Europe is Enjoying American Beer, Latest Brews

I ran across the end of a news piece on my radio dial today talking about American craft beer having more of an influence overseas. I had to go back and hear more of it, especially when they made the comparison between the U.S. craft beer rise in Europe with the "Judgement of Paris" wine revolution and subsequent California invasion into the world wine market. There is also a subtle dig on the Reinheitsgebot culture at the very end. 

While I don't expect Bear Republic to appear across bars in Munich, I would not be surprised to see a few more U.S. brands outside the big 3 to get more traction. When you think of the foothold regional European beers have made across the U.S., who is to say the reverse couldn't be true?

Here's the link to the episode (The story starts around the 10 minute mark).

Meanwhile, back in my closet, I've had three different beers mature in their bottles. I've been very enthusiastic about the results I've been getting from my brand new rectangle cooler mash tun. For a man who doesn't usually build things, this is pretty solid. I only lose 2 degrees while I mash and I haven't had a stuck sparge yet. I'll put some pictures of my system in another post.

Here's a breakdown of what's been bottled:

Saison- I made this Saison largely as a test of the system. It couldn't have turned out better. Light, crisp, subtle Belgian yeast notes on the end. I would like a little more bite from the hops, but it was a great first effort. So good, in fact, that I'm brewing it again this week. Another 1/2oz of bittering hops this time around should round things out.

American Orange Wheat- I thought I'd get fancy with the next brew and do an American wheat. I know oranges don't ferment well, but I thought if I added the crushed oranges vs. orange juice in the ferment I would get a better flavor. This one turned out to have a very "white wheat" profile similar to a Hoegaarden with a cool citrus note, but not really much of an orange tinge. I don't think I'd throw the oranges in next time, but the beer is solid and perfect for summer. I did another batch with Belgian Wheat yeast ( the original had American wheat yeast) to see if I could detect any difference. It's sitting in the fermenter right now and should be bottled early next week. Given how long I conditioned this first one, the Belgian Wheat should be ready for tasting around mid July.

Amber Ale- I feel like I should call this "Random Amber" because I literally threw the recipe together seconds before I started driving to the store to get the grains. It was the best work I have ever done. Medium body with great head retention and a delicious bite at the end. This is something I feel like I can hang my hat on.

Cases of beer just waiting to be drunk. What a perfect situation for summer!

News roundup

Here are some beer-related articles I've been reading recently:

Malters Bring Terroir to the Beer Bottle - NYTimes

I know what this looks like, another NYTimes "trend" article about yuppies going back-to-the land in hopes of living more "authentic" lifestyle. Other cliche keywords that come to mind: sustainable, small-scale, homesteading, natural, craft, etc. This characterization is somewhat true, but what this guy is doing is also really cool. He buys grains from Mass. farmers, malts them and sells them to brewers. He also still has a day job. The advantage of a smaller-scale operation like this is that beers can have regional variation instead of many brewers all using the same industrially-grown grains, making their beers taste the same. It also mentions that "small malt houses largely disappeared during Prohibition," and has since been dominated by commercial-scale companies, making it difficult for small malters to break into the business. It amazes me that brewing is still recovering from Prohibition.


Beer Glasses - NY Times

Clearly the main attraction here is the jaunty suit and hat worn by the guy in the picture. You might argue that he's taken East Coast style too seriously, but I would dress like that if I could afford it. You know his shoes have tassels on them. What is this article about again? Oh, beer glasses; good thing the headline doesn't beat around the bush with any snooty language like "terroir." I like this guy's attitude. He acknowledges that although certain beers should be sampled in certain glasses, sometimes you just want drink a pint and enjoy yourself, and you don't want to mess around with crazy glasses. Best quote: “I could see a pilsner or a saison with a nice cap of foam over the top, sitting on an outdoor summer table looking like little ice cream cones of happiness.”


