Boozin’ Blog

Talk about Boozin’ Gear!

We here at BoozinGear.com are pretty excited about our new line of completely irresponsible adult Halloween costumes.

Personally I’m thinking of going as Captain Morgan.

I’ll tell you this – you’re definitely not going to catch me in lederhosen!

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Peggy and her mate Peter used to be regulars at the Alexandra Hotel pub in Jarrow, England. She was fond of nursing a John Smith’s bitter with some chips.

But the owner had to finally say enough’s enough. Peter was still welcome to come in but after having the pub refurbished the landlady had to tell Peggy to kindly wait outside for Peter. The carpets, she was told, were the main issue.

Did I mention that Peggy’s a horse?

Can a horse be on the wagon?

The regulars miss her. When they ask Peter where his drinking buddy is he just explains that she’s kicked the habit.

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It should come as no real surprise that Inbev shareholders have approved the deal to buy Anheuser-Busch. Only two more hurdles remain - approval by Anheuser-Busch shareholders and regulatory clearance – but there’s little doubt that the big beer buy will go through.

It’s interesting that this was the year Anheuser-Busch starting pushing the idea of “American lager” and “American ale.” Although the marketing plans were in place well before the first offer from Inbev some are already pointing to the brewer’s use of American as a cynical attempt to make beer drinkers overlook the foreign ownership. I suspect that this perception will deepen with time as people look back at 2008 as the year Inbev bought A-B and the same year that American began to appear prominently on the advertising and labels for Budweiser.

Actually they began using American because they decided that with Budweiser American Ale they would define the idea of “American ale” in the same way that Budweiser has come to represent “American lager.” They have a pretty strong argument in the lager category. Although Budweiser appeared on the scene around thirty years after lager began being sold in a commercially viable way in the US it has since become one of the best known exemplars of American lager.

But I’m not so sure is that’s possible to do with ale. There are so many different types of ale that it seems unlikely any one can serve as the quintessential ale. Can one particular ale serve to represent the family of beers that includes IPA, stout, barley wine and hefeweizen? This is also true of lagers but American’s are not nearly as familiar with different lager types as they are ales.

Also, while the craft beer “revolution” is roughly as old as was the lager business was when Budweiser lager appeared, Americans are more educated about beer and more familiar with style variations now.

Anheuser-Busch is facing an uphill battle if they hope to define ale for Americans.

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Estonian police have arrested a ruthless gang of vodka smugglers. The cabal of Russian and Estonian criminals was sneaking hundreds of gallons of vodka across the border from Russia to Estonia via an underwater pipe.

My first thought when I saw this story was how good could it be after going through those pipes? I can’t find any details about the quality of the plumping but almost any possibility that I can come up with leaves me wanting to rinse out my mouth. Were they old, forgotten pipes that once had a legitimate use? If so can you image the filth that the vodka would have picked up? OK, maybe they were new. A PVC pipeline would have been glued together giving the already bad brew a glue-ee taste. What about metal? There we have the possibility of lead from any joints that had to be joined together.

Turns out that it was as bad or even worse than I imagined. The homebrewed booze was made in Russia then piped over to Estonia to be sold on the black market. But the stuff was so bad that they had trouble selling it! Even tax-free and in an economy that supports an estimated 20% black-market booze this vodka was so bad that the criminal masterminds had to trundle the stuff from town to town looking for buyers.

This was how they got caught. On one of these trips with their truck loaded down with bootleg vodka and looking for buyers that the cops pulled them over. And thus began the investigation that lead to a 2 kilometer long pipeline laid at the bottom of a firewater reservoir on the border.

I guess my point is that if you ever decide to go on a bender in Estonia always ask to see the tax stamp on whatever you’re drinking. Bleah!

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In the past I’ve been rather impressed with the British for enforcing the proper pint. Law enforcement agents have actually gone out into the field (pubs) to make sure that the landlords were serving a full Imperial pint.

But such standardization can be taken too far. For example consider the case of Nic Davison. He owns a popular Polish restaurant. In addition to serving Polish food he serves Polish beer in Polish beer glasses. The problem is that these glasses are calibrated metrically so instead of serving beer by the pint he serves it by the half litre.

Despite the fact that this is clearly stated on the menu and the customers are apparently comfortable with the practice the government isn’t. The 1988 Weights and Measures Act states that beer must be sold by the pint and Jane Miller, director for neighbourhoods at the local council, is determined to see that the act is enforced.

Is Miller’s position salaried? If so, is this really the best way for her to be spending her time? Nevertheless, I expect that she’ll win this one unless Davison can successfully challenge the twenty year old law.

She obviously feels she’s right. In the chilling language of a practiced bureaucrat Miller says, “We want to help the restaurant owner get this right and are providing help and advice so they sell their beer in accordance to the law.”

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A-B and I don’t always see eye-to-eye on what’s good beer. I could live a life-time without having another Budweiser lager and die a happy man. But they’re releasing three new brews this month that are forcing me to reconsider my opinion of Anheuser-Busch beer. You should check them out.

First is the Budweiser American Ale. For now we’ll overlook the ostentatious claim that with this beer Bud is “defining American ale,” something they missed the boat on years ago if it was ever possible at all to define ale with one beer. The beer itself is really quite enjoyable. I tried some at a beer festival back in May and was unimpressed with the sweet, characterless brew. But the brewmaster told me that they were still tweaking the recipe and I must say they’ve had a productive summer. They shipped a couple of bottles to me recently that it is greatly improved.

