Italian beer in the SF Chronicle

Here's a story on Italian microbrews in the SF Chronicle. After all the cocktails of last week, a nice calm beer sounds like a good idea.

News for Thursday

Bourbon is booming. Beer and wine surpass vodka sales by volume in Russia now. Conversely, vodka now outsells scotch in the UK.

SF Events

A couple of things from my inbox: - Magnolia is serving $3 pints all day on Tuesdays, and each Wednesday the brewers will be there to hang out and answer questions from 6-9PM. - (from the True Sake newsletter): July, 2008 - Yoshi's Oakland Half Price Sake Mondays

Yoshi's Oakland is please to announce, due to popular demand, half price sake Mondays will be extended through the month of July! All bottles of sake, including the elegant Yuki No Bosha Akita "Komachi", will be half price for the entire month. Now is your chance to enjoy a bottle - or two- from our exlusive list. For a truly memorable experience, come by on Monday, July 21st, when Tamiko Ishidate from Joto Sake will be on hand as the Sake sommelier for the evening to answer all of your questions.

Itemizing

I just learned that my 2,000 word story on scotch due next Monday was actually due yesterday, so posting may be a bit light for the rest of the week. Here are some things that caught my eye. - San Francisco Brewcraft solves the lack-of-hops problem by introducing a Burningman Hopless Absinthe Ale brewing kit complete with wormwood, lavender, and anise. (What, no fennel?) - Though they're advertising it as a beer pong ice rack, there is no need to limit its use to the "sport." Fill it with water and freeze it to keep ten plastic cups cold on the tray. - Jay from Oh Gosh! tasted 23 orange liqueurs and has now summarized his findings into awards. I think he deserves an award for the effort. - Seamus of Bunnyhugs lists some old-school genever cocktails to try out with the new genevers on the market. - Imbibe Magazine (sorry I'm late with that scotch story!) lists some cocktailian uses for home-grown herbs.

Internet booze news for Monday, May 5

Here are some stories from the around the web. - Art that you drink? That's my kind of exhibit. [via Dowd on Drinks] - Rick Lyke wrote a list of 125 places to have a beer before you die for All About Beer magazine. - Eric Asimov of the New York Times discusses mezcal. - Matt Rowley finds a video on making 60 proof alcohol using wine and a salad spinner.

Treat your beer right

Lew Bryson has a story in Portfolio about how to care for your beer.

I learned about that and other ways in which beer can go bad by doing a series of experiments on some freshly bottled beer from a local brewery. I put it in bright sunshine. I froze it. I slow-roasted it in the oven. I subjected it to eight cycles of chilling and warming. I felt bad mistreating beer like that, but those beers suffered so other beers could be better. Here's what I found.

The short answers are: sunlight is a killer in just a few minutes, hot-cold-hot is no big deal, though avoid huge temperature extremes, and try to drink it fresh.

Now that's what I call recycling

Via Blair:

LONG TRAIL BREWING CO. in Vermont has cut a deal with a local utility to purchase power, for just a few cents more, derived from the methane gas given off by the manure on dairy farms. The brewery, in turn, will contribute mash to feed the cows.

CHOW booze round-up

CHOW.com is just cranking out the booze stories lately. Currently on the front page there are:

• A take-down of Vodka 360's greenwashing
• A terrific Japanese whisky primer by Aaron Gilbreath that even has taste comparison notes to scotch brands
• An analysis of why nose grease tames beer foam
• And why Champagne's AOC is expanding

Belgian showers

The Toronado, a bar that normally specializes in Belgian beers, is celebrating Beglian Beer Month in April, with, I assume, even more Belgian beers than usual. I bet between this bar and La Trappe and The Trappist and Monk's Kettle you could try nearly every Belgian beer on the market. Not a bad way to spend your April.

Green beer

Stephen Beaumont has the run-down on the various types of Irish beers.

Oh my Guinness

Last week Fergal Murray, Brewmaster for Guinness, was in town doing a pre-St. Patrick's Day tour of several cities. We met up at Foley's Irish Pub downtown and had a pint. Part of the reason he was here was to promote Proposition 3-17, a resolution to make St. Paddy's an official holiday. A big whatever to that, but Murray did teach me some interesting stuff about Guinness. Unlike many alcohol products, their work isn't done once the product is in its container, because the visual impact when served is one of the most crucial aspects of the Guinness experience. While other brands may have an iconic bottle or color, Guinness has an iconic fresh pint that must be poured correctly in order to match all the posters. He described enjoying their product in three parts- "crafting of the pint" or watching it being poured slowly and correctly; the "reverence of the pint" or seeing that stereotypical pint with its foamy head (he called this the most important part); and "savoring the pint" or the actual taste of the stuff and the special way you drink it getting the beer from out beneath the foamy cover. All three of those are dependent on the bartender pouring the drink the right way- and they have instructions and training on how to do just that. And they also have teams of people who come into bars to make sure things are running smoothly, that the tap lines are kept clean, and that the servers serve them properly. The hands-on work seems quite a bit different than for spirits, where it's more like, "Here are some cocktail suggestions- good luck with that!"

Bottles vs. cans

Slate has a great analysis of the environmental impact of bottles vs. cans for your beer. It's another one of those questions answered with "It depends." Aluminum mining has bigger environmental impacts, yet the cans are more often recycled. Bottles are heavier and some municipalities don't recycle green bottles (who knew?) so if they're shipped from long distances they're definitely bad. Here's the short answer:

If your chosen tipple is produced very close to home and your town has a robust recycling program, then glass bottles are probably the way to go. But if your preferred suds are brewed far away, by a company that's even mildly eco-aware, aluminum cans are the wiser choice.

