Cheers!
The patron saint of The Leopard's Limb, poster O.T. Rush, furnished a beer tutorial yesterday that warrants reposting:As a beer snob of the first order, meaning that originally I thought only Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium could make good beer, I must say that I have learned a great deal about beer and my misconceptions over the years.
The Monteczuma Brewery in Mexico was created in the 1880s by a German immigrant, who, searching for a way to market his beer, looked to the approaching dawn of the 20th century and created a beer called Dos Equis (XX) to take advantage of the times. It has been an excellent pilsner ever since. The amber version is also quite good.
But guess what. The effete French, known for their wine, make some pretty good beer as well. And their influence during the colonial era, created a lot of really good brands around the world.
In Viet Nam we drank French influenced "33" (Ba Moui Ba), which was usually called Bomb-de-Bomb, because it was often bottled "green"...but those of us who had access to the properly brewed version knew that we had found an excellent beer.
Today you can get 33 and also Saigon, two fine French influenced beers, at City Beverage.
The best new beer in town is BeerLao, imported from Laos, another part of the former French Indo China.
But if you want to drink the best beer in the world, look to American craft brews.
Start at home with our own Foothills Brewery on 4th Street, then move on to Highlands (Asheville) and Duck Rabbit (Farmville). Their Milk Stout challenges even Guinness for great taste.
Moving outside NC, the Brooklyn Brewery in Brooklyn, NY has an outstanding variety of beers and ales. Anything from the Oscar Blue brewery in Colorado is worth a try, with their Dale's Pale Ale possibly the best pale ale in the world. My favorite India pale ale is Two Hearted, made by Bell Brewery in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The name comes from Hemingway's great two part short story "Big Two-Hearted River", which is a delight for those who enjoy hiking, camping, fishing, etc.
Harder to find, but often available at City Beverage, is anything from the Anderson Valley Brewing Company in northern California. Their Boont Amber Ale may be the best beer in the world. Anything else that they make is superb. And they have a great story. Just Google them.
The Monteczuma Brewery in Mexico was created in the 1880s by a German immigrant, who, searching for a way to market his beer, looked to the approaching dawn of the 20th century and created a beer called Dos Equis (XX) to take advantage of the times. It has been an excellent pilsner ever since. The amber version is also quite good.
But guess what. The effete French, known for their wine, make some pretty good beer as well. And their influence during the colonial era, created a lot of really good brands around the world.
In Viet Nam we drank French influenced "33" (Ba Moui Ba), which was usually called Bomb-de-Bomb, because it was often bottled "green"...but those of us who had access to the properly brewed version knew that we had found an excellent beer.
Today you can get 33 and also Saigon, two fine French influenced beers, at City Beverage.
The best new beer in town is BeerLao, imported from Laos, another part of the former French Indo China.
But if you want to drink the best beer in the world, look to American craft brews.
Start at home with our own Foothills Brewery on 4th Street, then move on to Highlands (Asheville) and Duck Rabbit (Farmville). Their Milk Stout challenges even Guinness for great taste.
Moving outside NC, the Brooklyn Brewery in Brooklyn, NY has an outstanding variety of beers and ales. Anything from the Oscar Blue brewery in Colorado is worth a try, with their Dale's Pale Ale possibly the best pale ale in the world. My favorite India pale ale is Two Hearted, made by Bell Brewery in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The name comes from Hemingway's great two part short story "Big Two-Hearted River", which is a delight for those who enjoy hiking, camping, fishing, etc.
Harder to find, but often available at City Beverage, is anything from the Anderson Valley Brewing Company in northern California. Their Boont Amber Ale may be the best beer in the world. Anything else that they make is superb. And they have a great story. Just Google them.
I like beer. it makes me a jolly good fellow
ReplyDeleteI like beer. it helps me unwind and sometimes it makes me feel mellow (makes him feel mellow)
Whiskey's too rough, champagne costs too much, vodka puts my mouth in gear
This little refrain should help me explain as a matter of fact i like beer
(he likes beer)
OT..I had no idea about the world of beer! I see adds for the local craft beers and they seem interesting. My folks were tee totalers so my exposure to beer was a beer can that smelled in someone's house. Maybe Harris-Teeter sells the Dos Equis and I will try some because as I mentioned, I think their new commercials are funny. Some of the best beer I remember was in southern Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. Usually in a glass, light in color and right next to a nice plate of pork schnitzel. I appreciate the beer info
ReplyDeleteBeer:
ReplyDeleteHelping ugly people find romance since the dawn of civilization.
