April 2008 – A Good Beer Blog

Tonight Is The Night To Drink Like A Finn!

Have I ever told you my Finnish joke? I heard it years ago on a BBC World Service show on the cultural nature of Finns. The joke goes like this. Two Finns go to a cabin in the woods for a week of drinking. On the second day one Finn says to the other “shouldn’t we have something to eat?” to which he received the reply “did we come here to drink or to talk?”

Rimshot!!!

I’ve been fascinated by Finland ever since I read all those John Le Carre spy novels about people crossing, hiding near or being shot at the Soviet Finnish border. When I was a backpacking kid in the 1980s, my Parisian hotelier upon hearing we were disembarking for Luxembourg suggested we might as well go to Finland if we were intent on finding a true absence of anything interesting. Yet we learn today that it is “Vapunaatto” or “Walpurgis Night.” I think I have heard of the latter but I have apparently been operating under the assumption that former was a Micronesian island state.

Well it turns out that I was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see as now I know that today in Finland as well as eastern Scandinavia and Germany, this is party night. Plenty more details are here and here and here and here but essentially you have to wear a student cap on your head (as illustrated), put on your old style spyfrack or “vomit frock” and head out into the pasty crowd for some good old gorging on sima, a homemade mead carbonated with yeast. The BBC reports:

The students use the festival as an opportunity to get blind drunk, and in the capital, Helsinki, tradition sees the “capping” of the statue of the mermaid Havis Amanda (the “darling of the sea”) spraying her with champagne and adding soap to the fountain at her feet to signal start of the party!

What good fun! It appears to be May Eve or the beginning of spring…or the end of college…or the “hey is that sima!” festival.

Group Project: Do We Love Biofuels Or Hate Them?

Finally. A new crop farmers can grow – even in the third world – that the industrialized nations a desperate to get their hands on. But all is not well with biofuels. We should have heeded the warning of The House Martins from twenty years ago:

Me and the farmer get on fine,
Through stormy weather and bottles of wine,
If I pull my weight he’ll treat me well
But if I’m late he’ll give me hell.

And though it’s all hard work no play,
Farmer is a happy crook,
Jesus hates him everyday,
‘Cause Jesus gave and farmer took.

Actually, I have no idea what that song means except it’s the only theologically anti-farmer song I know.

The pinch is being felt in the land of beer where prices are rising as there has been a shift from planting barley to malt to other crops to turn into automobile fodder. There has been some indication that there may be an increase in general planting as the marketplace adjusts in response but the effect on food crops has caused the UN to warn a year ago and now scramble to find enough for people to eat at an affordable price. And our Canadian House of Commons is grappling with how last year’s darling has so quickly turned into this year’s curse:

When the legislation was briefly debated in the House on Monday, NDP MPs were overwhelmingly negative toward the government’s approach, expressing concern that biofuels could trigger “a global food catastrophe.” The Bloc is supporting the government bill, but that party’s environment critic literally squirmed this week when asked whether he supports his party’s position. “We have a party line. The vote will be in a few days. I don’t support corn-based ethanol,” said Bernard Bigras. Asked whether he was uncomfortable with his party’s position, he offered a polite “no comment” and left.

A tragic if stunning dynamic is noting how a “green” and “sustainable” principle has caused harm to the poor, thus causing a clash on the left – where 100% of Canada’s public debate is occurring.

So what to do? In the new price range and future expectations nuke, hydro and wind power fueling electric cars (like the forbidden Toronto one) are looking better and better. Maybe also regulations requiring expanded crop production for biofuels is matched by expanded crop production for food. Babbitts and Randian nutjobs will say it is none of government’s business, that if people starve – well, that’s the market! What do you want to burn in your tank? Do you care?

Germany: Vitus, Weihenstephaner, Freising, Bavaria

Troy has the story today about who Weihenstephaner is coming to Ontario for a seasonal release. The importer, Beer Barons, is new on the scene but (t)he(y) was good enough at the end of last year allowing the panel here at A Good Beer Blog study both the weisse and the dunkel carefully. We were very pleased.