But the analysis is interesting, so read the whole thing.

The right glass for every beer

Today's Chronicle has a story on beer glass design to maximize flavor of different beers. It's an interesting read. With all the new Belgian bars that have opened recently I keep seeing new shapes. I ordered a beer that came in a kwak glass- the one in the middle in this picture that comes with its own stand- at La Trappe. I felt embarrassed drinking out of it, like having a plastic Hurricane souvenir glass in New Orleans or a Carlos and Charlie's one in Mexico. I just didn't know!

Belgian text

The text of my Belgian beer bars story from San Francisco Magazine is now online here. And if you're interested, my Aspen travel piece is here.

Dueling Belgians

In the March issue of San Francisco Magazine, I have a story on the three Belgian beer bars that opened in December 2007. (Also, a travel story on Aspen.) At 7x7, the other glossy city magazine, Jordan MmmKay? has a piece on the same topic (bars, not ski towns), with four recommended beers to try. The Trappist in Oakland is a simple place, with only two cheese plates available as food. When I visited there was one server working the whole seating area so it was faster to walk to the bar and pick up pints yourself. They did a nice job with the glassware cooler water jet that lowers the temperature of your glass by a couple of degrees. In North Beach, La Trappe is something between a restaurant, a lounge, and a bar. They have a full bistro menu (but could use more appetizers for those not in search of a meal) with some Belgian specialty foods, as well as a huge beer menu. I recommend getting there early to score a space on the plush seating in the lounge. Also, rumor has it mixologist Victoria Damato-Moran will be working there- which is odd because the place doesn't have a full liquor license. In the Mission, Monk's Kettle is a small, bright space with upscale pub food and two dozen beers on tap. They have a combination of Belgian and other non-common beers, and the place seems always to be busy. Plan to get dinner if you want a table, or just pop in at lunchtime for a few pints (says the writer without a day job).

Cold Porter

Nice story about porters in the Chron today. Also, Celebrator Beer News is celebrating their 20th anniversary with a party on Sunday in Oakland.

SF Event: Strong Beer Month

February is Strong Beer Month once again, and both Magnolia and 21rst Amendment breweries will be putting a list of high-alcohol beers on their menu to help you celebrate. To kick off the party, brewers from both places (both nice guys) will be at the Toronado Thursday Jan 31 to say howdy. Stop by and have a high-octane beer.

SF Event: 80 beers

This Saturday in San Francisco a two-hour tasting event of 80 beers from around the world. The details are here. It sounds worth the money (if a bit short) at only 30 bucks, but the copy on the flier reads like it was translated from a third grade essay in another language:

This enjoyable event will be a Unique opportunity for you to discover New & Exotic beers while gauging stylistic differences against your own preferences. Serving the beers will be Beautiful servers/ambassadors dressed in Specially designed sexy costumes with an around the world theme making for a truly extraordinary experience.

Hopefully the event will be better than its description.

What's for breakfast?

Purely in the interest of alcademic research, I poured myself a tomato-based Michelada this morning. I did roughly equal parts beer and tomato juice, added lemon (because I was out of limes- how did this happen?) and Tabasco sauce. I realize this is hardly the same drink, but I figured it would put me in the ballpark. Well, I have to say the citrus and the hot sauce make the drink- just beer and tomato juice on its own is gross. I get the point of the drink- it's a beer Bloody Mary, light on alcohol with healthy juices- and I wouldn't mind having one from time to time. It's more of a typical morning drink than the tomato-less version, which to me seems lighter and more festive and tropical. A beach drink for days with and without sunshine. Anyway, I'm sorry that you're probably stuck in an office while I'm home enjoying a Michelada. If it helps, I enjoy the other version better.

Bud and Clam

Wow. Get ready for pre-mixed Budweiser and Clamato Cheladas. (Read the press release here.) It sounds absolutely crazy, but the Chelada stands for Michelada, which is a popular drink in Mexico. There are two schools of Micheladas. One is with beer, lime juice, and Tabasco/Worcestershire sauce with a salted rim. That's the one I've most often read about and had in several bars in California and even in Mexico. The other type is this one, a beer Bloody Mary. I've only read about it but obviously it's popular enough that they produced a pre-mixed product and already test-marketed it before launch. And apparently, it's already available in my closest Mexican grocery. I'd try it except I don't eat meat. Maybe I'll experiment with V8 juice instead.

Journey

In my Bay Guardian story that came out today I made reference to Gestalt Haus, the beer bar where they "put in a double-decker bike rack that lures fixie-riding Mission hipsters like a free Journey concert." Now that it's cool to sing along to Journey again the kids just can't stop believing. In a bit a great timing, I just got this press release tonight:

Healdsburg, CALIF. December 18, 2007 — Legendary rock band, Journey, and De La Montanya Winery have come together for the second year in a row to produce a limited edition wine. The De La Montanya family and the band Journey have elected to donate all proceeds to the Greater Bay Area Make-a-Wish foundation.

They're promoting wine for charity to their fellow Boomers but if Journey wanted to make more cash for kids they'd could just sell a couple songs to Schlitz.

Seasonal Beer

I got this announcement of the new seasonal ale for the Park Chalet in San Francisco. Frostbite Spice Ale When strong brown ale gets infused with Juniper Berries, Cardamom, Cinnamon, and Orange Peels you get pure, spicy, holiday excitement! 7.0% ABV That's making me pretty darn thirsty.

