Entries from March 2007 ↓

I hate ending things with a preposition but I'll make an exception for a cheesy title. I love these old beer signs and it just so happens that brocantics.com has them.

They have over 100 Belgian beer signs and also carry other beeraphenalia like tap handles, steins, coasters, and more.

On the left is Flying Dog's Whiskey Barrel-Aged Gonzo Imperial Porter and on the right is the Heller Hound Maibock. Once I get rid of my cold and can taste beer again, I'll have more info.

Some love it (me), some hate it, but the smell of brewing beer is unmistakable. I remembered this standing outside the Wasatch Beers Brew Pub in Park City. Of course, I went in but I'll have more on that later.

herestobeer.com launched last year (with a Super Bowl ad, natch) and was A-B's attempt at promoting beer in a more positive light than boobs and butts. I was a bit cynical (OK, more like an a-hole) at the time.

Now, the site has been relaunched today with a new focus. According to an email from their PR firm about the new site:

It's going to become much more of an e-zine that will be updated monthly with a lot of brand new video content, entertainment information, and a monthly feature with Dave Lieberman from the Food Network.

[side note: This was the best email I've received from a PR person since I started this site. It had all the right stuff: personalized, good info without exclamation points and sensationalism, request for feedback, etc.]

Like most beer sites, it is Flash-heavy but happily that goes away after the age verification and front page. I like the videos especially the "Who Would You Have a Beer With" series. The "Barley to Bar" section is a cool way to introduce people to the brewing process with fun videos and only a bit of boobs and butts (just the right amount if you ask me).But enough about what I think, what do you think?

Just when I think I'm getting better with my beer knowledge, I run across something I hadn't really paid much attention to. This was the case when Evan Rail sent me a link to an article he wrote for the Prague Daily Monitor about Czech speciál beer. Here's a teaser:

Contrary to how things often look in Prague, Czech beer culture is clearly thriving, a font of fantastic regional brewers, brewpubs and beer styles. Among the biggest surprises for me was the quality and variety of speciál, the Czech Republic’s version of strong beer. 

Although speciál is just a single term, it actually signifies a vast category that includes a variety of golden, half-dark and dark beers of various strengths. According to Czech regulations, anything brewed with a percentage of initial sugar greater than 13 — denoted 13° — is considered a speciál. (There is a separate legal category, porter, for dark speciál of at least 18°, of which there is just one in regular production: Pernštejn’s Pardubický Porter, a sticky, coffee-like, 19° brew with 8% alcohol.) 

Be sure to read the article and prepare to learn.