RateBeer Best of 2009

Though they call it "Best 2010", it seems better to think of this as a Best of 2009 list. I don't really get how they think they know the future, or whatever, but RateBeer's best of the year is now online.

Best Beers in the World: Imperial Stouts again dominate. How will ours stack up? Also, best beers by style. Founder's porter is the 5th best porter in the world? Wouldn't have guessed. Also, I feel vindicated that the best porter in the world was that one Matt Vivian brought to beer club last spring that I liked a lot (but it was a solid thumbs-sideways all around. Maybe we don't like porters as a group?)

Best Beer Stores in the World: Bruisin Ales is third, and Hop City is 23rd! Also, the Five Points Bottle Shop in Athens is 24th. I bet that stings when you lose out to a local newcomer by one point in a worldwide competition.

Viva Decatur: BrickStore gets #6 in the world for bars; not bad. The best in the world is Ma Che Siete Venuti a Fa, which across the street from Bir & Fud - which I happened to blog about a couple of weeks ago. So, if you want to read about the bar across the street from the best bar in the world, check it out. (I thought they were like Leon's and Brickstore, actually - same owners - but to tell you the truth we went to Bir & Fud because it looked better). And check out the top 50 US beers - we need to get out hands on some AleSmith, Cigar City and more Three Floyds. WHere does your favorite beer rank?

Chad's Take on Cans

Here's an interesting article about the anniversary of the beer can - from someone who wishes they hadn't been born. Their basic point is that the beer can has been bad for beer and the environment. One interesting question is why Americans are the only ones in the world drinking from cans. Excerpt:

Seventy five years is a good retirement age. It is time to retire the beer can and the disposable bottle and switch to good local beer in returnable bottles. It is not only the green thing to do, but it tastes better. As Pablo noted in Eat Local, Drink Local Beer:

The best solution for keeping your eco-impact low is to drink local beer. Not only does this support your local economy, and support the art of craft beer making, but it is also a great way to enjoy creative and innovative new recipes and techniques.

So I happened to be at the Brick Store...

...and it was the night that Brasserie des Franches Montagnes was in town. I had posted about it earlier, forgot, and then showed up with a couple of friends just in time for them to tap the special keg brought over from Switzerland. The brewmaster, Jerome Rebetez wasn't in the main bar (he was upstairs), but I wasn't in the mood for awkward beer conversation anyway - mainly because I've never tried their beers before. (Imagined dialogue: Brennan: Hey, so, what kind of beers do you, um, make? Jerome: I came across the Atlantic and you didn't even try my beer yet?) After trying a beer, I said hello and thanks for bringing the cask. He's nice.

So of course I got the beer on cask - the Tarry Suchong, a smoked beer brewed with Lapsang Souchong tea leaves, the really smoky kind. It was a rusty orange/brown color, cloudy, no head. Very odd but intriguing appearance. Smelled faintly smoky and lemony. The mouthfeel was very light, and the taste was very much like tea with lemon or orange, and a sweet smoky flavor filled in behind. Not nearly as smoky as the tea, and the taste wasn't as strong as the smell. Honestly, you could have told me it was a fermented strong tea and I might have believed you. But you know, it was good, in a very strange sort of way. I most definitely ordered another round, since I figured it would be a while until I tasted anything this good and unusual at the same time. Dogfish Head, move over - there's another crazy beer brewer in town. Highly recommended, even if just for a taste.

Ummm...

...Who wants to try it first?

Freshly shucked oysters and beer go hand-in-hand like milk and cookies - but a beer actually brewed with the slimy, salty delicacies and their liquor?

It was a go yesterday for Harpoon Brewery and Island Creek Oysters. The Boston beer maker teamed with the Duxbury oyster farm to produce the Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Island Creek Oyster Stout.

Sounds like this was dreamed up by boys in a middle school cafeteria in an attempt to gross out some girls, but Harpoon swears that it won't taste Oyster-y - they claim that it simply boosts the protein and thus pumps up the body of the beer. I'll believe it when I see it...

Burger King Bar... Sets the Bar Low

Well, if you're the kind of person that hangs out at Burger King, things just got a whole lot better:

Gimme a Whopper, fries — and a beer.

Those words are no longer wishful thinking. Friday, Burger King (BKC) will unveil plans to sell beer and burgers at a Whopper Bar — a new BK concept to compete with casual dining restaurants — in Miami Beach's tourist-heavy South Beach. The South Beach Whopper Bar is scheduled to open in mid-February.

I actually really like the trend that more casual, "family" type places are serving alcohol. I mean, I haven't eaten at a Burger King in about a decade, but it's this kind of change that might help folks of all stripes loosen up about alcohol. To bad they're just serving MillerCoors.