Give thanks for beer and turkey

By me, in Friday's SF Chronicle: A new Web site by the Brewers Association wants you to pass on the wine this Turkey Day and pop open a craft beer instead. BeerAndTurkey.org offers suggestions for beer pairings with a range of holiday meals, including roasted, smoked and Cajun-style turkey, ham, goose, salmon and lamb. They also pair beer with side dishes and seasonings, like amber ale with sage dishes and all-malt pilsner, dark lager or red ale to go with buttery mashed potatoes and creamed corn. The site also lists a few serving suggestions (large bottles for easy sharing, multiple glasses for multiple beers), but not all segments of the population will be served by the Web site: There are no pairing notes for Tofurky.

Wet hop beers

Cool article (not by me) in today's SF Chronicle about wet hop beers. Makes me thirsty.

Celebrating harvest is nothing new, but lately brewers have discovered a novel way to reconnect their beer to the land from which its ingredients grow: by adding freshly picked hops to the brew kettle, usually within 24 hours of harvesting. These beers are known as fresh hop beers, wet hop beers, harvest ales or "Lupulin Nouveau," in a nod to Beaujolais Nouveau wine and to lupulin, the sticky, fragrant yellow powder that clings to hop flowers.... When hops are picked, they contain 80 percent water but are slowly heated in kilns to reduce the moisture to one-tenth of the original moisture and then packed tightly into bales for storage and shipping. You can smell the beautiful hop aromas burning off during kilning that are simply lost in the process. With fresh hop beers, whole unkilned hops are used - another similarity to Beaujolais Nouveau, which uses whole clusters of grapes in fermentation. When brewing with the whole, fresh hop cones, subtle herbal, vegetal and earthy aromas and flavors are extracted that can't be produced any other way.

Magnolia Pub's Ten Year Anniversary

Magnolia Pub and Brewery in the Haight is celebrating their ten-year anniversary next week as they launch their annual Thunderpussy Barleywine for the holidays. They're doing a concert at the Great American Music Hall on Monday, and having themed food and beer all week at the pub. Here's the word on what's happening from owner Dave McLean:

The early part of the week is a nod to some of the things that influence us. Mon-Thurs are all 3-course menus (also available a la carte). Monday is an expansion of our ongoing New Orleans night, Tuesday a British gastropub theme, Wednesday the menu is Belgian-inspired, and Thursday is an extension of our fried chicken night with a southern theme. Then on Fri-Sun night we will be running the same 5-course tasting menu each night (not available a la carte, and the whole table must order), which will focus more on David's creativity and be an expression of what can done with the gastropub concept. We will feature our favorite local and sustainable producers throughout, of course. The actual anniversary is on 11/11 (sunday), so the Monday, 11/5 show at the Great American Music Hall is sort of the kickoff and then the week will progress with the menus and pairings and some beer releases like barrel-aged 10th anniversary ale and barrel-aged Belgian tripel and some vintage Old Thunderpussy Barleywine and Smokestack Lightning Imperial Stout. Plus whatever else we can find in the cellar.

A Toast to MJ this Sunday

The Beer Hunter website lists places to join in a toast to beer/whisky writer Michael Jackson and raise money for Parkinson's Disease this Sunday, September 30. In the SF Bay Area, you can join at the Bistro in Hayward, Rogue Ales Public House, and the Toronado.

Jackson memorial fundraiser/toast

Hey bar/restaurant/liquor store owners: this sounds like a good way to pay tribute to beer/whiskey writer Michael Jackson while raising some money to fight Parkinson's Disease. And if you're going to throw an event in the San Francisco Bay Area, let me know and I'll try to get you some press. (Pasted from On The House blog.)

Raise a Glass to Michael Jackson on September 30

If you stock at least one premium craft or imported beer in your inventory – and you know you really should by now – then you have Michael Jackson to thank for it. A true pioneer in the field of beer journalism, the British writer and author was instrumental in the development of the craft beer market, both in the United States and around the world, through his innumerable articles in publications like Esquire and Playboy and his multitude of beer books.

Sadly, Michael passed away at his home in London, England, on August 30, not long after he revealed to the world that he had been battling Parkinson Disease for a decade.

And so, on September 30, bar and restaurant owners across the United States and Canada are invited to help celebrate the great life and achievements of Michael Jackson by hosting a toast to his memory, and along the way raise some much-needed money for the battle against Parkinson Disease. The scheduled time for the toast is 9:00 pm EST, and the way you celebrate is entirely up to you.

Host a party and send a portion of the night’s takings to the National Parkinson Foundation. Contribute the revenue from a specially-designated “Michael’s Memory” keg. Or just pass the hat among your customers, staff and managers. But join in to make this a fitting tribute to the man who did more than anyone to promote the cause of good beer!

Details on how to participate and the official promotional poster are available at www.beerhunter.com. Go there now and add your operation’s name to the growing list of the establishments that will, for one very important night, join together to pay tribute to the memory of the one and only Beer Hunter, Michael Jackson!

Jeeves, Hand me the Royal Goggles

DEVASTATED Princess Diana told her hairdresser that husband Prince Charles "must be wearing BEER GOGGLES to have an affair with Camilla.

Naked hula dancing not distracting enough

Creative beer shoplifting attempt: One masked, but otherwise naked, man hula danced in a convenience store to create a distraction so that his buddy could steal a case of beer during the confusion. Unfortunately it didn't work. Perhaps they should have thought smaller. If I were a convenience store worker and someone offered to do a masked naked hula dance in exchange for a beer, I would have said yes. It would probably be the only thing interesting that happened all day.