In celebration, I thought I would pop the brewer’s weizenbock even though it says “Brewed Under The Purity Law Of 1516” as opposed to “Brewed Under The Purity Law Of 1516 As Amended Over And Over Thus Allowing Rather Than Banning Wheat Beer“.¹ Other weizenbocks I have tried include Aventinus and…errr…that’s about it. Though I’ve had the knock-out punch of the 12% Aventinus Eisbock as well.

This brew unexpectedly pours just a notch of gold darker than a hefeweizen, its weaker cousin. Nothing like the darker nutmeggy figgy pudding of a beer that is Aventinus, though I am still unclear on the gradations of these things…maybe Aventinus is a doppelweizenbock. Cloudy and actively carbonated, the white rocky head gives off loads of banana and clove. In the mouth it is very cream banana-ish with herbal notes as well as spice. A nice grainy profile with a biscuity or even sponge cake thing happening. I really like this 7.7% hefty brew. Great BAer respect.

¹…and a law which Unger at page 109 of Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance notes was more for tax efficiency than purity while Hornsey points out at pages 320-321 that it only applied to town or commercial brewers and was more about reserving other cereals for other purposes. And Ron says it’s old bollocks. Now, back to what you were doing.

Meta-Beer-Blogging…Or Watching Troy Watch Phin And Paul

BeerBistro! after all the people go to bed.I had a great time Friday night. It was fun to meet the Southern Tier guys as well as the very dapper Liliana and Vlado, those great folk behind hosts Roland + Russell (who, by the way, I am starting to think were either two dusty Victorian-era sherry broker gents were secretly offed by L/V on their way up the drinks trade…or are the names of their dogs) but the real fun was being unexpectedly surprised. Greg Clow was kind enough to tell me that by times I am too cranky and – you know what – he’s right. I claim to have an excuse, however, as by times I feel like one of those 19th century astronomers trying to figure out the layout of the canals on Mars. I sort of live in a bubble placed some distance from our beery subject matter. I don’t get to these beer dinners, I don’t have access to a swath of great pubs, can’t just pop out to anywhere for a Rochefort of any degree, my nearest craft brewers are two hours drive away and until Friday I had only met one other person into beer writing face to face. I organize family trips around beer hunting and get sleepy around ten pm, too, so closing down BeerBistro was not what I had expected.

As a result, I build up some presumptions. One was that the beer dinner idea was going to be a bit stiff. You have to understand that I am a BBQ in the back yard in frayed hiking shorts kind of guy. When I walked into the Academy of Spherical Arts in jeans and a ball cap – albeit a lovely Adirondack Brewpub one – and saw folk in Toronto casual (aka eastern Ontario dress-up) I was worried. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The table guests from Southern Tier, The Toronto Star, the LCBO beer and marketing groups and R+R made for great company. And the food and beer matching thing was not as lame uninteresting as I feared. I don’t think I will get too much into obsessing over pairings – as I prefer beer as ingredient than a match – but it was really interesting to see how the chocolate dessert reacted with a raspberry wheat altered the beer drastically, removing the grassiness, highlighting the fruit and making for a palate cleanser. The third course, a variation of what I know as Cambodian “Western Style” yam and chicken curry (my education gleaned from Kingston’s excellent Cambodian joints) was also just dandy with the heat of the ST IPA.

The wall o’whisky and whisky’s friends at The Academy

In the end, the food and beer was just a side show to the gathering over beer. It was really about meeting Troy finally and speaking a bit about his plans for his beer writing whether at his blog or TAPS, the recently revived Canadian beer magazine – that’s him taking a photo of Phin DeMink and Paul Cain; putting a face to the name of Cass, the founder of Bar Towel as well as contributors like Harry; speaking with Sheryl Kirby, partner of Greg over at Taste T.O; talking to Josh in the end for hours about the economic tensions that are affecting where craft brewing is going; reusing my old jokes like the time the grade one teacher asked what Daddy did and was told “my Daddy takes pictures of beer!”

