Brewnotes

Via Stan Hieronymus – Pierre Celis has died.    He brought wit, AKA “Belgian White”,  back from the dead in the form of Hoegaarden and the now defunct Celis Brewing in Austin, TX .     Thank you Pierre – well done mate.

No, I wouldn’t even think of trying this myself, but this interesting nonetheless.    He is giving up all food and attempting to live solely on beer.   Check out this link for the full story.

"Three hundred or four hundred years ago, a group of Paulaner monks in a Bavarian region had made a stronger beer in a town called Einbeck and they called it bock. The monks started making a stronger beer, a double beer, called doppelbock," Sorensen said. "The story goes the monks would give up eating and literally would drink this ‘liquid bread’ to sustain them through their Lenten fast."

This article from the BBJ says that Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Frederick County all support this effort.     I’m all for it, but doubt it will get the traction it needs to really happen.

The simple fact is that the restaurant association is against this because this is cutting into their highest profit margins.    It is a reality that restaurants charge 2-3x the wholesale cost they are paying for liquor, wine & beer.

Stephen Beaumont has a great post today – Lessons on Beer Style From Keef

The BA’s categories do work well in the role for which they have been fashioned, specifically to provide medal categories for the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup. But in using them for anything beyond that purpose, we’d be wise to recall that one person’s jazz is another’s blues

My take: beer categories are a good reference point so that we can communicate about a beer.    Outside of that context, they really are bullsh*t – right up there with the 100 point rating system on wines.

This article from the Baltimore Sun has some real gems in it.

“When one of Maryland’s most famous chefs (presently featured with his brother Michael Voltaggio in two-page spread in the Williams-Sonoma catalogue) and the nation’s most famous wine connoisseur get together and the resulting meal is somehow regarded as a violation of the law, then there’s a problem with the law.”

…

“Just as wine lovers should have the right to have wine legally shipped to their door, customers ought to be able to bring it with them to lunch or dinner at a restaurant that’s willing to allow such a practice.”

My commentary:   while the law is beyond stupid, we shouldn’t lose focus that this affects good beer too.   

I was talking to a friend of mine who mentioned a local German homebrew competition taking place.   In that conversation we talked about a style that was knew to me – German porter.   Check out the article that was dug up on this style.    I don’t think this style is currently covered in the BJCP style guidelines but it is pretty cool nonetheless.