Complicating things

I saw two similarly industrial-strength home drinking solutions today. The first is a carbonation system that uses a 20lb CO2 tank and makes enough seltzer for a year. The experimenter wanted to avoid using proprietary Soda Club CO2 tanks so he/she developed this system that only took ten minutes to put together after buying a ton of big parts on eBay. Clever, but kinda ugly. Not so ugly, but much bigger is a self-contained brewery that cost a mere $4,315 to build. Damn!

Goofy Beer

This article lists the Seven Beer Wonders of the World- all the recent goofy beer you've heard about- beer for your dog, pizza beer, bilk, etc.

Speakeasy's hootenanny

By me, in today's SF Chronicle:

Help celebrate Speakeasy Ales and Lagers' 10-year anniversary Saturday with a "rousing, riveting, and spine-tingling blowout hullabaloo" party at the Bayview brewery. The free admission event features live music by Brittany Shane, Crosstops and other bands, a barbecue, and of course, beer. They'll be debuting White Lightning Wheat Beer on tap, made with wheat, oats, orange peel and spices, that you can try in the 10-year commemorative tasting glass. The family-friendly (but 21 to drink) event runs from 2 to 7 p.m. at 1195 Evans Ave. (at Keith), San Francisco; (415) 642-3371.

Beer. In. Spaaaaace!

At Kelly’s Brew Pub in Albuquerque, you can buy beer made with yeast that has flown in space. I just thought you should know.

Bears Eat Beer-Filled Boozer

BEARS EAT DRUNK AT BEER FESTIVAL

Beer festival reveller dies after taking a short cut

By Mark Ellis

A DRUNK staggering home from a beer festival took a short cut through a zoo's bear cage - and was found half-eaten next day.

Amazingly, Branko Jovanovic, 22, was still alive when zoo staff discovered him - despite having a leg torn off and half his face chewed away.

But he died later on his way to hospital in Belgrade, Serbia, after keepers battled to prise him from the jaws of the Tibetan black bears.

Zoo director Vuk Bojovic said: "I will never forget what I saw. The bears had taken him to a corner to eat him, and torn off his leg and most of his face, but he was still alive.

"The bears were really aggressive - they obviously regarded him as food and fought to hang on to their meal. It took ages to get them away from him."

Ghoulish visitors have made the two bears - Masha and Misha - an overnight hit with double the usual number of people coming to see them.

Officials now plan to make it harder to get into the bear enclosure - even though the wall Jovanovic climbed was 18ft high.

And they also hit out at the beer festival organisers.

Bojovic said: "We had warned the organisers to stage it further away.

"We have had all sorts of problems from revellers although we did not think anyone would be stupid enough to enter the cage.

"The area where the beer festival takes place is up on a hill while the zoo is downhill, and the bears' cage has no roof so the drinkers were always throwing things in there.

"Keepers have found beer cans, mobile phones and even used condoms in the cage.

"We warned the organisers that they needed to control their guests better.

"We want it moved to a new location far from the zoo next year."

Taking the Times to Task

On Brookstone Beer Bulletin, Jay Brooks has a nice rant against the New York Times' recent piece, "For Beer Tastes, on Beer Budgets"called "Penny Wise and Pint Foolish," about how an article on where to find cheap, crappy beer is insulting to beer in a way the Times would never do for wine or cocktails.

The two-buck Chuck phenomenon aside, can you imagine stories in the New York Times about finding the cheapest wine or whisky when you’re out on the town? I can’t, and it seems to me this is just another of the countless insults beer endures. Why is beer the Rodney Dangerfield of alcoholic beverages? Why is it so acceptable for the media to take cheap shots (yes, pun intended) at beer without even realizing how insulting they’re being? I don’t think Seth Kugel, or indeed most of the rest of the beer-ignorant press, sets out maliciously to insult beer. They simply don’t know any better. And that may be the saddest fact of all. It might be downright funny if it weren’t for the fact that people read the Times as America’s “paper of record” and believe what is written in its pages. So while I believe the entire media has a duty to try to be accurate, the Times has an even higher standard to uphold.

I think he has a good point, but he also gets off his point in this second quoted paragraph. I don't believe there's anything untruthful or misleading or inherently wrong about the story the Times wrote- but it shouldn't have been printed in the Times. This isn't to say there isn't a place for round-up stories on where to get cheap wine, cocktails, or beer. These are domain of the alternative weeklies such as the Village Voice and websites like CitySearch. Once I wrote a story on how to get your daily nutritional requirements from eating nothing but hors d'oeuvres and garnish for the alt-weekly SF Bay Guardian. I'm not entirely sure I understand the hierarchy there- the free publications are welcome to write about high-end venues but not vice-versa- but it's definitely entrenched.

Brews News

Just some links to beer news today: Where to get cheap beer in New York. Rogue Ales is being exported to China. Scientist uses diffusing acoustic wave spectroscopy to study beer bubbles.

“A lot of effort has gone into figuring out how to get just the right concentration and size of bubbles, and how to produce the perfect head on a glass of beer,” he says. “There are people who work in that industry who know much, much more about that than I do. Could diffusing acoustic wave spectroscopy be useful to them? Maybe. But for me, beer is just a good example of the kind of thing you can do using this technique.”