The next day I stopped by Church-Key again, making the 50 km detour to Campbellford to pick up some fine local ales. The day was sunny and warm and, because it was Saturday, there were more cars in the parking lot than I had seen before. People were sitting on the porch drinking samples just enjoying John’s beer. The shop was busy. I grabbed a six each of Northumberland Ale and West Coast IPA and drove on home.

[Insert Beer] Wins [Insert Beer] Style Award

I have no real complaint over the 12,474,832 awards that are handed out for beers every year. I have never paid any attention to these things when making beer selection decisions – though, to be fair, when a label mentions a claim to one of them I think of it as red flag worthy of further investigation. “Antwerp 1931” only makes me wonder what the hell they’ve been doing for the last 76 years?!?!

But that is nowhere near as fun as this one, the beer that won the its own beer-style award:

Hoegaarden, the Original Belgian White Beer, was awarded its fourth consecutive World Beer Cup Gold Medal in the Belgian-Style White (or Wit)/Belgian-Style Wheat category at the 2008 Brewers Association World Beer Cup competition held recently in San Diego, Calif.

Don’t get me wrong – I am quite happy to have a Hoegaarden any time it is stinking hot. And I love most of its descendants the wittes and whites – except maybe for that one from Brouwerij Sint-Jozef…four years have not been enough to drive the furniture polish taste out of my memory. But, as mentioned and half of you will know, this is like awarding Adam the Annual First Guy Award. Hoegaarden is the defining standard and originator of the Belgian-Style White (or Wit)/Belgian-Style Wheat (aka 16A) which, oddly enough, comes from the place called Hoegaarden. It’s actually quite Hoegaarden-esque and, if Unger is to be believed, is one last legacy of the proud independent principality (or whatever) of Hoegaarden which lived as itself quite happily since the middle ages and subsisting on something they called “beer” that we call Hoegaarden.

So well done, Hoegaarden. You are the very essence of yourself.

Book Review: “Brewing Battles” By Amy Mittelman

This really should be labeled as “book review, part one” given I have not hit the half way point in this book, published just this year. But as I have complained long and hard about the absence of a comprehensive US brewing history, I am driven to tap and type, to type and tap. In a nutshell, this book gives me a significant degree more confidence that I am getting a fuller picture than either Smith’s 1999 Beer in America: The Early Years and Ogle’s Ambitious Brew from 2006. Not so strange when you consider the simple fact that Smith stopped at 1840 while Ogle starts about there leaving only a few gaps along the way to the craft beer movement. Neither as as comprehensive as Canada’s pan-alcohol 2003 history by Heron entitled Booze: A Distilled History.

But I am still not yet sure that Mittelman achieves the level of Heron’s completeness given where I am in my reading but at the same time I have some hope. The book has, for example, footnotes for just about each paragraph that indicate some good primary research has been done as well as reliance on a number of secondary sources. And that research is well laid out. There is clearly a focus on the role of taxation due perhaps in part by the ease of access to public records as well as Mittelman’s past work in the area. I like the fact that she deviates from Ogle’s claims as to the independent immigrant will of specific personalities as a key factor in brewing history with some reasonable description of how German immigrants banded together in the 1860s to assist the newly created Federal tax department in creating a policy structure that went a long way to create a continuing regulatory environment sympathetic to their business needs. Which is right? Probably a bit of both and a measure of something else as well.

Maybe it’s wrong for me to want a unified theory or at least a single history on the topic. The three recent works do relatively well together in presenting their visions of American brewing. Mittelman keeps a blog which is interesting but needs more readers to spark it up a bit – and maybe for reasons other than the unfortunate matter Andy mentioned the other day. I will keep reading and maybe follow up with more thoughts as they pop into my head.

Monday Morning Quarter Back: Red Sox On Top Edition

Already, we hit the third edition of the Monday Morning Quarterback. I’m not that sure the theme has holding power but at least it gives some meaning, however meager, to my half-hearted obsession with sports.

