Entries from November 2007 ↓

Kegerators.net is giving away a kegerator to one lucky winner. Enter here for your chance to win. I’m a bit late on getting this one out, but you still have until Jan. 1, 2008 so even if you procrastinate like me, you should make it.

Do you like beer? Do you read? If not, do you know someone who does? Well, have I got a treat for you! Here are Hail the Ale!’s recommended beer books. They make great holiday gifts and if you buy them using the Amazon links provided, I’ll make a few pennies.

Books for the Beer Geek

Beer (Eyewitness Companions) by Michael Jackson, 2007

Amazon Description:
From fashionable bars to traditional pubs, a new generation of connoisseur is discovering the variety and diversity of beers from around the world, from the brewing heartlands of Europe to the new world beers of the Far East and Latin America. Whether you are looking to find out more about the brewing and history your favorite beer or want to discover a hidden gem that you’ve never tried, this book tells and shows you everything you need to know from comprehensive tasting notes to how to choose and serve each beer correctly.

Details and reviews…

Michael Jackson’s Great Beer Guide by Michael Jackson, 2000

Amazon Description:
Which beers are the best? Get the inside stories on Czech pilseners, German lagers, Belgian wheat beers and Trappist brews, classic British ales, Irish stouts, and American microbrews. The shelves of the supermarkets are packed with an every-changing array of beers from around the world. Bars, pubs, restaurants, and clubs stock an ever-greater range. Which will suit your tastes? Which is the beer for the moment? Will this beer be light, crisp, and refreshing; this one sweet, that one dry and bitter? TV Beer Hunter Michael Jackson has tasted them all. He describes the flavor and body of each beer, explains why beers taste the way they do, notes their strength and ideal serving temperature. Spot the best beers with aid of superbly shot photographs, each showing the bottle, label, and the properly poured beer in its ideal glass. Never before has beer looked so beautiful.

Details and reviews…

Beer Books for Thinkers

Beer and Philosophy: The Unexamined Beer Isn’t Worth Drinking Foreword by Michael Jackson, edited by Steven D. Hales, 2007

Amazon Description:
A beer-lovers’ book which playfully examines a myriad of philosophical concerns related to beer consumption.

• Effectively demonstrates how real philosophical issues exist just below the surface of our everyday activities
• Divided into four sections: The Art of the Beer; The Ethics of Beer: Pleasures, Freedom, and Character; The Metaphysics and Epistemology of Beer; and Beer in the History of Philosophy
• Uses the context of beer to expose George Berkeley’s views on fermented beverages as a medical cure; to inspect Immanuel Kant’s transcendental idealism through beer goggles, and to sort out Friedrich Nietzsche’s simultaneous praise and condemnation of intoxication
• Written for beer-lovers who want to think while they drink

Details and reviews…

The U.S. Brewing Industry: Data and Economic Analysis by Victor J. Tremblay and Carol Horton Tremblay, 2007

Amazon Description:
This definitive study uses theory, history, and data to analyze the evolution of the US brewing industry from a fragmented market to an emerging oligopoly. Drawing on a rich and extensive data set and applying the theoretical tools of industrial organization, game theory, and management strategy, the authors provide new quantitative and qualitative perspectives on an industry they characterize as “a veritable market laboratory.” The US brewing industry illustrates many of the important topics in industrial organization, economic policy, and business strategy, including industry concentration, technological change, brand proliferation, and mixed pricing strategies.

Details and reviews…

Beer School: Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery by Steve Hindy and Tom Potter, foreword by Michael R. Bloomberg

Amazon Description:
This winning tale of the rise of the Brooklyn Brewery follows the basic pattern of every entrepreneur’s memoir: a restless visionary sets out to accomplish a dream, barely survives a series of setbacks, emerges victorious—and ready to tell readers how they can do the same. But this account serves up more than the usual suds and foam—its counsel is sound and its prose lively, and it should appeal to both wannabe industrialists and beer drinkers, not that those categories are mutually exclusive. In fact, the authors, foreign correspondent Hindy and banker Potter, decided to found their New York brewery, now 17 years in business and among the top 40 in the U.S. in sales, after consuming many bottles of Hindy’s homebrew. The longtime partners tell their story in engaging, candid voices, delivering cautionary anecdotes, reflections on longstanding disagreements and lingering resentments, and brutally frank self-assessments. It helps the story immeasurably that beer is a more colorful subject than, say, spreadsheet software, a fact that gets the reader past the inevitable chapter on financing. Though Hindy and Potter may not help the aspiring entrepreneur strike gold, they offer a compelling model and a heartening story.

Details and reviews…

Books for Homebrewers

Clone Brews: Homebrew Recipes for 150 Commercial Beers by Tess Szamatulski and Mark Szamatulski, 1998

Amazon Description:
You can now brew beer at home that tastes just like your favorite brands with this collection of 150 “cloned” recipes for premium beers from around the world, such as:

• Pilsner Urquell
• Pete’s Wicked Ale
• Guinness Extra Stout
• Paulaner Hefe-Weizen
• Dos Equis
• Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
• Bass Ale
• Anchor Steam Beer
• Foster’s Lager
• Chimay Red

All 150 recipes come with separate extract, mini-mash, and all-grain instructions. You’ll also find tips for replicating any commercial beer so you can make your own clones when you discover a new favorite!

