Tag: beer

Home brewed

I will say this up front: I’m a beer snob.

My friend Ryk and I are the kind of beer drinkers who seek out interesting and unusual brews, smaller ones that tend to be heavier and darker and with a bite that you can’t get from the watered-down stuff sold by the major mass-production breweries.

Stone IPA, for instance, is one of those brews — an IPA that forces you to take notice. I like Smuttynose, Dogfish Head, Flying Fish out of Cherry Hill and Riverhorse out of Lambertville (support local brewers!) — are among my favorites (by no means is this a short list).

This morning, Marty Moss-Coane on Radio Times on WHYY out of Philadelphia attempted to answer whether Philadelphia is the best beer-drinking city in the United States, focusing on the growing prevalence of craft brews at local pubs.

It was nice to hear an intelligent discussion on the radio of high-end beers that takes beer seriously as something other than what you drink to get drunk. Beer — as guests Craig LaBan, restaurant critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Don Russell (aka Joe Sixpack), who writes a weekly beer column for the Philadelphia Daily News and is one of the organizers of Philadelphia Beer Week — is more than Budweiser and can be savored and enjoyed in the same way that the wine connoisseur enjoys wine.

(Craig and I, by the way, worked together as reporters for The Princeton Packet more than a decade ago.)

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

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Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

What won’t they think of next

I am not sure what to make of this — a specialty beer glass, similar to a wine glass for beer connousiers?

From The Boston Globe:

Wine lovers have long used crystal stemware to help experience the exquisite nose of a French merlot or a frisky Australian vin ordinaire, and now the Boston brewer thinks beer connoisseurs have achieved a similar level of discernment when it comes to appreciating state-of-the-art advances in lager delivery-systems.

According to the company, the new Samuel Adams Boston Lager Pint Glass is the first glass specifically designed to showcase beer as brewers intended.

Sparing no effort, Boston Beer said it recruited “world-renowned sensory experts” to work on the design of a glass that beginning in March, will be sold in packages of four for $30 at www.samueladams.com.

One feature of the new glass is a neck-and-lip design that “helps sustain the head of the beer, which enhances the release of signature Noble hop aromas found in Samuel Adams Boston Lager,” the company said.

“It’s a personal passion of mine to develop a beer glass that elevates the craft-beer drinking experience,” Jim Koch, company chairman and founder of the Samuel Adams beer brand, said in a statement. “We wanted to create a glass that offers beer lovers a full sensory experience by fully showcasing Samuel Adams Boston Lager’s complex balance of malt and hop flavors.”

Hmmmm. I may have to order a set.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.