Archive for the ‘Aesthetics’ Category

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Travel Report: Northern Colorado

Friday, February 27th, 2009

I recently had business in Northern Colorado, and managed to enjoy some finely crafted ales while there. The area is home to a relatively large number of breweries, especially in Fort Collins. New Belgium, O’Dell’s, and Fort Collins Brewery are all located near the campus of Colorado State University, nestled at the base of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Avery Brewing is in Boulder, Colorado; and Oskar Blues is in Lyons and produces Dale’s Pale Ale – the first canned microbrew. You can actually find Dale’s here in Baltimore at better package stores like the Wine Source.

While I didn’t get to any brewery tours this trip, I had the pleasure of checking out New Belgium’s state-of-the-art facility before Christmas 2007. Not only is it an amazing facility from a functional standpoint, it’s also the most aesthetically appealing brewhouse I’ve ever seen. The beer isn’t too shabby either. On this trip I rocked mostly the plethora of Pale Ale offerings of the region, starting with New Belgium’s Spring seasonal, Mighty Arrow Pale Ale. (more…)

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Near Beer: Which one?

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

In our last Near Beer episode, we told you why you might want to consider drinking near beer — you’re pregnant, you’re in recovery, your religion prohibits drunkenness — but we didn’t tell you which ones were worth bothering with. Well dear readers, my good friend and boss — soon to be mother, and thus an actual test case, Amy Creason, and I  braved the land of non-alcoholic beer on a recent Duckpin Bowling excursion to bring you recommendations on which NA beers are the good ones. I promised Amy that I wouldn’t stray from the task at hand and didn’t drink a single drop of real beer —my bowling game suffered commensurately.

From a sampling of four different brews we can tell you a number of things in general about NA beer that we couldn’t in our last post.

NA beer seems to have a much more noticeable residual sweetness than regular beers of the same basic style. What this is a result of, we’re not sure. One could speculate that maybe it’s in there as a means of covering up off flavors.

It’s also just as filling, and the hop content acts as just as much of a diuretic as regular beer. That sweetness would also seem to indicate that there’s not much of a calorie reduction either.

Finally, we noted that it’s not really much cheaper than most mid-level beers. We spent on average $6.99 per six pack.

Our samples included Becks Nonalcoholic, Kaliber, Bitburger Drive, and Buckler Nonalcoholic. (more…)

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What’s on tap? Bock Beer

Friday, February 6th, 2009

Mardi Gras swiftly approaches, with Lent hot on its heels. In Renaissance Germany this meant the brewing of Bock beer by Roman Catholic monks to sustain them through their 40 days of fasting. High in gravity to provide more food energy than a typical beer, Bocks were drunk in place of meals — a practice that might sound familiar if you’re thinking about Belgium’s Trappist Monks, and their ales. Today, Bocks are generally brewed and drunk as a celebration of the end of Winter, and like those Trappist Ales, the Bock comes in a range of different variants.

Traditional Bock beer is between six and seven percent alcohol by volume, usually coppery in color with a toasted malt profile that is not overwhelmed by hop bitterness.  Bocks characteristically display a thick, persistent, creamy, white to off-white head, and a distinct residual sweetness. Shiner Bock, is a fairly decent example.

The Doppelbock is a usually dark beer but sometimes not so dark, it features a wide stylistic range in alcoholic content — sometimes six percent, somtimes ten. It has a strong malt flavor profile, and features little to no hop flavor or aroma. Tröeg’s Tröegenator is a good American example of this style.

Eisbock takes advantage of the different freezing temperatures of water and alcohol to concentrate the flavor and alcohol content of a Bock. Basically, the brewer lowers the temperature of the fermented beer until ice crystals form and are then scooped out of the beer, reducing the volume of water but leaving the unfrozen alcohol behind. ABV ranges from around nine percent to 14 percent. This higher concentration sometimes reduces head retention. (more…)

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Posted in Aesthetics, Brew History, Brewing | 1 Comment »

Near Beer: Why?