Homework

Friday afternoon I stopped into the Alembic at the hour when the shift was changing between Josie and Daniel. This is a terrific time to be there. I had the Mellow Yellow, which is made with bourbon, limoncello, and black pepper- one of my favorite cocktail ingredients. Then Josie and I and some hangers-on headed to the Toronado for beers. It seems the Alembic expanded their boutique beer selection by a huge amount and Josie wanted to familiarize herself with the menu. I was only too glad to help her drink what she was drinking and give my valuable tasting notes such as, "It's like a wet lawn where there are elm tree leaves in a pile," and "you set a basket of under-ripe blueberries on stones to keep them off the dirt." Beer tasting is fun, especially with the strange pricey Belgian varieties we were drinking, but I don't enjoy the beer buzz as much as the "normal" liquor inebriation. So after we left Toronado, I drank a couple shots of whisky just to put myself right.

Beer Tasting

On the House has a nice piece up on How to Host a Kick-Ass Beer Tasting. It is all great advice, geared more towards event organizers than casual party hosters. But I think the advice translates well to wine, whisky, and other tasting events too.

The all-star edition

Today's SF Chronicle Wine section is doing a baseball theme for the all-star game. I contributed a quick item on flasks.

Sipping suds at the ballpark

Deceptive device? Sensible packing? You decide. Like a CamelBak worn backward, the Beerbelly (see photo) is a convenient and (optionally) incognito pouch that mimics the bloated paunch on the outside that you'll develop for real after drinking its contents. It might be equally useful for holding cold beer on hot days watching a baseball game as it is for carrying hot chocolate on chilly nights in the kayak outside the park waiting for home runs. $34.95 at thebeerbelly.com.

If you prefer to pad another area, but don't want to haul a seat cushion and three unwieldy cans of beer to the game, you can put the beer in the cushion and carry it all with one handle. The Sippin' Seat comes in five colors, and when you're not drinking out of it you can fill it with air for extra padding. $24.99 at www.cellphoneflasks.com/sippinseat.html.

-- Camper English

Booze News

I checked the booze news for the past week while I was traveling. It was a good week. Tennessee is set to become the first state in the nation to require carding of anyone, without exception, who buys beer for off-premises consumption. Now underage drinkers will have to resort to asking older people outside the store to buy them booze, just like they always have. A study shows that gastric bypass surgery turns formerly hefty people into alcoholic lightweights. The EU voted that legally-termed vodka can be made from things other than cereals and potatoes (such as grapes and maple sap) as long as its labeled accordingly on the bottle. But as far as I know, every vodka that isn't made from corn proudly labels the bottle as such anyway. A manufacturer invents a "cocktail condom" that you use to cover your drink while you leave it so that you can be sure nobody drops date-rape drugs in it while you're not looking. So it's kind of like the don't-drink-my-drink coaster, but with glue. Someone created a pizza-flavored beer. Great idea, combining things that are commonly consumed at the same time into one tasty treat. I always pour a half gallon of milk into my cereal box and keep it in the refrigerator for the month. It turns out that most organic certified beer isn't totally organic- most hops aren't, but you only need 95% of organic ingredients to be USDA certified. In the wake of the bad press, one hopes more hops will go orgo. Heineken launches a new skinny, taller can for its light beer- sort of like the Virginia Slims model of package design. But wait Heineken light? Does it taste like water, with extra-extra water flavor?

Biofuel Blows Your Drinking Budget

A short piece by me in today's SF Chronicle:

Biofuel blows drink budget

Cleaner-burning biofuels made from agricultural crops may be a more environmentally sound way to deliver energy than fossil fuels, but they may also drive up the price of your favorite adult beverage.

In news stories released last week, we learned of two examples where raw materials for drinkable alcohol are being replaced by crops to produce non-potable ethanol.

The Associated Press reports that in Germany, farmers are abandoning barley in favor of subsidized crops for biofuels. Thus barley prices have doubled in the past two years, and the increased cost of the raw materials is now being passed along to beer drinkers.

In Mexico, Reuters reports a similar phenomenon. A current glut in the agave market has inspired some growers to burn their fields and plant corn to meet U.S. demand for ethanol instead. While it doesn't appear that current Tequila prices have been raised, agave can take up to eight years to mature, so the next decade could see a shortage.

As if you needed another reason to stock up.

Beer causes crime!

Two stories today are making beer drinkers look bad:

Man Accused Of Breaking Into House To Steal Beer, Shirt

DENVER -- A man was charged Tuesday with breaking into a Denver home to drink beer from the refrigerator and to steal a clean shirt in the dryer, the district attorney's office said.

Poisoned beer 'just a mistake'

Husband stands by wife and her 'depression issues'

UNION TWP. - A man whose wife is charged with trying to poison his beer with cleaning fluid said Wednesday it's all just a misunderstanding and they will stay together.

Truesdell became ill after drinking a beer at his home in the 500 block of Lemaster Drive.

His wife admitted to police that she had slipped cleaning fluid into his drink, Gaviglia said.

But Jonathan Truesdell said his wife didn't mean to poison him.

"It's just something that happened," he said.

Wine vs. Beer

Great story on Slate.com today about the dominance of wine over beer in America. Must of it the author attributes to an easier and less class-based language about wine, along with the idyllic pastoral image of wine as opposed to the industrial image and mass-production of beer. He doesn't mention, and I don't have the numbers to back this up but pretty sure I've seen them, that the sales of microbrews are way up while the overall sales of beer are flat. He does point to an example of Bistro 8, an upscale beer produced by Budweiser that was a total flop- and implies that quality beer just doesn't sell to the American public. These two things seem contradictory. I think people just don't believe in quality beer from Budweiser and maybe the company should not have branded it as such. Maybe part of the problem isn't that beer is industrial and wine is agricultural, but that when you think of wine, all the brands seem small- even Gallo and Two-Buck Chuck. Beer, on the other hand, seems nearly monolithic: Your choices are Bud or Miller, a cheap variation thereof (Milwaukee's Best, Genesee Cream Ale), or a microbrew at twice the price. In comparison to beer, all wine seems snooty and hand-made and that's what's selling. Maybe beer companies, many of which own a lot of smaller brands, should put their marketing push towards those smaller brands and brews and the overall industry would benefit from connoisseurship of the consumers like wine. Because when it comes time to grab a 12-pack for the tailgate party, you're still going to buy Bud.