Beer Blinded Me with Science

I recently came across this categorically exhaustive graphic of the beer spectrum. Does it look like anything else you've seen before? Yeah, that's right. The periodic table of elements! If, like me, you loved 9th grade Chemistry, then this will be right up your alley.

As a visualization for beer education and appreciation, I also think it's genius. Each column represents a distinct variety of beer (e.g. Belgian ales, pale ales, Scottish ales) within one of the two major brewing styles (lagers vs. ales). And, within every column, sub-varieties are organized vertically by A.B.V., with the lowest-alcohol styles appearing at the top and highest-alcohol styles appearing at the bottom.

In case you were wondering, you can also see how common and even obscure beers compare to one another by original and final gravity, bitterness (as measured by International Bitterness Units, or IBUs), and color intensity (as measured by Standard Reference Method, or SRM). Yes, someone actually used a spectrometer to calculate how light passes through a brown porter as compared to a robust porter. And, I appreciate that. Very much.

Winter Beer Carnival at the Contemporary

Did you miss the Great Decatur Craft Beer Festival? Or that circus that sometimes appears across the freeway from Turner Field?

Well, fear not. The Winter Beer Carnival will roll into The Contemporary on February 27th from 3 to 7, carnival games and all. Mmmmmh, carnies.

Advance tickets are $30 and go on sale January 22nd at 10 am. The Contemporary isn't near a MARTA station, but the mighty #1 and #113 buses will get you within about a block of the place.

(h/t Inside Access)

There's an App for That

Katy, ask and you shall receive. I came across this today after (or during) a visit to the Monday Night Brewery page. Find Craft Beer is an app that finds craft beer locations near your body (provided your body is near your phone). It even features new change city lookup algorithm with version 1.6. It is supplemented by the, perhaps, even cooler Beer Mapping Project: they find beer, you drink the beer. If the project has a photo of the location on file it will pull it up for you. If not, no worries. The app will show locations on a map and provided that Goolge's Street View is available for the area you can likely see the bar that way.

One question remains. When will you get an iPhone?

For the Dogs

For Christmas my sister-in-law sent us gifts to open at my mom and dad's house in Detroit. Among them were a few packages for the dog. Interesting, I thought; likely some rubber toy or maybe even a gourmet biscuit (aka cookie aka treat). One of them was a bag of fancy NYC-themed dog cookies. To my surprise, the other one was beer. Beer for dogs. It's called Bowser Beer and is billed as a nutritous and fun non-alcoholic alternative to beer. That description is not winning me over but the concept is appealing: beer for dogs. 3 Busy Dogs is out of AZ and will make you a custom labeled brew with a picture of your dog on the front. We got a bottle of The Salty Paw's Blue Dane Ale. From the picture it doesn't look like it's winning over Mali either. It's fortified with glucosamine to promote healthy joints!! I couldn't find much on how it is made or if it is actually brewed. However, I think the company is pretty cool because, in addition to providing a way for your dog to responsibly drink with you, they are out to educate people on the dangers on giving real alcholic beverages to dogs (though I had no idea this was a problem serious or widespread enough to merit committed advocacy).

I thought that was cool enough but then a coupld days ago this came across the Twitter expanses. Dogfish Head has partnered with a local bakery to make use of their spent grain to produce a new dog treat they're calling Dog Bark.With all the spent grain we have from our Brew Day I want the recipe. We did have some success making loaves of spent grain bread. However, I ate it and later became sick, though not, we think, from the bread and the essence of so many DSBC members. Beer? I'm not sure, but being sick is definitely for the dogs.

The Beer Can: Happy Birthday

Remember those Mad Men episodes when Don Draper opens his beer with a church key? Ah, those were the days before all that technology cluttered up our beautiful beer cans. Well, it's time to wax nostalgic, because the beer can was invented by Gottfried Krueger Brewery 75 years ago this month, and this is an anniversary I'd like to celebrate by indulging in a beer - one in a can, of course. Several great microbreweries have begun to sell great beer in cans, including Oskar Blues and Ska Brewery (for the hiker types). Anybody see any other good beers in cans?

So if you want to see a ridiculous collection of old school beer cans, including the first ever (pictured above), just head to Flint, Michigan to check out the "Brewery Collectibles Club of America." Vargo, next time you're going home for the holidays? If for some reason you don't want to go to Flint, the video embedded below gives you a nice tour of the place. Or, you can check out their annual convention, called (I kid you not) CANvention. Check this out for some great pictures from the 1998 convention - excuse me, CANvention. Seriously, look here. Oh, and don't forget your BCCA gear. Dibs on the lanyard.