New 'Beer' Has Dogs Barking for Brews - ABC News
You just can't make this stuff up. I don't even want to talk about the crazy things people do for their pets and how much money they spend to do those things. This is "beer" sans alcohol and hops, which is apparently toxic to dogs. Turner & Hooch had led me to believe neither of those things was a problem, but I guess animal food science has come a long way since 1989. Alcohol is toxic to humans, but ironically is a major reason people drink it. This dog "beer" is really just an uncarbonated mix of meat broth and malt barley, so the "beer" thing is just a marketing gimmick (but that wouldn't stop me from buying it). Best quote: "People have an incredible emotional bond with their dogs, so it's just natural for people to want to include them and say, 'My dog can have a beer too.'" I'm not gonna hold back on you: Bowser Beer.

And we're back!

Sorry if we forgot to mention the totally planned six year break. We needed to regroup and rethink the philosophy of The Drinking Buddies blog, and like a fermenting ale, thinking can't be rushed. You might expect after six years of thought, we might be considered bodhisattvas of all things beer. Of course we are too humble to acknowledge this. What we have learned from our mediations under the mash tun is this:

Life consists of suffering flavorless beers. Suffering is caused by attachment to our beer preferences, which is in turn attached to the beers our forebears. Only by liberating ourselves from the tyranny of perpetual flavorlessness can we be truly free.

Okay, so we didn't really spend six years meditating under brewing equipment, but with any luck, time has made us ever so slightly wiser. The result of our hiatus will be a more dynamic blog. The aim is not to recapitulate the Drinking Buddies State News column, because that would be less fun for us. Each of us who contributes has different ideas about what kinds of things to post, so we are hoping for a lively mix of content. What kinds of things might you see? Ha! What kinds of things won't you see?! There will be beer news and commentary, brewing updates, tasting reports and more, all with the carefree, devil-may-care effervescence that only The Drinking Buddies can deliver.

We are hoping to expand the round of regular and irregular contributors to those with all sorts of interesting perspectives. Basically, the idea is to touch on anything interesting in beer-related activities. From pro-brewer to home-brewer, mashing to marketing, Michigan to Maryland, if it is worth writing down, we'll try to write it here. In the near future, we have festivals to attend, new beers to try, breweries opening, and various home concoctions that should be shared in their triumph/failure.

With that being said, this will not exactly be a blog dedicated to hard hitting journalism, but more of a journal of the beer and brewing world experienced by an enthusiastic few. If you feel the same way, please join us and share your experiences, too!

-Matt and Ryan

A great time of year

This is a wonderful time of year for beer drinkers. I enjoy choosing my beer according to the season and in that respect, fall is my favorite beer season. I enjoy citrusy wheat beers in summer, but I just can't resist the quaffability of an Oktoberfest brew. That's my keyword for fall beer: Quaffable. The perfect Oktoberfest drink is a balance between fall spices and drinkability. You want more than a watery pilsener this time of year, but you don't want too much. If the beer's too heavy, you can't toss down more than one or two while you gobble wiener schnitzel and brats. But what do I know, I'm a vegetarian. Here in Michigan, I enjoy my fall beer with other pumpkin-related food, candy corn, stuffing, yams, etc. As far as accessability goes, you can't miss with a Sam Adams Octoberfest, but you know that already. Of course there's nothing wrong with finding a few beers you like and sticking with them. Nothing wrong unless you enjoy robbing your tastebuds of exciting new flavors. Honestly, live a little. You won't kill your tongue with a little bit of adventure, not unless you slam a bottle of Chili Beer. (Check out their website, it features a muscled chili pepper beating up a lime and what sounds like Bob Dylan singing mariachi music.) I think what I'm trying to say is that you really should take a look around your local beer markets for a six-pack of Victory Brewing Co.'s Festbier.

