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Author: Dylan M. Blackthorne

Beer and Oysters: Sea foods and Their Malty Counterparts

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Beer and Oysters go great together.  Beer is commonly served with seafood of all sorts.  The key to enjoying your seafood dinner is finding just the right beer to enjoy with it.   From fish and chips to sushi to raw or fried oysters, complimentary flavors can be found.  The culinary joys of beer and seafood are celebrated in festivals, such as Richmond, Virginia’s "River City Beer & Seafood Festival"; recipes, such as Oysters boiled in beer, beer-battered fish; and cultural traditions from seaside villages all over the world.

Beer And OystersMany kinds of beer work well with oysters.  Porter, Stout, IPA.  Strong flavors work well to cleanse the palate in between bites so that the fishiness of the oysters is not overwhelming.  A good, clean break in between bites is highly desirable.  In regions where beer choice is limited, beer is still preferable to non-alcoholic drinks.  For raw sea foods, a hard liquor is helpful for keeping any rouge bacteria in check.  Tequila and Sake shots especially, although please don’t mix.

If you are talking about grilled fish, grilled salmon, mussels, prawns, your best bet for a complimentary beer is a dark beer.  Porter, Schwarzbier, Stout, all go well in this setting.  I recommend the black lager especially for enjoying beer and oysters a hot or warm day.

Lighter beers have their place, too.  Certainly for broiled or boiled fish, shrimp, mussels, a pale ale, a pilsner, or even wheat beer can be quite complimentary.  Bitters and IPAs can also help break down the oily taste of deep fried sea foods (very popular).  A good idea to wash down a plate of fish and chips.  This would be my choice for raw, shucked oysters, especially when I am enjoying them on the gulf coast of Vera Cruz in Mexico.  I always like to stop for raw oysters when traveling in that region.

One place where you can sample all of this and mix and match is Richmond, Virginia’s River City Beer & Seafood Festival in June.  Over 40 varieties of beer show up among vendors, brewers, and chefs at this festival annually to celebrate the union of microbrew and seafood.  Music is provided by the festival, and samples are provided for a festival fee.  For $25, you can buy a festival sample mug to enjoy unlimited samples from the brew selection.

Another festival honoring this tradition is the Confluence Wine, Beer, Seafood & Music festival in Oregon state’s Douglas County on the Oregon Coast.  Admission is only $7 at the door or $5 in advance. Confluence means "the flowing together of two rivers or more rivers."  The festival is held at just such an intersection, at Gardiner, Oregon, just two miles north of Reedsport.  A confluence is also "a coming or flowing together, meeting, or gathering at one point."  The perfect name for an event which gathers so many different aspects together under one banner.

Brewers in the land down under have found a way to express their love of beer and seafood. From Australia comes a unique beer designed specifically to enhance the flavors of seafood.  According to Blue Bottle Beer’s website:

"…[we’ve joined] American hops with German yeast, Australian barley and fused it with the cleanest water. We then added our unique ‘zesty finish’.  Bluebottle Beer ® is a seductive blend of lifted aromatics, bitterness, and a citrus sting to enhance the flavors of the sea."

This would seem to go well with broiled, boiled, or BBQ’ed fish and seafood.  The zesty citrus sting they allude to gives me the idea that some Belgian ales would also enhance a seafood meal. 

Recently, when I went to eat at San Antonio’s Water St. Oyster Bar, I encountered the particular mix of Chimay with some Arcadian style cooking, and I must say I was quite pleased!  The especially spicy styles of cooking coming from the Louisiana area need a powerful beer to balance them best.

Custom Kegerator Design

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When designing and building a homemade kegerator, there are many ways you can make your kegerator uniquely your own. In addition to simple additions like varying tap configurations and tap handles, custom skins are available, and some folks have even gone do far as to build their kegerators into their R.V.s to ensure no lack of beer on vacation! Recently, some inventive brewers have taken to installing LED lights into their custom kegerators. If you are developing a home theme bar, a custom kegerator design can greatly enhance your bar’s atmosphere. You will want to think not only about looks, but also about what kind of beers you want to serve through your kegerator, and equip your device accordingly.

One aspect of custom kegerator design is the right choice of beer faucets. For example, equipping your kegerator to handle stout ales will require the installation of a new faucet shank with a stout-specific beer shank. The stout beer faucet connects to standard beer shanks, so at least that part of your installation will be the same as for regular beer faucets. These stout shanks pour at a slower rate to allow the stout to develop it’s head properly without gaining too much carbonation. Long-nosed “European” style beer faucets can also help – especially if you are having troubles with over-foamy beer.