Friday, January 16th, 2009

The first question any loyal beer fan should ask when affronted with the existence of non-alcoholic beer is “Why?” Sure, the “I enjoy beer for the flavor, not the effect“ argument can be made, but it doesn’t hold much water considering that average non-alcoholic beer is just this side of undrinkable. Beer — the true staff of life, the impetus for civilization — is supposed to be intoxicating. What could possibly be good reasons for drinking NA beers? Moreover, if you had to drink non-alcoholic brews, which ones are “good?” Doesn’t it still have some alcohol in it? What qualifies as non-alcoholic? How much would you have to drink to get drunk? How do they even make that stuff? Because we at SYD love you all very much, we will do the dirty work of answering all of these burning questions.

First and foremost: Why the heck would you want to drink NA Beer? — No seriously, who drinks this stuff?

For starters, the kind of ladies like the one you see in the above image. Some pregnant women actually like beer, and have a hard time giving it up for nine months. While research has shown that a real beer or two per day will not adversely affect your child in the form of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and is actually healthy for the mother, it can be difficult for some to socialize with the rest of us as we swill down real beer after delicious real beer, while they cannot. Near beer can make that situation a little less harsh in the jealousy department. Plus, if they drink it out of a glass with the bottle out of sight, they’re likely to completely appall onlookers who don’t realize it’s NA — which is kind of awesome. (more…)

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Posted in Aesthetics, Geek-Out, How do I do that?, Measurement, Science, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

How’s the weather?

Monday, January 12th, 2009

If you’ve checked out a decent liquor store periodically, you have almost certainly noticed that just like the weather changes outside the store, so the offerings inside change. This goes for wines, beers, spirits — pretty much anything we drink, even non-alcoholic beverages.

So lately it would make sense if you’re in the the Northern Hemisphere that it’s at least sweater weather for most of us. I know my preferences change with the weather. For example, in the current wintery weather I’m a fan of Russian Imperial Stouts, particularly as what I like to call “Breakfast Beer.” Stylistically it’s a big beer, i.e. one with a lot of alcohol, it’s well hopped but not so much that the flavor of the huge malt bill is masked. It’s a beer I imagine myself drinking at a breakfast featuring bagels, a schmear of cream cheese, lox, and some cracked pepper on a very cold, gray Sunday morning with a newspaper on the table, and perhaps something vaguely slavic like Failing Songs by Matt Elliott on the stereo, perhaps a fire going nearby.

This was the beer developed by English brewer’s for the court of Russia’s Catherine the Great, then reimagined by craft brewers in our time. A good example is North Coast Brewing’s Old Rasputin.

But the point is that my tastes tend to change with the seasons, which seems to be pretty ubiquitous amongst people who stray from the average American staple beers. I certainly don’t want to slug down 4 or 5 Imperial Stouts at a midseason baseball game, and I doubt you do either. Wait a few months and a light-bodied, more delicately flavored beer, preferably ice cold sounds awesome. But at the moment, a couple pints of a big, dark beer can really hit the spot.

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Posted in Aesthetics | 2 Comments »

Return of the Green Fairy

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

For about a year now in America, we’ve been able to buy once forbidden fruit — Absinthe — the green liquor of 19th Century legend. So I wondered if the recent legalization of the drink had resulted in a renewal of absinthe culture in this country. I also wondered what the big deal might be. Is it really hallucinogenic, as so many people claim?

To run down a little of the history of the spirit, Absinthe is a green, anise flavored liquor derived from wormwood which in turn contains Thujone — a purportedly psychoactive substance. In the late 1800s the beverage was very popular, particularly amongst artists, writers, and other cultural luminaries in Europe — mostly in France. Not long thereafter, in the early 20th Century, the temperance movement coupled with questionable research as to the effect of Thujone began to create a negative perception of absinthe and its supposed effect on those who drank it. Some merely claimed that absinthe addicts were “sodden and benumbed.” (more…)

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