Sunday “See the USA” Travel Supplement
See the USA. Even if you don’t drive a Chevrolet.
Let’s begin in Cincinnati, where you can toast the Reds, drink to forget the Bengals, or both. And if the weather is nice, you can do so in one of the city’s beer gardens.
The New York Times uncovered this gem: Brew York, New York, which keeps New Yorkers abreast of beer happenings in the city’s 8,000 or so licensed establishments.
If your travel plans include Colorado, think about buying a copy of The Beer Drinker’s Guide To Colorado by Mike Laur. Breweries are springing up so fast in the state (there are now well over a hundred) that Laur just released the fourth edition of his book.
Speaking of Colorado, if you’re going to the Great American Beer Festival, P.J. Hoberman of The Hop Press profiles 15 establishments within a three-mile radius of the festival venue.
Finally, is I-84 in Oregon the ultimate Ale Trail? Jeff Alworth of Beervana.com counted seven brewerieson the route (plus two more across the Columbia River in Washington State) in towns whose combined population is well under 100,000.
The Friday Mash (Saccharomyces Carlsbergensis Edition)
On this day in 1909, Emil Christian Hansen passed away. Hansen, who worked at the Carlsberg Laboratory in Copenhagen, isolated a pure cell of yeast that was given the name Saccharomyces carlsbergensis and used to make lager beer. Reason enough to have a beer today.
And now…The Mash!
In Portland, Oregon, the “dog’s life” is quite enviable. Frank James at Brewpublic.com and his Weimaraner go to the city’s dog-friendliest pubs.
The Golden Tap Awards, which honor Ontario’s top achievements in brewing, were handed out last weekend. Here’s a list of the winners.
Writing in TheHopPress.com, Josh Oakes looks at the state of craft brewing in Asia. He offers this bit of advice: don’t expect to find a good IPA in India.
The recently-opened National Brewery Centre in Burton-on-Trent, England, will host the 2011 Brewing Industry International Awards, along with a festival featuring many of the participating beers.
Fried beer? Not exactly, but one of the entries in the Big Tex Awards competition at the State Fair of Texas is a beer-filled pretzel pocket, deep-fried to a golden brown. One bite and the escaping beer serves as a dipping sauce.
Does the British pub belong on the endangered species list? In a podcast on The Guardian’s website, brewers, publicans, landlords, and drinkers talk about what people want from pubs and what the future might hold.
Finally, we’re impressed by the beer list that Stone Brewing Company has assembled for tomorrow’s anniversary celebration.
A Tool for Real Ale Aficionados
Alex Hall, who maintains a Cask Ale Finder for the United States and Canada, has enhanced his site with a Google map of establishments that serve Real Ale.
Of course, Maryanne and Paul went straight to the Michigan map. They discovered that the biggest concentration of establishments is in Grand Rapids, which continues to solidify its reputation as our state’s craft beer capital.
It’s Friday the Firkenteenth!
If you live in or near Philadelphia, you might want to stop in at the Grey Lodge Public House, where it’s Friday the Firkenteenth. Every time the 13th of the month falls on a Friday, this establishment celebrates by tapping 25 or more firkins of cask-conditioned ale.
What’s that again about today being unlucky?
The Friday Mash (”No Problem” Edition)
On this day in 1962, Jamaica won its independence from England. Even though the island has fewer than three million people, it’s given us Bob Marley, jerk seasoning, Blue Mountain coffee, and of course, Red Stripe beer.
And now…The Mash!
Beer snobbery could save your life. Seriously. James Yaeger, an American geologist working in Afghanistan, foiled an attempt to assassinate him because he didn’t like Corona–which happened to be laced with battery acid.
Ninety bucks a bottle? That’s the asking price for a bottle of Foster’s Crown Ambassador Reserve. Even Queen Elizabeth II has a bottle in her cellar.
All you need is love beer. After putting considerable thought into the subject, John Fortunato of CraftBeer.com offers beer pairings for Beatles tunes.
A brewpub in Turkey? Pelle Stridh tells us about one of them, the Red Tower Brewery in the coastal town of Alanya.
Is “Nano” the future of beer? Angelo, writing at Brewpublic.com, looks into his crystal ball and sees tiny neighborhood brewpubs.
Did you know that the Alaska State Fair has an official beer? It’s Kassik’s Cream Ale, brewed on the Kenai Peninsula.
