Health Benefits of Organic Beer

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

As the world we live in becomes more and more toxic, eating (and drinking) organic is the most fundamental change towards health that we can effect in our daily lives. With new poisons in the air and the water every day, it only makes sense to cut down on the poisons in any way you can. For those of you new to the concept of Organic foods, it is food grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers. If it is food that contains many different ingredients, such as beer, then chemical additives and preservatives are also excluded from the product. Organic food and beer help your body to process that food and drink more efficiently - with less of these toxins involved, your liver functions more smoothly. A healthy liver is something that every beer fan should promote in their lifestyle. Although organic products cost a little more, the health benefit – and the taste – is well worth it.

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Cask Ales

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

As interest in ancient beers and brewing techniques is piqued, the world is seeing a proliferation of the technique of serving beer as a cask-conditioned ale. Cask-conditioned ale is also referred to as “Real Ale” in some circles, although there is a subtle difference between the drinks the two terms describe. Cask Ale is a very old and traditional technique for carbonation and serving of beer. Cask Ale is currently enjoying a revival due to the qualities it imbues on the beer that it produces.

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Guide to Drinking Songs

Monday, May 26th, 2008

Little goes better with drink than song. Especially songs that you can sing along to! Drinking songs exist the world over (many made up right on the spot), and enhance any get-together, whether folks are drinking or not. Well, it is probably better if folks are drinking. Some genres of music specialize in the drinking song. Genres such as Irish ballads, Cowboy music, Country music, Old-tyme, and even Klezmer all have a great selection of drinking songs. The best drinking songs for each occasion are the ones that are familiar to the majority of the crowd, or, are easy to pick up – so you must judge each crowd differently, whether you are playing the music on an instrument or on the stereo.

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Beer Book Review

Sunday, May 25th, 2008

With the rise in popularity of craft, micro, and home brewing, a slew of books have come out in recent years on these subjects. Some focus on cultural aspects of beer, some on nutritional aspects, and some focus on recipes. I will go over a few of the more popular titles on the shelf today, and relate them to my personal experience.

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The Brew Scholar

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
Brew Scholar Diploma

Brewing today is more of a science than ever. With advances in the specialty fields of micro-biotics and plant biology, this science is now receiving praise – and the degree programs – from the highest level of academia. The golden age of microbrews we are living in is giving more and more respect around the board to brewmasters, and has created a whole new field of academia – the brew scholar.

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A New Kind of Ale: Third Beer

Sunday, May 18th, 2008

Third beer is an intriguing and new kind of beer being brewed in Japan today. Third Beer is a category of beer, which uses vagarious malt substitutes such as vegetable protein as a raw ingredient in manufacture. These new beers are mostly a product of the Japanese beer tax, which increases dramatically with the amount of malt content in the ingredients. As a result, a whole slew of beers are flooding the market, some with less than 25% malt content. But is this Third beer any good?

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Dieting and Beer

Friday, May 9th, 2008

The first thing that a dieter needs to know about beer is: beer is food. It is not a beverage you can guzzle down and not feel the caloric content of. Darker beers are, naturally, higher in caloric content than lighter beers. So if you are trying to lose some weight, start by lightening your brews – and limiting them. Mixing dieting and beer drinking is simply a question of where you put your priorities. Suddenly, a hamburger and a pint aren’t going to mix anymore.

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Beer Trends in 2007: a summary

Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
Beer Trends

2007 has been an exciting time for beer. With a public increasingly interested in craft brewing, we have seen a greater variety and tendency towards experimentation from brewers. Even big brewers are now desperately trying to get a piece of the quality beer market. At a time when craft brewers are upgrading to micro-breweries, and some micro-breweries are selling so well that they can’t be called “micro” any more, the abundance these brewers are enjoying is sparking a creativity in brewing that is at an all-time high.

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Cooking with Beer Gaining Popularity Among Chefs

Monday, May 5th, 2008
Cooking With Beer

Cooking with wine is a commonly known culinary technique, but cooking with beer is rapidly overtaking this field. While cooking with beer is traditional in many countries – Ireland, Belgium, Germany – it has just started becoming popular in the U.S within the last generation. This is a likely result of the many new varieties and flavors of beer now available in this country. In this golden age of microbrews, where more and more innovative and flavorful beers are being made commercially available, it is easy to see that cooking with beer is a growing field of the culinary arts.

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The Color of Beer

Sunday, May 4th, 2008
The Color of Beer

The color of beer is a vital sign of the quality of the brew. As most of us know, Beer comes in a rainbow variety of earth tones, from the blackest brown to perfect amber to pale gold. It is the color of precisely controlled levels of malting, roasting, and infusion. For centuries, to keep beer clear and pristine, brewers have developed their own special admixtures which help keep their beer free of sediment. All this invention and experimentation has produced a technology that is not only inebriating, but also flavorful, exact, and beautiful to behold in light bright or dim. The color of beer is, for many, the first indication of what it may taste like.

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