Beer is Proof this book sucks

If we can sum up Beer is Proof God Loves Us in one word it's dreadful. Sure, it's an easy read filled with nuggets of beer trivia but Charles W. Bamforth comes across as admittedly "yearning for a better time."

Mr. Bamforth has quite a brewing pedigree. He's worked for some of the biggest and best breweries in the business. He's the Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Malting Brewing Sciences at UC Davis and he's taught courses in more countries we've visited. Finally, Beer is Proof God Loves Us is just the latest of his publications. So, at the end of the day we're in no real position to judge. Then again, we're in no position to judge beer and we do that all the time. And we judge people like we're searching for the next American Idol.

The opening chapter, Global Concerns, is the most informative. It offers a brief overview of how the big brewing conglomerates got so, well big. The book goes downhill from there. Mr. Bamforth blames Margaret Thatcher for much of what's wrong in England's brewing industry, gives a begrudging nod to craft brews while never missing an opportunity to boast on the great beers made by the biggest of brewers, quotes Emerson and talks religion. According to the author, the endnotes are worth the read but we cut our losses at the final chapter.

We can all agree that beer really is proof that god loves us but that hardly seems the central focus of the book primarily because the book lacks central focus. Beer's ties to religion certainly is not the theme of the book. Although it's discussed towards the end of the book it's included in an awkward discussion around religious ties to conflict and the author's time spent in the Middle East. Other pages touch on the role of homebrewing and neo-prohibitionists to ensure we cover the full spectrum of the brew topics. It might be a meandering stream of conscious writing or a series of chapters left out of other books and looking for a home. Either way, you'll certainly learn something and you probably should read the endnotes - but that's about all you should read.

Oh, and Benjamin Franklin never said "beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy".

Caddyshack III

In today's 24 hour news cycle it's all about getting the message out quickly. Get the video uploaded to YouTube, craft a blog post, and by all means tweet everything leading up to the event and then tweet some more. With that in mind, we bring you our review of dinner with the folks at Harpoon Brewery. The dinner was held on February 25, 2011.

The four course dinner was held at the Chevy Chase Club just across the boarder in Maryland. As you may have guessed this event was invitation only. Like famed attorney Peter Blunt we put on some fancy clothes and glommed on to some rich folk for an evening of fine dining, fine beer, and Dan Kenary serving as Master of Ceremonies. So, here we go...

The Reception: Held in some fancy room with lots of dark wood, family crests, and a really big fireplace the reception was an opportunity to rub elbows with 150 of your richest friends. So, basically, we gorged ourselves on the Celtic Ale because it's easier than carrying on a conversation with the people whose homes you clean during the day. The Celtic is good but pretty ordinary. The kind of beer you can drink at the dive you would normally be hanging out at on a Friday night. It's sort of the Bud of craft brew.

The First Course: Pork belly and octopus served with UFO White. All were new to us and we enjoyed the trip. Pork belly is almost better than bacon. Octopus, once you get past that it looks like octopus, is actually very good. We could get used to this lifestyle. UFO White is a Belgian-style wheat - crisp, clean and a citrus finish. Mr. Kenary suggested that some might like to dip a slice of orange in the UFO but we have a hard and fast rule that prohibits adding fruit to any beer (even Corona). Regardless, we can't want to have more UFO White.

The Second Course: Rock fish, veal cheeks, potato and artichoke filled peppers, and bell pepper salad with Harpoon IPA. Two gentlemen sitting across from us agreed that the chef made perhaps the best veal cheeks either had ever tried. While tasty, we couldn't help but wonder what kind of cheeks we were actually eating. The cheeks located close to the nose or the cheeks normally kissed when the boss is filling out your personnel evaluation. Seriously, can somebody tell me if we were eating ass cheeks?  Oh, the IPA was fine.

The Main Course: Buffalo strip loin, 36-hour braised ribs, gorgonzola-polenta pave, haricots verts (which is fancy-talk for beans). All served with the monster of the night - Leviathan Imperial Ale. We've sampled some of the Leviathan series but the Imperial Ale was a first for us and it was the big winner of the night for us. We sampled quite a bit of this high-alcohol brew. The Imperial Ale is both sweet and hoppy. The food was good but the main course really was the beer.

The Finale: Actually, who cares? We didn't really need dessert at this point and the beer was not our favorite. Of course, we still ate the caramel apple granola bar with poached apples and creme brulee - just so we could feel fat. Mr. Kenary served Catamount Maple Wheat, which actually starts out full bodied and smooth. We were pleasantly surprised but the maple finish was a big turn off - well, not for everybody but it was for us so we finished other people's left over Leviathan.

We really had a great time. The people were very friendly, the food was great, and the beer was even better. Now, if the ninth green were a hockey arena the night would have been perfect.

Read My Lips...

The fine people at Heavy Seas recently sent around an E-mail on new legislation being offered in the Maryland legislature to increase taxes on alcohol beverages. Beer In Baltimore touched on this issue as well. HB 121, the Lorraine Sheehan Health and Community Services Act of 2011, increases the state tax rates for alcoholic beverages sold in Maryland from $1.50 to $10.03 per gallon for distilled spirits, from 40 cents to $2.96 per gallon for wine, and from 9 cents to $1.16 per gallon for beer. The House bill has more than 50 sponsors and the Senate counterpart (SB 168) has almost 20 sponsors. The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee held a hearing on the bill today and the House Ways and Means Committee on March 3, 2011.

State budgets are hurting across the country (we're looking at you Wisconsin) and commodity prices are going through the roof, which means prices for food - and beer - are going up too. We understand beer is a bit of a luxury item for some and it's not quite the same as putting food on the table. Maybe more people could afford a little luxury, or even a little tax increase, if wages had increased at all since the 1980s. With the current state of the economy employers have good excuse not to increase wages. What this means is no pay raise this year but the grocery bill is going up and that little six pack of heaven is about to get taxed like a cigarette.

Anyway, we're not saying you should oppose this bill but if you live in Maryland you should oppose HB 121/SB 168. You can voice your opposition at http://www.savemymdjob.com/.

If you live in Wisconsin, we're not saying you should support the unions but you should support the right to collective bargaining.

-Image courtesy of Heavy Seas.

Not That There's Anything Wrong with It

According to reports, the Minerva brewery is offering a product specifically for the gay-lesbian community. Purple Hand Beer and Salamandra will be marketed in Mexico, Columbia, and Japan. These brews are so gay that the labels are designed to be removed from the bottle so people can wear them as a symbol of gay pride.

Minerva is thought to be the first brewer to market a product specifically to the LGBT community - or is it.....

Local Boy Makes Good

You may know him as the local coffee barista at the best little coffee shop in the DMV but Andrew Passell is also an avid home brewer. We have sampled several of his drinks so we speak from experience. On Wednesday afternoon you can hear Mr. Passell along with Tiffany MacIsaac of Birch & Barley on NPR's The Kojo Nnamdi Show. The piece is slated to air shortly after 1:00p and we hope you'll tune in. Below is a little something to wet your whistle.

All the Grace of Fred Astaire

This has been floating around for awhile but still fun to watch - if only because of the great music.

Bottoms Up

This has been making the rounds on the Internet - for better or worse. Our friends at Gheorghe, who have a much better video posted today, refer to this as filler.