O.T., Costco sells a case of 4 different designer beers brewed by a New York state brewery (Utica, I think), and labeled with Costco's house brand Kirkland. The IPA is pretty good, but a bit of a jolter to those of us accustomed to the lower ABV of standard US beers.
ReplyDeleteSome of us need all the help we can get. When I was young, I liked the beer kegs full and the women empty. Can I get by with saying that these days?
ReplyDeleteYou can in this forum. We don't stand on formality or political correctness; or integrity, to hear some tell it.
ReplyDeleteWhew! Many times I have been accused but not once convicted. I am a man of no convictions...
ReplyDeleteI have convictions, all for speeding.
ReplyDeleteit's like Groucho Marx said: "Those are my principles, and if you don't like 'em, well, I have others."
ReplyDeletePilsner beer is of course from Plzen, The Czech Republic, just northwest of Budweis
Believe it or not, all beer used to taste more like the craft brews. Men bought over 90% of the beer sold, because it was only sold in saloons, where no self-respecting woman would go.
ReplyDeleteBut as prohibition ended, the new fangled supermarkets started selling beer and women became the main buyers. Brewers quickly discovered that women preferred milder brews, so virtually all American made beers were dumbed down.
WW mentions Czech beer. Budvar (which means Budweiser) has long been held to be the best pilsner in the world. But during the NAZI era, the Czech brewer was coerced by Anheuser-Busch into signing an agreement never to sell their Budvar in the US. A few years ago they figured out a way to get around the deal...so czech out Czechvar...it's the same beer, different name.
Among the grocry chains, Harris-Teeter has the best selection of beers. You will find some of the ones that I mentioned there, including for sure Dos Equis. But the home church of beer in NC is City Beverage, doing business since the late 1940s on Burke Street downtown. They have well over two hundred brands of beer, and Spencer Davis, third generation in the business, has forgotten more than I know about beer. Czech them out.
Hello OT!
ReplyDeleteI mind a beer from Alsace, called Kronenbourg. Ever see that there?
OT, could a murdered resident of Praha be called a "cancelled Czech"?
ReplyDeleteCB has 13.2 gallon kegs of Stella for $181. That is about 14 10-packs.
ReplyDeleteI've seen Kronenbourg there before, but don't know if they have it at the moment. You can call them at 722-2774.
A cancelled czech by any other name is still a cancelled czech.
Actually, the keg = a little > 11 10-packs (14.9-oz/can), but definitely sufficient. A couple of those containers await my finishing choir practice tonight, but I will decant into a chilled glass.
ReplyDeleteI won't bother calling. Don't like telephones, prefer to "window shop" in an Eden like that.
If you like beer, get any craft brew form North Carolina. We have as many breweries as wineries. Asheville has been voted Beer City USA 2 years in a row, beating the more well known Portland hands down. Visit Foothills in downtown WS, as their Peoples Porter is world renowned, and their February seasonal Sexual Chocolate (a stout) is voted consistently one of the 10 best in the world. Also visit Natty Greens in GSO and Liberty in High Point. Buy local and you wont be disappointed. If its not craft its not beer.
ReplyDeleteHello Andrew, and welcome!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the addition. You and our regular poster OT are refreshing fountains of information. It's been a while since I've been to Asheville. I might need to hand the keys to Mrs. Stab and take a drive, after checking out the local scene, of course :)
Here here!
ReplyDeleteYes O.T, thank you so for for the beer tutorial. I'll be in NYC the weekend of the 17th. We have tickets to the "Book of Mormon", and I just may check out the Brooklyn Brewery.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you and others continue to post here, and I'm glad Stab has been successful in keeping this posting going.
Thanks for the welcome Stab. I too am a self confessed beer snob. (my Dad has been home brewing for as long as I can remember.) If you head to Asheville, check out the L.A.B. (great food too) and the Wedge. They are my favorites. You can also hit Old Hickory in Morganton on the way up, or down. (or both)
ReplyDeleteCould not agree more with Brother Andrew. For a list of current and planned NC breweries go here:
ReplyDeletehttp://beerme.com/region.php?c=us&s=nc
Asheville alone has 11 micro breweries, with a 12th just down the road in Black Mountain.