Custom tap handles always help you to identify which beer is flowing through which tap. By having a large selection of handles, you can be sure to have the right handle for any occasion. There is no real difference in the function of the beer faucet tap handle unless you are short on overhead space.

The only custom kegerators I have seen that have space issues regarding tap handles are the sidewall mounted R.V. kegerators. These kegerators bring all that you need to your outdoor vacation, and enhance the value of your R.V. as well. Outdoor systems look to be built into already existing outside panels. Systems are on the market for either indoor or outdoor serving, and run off of the R.V.’s standard twelve volt power source. Building your own R.V. kegerator install is a bit of a daunting task, so I recommend seeking professionals if you are worried about damaging your R.V.

If you have confidence in your abilities, you may be able to accomplish this. The inside tap seems far easier that the outside tap configuration, but I suppose this depends on whether your R.V. has a convenient panel location for an outside tap. Keeping your keg cold and keeping it from over-foaming seem like the biggest challenges for a road-trip style kegerator. Really, I see no reason why building a kegerator out of your R.V. fridge would be much more difficult that building a non – R.V. kegerator. Most R.V. refrigeration units are not large enough to be well suited for making kegerators, due to their small size, but if your is big enough, the most important part of this operation would be locating the coolant lines in the refrigeration unit and also checking that power or gas lines are not in the way. A non-refrigerated draft system is be easier – it would require keeping your keg on ice, and probably insulated as well.

New innovations in custom kegerator design are always on the horizon. Keep your mind open and the new ideas flowing like the beer they represent – custom kegerator design is on the rise, and a growing market.

Imported Beers Taste Better In a Can?

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One of the great joys of the golden age of microbrews in which we live is the availability of beers from around the world. In most major cities in the U.S., you can find nearly any kind of beer. Many brands are imported from Germany, France, the U.K., Belgium, Japan, even Africa. If you can’t find it imported, the chances are that you can find an American made version of it. I will list some of my favorite imports here.

It is hard to stomach, but let me be the first to say: Newcastle in a can is better. I have always disdained canned beers ever since I started home brewing. Glass preserves the flavor, I used to say. Well it turns out that the clear glass bottles that Newcastle comes in don’t preserve the flavor as much as the opaque aluminum can. This is entirely understandable: sunlight is well known as a degrader of hop character in beer. This is why most ales of Newcastle’s quality are served in brown bottles. When Newcastle is drunk form the can, however, I must say that the taste improves. I can sense the light hop character I never before had in the beer, and it just seems fresher. Well, at least now I know: it isn’t always the container, but more what they put in it!

Of Guinness, it is always heard: much better in Ireland. There are many potential reasons for this, and I do believe it to be true, but if you live in the states, what can you do? It makes sense that Guinness at the brewery is made the same, whether in Ireland or the United States. It is my belief that from every moment after the keg of Guinness leaves the brewery here in the states, or is hauled off of the boat, it is at risk. This is partly because the beer is extremely sensitive to temperature changes. If it is not kept cool throughout transportation, it will undergo changes. If the tap system at the bar has hoses that are the wrong length, the carbonation will change. And the most obvious difference is that seemingly 99% of barkeeps in this country do not know how to properly pour a pint of Guinness! All the rest might as well be left up to chance, but it is high time that uninformed barkeeps in this country learned how to do it right. For those of you who have not been to Ireland, this is how you do it: First, pour roughly 2/3 of the pint full, at a slight angle of the cup. You then let this settle. It usually takes about 45 seconds for the initial pour to settle. Then you top it off and hand it to the patron. If you want to get fancy, you can make a leaf or such design in the foam on top, like they do with lattes. This method of pouring is the proper way, and allows the perfect degree of carbonation and proper head. If you are hazy on any of this, you should plan on going to Ireland to see how it’s really done. I recommend flying into Cork.

From Scotland, we have a true treat: in the ancient tradition of Heather Ale, Fraoch! This is a hop-less, or Gruit-style ale that is a little expensive, but well worth it! This craft ale is made in Scotland by Williams Brewing Company, and represents an elusive tradition of brewing that goes back 2,000+ years. The beer itself is a malty and rich amber with unusual bouquet. The beer is infused with both Heather and Sweet Gale, and imparts a lively inebriation to the imbiber. If you are a beer fan, you must drink this ale before you die! If you are a home brewer, try making some just to keep a 2,000 year old brewing tradition alive. The Fraoch website has some great reading materials on the history of heather ale viewable at: http://www.fraoch.com/history.htm

As delightful as it has been, I must now be off to dream further dreams of ales imported from the land of Morpheus. Until next time, drink it in good health!

