For something a little lighter than recent topics, here’s a funny video from The Onion, spoofing scientific studies about drinking, Americans Get Majority of Exercise While Drunk. It begins. “Over 75% of an average American’s exercise now comes from drunkenly dancing, stealing street signs, and carrying home passed-out friends.” It looks like embedding isn’t working, so go view at The Onion.
Next Session To Clear Up Wheat Beers
Our 45th Session will be hosted by Bruce Tichnor, who runs the Canadian BeerTaster.ca. He’s taking us back to our roots, to spend a cloudy afternoon with wheat beers, or has he describes it:
We wanted to get back closer to the roots of the Session and pick a topic which was simple and yet gives a wide range of interpretations so we chose, simply (or perhaps not so simply), Wheat Beers.
Feel free to take this topic in any direction you like, specific reviews, historical information, or any other twist you’d like to use. Wheat beers are a pretty wide topic and actually cover German style Weizen, Heffe Weizen, etc. along with Belgian style Witbier and even Flavoured Wheat beers.There are very few guidelines here, just have some fun drinking Wheat Beers in the fall instead of the summer.
So see if you can clear up the cloudy subject of wheat beers with your own post for the next Session, on Friday, November 5.
The Beer Vault
I’m not quite sure what to make of this gadget. It was created by a design firm in Australia, JonesChijoff, working with Edwin Koh and Iqbal Ameer for their Melbourne bar, Biero. It’s called a Beer Vault, and takes bottled beer and transfers it into a draft environment, cooled by glycol and kept under pressure to preserve it using carbon dioxide which they claim maintains its freshness as if it was still in the bottle. It was also designed so the bottle itself can be displayed just below a clear UV-protected tube that stores and dispenses the beer. (Thanks to Andrew M. for sending me the original link.)
And here’s the finished product, behind the bar at Biero bar.
The website at Biero has some additional information.
And there’s also a blueprint there, too.
The website anthill, where ideas and business meet, describes the project like this:
Be able to offer premium beer to punters in a way that hasn’t previously been done. Any beer is now available on tap! But not displayed in an industrial tin-can hidden away, but out ‘n’ proud, showcasing the varying hues of amber.
Syphoning the bottled beer into the BeerVaults and keeping it under the same pressure as was in the bottle before the lid was cracked. It is also chilled via a clear volume of liquid glycol surrounding the beer, which reticulates through a chiller. At JONESCHIJOFF we put simplicity above all else, and this was the simplest yet most effective solution.
Apparently it will keep the bottled beer fresh for about three days, meaning more people could theoretically buy a small amount of a rare beer, without having to open and potentially even waste a whole bottle. So maybe it’s a good idea? I guess time will tell.
And here’s a wider shot of the Biero bar.
Craft Beer’s 10 Commandments
Jim, the beer-half of the Beer & Whiskey Brothers blog with his brother Don, has a fun list they created; The Ten Commandments of Craft Beer. They’re not so much “commandments” in the sense that you’re being commanded, but it’s a pretty good list of things you can do to get the most out of enjoying craft beer. What would you add? Is there anything you disagree with?
Open Up With The 1973 Budweiser Malt Liquor Express
Check out this unintentionally hilarious video made for the Anheuser-Busch sales force and distributors in 1973, created to showcase how they were going to “open up” the market for malt liquor with Budweiser Malt Liquor.
Keeping The Bitter In Beer
My friend, John Harris, the brewmaster for Full Sail Brewing in Mt. Hood and Portland, Oregon, has some cool t-shirts he’s created. I think you’ll want one or more of them for yourself. He brought a few of his latest ones along with him when we judged together at GABF. I bought one on the spot and thought I’d share them.
The shirt is perfect for hop lovers with the legend “Keeping the Bitter in Beer” with the chemical formula for humulone, C21H30O5, one of the main bittering compounds.
And here’s what it looks like as a shirt. You can get your very own for $20 (shipping included) and you can order one online at Bonds That Please
His other shirt is the chemical formulas for both alcohol and caffeine, the “Bonds That Please.” It’s also $20 (shipping included) and can be purchased online at Bonds That Please.