Line Tapping Scandal!

Wis. Bar Owner Gets Ticket for Tap

(05-24) 14:19 PDT Port Washington, Wis. (AP) --

A bar owner's attempt to avoid wasting leftover beer got him a sharp reprimand and a $172 ticket. Ray Wendt used a Miller Lite tap to serve Coors Light. He said he told customers they were drinking Colorado beer, not that from nearby Milwaukee.

"I didn't think nothing was tragic about it," Wendt said.

But police and state inspectors disagreed, fining him and sending him a letter that called the mislabeling "a major violation."

Wendt's American Legion bar normally serves Miller Lite.

But a wedding party asked for Coors Light for their reception earlier this month. Wendt ordered it, then found the tap handle he was given didn't fit his dispenser. He substituted a Miller Lite handle.

"It's not like I was pouring different liquor into a bottle," he said. "The Coors and Miller Lite cost the same."

The next morning, he served leftover Coors Light to his regulars.

"I said it was Coors Light, not Miller," he said. "I didn't lie to nobody."

He took a few days off and returned to work May 8, when two representatives from the state Department of Revenue and a Port Washington police officer conducted the annual inspection of his bar. They found the Miller Lite handle still connected to the Coors Light barrel.

State and city laws prohibit bar owners from dispensing beer from another brand's tap. The police officer ticketed Wendt, and the state sent him a warning.

Port Washington Police Chief Richard Thomas said Wendt has a well-run bar, but "the statute is pretty clear. You can't do this."

"It was an honest mistake," protested Wendt, who plans to fight the ticket.

Angel of the Morning

A couple of years ago, I wrote that the Michelada was going to be the hot new beverage of the summer. In reality, not so much. But increased chatter about the drink lately by the likes of Jordan Mackay and The Spirit World and others makes me think its got a chance. I make it like this:

Michelada Salt the rim of a pint glass. Fill with ice, add the juice of half a lime, a few dashes of Tabasco sauce, one dash of Worcestershire sauce, and fill with Mexican beer such as Tecate.

I wrote about the drink again recently as something that should be served at brunch. Beer and juice over ice means that it's extremely low in alcohol so you can drink them early and often, and when I have a six-pack laying around I tend to go through about half of it making Micheladas instead of just one. The reason I post this is to encourage people to try the drink at home and to request it at bars. It's a light and simple drink that deserves to be popular.

I have Stuff in Stuff

Run screaming to your local newsstand and pick up the June issue of Stuff Magazine. You'll know it because of the scantily clad woman on the cover. Rip out all the pages until 56, where you'll see the latest riveting piece of cocktail journalism by Camper English. Now, you won't see the name Camper English anywhere on the page because they're not about bylines (just tan lines), but that's me all right. The "article" is Yoga Pose, Drink, or Sex Position? Play along at home, but you'll have to buy the magazine (or, you know, discuss in the comments) to find the answers. Yoga Pose, Drink Name, or Sex Position?

1. Zombie
2. Corpse
3. Downward-Facing Dog
4. Suffering Bastard
5. Throat Swab
6. Mudslide
7. Thunderbolt
8. Reverse Cowgirl
9. Wheelbarrow
10. Sleeping Beauty
11. Warrior
12. Bulldog

What I like to do for fun, since I know all the answers (not that I do yoga- I looked it up) is try to imagine what the drink recipe would be if it had one of the sex or yoga names. (Maybe the Reverse Cowgirl would be a Coors Light followed by a shot of bourbon.) But you probably shouldn't play the game in the other direction unless you want to imagine a sex position called the Mudslide...

Non-Threatening Chatter

Are you a gay or just want to surf the internet like one? Then you should really join my groups on the website GLEE.com. It's a social networking site that's an acronym for Gays, Lesbians, and Everyone Else. I'm working with them to bring more people to the site and am in charge of the Cocktail Chatter and Wine, Beer, and Sake groups. So go sign up and say howdy (it's free, of course) and then not only will I look better to the boss-man, I won't be having conversations with myself on the bulletin boards anymore. I hate to be (typing about) drinking alone.

Another surge we don't want

Check this out: Guinness has released this new thing The Surger, which is an ultrasonic pulsing plate onto which you put a pint of Guinness so that it will create a foamy head just like real Guinness draft. Of course, to have this wonderful machine you need to buy it as part of a kit, and oh yeah the beer you use in it is different (in what way they don't say) from regular Guinness so you need to buy the special refills. Couldn't you get the same effect by pouring a can into the glass normally?

Beer Pong

As listed in today's Chronicle:

The Wrath of Pong

Saturday from noon to 4 p.m., Jillian's in San Francisco will host an "athletic drinking event" that will surely change the image of beer consumers as lazy frat boys standing around chugging brew out of big plastic cups. Instead, the brave warriors participating in the HeyLetsGo.com Beer Pong-A-Thon will stand around a table and throw pingpong balls into big plastic cups filled with beer, and then drink the beer. Four simultaneous games will be projected onto 50-foot flat-screen televisions, and winners get two tickets to Vegas to watch the World Series of Beer Pong -- which should add the necessary drama to the event. Given that the losing team drinks more than the winning one, the thrill of victory will be shared by all.