Guide to Texas Beers

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Texas Beers

Texas has a long history in beer – both drinking and brewing. In addition to the long-standing Spoetzl Brewery (the makers of Shiner beers), and the ubiquitous (if watered down) Lone Star, new micro-brews are taking the state by storm. With solid traditional and inventive ales, newcomers like Saint Arnold and Real Ale Brewing Company are challenging the old hands to do better than what they’ve done. This battle seems to be playing out to the benefit of Texas beer fans.

The great history of Texas beer starts with the building of the massive Lone Star Brewery in San Antonio in 1884. Adolphus Busch, of Anheuser-Busch, started the enterprise along with some local San Antoners and created the first large mechanized brewery in Texas. But Lone Star beer came much later (1940), and the brewery first pumped out bottles of Sabinas and Champions.

While San Antonio was busy brewing for the local populace, a group of brewers in Shiner, Texas had big plans. This group started one of the most enduring breweries in the nation, Spoetzl Brewery. The brewery first started operations in 1909, and changed hands in 1914 with the coming of immigrant Kosmos Spoetzl. Spoetzl had studied for three years the art of brewing in Bavaria, and served out his journeyman-ship in Cairo, Egypt, making beer for the Pyramid brewery there. Making his traditional family recipe, Spoetzl garnered a following, and then prohibition hit. The brewery somehow managed to survive by selling ice and “near beer”, and weathered the storm from 1919 until 1935. Although prohibition was hardly enforced in Texas during this time, due to fierce controversy, it affected large breweries greatly, and Spoetzl was able to avoid much trouble by dealing strictly with locals in a 70 mile radius and selling his near beer. The Shiner website points out that Spoetzl was very forgetful, though, and sometimes would forget to remove the alcohol from his beers. Tsk, tsk.

Starting in 1994, Houston’s Saint Arnold Brewery opened their doors, and is widely acknowledged as Texas’ oldest craft brewery. Named after the patron saint of brewing, St. Arnold is a brewery that has always had a mind towards the utmost quality. With a hard working staff of only seventeen people, St. Arnold still pumps out ten varieties of beer every year – five varieties continuously, and five seasonally. Even though they’ve been in business for over 13 years, St. Arnold’s maintains it’s dedication to serving their local beer drinking community.

Other micro-breweries started popping up throughout Texas around this time. As early as 1993 in Austin, Texas, the Waterloo Brewpub began selling it’s beers in half-gallon growlers, fighting against laws that inhibited microbrewery operations. Sadly, this brewpub is now closed due to rent increases, depriving Austin of it’s first micro-brew-pub.

In 1996, the Real Ale brewing company opened up in Blanco, Texas, not too far from Austin in the hill country. Although Real Ale is not, by international standards, “Real Ale”, by U.S. beer standards, who can hold it against them? According to the U.K.’s CAMpaign for Real Ale, Real Ale can only be used when describing beer that is "brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide". Although the Real Ale Brewing Company uses the finest ingredients, it certainly cannot be held to CAMRA’s standards.

Possibly as a response to these breweries and others, such as 512 Brewing, Live Oak, Independence, and Rahr & Sons, all micro or craft breweries, Shiner has recently produced a small batch craft brew to celebrate 96 years of brewing. A little known style of beer called Martzen, the Shiner 96 is much stronger than most offering from the company, weighing in at 5.8%.  Traditionally Martzen, which is German for March, is a beer brewed in march and enjoyed during the autumn months. According to the Shiner website, this ale was drunk at the royal Bavarian wedding ceremony that started the Oktoberfest celebrations.

It is good to see larger breweries getting back to their roots, and embracing the folk lore that is rightly their heritage. This seems to be a growing trend in brewing: brewers highlighting the social context and history of the beer they brew. Beers that get too big seem to lose their character – both taste-wise and lore-wise. Shiner is doing a good job of maintaining both. They just needed a little prodding from the (little guys) competition.

Beers of the World

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Beer has circled the globe more than a few times. One of the great treats a beer fan can enjoy is sampling the great variety of flavors that the beers of the world provide. In the U.S., beer fans have had the great pleasure of being served the beers of the world right here in our own country. Thanks to the rising popularity of fine ales, many of the beers traditional to Belgium, Germany, and the Nederlands are even being made by micro-breweries in the states. In the world of beer, there are still many as of yet unexplored brews from unexpected corners of the world. Here I will discuss a sampling of unique beers from 5 different countries: Africa (Palm beer), Brazil (Manioc), Tibet (Chang), and Scotland (Heather ale), all of which are described in Stephen Harrod Buhner’s book Sacred and Healing Herbal Beers.