Although this picture, lifted from Victory's website, depicts only three beers, I assure you that I was able to buy an entire six-pack. I found it at Oades Big Ten (314 S. Clippert St., Lansing). I balked at the price, but forked over the money. When I got to my party destination and opened a bottle, I was sweetly rewarded. I wouldn't spend $10 every weekend for this beer, but it's a worthwhile occassional indulgence. Its flavor rests primarily in its malts, but is not sweet or heavy. I can honestly say that this beer is unique. I was suprised to find on their website that it includes no spices. I shared it with three acquaintances at the party and quickly found I had three new friends. If you take a look at the design, depicting laborers and a prominent "V", not to mention the name Victory in the first place, it has a distinctly communist feel. That's okay though. I've heard communists criticized for many things, but not for their beer. They hail from Pennsylvania, which as you may or may not know is not a state but a commonwealth. With all this communalism going on, you'd think they could cut a comrade a break on the price of a sixer.

Aside from Sam Adams, another widely available Oktoberfest in the Midwest is Leinenkugel's version. It's not bad, but is light on flavor. It's not too expensive, so give it a try and see what you think. It definitely hits the drinkability measure, but doesn't stack up to the others on taste.

I promise a pumkin beer update in time for Thanksgiving.

Must We Rock?!

Much to the disappointment of our loyal fans, we've been remiss in our duties as bloggers. In fact, for almost a month, we have failed to live up even to our name of Drinking Buddies. I can't speak for Matt, but I must admit that until today, I'd lost the drive, the spark, the motivation to continue bringing beer blogging to the world. Am I melodramatic? No! Not compared to the pedestal on which we've recently been placed by the fine folks at The State News. Today my interest in this journal was invigorated by a brilliant editor of the S'New's entertainment section: The Lowdown. Casually flipping through the newspaper this afternoon, I saw a tag for the Drinking Buddies on the entertainment front. Not two paragraphs into her column, Jessica Nowak (the editor), began to praise our former newspaper glory. "Since I began this job, many fans of 'Drinking Buddies' have approached me in one way or another, demanding their return," she writes. But that's not all. Later she calls us "cult icons." It nearly brought me to tears. Unfortunately, I didn't have a beer to cry into, so I held back. There's much more to the column, which you can read here. So inspired was I that I went right over to Crunchy's (10-12 hours later) to enjoy 25 ounces of New Holland's Ichabod Ale on tap. Fall is a tasty time of year.

I feel re-committed to the ongoing success of the Drinking Buddies and I will do my best to ensure that we have at least one post per week. And please help us out by giving us feedback on how you think we're doing and what kinds of things you'd like to read. Comments, concerns, cuestions?

B is for Beer - that's good enough for me

Alright, I apologize that it's been two weeks since our last post. I've got a few ideas I'm brewing up (haha). I apologize for the pun too (not really). Hopefully, there will be pictures up within the next week, but for today, I've got an idea that requires little to no legwork. Enjoy:

"If you could have a beer with anybody, who would it be?"
This is the question posed by a great site I recently discovered, Here's to Beer. This site is host to a plethora of information. Today, I explored their recipes for beer cocktails. I don't think I've seen anybody in the US mix their beer with anything, except maybe a lemon or orange wedge, but when I was in Germany, I tried a Radler. A Radler is half pilner lager and half lemonade. Okay, so like most other cocktails it's a bit sweet. But who doesn't like lemonade on a hot day? Nobody I know, or have recently questioned....

I've gotten off track. If I could have a beer with anybody, today, it would be Dr. Paul Farmer. There are many people on my list, but recently I'm reading Mountains Beyond Mountains, the story of how Dr. Farmer founded Partners in Health, a program that brings healthcare to impoverished communities around the world. This, incidentally, is my goal: to spread adequate healthcare worldwide. If it weren't for that, I'd probably open up a brewery. So thanks, Dr. Farmer, for leading the way and showing us how doctoring should be done. Cheers.

Now it's your turn. If you could have a beer with anyone, regardless of whether they're alive today, who would it be?

Crunchy's!

This past weekend, we kicked off the football season right in East Lansing by dropping in to Crunchy's. You might recognize a similar watering hole near you by its slightly dumpy appearance, newspaper clipping and sports memorabilia decor, and grotesque amounts of beer.