Details and reviews…

Extreme Brewing: An Enthusiast’s Guide to Brewing Craft Beer at Home by Sam Calagione, 2006

Amazon Description:
Extreme Brewing is a recipe-driven resource for aspiring home brewers who are interested in recreating these specialty beers at home, but don’t have the time to learn the in-depth science and lore behind home-brewing. As such, all recipes are malt-syrup based (the simplest brewing method) with variations for partial-grain brewing. While recipes are included for classic beer styles — ales and lagers — Extreme Brewing has a unique emphasis on hybrid styles that use fruit, vegetables, herbs and spices to create unique flavor combinations. Once their brew is complete, readers can turn to section three, The Rewards of Your Labor, to receive guidance on presentation, including corking, bottle selection and labeling as well as detailed information on food pairings, including recipes for beer infused dishes and fun ideas for themed dinners that tallow the reader to share their creations with family and friends.

Details and reviews…

The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing by Charlie Papazian, 1991

Amazon Description:
“Relax. Don’t Worry. Have a home-brew.” It’s the mantra of home-brewing, a phrase that nods to the technical aspects of brewing only as it dismisses all stress with a sip and a smile. Home-brewing is fun, after all. Charlie Papazian didn’t just coin the term, he virtually spearheaded the home-brewing revival in America. Figurehead for the American Homebrewers Association and its membership magazine, Zymurgy, Papazian is one of the founding fathers of the modern home-brewing scene.

Often touted as the home-brewer’s bible, The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing charts a beginning brewer’s course, keeping the focus on enjoying the process as well as the results of home-brewing. An easy-to-use table of ingredients helps the newly initiated design their own recipes, although many home-brewers happily spend years sampling those Papazian provides. Dozens of recipes for all levels of experience are here, christened with the most improbable (and irresistible?) names in home-brewing literature (“Toad Spit Stout,” “Cheeks to the Wind Mild,” and “Goat Scrotum Ale” among them).

Details and reviews…

Yeah, the title is lame but when Flying Dog sent three beers that my wife and I tasted that night…well, I just couldn’t resist. Here was the pack that arrived at my doorstep: Wild Dog Doppelbock, Wild Dog Barrel-Aged Horn Dog, and K-9 Cruiser Winter Ale.

First Up: Wild Dog Doppelbock

The Collaborator Doppelbock is the result of Flying Dog’s Open Source Beer Project. According to Flying Dog, this has a “full body with sweet malt profile and a slight roast character”. The avg. Beeradvocate rating is 4.05/5 with only four reviews so far and RateBeer has it as a 3.33/5 with six reviews. This was what I expected for a Doppelbock and I’d definitely drink this again.

Alcohol Content:  8.3% ABV
IBU’s:  24
Specialty Malts:  Munich “Type I” 2240 75, Munich “Type II 550 19, Cara-Munich 55 2, Cara-Amber 55 2, Melanoidin 55 2
Hops:  Warrior, Mt. Hood

Next: K-9 Cruiser Winter Ale

According to Flying Dog this “is a dark, sweet and malty ‘Winter Warmer’ that will captivate any adventurous microbrew drinker”. RateBeer gives it a 3.21/5 with 336 ratings and Beeradvocate gives it 3.41/5 with 136 reviews and a score of 80.

This was hands-down (whatever that means) the crowd favorite. I wanted another sip as soon as I put my glass down. We ended up roshamboing for the rest of the bottle (Julie won).

Alcohol content:  6.4% ABV
IBU’s:  30
Specialty Malts:  50/60 Crystal, Chocolate, Oats, Munich Malt
Hops:  Millenium, Saaz

Finally: Wild Dog Barrel-Aged Horn Dog

Again, from the Dog’s mouth: “this is a completely expirmental beer. We took our Horn Dog Barely Wine and aged it in used Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey barrels for 13 months to give us a Barley Wine with a very distinctive flavor.” This was brewed in limited amounts (725 12 oz. bottles) and they can only be purchased at the brewery. RateBeer gives it a 3.75/5 with 15 ratings.

Wow, this is one powerfully flavorful beer. Definitely more like a fine scotch that you sip than a beer you swig. It is sweet like a barley wine but packed with oak flavor. At 10.5% ABV, this is a beer you’ll want to sip and between that and the sweetness, one should be all you need. If you like barley wines and get a chance to pick this up, go for it.

Thanks to Flying Dog Brewery for sending these to us for tasting and for including a nice writeup on them that I could crib from for the descriptions.

And some nail polish remover, a lighter, and a sink full of water. Oh, and probably a lack of concern for your personal safety.

Click to view if embedded video above doesn’t show up.

Nearly seven months ago, I noted that I was starting to use Twitter for this here blog (username: hailtheale) to post updates on blog posts as well as other random thoughts and beer miscellanea that didn’t warrant a full post. During that time, other beer lovers have either started or been doing the same. So, here’s a list of all the beer-related Twitter users I could find.

• ioubeer - Check foamee.com for details (and I’ll post on this soon) but this is a way to keep track of beer IOUs.
• beerphilosopher - The beer blog beerphilosopher.com
• hallofbeers - The beer blog hallofbeers.com
• goodbeershow - The beer podcast The Good Beer Show
• epicbeer - EPIC Pale Ale from New Zealand
• beergeek - The beer blog beergeek.com (who wins style points for both the cool name and a link to WOXY on his site)
  
• RealBeer - The beer site realbeer.com
• flyingdog - Flying Dog Brewery
• SIDT - Sickpuppy from shouldidrinkthat.com podcast
• douglasderda - Father Spoon from shouldidrinkthat.com podcast

If you know of any others, please let me know in the comments.