Beer tends to be defined, in common parlance, as an alcoholic beverage made with hops, barley, yeast, and water. When talking about beers of the world, we must be ready to broaden our definition of the word beer to encompass that which is at hand. Grains of different types are used, from wheat to millet, rice, and even corn. In some place in the world, barley and hops are not available or simply do not grow there – and so, people make do with what they have.

For example, as we learn from Buhner in his book Sacred and Healing Herbal Beers, in Brazil, one native beer is known as Masato, or Manioc Beer. This beer has been made for approximately the last 4,000 years from a root called Manioc, which is also used to make tapioca. The Manioc root grows quickly, and attains a weight of up to 30 pounds within just a few months. It is used for food as well as to make the Masato. Traditionally, the root is chopped, boiled, and the starch to sugar conversion is catalyzed with human saliva. The women of the tribe chew the root pieces and then put them back in the boiling pot. Wild yeast is allowed into the wort to start the fermentation process. The Manioc plant is deeply ingrained into the cultures of the people who make it still, with it’s own mythology. You can read more about Manioc in Buhner’s book.

Another beer of the world made with unconventional ingredients (at least to the western world’s beer fan) is Palm beer. According to Buhner, palm beer is made with the unrefined sap from a variety of palm trees: date palms, coconut trees, moriche, sago, and palmyra being the most common. For many indigenous peoples throughout Africa, South America, and even India, Palm beer is an important part of life that transcends the physical world. Thus, it is often shared with the ancestors and used to help communicate with their spirits.

Getting back to more familiar ingredients, we shall look at Tibet. There, a brew called Chang is made mostly from Barley. Millet and buckwheat are used in some cases when barley is unavailable. What really makes this brew different from others, as we learn from Buhner, is the use of ginger-root-based yeast cakes for both the starch to sugar conversion and to start fermentation. Yeast cakes are made by crushing dried ginger root and mixing it with rice or barley flour. The mixture is then moistened and formed into cakes that are added to the boiled barley, rice, or millet that are being used to make the drink.

Heather Ale is an interesting beer of the western tradition that encompasses the herb heather as an admixture. The making of heather ale goes back to the culture of the indigenous Pictish tribes of the British Isles. In addition to numerous literary and folkloric assertations about the history of heather ale and mead, Buhner sites, in his book, an archeological dig on the Scottish Isle of Rhum. This dig discovered a pottery shard dating 2,000 years B.C. with “traces of a fermented beverage containing heather.” Heather ale has recently become commercially available in the U.S. as Fraolich ale, brewed in ???.

These five beers are just the tip of the iceberg. There are innumerable beers in the world, some still hidden away in remote corners, making the world of beer a very interesting place. New varieties of herbal beer are popping up among beer fans on the U.S. as well as inventive new micro-brews containing herbal admixtures, re-creations of ancient recipes, and brand new ideas in brewing. Keep your eyes open for the next invigorating (and inebriating) discoveries among the beers of the world.

Holy Beer; Brewed for God: Spiritualism Surrounding Sacred Beers

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Grains used in fermentation the world ‘round have always been associated with being holy. In many cultures, the freedom from the rational mind that comes by drinking is seen as a way to become more open to spiritualism and the spiritual world. In the western world, during medieval times, it was thought that ale must be blessed by the priest in order that the miracle of fermentation could begin. Even today, there are monasteries whose main focus is brewing holy beer to sell and benefit the church. But, as always, for some, the beer brings them closer to their god, and for others, it brings them closer to their own demons.

Sacred grains such as barley, millet, rice, and even corn, have been well-respected for their ability to give the gift of inebriation to humans throughout history. Indigenous cultures have developed many different traditions surrounding the act of fermentation. One Viking tradition was to yell and scream at the wort in order to make the spirit within it angry, and therefore more potent. Other cultures sing around the beer to ensure the connection between the spirit of the plant(s) involved and the people. Some monasteries use a “blessed spoon” to stir the wort and excite fermentation, and other cultures have used rune carved oak staves which are dipped in the wort.

Everyone loosens up a little after having a drink. In many cultures, this loosening up has spiritual connotations. As noted in Stephen Buhner’s book Sacred and Healing Herbal Beers, the fermented sap of the palm is considered to help people’s spirits to detach from the material world.

Most beer fans have heard of the beer brewing monks, but they are, in actuality, an uncommon variety. While being famous for brewing, the Trappist monks actually have only seven brewing monasteries out of 171. It is estimated that by the year 1,000 as many as 500 monasteries were brewing in the western world. The reasons behind the church sanctioned brews were many – according to trappistbeer.net, the beer was made to provide healthy drinks for the monks, and attract new followers.