The confusion within the Blue Jays has already hit a new level of panic even though it is only April:

Frank Thomas’ time as a Toronto Blue Jay ended quietly this morning after a closed-door meeting with team GM J.P. Ricciardi. The future hall of famer, who was mired in an early season slump, will be paid the $8 million (U.S.) owed on his two year deal. He is now free to sign with another team….The move came a day after Thomas was told that his role would be drastically reduced. Thus far this season, he was hitting .167 with 3 home runs and 11 RBIs. In turn, Thomas blasted the club through reporters. “I’m angry. I know I can help this team. My career isn’t going to end like this,” Thomas said on Saturday.

Note to sad Jays fans: Ortiz has a lower average. Don’t expect him to be drifted, however, as a team with some pride wouldn’t do that. Expect a panicky Jays trade soon.
On more tartaned news, there is hope! Morton won Saturday to slip ahead of Clyde and out of the relegation zone with one game left. As I understand it, if Morton wins next week and scores more than Clyde, Morton stays up even if Clyde beats lowly Stirling. Pray. Please pray.
The Ottawa Senators have confirmed they don’t deserve access to the coat tails they’ve been riding for a few years. By being swept in the first round sweep was their worst playoff appearance since 1998-99 when they scored only three goals.
The Red Sox are playing some of the most exciting baseball I have ever seen with late inning dramatics day after day. The Orioles are the real surprise in the AL East with the other teams floundering as they should given the state of their rosters.

Frankly, I have been pretty good, not wallowing before the blue screen that much. I thought not once of the CFL – well, except to say that if I ever do go to the Grey Cup I am hanging out wit the Baltimore fans. I watched no NBA, no NASCAR and not even any hockey to speak of – and not much of anything else. The weather was too nice. I did catch a bit of Yankees on the radio as we drove around this afternoon, the Jays even having abandoned the Kingston market for its AM broadcasts even though this is the natural place for growing a fan base. We speculated whether this sort of thing wasn’t a step on the same slippery path that found the Montreal Expos playing in Washington DC under another name. Can you say “The Omaha Blue Jays of 2017”?

Friday Bullets For Me, Me, Me!

Because it’s my birthday! Imagine – me, forty-five. Boy am I old. So old I bought black Doc Marten boots yesterday which I now consider my first mid-life crisis purchase. And it’s gonna be sunny and warm today plus through the weekend. And it’s Friday. And portland’s showing for the weekend. And stuff. Excellent.

Crazy dictator update: This is just nutty: “Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe bitterly attacked former colonial ruler Britain on Friday in his first major speech since disputed elections, saying London was paying the population to turn against him.” What about the Irish…or the Peruvians, for that matter. And the mice. They’ve been whispering, too. Who else is against you?
If you consider the Olympics a fascist vestige that lines the pockets of a boys club of the corrupt…is this such a bad thing? Is this?
Get a map.
Aren’t people are interesting how they have long memories.
Apparently someone did think a 15 year old brought into a fight by his fanatic father might be an issue.
Things are settling out nicely already.
Our blog-pal and comment maker Jay has brought a human rights complaint over a hateful cartoon that appeared in a Quebec publication but he has brought the complaint in part to highlight his disagreement with the process whereby you can complain about publication of hateful things. I am confused but expect to be entertained. I think all this whining over human rights processes by fringy right-wing bloggers is nuts but our non-fringy right-wing neighbours are ofter the best arbitors of this stuff given their distaste for the fringe.
And, if only as a gift to me, today’s “haha-PEI is funny place” note – apparently Blue Rodeo rock too much. You know, the band that is older than me.

There. Done. I am 45. Don’t you wish you were 45, too? Of course you do. Of course you do.

Rock Stars? Enough With The Analogies Already!