I mean Grotesque.

It is literally served in buckets. Not like this. More like filled to the brim by the tap. You can get your own bucket, or use one of the house buckets. It is advisable to bring five others with you lest you succumb to alcohol poisoning.

What I have to ask is this: Is this kind of thing only acceptable in college towns? I would like access to buckets of beer wherever I go, health inspectors be damned. If you have a similar site of excess, please share! I would definitely like to find out that someone has taking social drinking to a new low in a civilized part of the world.

Tailgating, Trivia, and Canada

It is FOOTBALL SEASON!

That's right, the college football season has kicked off! This reminds me of the days when the Drinking Buddies used to hit the streets of East Lansing, MI in search of the perfect gameday tailgate experience. In fact, we wrote about it (in this shameless plug)! This year, we are probably only going to make it out to this weekend for a viewing of the Idaho Vandals v. The Spartans of Michigan State University. Hopefully we will catch some great drinking shots while on the prowl.

In the meantime, I'd like to welcome Canada to the Drinking Buddies website. Previously, only Windsor (of Windsor Casino fame, where I won $80) had bothered to discover the Buddies. I have a sneaking suspicion that at least 90% of that traffic was my cousin. But these days, traffic comes from all over. Be it our wit, charm, international diplomatic savvy, or recent professed love for drinkingbuddies.ca, our bond with the only country left that likes Americans is holding fast. As they say in some parts of your country, "J'ai accidentellement vomi dans votre baignoire!"

In honor of that, I'm going to impart a little DBs Trivia. Prohibition existed in the United States from 1920 to 1933. Everyone knows that the bootlegging trade of smuggling liquor flourished during this time. However, few people know that an estimated 75% of the US illegal liquor came from the Detroit-Windsor border. Now that's international aid!

The Hiram Walker Canadian ClubDistillery was located conveniently on the water front, just in case people should happen to cross the river and pickup a few cases. These "passers by" included a certain Drinking Buddy Grandpa, who used a rowboat and two oars to bring the forbidden nectar to the entire country. Take that, FBI!

The White Russian: The manly-girlie drink

Ah, the White Russian. Men are so quick to dismiss any drink containing fruit juice (that's juice, not fruit flavored vodka) or cream-like elements. The obvious reason is that it is perceived as a woman's drink if you add "female" elements. Personally, I would deduce if you are that concerned that your drink has milk, you probably weren't breast fed enough as a kid or something.

Men, remove your hangups about the White Russian. Yes, it has milk. But it also has two very manly ingredients (coffee in liqueur form and vodka). It's almost like having breakfast with vodka, minus the Cap'n Crunch. Drink it while out and about and you are the cool, sophisticated man surrounded by lovely women and getting invited to the VIP room. Try to pull that off with a Jager Bomb drunken fratboy!

I'm not saying that you have to give up your flavored Stoli just to be cool. But once and a while, would it kill you to venture out to a REAL mixed drink?

Oh, by the way... Did I mention the The Dude himself drinks it?

Drinking Buddies, meet The Drinking Buddies.

It was bound to happen sometime. The Drinking Buddies have encountered their clone. And this clone is:

DRINKINGBUDDIES.CA!

These lucky embryos to have survived the cloning process have grown to be more powerful than anyone had ever imagined. They are like us in every way- except that they accept photos of drinkers, allow you to create an online profile, are Canadian, and appear to enjoy posting copious amounts of male bare ass on their site. We are certainly not judging. This is just what we have discovered through research.

In addition to their all-male revue, they also seem to be doing actual research on actual topics using actual facts. This research is impressive and might actually have required them to step away from their sassy men's collection and do field work (as opposed to us, who mostly make stuff up after a 3 minute Google search).

Yes sir, our clones are prospering. We might just sign up and have our naked buttocks on the internet as well. On second thought, that may be to hasty. What if they were EVIL clones?

(Note example of universal signifier of evil: the goatee. Is you chin clean, drinkingbuddies.ca?)