Jillian's, 101 Fourth St. (at Howard, inside the Metreon), San Francisco; (415) 369-6100. Spectators pay $15 at the door. To register, at $60 per team of two, go to www.heyletsgo.com/beerpong.

-- Camper English

Last minute event: Meet the brewers

NEXT MEET THE BREWERS: THURSDAY, 4/19 6-9 PM at THE CITY BEER STORE 1168 Folsom Street It's always nice to put faces to names, especially those that craft the beer you drink. Come down to The City Beer Store on 4/19 for the latest installment of this casual monthly series from the Guild. Raise a pint or two with local artisan brewers and learn more about San Francisco craft beer. http://www.sfbrewersguild.org

Beerbershop

The Chron has a story on a combo bar and barbershop that opened recently in SF. Though there are similar things in Portland, Oregon ("beer and a buzz special" that probably costs less than 20 bucks), this one is an upscale business that also sells men's accessories and charges a monthly membership of $65 that gets you one haircut and one trim per month. There is also free wi-fi and hi-def televisions. If you are interested in what kind of crowd it caters to, this quote has all you need to know.

"We didn't go to Stanford to own a barbershop," agreed Heywood. "We went to Stanford to learn about creating a brand."

Not that I'd drink it, but

CHOW.com has an article about how nonalcoholic beer and wine are made. Read it here.

How are nonalcoholic beer and wine made?

Put simply, you make alcoholic beer or wine, and then remove the alcohol. You do this by distilling the beverage, as if you were going to make liquor. But rather than save the booze and throw out the rest, you throw out the booze.

Beer and Bites

Beer & Bites

March 24th

1 Fort Mason

The San Francisco Brewers Guild, in association with Slow Food San Francisco, invites your to Beer & Bites, an exploration of beer brewed in San Francisco and paired with local, artisanal food. This event will focus on tasting and pairing a wide array of San Francisco-brewed beers with some of Northern California's best artisan food, including Fatted Calf Charcuterie, Hog Island Oysters, Acme Bread, and more. The event will benefit Slow Food San Francisco and help to support the School Garden Project at Sanchez Elementary School and other programs. Tickets are $50 for unlimited tasting and are available here.

Save the Date: SF International Beer Festival

April 28, 2007 is the 24th Annual San Francisco International Beer Festival at Fort Mason. $55 in advance gets you free beer and food. Brewers include: Anchor Brewing Company Anderson Valley Beach Chalet Bison Brewing Company Boston Beer/Samuel Adams Brasserie de Tahiti Brewery Brewery Ommegang Butte Creek Brewing Company Chimay Deschutes Brewery Devil's Canyon Duvel Eel River E.J. Phair Brewing El Toro Brewery Farmhouse Brewing Gordon Biersch Green Flash Brewing Half Moon Bay Brewing He'brew Hoffbrau Munchen Kona Brewing Lagunitas Brewing Magnolia Brewery Marin Brewing Moonlight Brewing Orgasmica Pizza Rafter's Grille and Brewery Redhook Brewing Rodenbach Rogue Brewing San Francisco Brewing Company Shipyard Brewing Company Sierra Nevada Brewery Spanish Peaks Brewing Spaten Speakeasy Ales and Lagers Thirsty Bear Trumer Braueri Twenty-First Amendment Warsteiner Widmer Brothers Brewing Wyder's Cider

Woot! Tacky device for gadget drunks

Woot.com's special of the day (Tuesday) is a pair of gadgets (Brew Master and Wine Master) for ten bucks that give you information and reviews of wine and beer. So ghetto. I so bought a set.

Cheesy Beer

Last night I went to the beer and cheese pairing at the Rogue Ales Public House in North Beach. The event was great, and a bargain for $30. We had 8 beers paired with cheeses (and in one case, chocolate). Most of them were not full pints, but that would have been way too much beer anyway. While some of the pairings were straightforward- pairing a soba ale with soba cheddar, or a beer with a cheese that was washed in that same beer, other combinations had bitter hoppy beers with strong, mild cheeses that worked together to take the edge off of either. Well done. Before each course, a brewer from Rogue and Sheena Davis from Epicurean Connection spoke about the beer and the cheese that we were about to try. Keep your eyes peeled for this event next year and other opportunities for beer and cheese pairings. Here's last night's menu, although there were two substitutions and I can't find my notes that say what those were.

Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale Rogue Creamery Soba Cheddar Bison Belgian Ale Bellwether Fromage Blanc Rogue Monk Madness Laura Chenel Chevre Moylan's Moylander Double IPA Bellwether Farms Carmody Lagunitas Censored Vella Italian Table Cheese Marin Brewing Company San Quentin¹s Breakout Stout Chocolate, Cherries and Almonds Rogue Mocha Porter Rogue Creamery Blue Rogue Chocolate Stout Rogue Creamery Chocolate Stout

Beer, Beer, Beer!

There are more Bay Area beer events in February than any other month it seems. Get out there and get your gut on. Strong Beer Month:

In February, Magnolia Pub and Brewery (1398 Haight St.; 415-864-7468) and 21st Amendment Brewery (563 Second St., 415-369-0900) in San Francisco team up to celebrate Strong Beer Month. Each venue will feature six house-brewed strong beers (ranging from about 8 to 10 percent alcohol by volume) on tap, including barley wines, double IPAs and imperial stouts. As an incentive to experiment, drinkers who sample all 12 brews and get a special punch card stamped by the end of the month will be rewarded with a commemorative glass. Additionally the venues will sell vintage strong brews from their cellars and offer beer and food pairings like barley wine with Colston Bassett Stilton cheese. To kick off the month, beer makers from both breweries will be bringing a couple of their kegs to the Toronado bar, 547 Haight St., on Wednesday. For more info, go to strongbeermonth.com.

