB. I recall thinking how expensive this beer was compared to the other beers we had been trying. Now this was something different. It had a nice bitterness and it was imported. Recently I went looking for John Courage Amber. I wanted to see if I still thought it was so good but have been unable to find it. I believe that Courage Brewing was swallowed by Scottish & Newcastle, and in turn the Courage line was later acquired by the Wells & Young’s Brewing Company, and indications are that this beer is no longer being produced, or at least exported to the U.S.

For years we'd randomly try other beers in addition to those highlighted above, often choosing the usual "craft" suspects one could find at the grocery stores; Shiner Bock, Bass Ale, St. Pauli Girl, Foster's, all come to mind. Then I was introduced to the Blue & Gray Brewery here in Fredericksburg. That was, I think, my first "fresh" beer. The light started getting brighter about that time regarding the myriad of flavors and styles that are available from beer. Soon afterwards I was given a gift membership in the Beer of the Month Club for Fathers' Day. And as they say, the rest is history. I started researching "craft beer" on the Internet. Suddenly the downstairs "spare" fridge was filled with beer, and the bottled water was now relegated to the garage. The Beer of the Month club soon was boring. Before I knew it, friends started jokingly (I hope) referring to me as a beer snob and asking questions. Last Fall I took the additional step of starting this blog. That's when things really spun out of control. The secret was out. I was an official beer geek.

I must say I've met more people through this hobby than I could have ever imagined. We went from simply searching out new beers, and being thought of slightly eccentric by friends, to enjoying a full-time passion. So to answer the original questions, we essentially started on our own, and learned by hit or miss. Eventually the passion was fueled by the many new friends, both live and online, with whom we share this passion. So, no lightening bolts or epiphanies here, but an ongoing evolution.

Be sure to visit Boak and Bailey to see a summary of the contributions to this month's Session.

Update, May 4: The hosts have posted the Session roundup.