GABF Media Panel
Saturday night at GABF, I was honored to be on a three-man panel talking about beer media, along with Daniel Bradford from All About Beer magazine, and Stan Hieronymus. We talked for about 40 minutes, although you can hear exactly how bad my voice was all week long, after losing it Wednesday night.
Daniel Bradford, Stan Hieronymus and me on stage at GABF. (Thanks to Julia Herz for taking the photo.)
We had about a half-full studio, more than I’d expected for a Saturday night session, and a high percentage of the audience was other media personalities. It was great fun, we could easily have talked all night.
If you can’t see the video embedded here, try viewing it on Justin.TV.
The Brewer’s Feud: 21A Vs. Iron Hill
One really fun event I attended during GABF this year, was the Brewer’s Feud, a beer-twisted version of the game show, the Family Feud, created by the Brewing Network. Instead of blood relatives, each side was made up of families of breweries. The first contest was east vs. west: 21st Amendment Brewery of San Francisco against the Iron Hill Brewpubs of Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It’s only about half an hour long, but great fun throughout. I won’t give away who wins, you’ll have to watch it to find out. Enjoy.
If you can’t see the video embedded here, try viewing it on Justin.TV.
Shaun O’Sullivan and Nico Freccia on stage for the Brewer’s Feud.
Toronado’s Dave Keene & Jennifer Smith Married Saturday At GABF
Toronado owner Dave Keene and his longtime girlfriend Jennifer Smith tied the knot during the afternoon session at the Great American Beer Festival on Saturday, September 18. The impromptu ceremony took place in front of the Russian River Brewery booth, with Vinnie Cilurzo as best man and Natalie Cilurzo as Jennifer’s maid of honor. Brett Joyce, president of Rogue Ales, officiated the ceremony, Brett being a minister in the Universal Life Church.
The wedding ceremony, with the bride on the left, the reverend Brett Joyce in the middle with the groom Dave Keene on the right, flanked by best man Vinnie Cilurzo.
The wedding came together organically and wasn’t planned. Apparently there had been another wedding at GABF and recently Marty and Lisa Jones renewed their vows in the hall, but as far as I know this is the first impromptu wedding at GABF. Once Dave and Jen made the decision, there was delay while we found where the best man and maid of honor were at. Eventually, Vinnie and Natalie were found behind the Brooklyn Brewery booth with Garrett Oliver. No one could hear in the hall, but inundated with people calling and texting, Natalie came over to find out what was going on. As soon as she realized what was happening, she sped back to grab Vinnie and Garrett so the ceremony could begin.
But the delay had a beneficial side, too. It allowed Gail Williams, from Beer by Bart, to run around the hall and find a suitable bouquet for the bride, a sprig of hops. It allowed Dave and a few of us to have a 5-minute bachelor party behind the booth. I had a Hopfather IPA. As people gathered to wait for the wedding to begin, it took on the look of something about to happen, and more and more people who knew the parties involved stopped to witness the event. Surrounded by dozens of people, perhaps as many as a hundred, Vinnie shut down his booth and the wedding ceremony began. I walked Jennifer down the aisle and gave her away, a great honor, and Brett began the vows.
After Brett declared them husband and wife, the newlyweds embraced for their first kiss as a married couple, as the crowd cheered them on.
The wedding party: Vinnie, Dave, Jennifer, Natalie, minister Brett Joyce and me. I think Garrett Oliver summed it up best, when he said. “I’ve been coming to GABF for nineteen years, and this is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Below is a slideshow of Dave & Jennifer’s wedding. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.
Beer Drinking In The Old Testament
Biblical Archeology Review has an interesting article in their September/October issue entitled Did the Ancient Israelites Drink Beer?. The author makes some of the same points I’ve often made — but with more authority — that because of mistranslations and bias, beer is mostly absent from the Bible despite the fact that it’s everywhere else in mankind’s early history. The article’s takeaway is a resounding yes, they did drink beer, and lots of it. Not surprising, but great to see that fact getting more scholarly attention.