The Toronado's Barleywine Festival Feb 17 - 24. Celebrator Beer Review's Beerapalooza 2007 includes the following:

February 10–18 - Beerapalooza, San Francisco Bay Area For information, see our Beerapalooza 2007 page here

February 10 - Hayward, California Double IPA festival at the Bistro. 510-886-8525

February 14 - San Francisco, California Beer and Cheese Tasting at Rogue Ales Public House. Phone 415-362-7880

February 16 - San Francisco, California Beer and Chocolate Dinner, Cathedral Hill Hotel. 415-776-8200, ext. 7785

February 18 - Berkeley, California CBN's 19th Anniv Party Brewer's Mardi-Gras at Trumer Brewery. More info here

Holiday Beers

Brewers plan for hoppy holidays Camper English, Special to The Chronicle Friday, December 8, 2006

With colder weather comes stronger and spicier beer, as brewers prepare to roll out holiday ales and winter warmers.

City Beer owner Craig Wathen, who sells a wide range of seasonal brews at his San Francisco store, says that in winter two styles of beer temporarily populate store shelves and bar taps: winter warmers and holiday ales. He says that both have higher alcohol content than brews produced for hot weather, but winter warmers are the darker and heartier of the two. Holiday ales are not usually quite as potent, but often contain added spices like cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. The spices can be added to the brew kettle if the whole batch will be flavored, or directly into the barrel if the brewer wants to spice a subset of beer.

"I think a holiday beer is more geared toward food and sharing it in a social circumstance. It's a little bit more creative. It's considered by most breweries to be their showcase beer of the year," says Wathen.

Click here to read the rest of my story on what local brewers are doing for holiday beers. I talked to every commercial brewer in San Francisco, but unfortunately two of them were cut out for space reasons. But that's why blogs are good- supplemental material. So here they are:

The Beach Chalet at the end of Golden Gate Park will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this December with an aptly named Ten Year Anniversary Ale according to head brewer Aron Deorsey. He said it should come in at around 10 percent ABV and describes it as a “Belgian-style strong pale ale with a medium body, deceptive alcohol warmth and subtle hop character.”

Deorsey will also release an as-yet-unnamed, unfiltered dark Belgian ale in the second week in December. That one will have raisin and plum flavors as by-products of the Belgian yeast used. Then closer to Christmas, he’ll make a spiced version of this same ale. He’ll brew a spice tea that includes fresh coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, and add it directly to a keg of the dark Belgian ale. It will be served directly from the keg.

San Francisco Brewing Company’s founder and brewmaster Allan Paul says he’ll serve his Christmas Cheer Ale in the North Beach brewery/restaurant again this year. He describes it as “an un-spiced but interesting dark ale along the lines of a porter beer, utilizing a variety of roasted malts and hops to give it a nice complex spiciness, but without the spice.”

Then for St. Stephen’s Day (December 26th) he’ll release their St. Stephen’s Bock, which is a rich, amber lager beer according to Paul. He calls it, “a rich, malty full-bodied brew without the bitterness of predominant hops.”

Will today be the best drinking day ever?

My agenda today: Lunch: Meet the distiller of Plymouth Gin for lunch at Slanted Door Afternoon: Christmas Ale taste-off with Fritz Maytag and gang at Anchor Brewery Evening: The Chronicle's Food & Wine holiday party at Michael Bauer's house I have a feeling this is going to be a good day.

Holiday Beer Events

My holiday beer article got pushed back until this Friday, but there are some events that happen before it so I'll publish them here:

• Tuesday, December 5. 21st Amendment’s Holiday Beer School. Sample five Belgian and five American holiday microbrews, paired with food from the kitchen. 563 Second Street. (415) 369-0900

• Wednesday, December 6th, 7PM: San Francisco Brewing Company’s 21st annual Christmas beer tasting. 155 Columbus Avenue. (415) 434-3344

• Saturday, December 9th, 12-3PM. Holiday beer tasting and judging with up to 14 beers. Pacific Coast Brewing Company, Oakland.

Pumpkin Ale at Magnolia

Here is my short thingy in today's SF Chronicle:

The Great Pumpkin Batch

Jealous of kids who get to dress up and gorge themselves on candy on Halloween? Forget about it over a treat they're not allowed.

At Magnolia Pub & Brewery in San Francisco, David McLean and his team have brewed up their seasonal Barking Pumpkin Ale to be tapped today and served until it runs out. They create the ale by mixing baked pumpkin seeds and slices of baked organic sugar pie pumpkins from Riverdog Farm in Guinda, into a barley mash. In the boiling process, they add spices reminiscent of pumpkin pie -- cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and allspice -- to the wort before fermentation. The ale is flavored with minimal hops to let the pumpkin shine through, and the chosen yeast lends a slight fruity aspect to the finished beer.

To best enjoy its nuances try the cask-conditioned version as opposed to the regular draft. The cask-conditioned ale is only available at Magnolia, but the draft is also on tap at McLean's new outpost the Alembic just up the street.

Magnolia Pub & Brewery, 1398 Haight St., (415) 864-7468. $4.50 for 20-ounce pint. The Alembic, 1725 Haight St., San Francisco, (415) 666-0822, $5 for 20-ounce pint.