BBC News had an article Thursday about beer in Belgium entitled “Belgian beer gets the travel bug.” The story begins with “For Belgians, beer is not merely a drink, but something of a national symbol.” Wouldn’t it be great if we could get to that point here?
Turning Water into Happoshu
In Japan it will cost you two to three times as much as it does in the rest of the world if you’re keen to drink a beer. That’s because the Japanese government in their infinite wisdom (why is it governments are all so dogmatically stupid in creating laws without thinking them through?) placed an onerous tax on any beer who’s weight of malt extract exceeds 67% of the fermentable ingredients. In fact, that is their definition of what beer — biiru in Japanese — is. This was done to protect the more traditional sake (or nihonshu) and, of course, it backfired.
Breweries did just what you’d expect them to do. They began making beers with less than 67% malt, using rice or other adjuncts. Suntory made the first one in 1994, called Hop’s Draft, and it contained 65% malted barley. Because it no longer fit the definition of beer, a new name was required and it has become known as happoshu, which means “sparkling alcohol.” Naturally the Japanese government saw what was happening but instead of reversing a foolish decision, changed the standard to 50%. Japanese brewers responded by lowering the malt even further so that today about 25% malt in happoshu is common. The lower malt produces more fusel alcohol that many argue leads to greater hangovers. By all accounts, it tastes awful but has been growing in popularity because it’s so much cheaper. One snarky account I read mentioned that happoshu tastes more like American beer.
Recently, around thirty students from Fuji Women’s University, a catholic school, worked with a local brewer, Yasuharu Osugi, from Nihon Ji Biiru Kobo, to develop a pink happoshu brew aimed specifically at women. In hopes of it appealing to females, they lowered the hop character and made it 4.5%, so it’s a bit weaker than most happoshu. The ingredients include a hoshinoyume, a local rice, along with the herb shiso, a pink-colored juice that gives the brew its distinctive hue. The label will feature a four-leaf clover and goes on sale today.
Students from Fuji Women’s University give their pink happoshu a taste test.
It being a catholic university, they chose the name “Cana Story,” after the place in the new testament story in which Jesus is supposed to have turned water into wine. Of course, it may be fitting. I’ve heard some credible theories that when the new testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek that they had no word for beer and thus translated the line to wine instead. Certainly beer being mostly water would make more sense, though makes it a bit less miraculous.
We Report. You Decide.
We report. You decide.
In the little town of Plaistow, New Hampshire, an elderly couple has been putting a nativity scene on their front lawn for over thirty years. The other night someone stole the plastic baby Jesus and replaced it with a can of Bud Select.
UPDATE 12.12: According to the Boson Globe, the plastic baby Jesus was returned this morning. No word on whether they took back the beer can.
Duvel Buys Achouffe
This is somewhat old news, it happened about two weeks ago. But it’s been a very busy couple of week and I’m a little behind. My wife and I are buying a new house and we’re moving December 20 and I’m trying to put the finishing touches on my second novel and my third successful NaNoWriMo last month. So please forgive the next few posts if you already know this news. I’m just trying to catch up.
So brewery Duvel Moortgat, which has been around since 1871, bought the Achouffe brewery, which was started by two brothers-in-law, Pierre Gobron and Chris Bauweraerts, as a hobby in 1982. Duvel the beer was born in 1923 though it’s original name was Victory Ale. Supposedly one of the brewery workers tasting it for the first time remarked. “Da’s nen echten duvel” which translates as “Damn, that’s a devil of a beer.” The name stuck and over eighty years later it’s a world class beer.
Achouffe, on the other hand, in their two decade run have also managed to create some of the most unique, tasty beers anywhere in the world. It should be a good arrangement for both of them.
The Achouffe brewery viewed from the nearby lake.
Bay Area Holiday Beers Chronicled by English
The Friday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle had a beer article about holiday beers by spririts writer Camper English, who I met at the Anchor Christmas party on Thursday. At least English’s article wasn’t an embarrasment like the Chronicle’s last beer article fiasco. He at least did a thorough job and there were no gaffes. I’d still like to see beer assignments go to beer writers wherever possible, but this does represent a leap forward for the perennially wine-obsessed newspaper. English is also the author of the book Party Like a Rockstar: Even When You’re Poor as Dirt.
CNN Money Looks at Colorado Beer
Fortune Small Business writer Christopher S. Stewart has an interesting piece on CNN Money entitled “Small Breweries, Big Beer.” In the article, he travels to Colorado for a visit with Great Divide Brewing in Denver, Oskar Blues in Lyons and finally Avery Brewing in Boulder. For the last two stops, Paul Gatza from the Brewers Association joined him. All in all, not a bad piece.
McFarland Nabs Second Writing Award
British writer Ben McFarland won the coveted “Beer Writer of the Year” award from the British Guild of Beer Writers for 2006. This is the second time he’s won this award, having also been given the honor in 2004. McFarland writes for various trade and national press in the UK, including the Publican, the Guardian and the Independent. Congratulations to Ben.
Here’s a fun piece he did for the Publican that includes a quiz to determine what kind of beer snob you are.
Braille Beer
Duesseldorf’s famous Uerige Obergärige Hausbrauerei, known more simply as Zum Uerige, makes one of the finest Altbiers in the world. And now they’re the first with another beer milestone.
Imagine if you couldn’t see the beer you were drinking. You’d have to take the word of whoever put the beer in front of you as to what it was. But now Uerige’s alt beer label will be printed in braille, allowing the blind to know exactly what bttle of beer they’ve got. In a short item by Ananova, Joanna Zimmer, an activist for the blind, was thrilled by the news. “For blind people every drink is actually a lucky dip. You often have no idea what’s about to go in your mouth. But with this bottle you are clearly told what it is — and that’s fabulous.”
As far as I know, this is the first beer for the blind. B. United imports several Uriege beers into the U.S. No word yet as to when or if the braille labels will be here in the United States.
Cooking with Beer
There’s a nice, short little article with some suggestions on cooking with beer this holiday season in today’s News Tribune from Tacoma, Washington. There’s nothing particularly new there, but it’s certainly nice to see the effort. Anything that helps spread the word of how well beer works with food is appreciated.
Costco Appeal Date Confirmed
I have now been able to confirm that the date for the Costco appeal has been moved up and will take place the week of March 5-9, 2007. I got a copy of Judges Edward Leavy and Richard R. Clifton’s order from the Washington State Liquor Control Board. The order is dated November 30 and appears to resolve several motions. Most of them are procedural, but the Appellant (Washington state and distributors) did move for partial dissmisal of the appeal, presumably a part of the original appeal they now feel they cannot win. Unfortunately the order doesn’t specify which. The biggest pieces of the order are the court denying Appellant’s motion for a stay pending appeal and the court expiditing the schedule for the appeal to be heard in March instead of waiting until May. Curiously, that change was on the court’s own motion, meaning neither side requested it. But it greatly changes the dynamics of the state legislature’s involvement.