So…you guys got any good beer in there? Some Saison Dupont maybe?
Earlier today, Stonch pointed out the somewhat strained tone of this press release floating around for a beer event half a day’s drive to my south in which one is promised that we may “[m]eet the luminaries of the craft beer world…[v]ery few events offer the opportunity to have a one-on-one conversation with the “rock stars” of the craft beer world.” To be fair, I am not overly concerned with the world of PR and calling the fine brewers who will be there luminariesis a perfectly fine way to describe those in the forefront of any endeavor. But rock stars? Here is my trademarked immediate and rash comment:

This is the sort of marketing that led me to ask last year whether we love the beer or the brewer. “Celebrity” in itself only detracts given the immediacy of beer and the need to manage our understanding of their work and their ideas about beer – much of which is interesting and important but is utterly undermined by the characterization of “rock star.”

Besides, I like my rocks stars to be rocks stars and I expect them to point out – with all the outrage of the outcast (if they really be rockers) – all the bullshit around us. So, you may ask yourself, what would Joe Strummer or John Lennon or Johnny Cash have thought of this press release? Is this the Elvis of 1955 or the Elvis of 1972? Where do you place each name?

Rock star…I know what I think. I think they could as easily be called the “game show hosts” of brewing or even “the Beckhams” of beer – seeking fame now that they perhaps are not even the best on the pitch anymore. “Rock star” is so sold out as a term that it should be considered something of a backhanded compliment. Is that what they want to have thought of them. I doubt it. I say this is bad PR.

I suppose that was a bit harsh, a bit over the top with the whole fat Elvis thing¹…but when I think rock star I also think of The Darkness or even Spinal Tap which leads me to wonder which brewer so dubbed has turned it up to eleven? Or that line from Road Warrior about the guy known as “The Ayatollah of Rock-and-Roll-ah” as illustrated above. And really…is “rock star” enough? Are they not as much the Jedi Knights of brewing? Isn’t that, you know, just as stunned? Maybe some Old Testament imagery would help me understand who these brewers are?

How far can such dislocated hyperbole take us? As we continue our collective search for good beer and an understanding the place of craft beer, of its value and its appreciation, there are these uncomfortable moments of description popping up. Descriptions that have shades of elitist puffery as well as clumsy grasping for the right – but definitely earnest – word. I don’t know but is it too much to ask to ask for a little humour? Say what you like about borgy forums but I take the slightly metal-esque presentation of the Alströms as a bit camp. Maybe its because I am that novice masters shot putting metal and punk fan with the lifetime Ben Grimm Fan Club membership but I associate my association with beer a bit like they do – with a bit of self-effacing humour…they are being self-effacing, right? As with the unfortunate and often unwarranted eureka moments from some writers on brewing, I don’t think of all this stuff as some sort of rare and precious gift, a prize for the mantelpiece or something linked with celebrity. For me, this feeling of mine is informed by Knut’s label ølhund [aka “beer dog”] or Lew’s preference for the simple “beer fan“, the egalitarian joyful celebration of how were’re all in this together, we happy band, we cheery lot. Just enjoy yourselves.

I know. It’s a lot to extrapolate from one slightly unfortunate reference. But it’s beer we are talking about, right? Right?

¹[Ed.: ie. “Elvis: to young to die, too fat to live…”]

America’s Mood Lifts By 7.8

I have no idea what this means, what the 7.8 expresses or even what the units are but apparently things are looking up:

Americans are feeling slightly more optimistic this month as they come to grips with a struggling economy and an uncertain future, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday. The Reuters/Zogby Index, which measures the mood of the country, rose sharply to 95.5, up from 87.7 in March, as all 10 measures of public opinion used in the Index climbed. Concerns about personal finances, job security and the direction of the country eased at least slightly, and positive ratings climbed for President George W. Bush, the U.S. Congress and economic and foreign policy.

Apparently 13% believed their squeeky shoes squeeked a little less, too, up from 21.

But why not. It’s spring. Well, spring lasts just until Friday when it will hit 20C which, for a Maritimer, means it’s summer. That’s the thing. What really makes you happy? Warmth. A drink maybe. A little baseball on the radio. Snowdrifts finally disappearing just last week. A collapsing pork market that will allow you to BBQ like a badly conceived cartoon character on Saturday. Spring is short around here. Time to get a low grade sunburn, baby.