When I first got interested in beer, all that was available most places around here were Bud, Schlitz, Miller and Pabst. To find a bar that served Michelob, you had to go to Durham. So City Beverage, which carried such exotics as Heineken and Louenbrau (pronounced, I was informed by a German barmaid in the Bahamas!!!, as Lew-ven-brow) became our main hangout. Besides, they delivered, and still do, to some extent. Today, I prefer the Louenbrau made under license in Switzerland to the home grown version.
Back then, the official beer of the Darlington Southern 500 was Falstaff. The infield was dry on Sunday, but on race day Falstaff was all you could buy, at $1 a pop, in the days when a 6-pack of Bud cost about $1.20. You really haven't lived until you've seen the Confederate Drum & Bugle Corps march down the pit straight at Darlington and strike up Dixie and 60,000 Falstaff-fueled white rednecks jump up and start to howl. The one time that I experienced that, Buck Baker won his last major NASCAR race.
The first restaurant in W-S to serve pizza, was John Pappas's College Inn, above the Rathskeller down at the end of Hanes Park. You could order a pizza at the Rat and they would bring it down. John was also the first to serve a Japanese beer, Asahi.
When the Sir Winston restaurant opened in the basement of the Pepper Building in the early '60s, word got out that they would offer a dozen imports, so we were there in the bar area on opening night, met the owner, agreed to become evangelists for his cause, so were comped endless platters of oysters on the half shell, another first for W-S in the post WWII period*. We had at least one of each import offering and spent a good bit of time after last call looking for our car, which had apparently moved itself from where we had originally parked it.
For those contemplating a first visit to City Beverage, be sure to allow plenty of time. Alloting 20 minutes for such an occasion would be like allotting an hour for a first visit to the Museum of Modern Art. I have spent approximately 80 days of my adult life at MOMA and have never managed to see everything yet.
To get some idea of what you are up against, visit CB's website at http://www.citybeverage.com/
You will see a listing of their tasting and sale events and have an opportunity to sign up for their e-mail list, which could be the most important thing that you will ever do. Most tastings are free...the larger ones may require a small fee.
As they say in Ireland:
May you never lie, steal, cheat or drink.
But if you must lie, lie in each other's arms.
If you must steal, steal kisses.
If you must cheat, cheat death.
And if you must drink, drink with us, your friends.
* Oyster bars were extremely popular in the town of Winston in the late 19th and early 20th century. The best were on Trade Street, between 4th and 6th streets.
Thank you, Andrew, for the instruction re places west of here. I must get out of town a bit.
ReplyDeleteWordly, glad to see you stopping by.
OT, fascinating local history. I remember at least being aware of the places you mentioned.
I quit drinking Lowenbrau when the grocery stores started carrying the domestic swill instead of the European stuff, years ago. I understand Brits are served Stella that is brewed in England instead of in Leuven, Belgium; and they say they can taste the difference. I could taste the difference in US Lowenbrau v. the Continental product.
"Give an Irishman lager for a month, and he's a dead man. An Irishman is lined with copper, and the beer corrodes it. But whiskey polishes the copper and is the saving of him."
--Mark Twain, "Life on the Mississippi"
If memory serves, it was Miller that got the license to produce Louenbrau in the US. I guess, like many in the business and political world, they thought that we were all stupid.
ReplyDeleteObviously, in most cases, they were right, because when the new Miller produced Louenbrau came out, there was no blink in the US sales of Louenbrau.
But I remember a friend of mine saying that he had had a Louenbrau at a local bar and that it tasted like "sh*t". Several of us investigated and quickly confirmed his diagnosis. At that point none of us even knew about the new licensing agreement.
Americans have a very high tolerance for garbage. As my grandmother used to say "The proof is in the pudding". OK, go ahead and add that to word watch, but she was most assuredly right.
What is the #1 selling beer in the US? For over a decade now it has been Bud Light. I guess that many actually consider that a beer. For me, it is something that should be flushed down the toilet, before it passes through the body of anyone.
Not too long ago I was sitting at the bar at Foothills. My companion said "Look down there," and directed me with her eyes. There was a guy sitting two stools down at the bar drinking a Bud Light. What was he doing in Foothills in the first place?
Lol OT. I've seen that also at foothills and other brew pubs. Very interesting tales of discovery. Bud in all its forms deserves to go down the toilet. My uncle says it must be brewed with weasel piss, instead of noble hops. I tell people that it isn't beer. Its a malt beverage, like colt 45.
ReplyDelete