Now let’s look at Michelob Dunkel Weisse. I’m not the biggest fan of the sweet wheat ale of Bavaria but I’m nevertheless impressed with this brew. It’s a good interpretation of the style and an interesting choice for A-B. The style isn’t all that well known in the US so it may well serve as an introduction to American beer drinkers to the many German beer styles beyond Pilsner.

And finally Michelob Pale Ale, of the lot this one is easily my favorite. I never thought that I’d say this about a beer from Anheuser-Busch but this ale is hoppy and very enjoyable. It’s not going to become a go-to beer for me but I certainly enjoyed the sample that they sent me and chances are pretty good that I’ll be buying a six pack for myself.

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No, we here at the Boozin’ Blog are not promoting altruism; we wouldn’t want to be associated with THAT crowd. We’re suggesting that you do yourself a big favor and volunteer at a beer festival. The big season for festivals is just around the corner and many of them depend on volunteers to make things work. (You can find a nearby beer festival by checking out the beerfestivals.org or my beer festival schedule.)

While there are lot’s of things to do at a festival most volunteers wind up pouring which is, of course, the most fun.  There’s no pay but there are perks. Most volunteers are invited to enjoy the beer within reason - you can’t be much help if you get sloshed. You will also probably get a tee shirt out of it and you get to spend a few hours with a bunch of beer lovers. Sounds like a damn good time, right?

I picked up an interesting tip from a volunteer this spring. It was at the St. Louis Brewer’s Heritage festival. I’d been walking around for a few hours and wanted to rest. I found a table with two fellows wearing volunteer badges who were probably in their seventies. They were laughing together and invited me to sit with them. I asked what job they’d been assigned and of course they were pourers.

“Have you tried the new blueberry beer from Anhueser-Busch?” one of them asked me.

No, I hadn’t. He said that that was the beer he’d been pouring. His buddy had been pouring a wheat beer from a smaller brewery.

“The secret is to try to pour a fruit beer,” he told me, winking. “That’s where all the cute girls line up. I’ve been pouring nonstop all afternoon.” He had a very satisfied air about him.

Oh, and if you must be altruistic most beer festivals are held to raise money for some worthy cause or another. So chances are that your volunteer hours will be spent in doing good…if you’re into that kind of thing.

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The hallmark of the craft beer revolution in the US has been extremes. Brewers strive to produce beers with more hops, more malt, more adjuncts – extras like fruit or spice – and of course more alcohol while maintaining beers with drinkability. They don’t always succeed but when they do the results can be pretty incredible. But even the most artfully brewed of these beers tend to be big and overwhelming; one can’t enjoy more than one of two of them before succumbing to the high doses of alcohol.

But sometimes a person just wants a simple, tasty beer that isn’t going to put him under the table, a beer that can be enjoyed one after another throughout an evening. The British call these session beers.

There’s a movement afoot among some US craft brewers to bring the session beer to America. The idea is to brew beers that are moderate in alcohol, three or four percent, while still being flavorful and not watery. These styles aren’t hard to produce, as mentioned above the British have been making them for quite some time so there are plenty of examples to choose from. And they can be very enjoyable.

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With the Democratic National Convention finally winding down in Denver and the Republican National Convention poised to descend on the Twin Cities next week this can only mean one thing.

Drinking games are just around the corner!

Yup, the Presidential debates or oligarchs-slapping-each-other-on-live-TV, as I like to call it, always bring out the best in our livers.

I like keep it simple:
You’ll need your favorite spirits – I’m going with bourbon - and one shot glass for each player. You’ll also need some six-packs of Bud and Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat.

Every time McCain says “My friends” take a shot.
Every time Obama says hope or change take a shot.
Anytime McCain makes a reference to his wife chug a Bud.
Anytime Obama refers to Chicago or his roots chug a Goose Island.

That’s it; but I have no doubt that this will easily do the job.

Disclaimer – We here at the Boozin’ Blog encourage responsible drinking. Don’t be a dumbass.

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Here in the US there is a national drinking age of twenty-one. This is a rather higher limit than in most other countries and it wasn’t always this high. It also wasn’t national.

The drinking age limit is actually set by states. But in a questionable move the Federal government, bowing to pressure from the won’t-someone-think-of-the-children groups, tacked a requirement to highway funds money forcing states to change their age limits or face a 10% cut. In this round-about way the government effective Federalized drinking age limits and 21 has been the national standard for over two decades.

And it has been a whopping failure.

Having such a high age limit creates another problem. Eighteen is generally the age of adulthood in the US. At eighteen young adults can vote, join the military and serve on juries. Many move out of their parents’ house in their eighteenth year. They’ve graduated high-school and either join the workforce or head for college. In almost every way they are treated as and expected to be adults. But at eighteen it is still three years before these adults can have a legal beer.

Instead of gradually learning to enjoy alcohol responsibly many have their first drink illegally and therefore under variously clandestine circumstances. While alcohol can be a very pleasurable part of life it must also be respected and these are exactly the wrong environs for such an education. No wonder binge drinking is a problem on college campuses.

Two related organizations seek to correct this problem. Choosing Responsibility and The Amethyst Initiative advocate a drinking age of 18. If we’re going to call these people adults shouldn’t we treat them as such?

These movements deserve our support. Click on the links and see what they’re all about.

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