Finally, Ludwig insisted that we run this story. The best beer in Wales is poured at The Lion Inn, a 16th-cenury pub in Trellech.
NEWS (North, East, South, West)
Time to hit the road, girls and boys:
We lead off with Cole Premo of WCCO-TV, who serves up a list of the ten best Minnesota-brewed beers.
Julia Burke, beer editor for the New York Cork Report, touts Rochester, New York, as “a diamond in the rough” for beer lovers.
A new Indiana law allows microbreweries to sell beer on Sunday. That same law also requires everyone, regardless of age, to show ID.
The Independent’s Rhiannon Batten locates England’s 50 best country pubs.
Finally, as part of its series on unusual customs around the world, BBC News has video of an old Peruvian beer-drinking ritual.
Beer Traveler Extraordinaire
Meet Stuart Ashby. He might not be in a class by himself as a beer traveler, but it wouldn’t take long to call the roll. Ashby’s been on a 26-year-long pub crawl that’s taken him to 17,000 establishments listed in the Campaign for Real Ale’s Good Pub Guide. (He’s also been to every Premier League football ground in the UK, and seen every major cricket team play every other team.)
His UK-wide itinerary included the most northerly pub (Busta House Hotel, in the Shetland Islands), the hardest-to-get-to pub (the Lundy Tavern on Marisco Island, a two-hour ferry ride each way), and the most terrifying pub (the Sultan in South Bermondsey, London; the landlord, who has since sold the place, greeted him with a shotgun).
Ashby’s local is the Crab Tree Inn, in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex. But you might not find him there, because CAMRA updates the Good Pub Guide every year, which means that newly-added establishments await him.
The Friday Mash (Iliad and Odyssey Edition)
According to the Greek scholar Eratosthenes, today is the 3,194th anniversary of the sacking and burning of Troy, the event that launched the Trojan War. That war resulted in millions of casualties, most of whom were students who had to plow through endless lines of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Paul says that the mere thought of reading these poems is enough to drive people to drink.
Speaking of drink, it’s time for The Mash!
We lead off with irrefutable evidence that Philadelphia has truly arrived as a beer town: the city’s Tourism Marketing Corporation has formed a partnership with Victory Brewing to brew a “Summer Love Ale.”
Headed to Rhode Island? Angelo at Brewpublic recommends “hop spots” in the Ocean State.
What would you call an establishment that sells both beer and doughnuts? “The Hole,” of course. It’s located in Denver, and the owner is a graduate of the Johnson & Wales culinary school.
May I see some ID? An article about craft breweries appeared in, of all places, the latest issue of AARP Magazine.
The Guardian’s Word of Mouth blog recommends some British summer beers. There are even some dark beers on the list.
In case you missed it, here are the winners of the North American Brewers’ Association awards.
Finally, Chris Ballard of BlogCritics.org makes the case that beer is more sophisticated than wine. But he’s probably yanking our chain with the assertion that “Plato’s favorite beverage was an IPA.”
Watch the Winning “Short Pour” Film
In addition to beer from more than 70 breweries, yesterday’s Monterey Beer Festival served up The Short Pour Film Fest. This was a showing of short films that included live action and animation, music videos, and original commercials, along with clips of television shows, movies, and documentaries about beer.
The winning entry was an eight-minute film titled “The Original Swagger Stagger”. It stars Sayre Piotrkowski, Cicerone at the Monk’s Kettle in San Francisco, who takes his friend “Broke Ass” Stuart on a one-day walking tour. There are six stops: Magnolia Pub & Brewery, Toronado, City Beer Store, The Monk’s Kettle (of course), Anchor & Hope, and 21st Amendment.
Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
These items appeared just in time for the summer travel season:
British-born Alex Hall, writing in Imbibe magazine, has compiled a list of 12 places to enjoy cask ale in America.
Thursday’s New York Times ran a story about beer tasting bars that also have a long list of craft beers to take home.
Add this to the list of regional beer guides: Beers of British Columbia, by Leo Buijs, who says that Canada’s craft-brewing revolution “all started in BC, where we’ve always been ahead of testing the boundaries of beer lovers’ taste-buds.”
Finally, Asheville, North Carolina, successfully defended its title as Beer City USA. Second place went to Portland, Oregon.