Around this time, it was common practice for brewers to seek out a priest to bless their brew with the power of god. In exchange for this service, the priest was allowed to drink the beer for free at the local pub. Eventually, this became a blessing from which a tax was collected by the church. Finally, the priests wound up giving their blessing “from afar”, and the church still collected the tax. Needless to say, it wasn’t long before brewers started thinking ill of this “hands-off” blessing technique, and this process halted during the 18th century, along with other church reforms.

With the coming of the industrial revolution, and the French revolution, many of the monasteries stopped selling their beer to the public. It became difficult for the low-tech monks that were left to make any kind of profit using their old world craft brewing techniques. Many monasteries still made beer for their own population, and kept the recipes alive through the difficult time that followed.

After two world wars, three, really, counting the cold war, and numerous competitive knock-offs falsely claiming to be monastic brews, the holy beer still kept flowing. Today, there are seven beers recognized by the International Trappist organization: Achel, Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle, Westvleteren, and Tilburg (La Trappe). These are the officially recognized Trappist ales available today.

Holy men and women, monks, nuns, alchemists, and shamans still pursue the holy beer through ancient rituals and subtle manipulations the world over. Some seek out new plants to learn new brews from, and some recreate ancient recipes from their own culture or from that of others. Given the trials and tribulations the Trappists managed to brew through, I am sure that Holy beer will always be a part of human existence.

Gluten-Free Beer

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For many potential beer fans, gluten intolerance has stopped them from ever quaffing brews made with barley. Those times are now over. Gluten-free beers are popping up all over the country, giving those with Celiac Disease (intestinal damage due to gluten intolerance) a new opportunity to drink with impunity. Not to mention that traditionally, beers from around the world have been made with alternative ingredients, some glutinous and some not. Thee is even a gluten-free beer festival held in Chesterfield, England. Here we will discuss some alternatives to using barley malt in beer, and some substitutes that are possible.

Over two million people in the United States have been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. This represents a large market of potential beer drinkers who otherwise have few alternatives. Many health conscious people are also found in this category of non-gluten imbibers. Gluten is a protein found in such grains as barley, wheat, rye, spelt, and oats. As far as beer brewing is concerned, barley is a huge concern if one is interested in making a gluten free beer. Oats and rye can be a problem as well, depending on what flavor of beer you are planning to make.

Some common substitutes for barley are millet, sorghum, rice, corn, and soybean. The good news is that substitutions are possible. The bad news is that many of them do not taste very much like the stuff made with barley.

Many beers in Japan are now being made with soy or pea protein along with hops and sugar to produce a product known as “third beer”. This technology is fairly recent, but sales are booming in Japan. With a few more years of experimentation, these bold new brewing techniques may be perfected to provide a great new gluten free beer like product.

Traditionally speaking, in Tibet, Nepal, and the surrounding areas, beer made with millet or rice has been a staple drink for many years. This drink, called Chang or Chung can be made at home and features the use of ginger and rice flour yeast cakes to promote starch to sugar conversion as well as fermentation. For more information about making your own Chang, read Stephen Harrod Buhner’s book Sacred and Healing Herbal Beers.

One beer manufacturer that is ahead of the game as far as gluten free beers go is Green’s. Their gluten-free beers are made using Sorghum, Millet, Buckwheat and Brown Rice, and contain no allergens. Their beers boast a high nutritional value as well, with 2x-3x the Zinc and Selenium content of Barley, an increased Calcium content, and rich in B vitamins. Their beers include the Quest (trippel bock), Mission (amber), and Pathfinder (dark) ales, lending a huge variety to a specialty market.

Credit to the first craft beer made with sorghum is claimed by Bard’s Tale Beer with their flagship brew called “Dragon’s Gold”. This beer has made a fine impression and weighs in at 3.8%- 4.7%%, with a hoppy, floral aroma, and, of course, no glutens. The Bard’s Tale brewing company has made a commitment to producing gluten free beer for all, and is an example that other brewers will hopefully follow.

The market for gluten free beer has grown considerably in Japan, while regular beer sales are slumping. With new varieties of gluten and malt free beer emerging in the U.S., this could possibly turn into a burgeoning market.

Health Benefits of Organic Beer

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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.

It all started with “health food”. A trend started in the 1960’s to really look closely at how our food was made. People started to discover that most of the food at the grocery store was either sprayed with poisonous pesticides or jam packed full of weird preservatives and chemicals. The Health food store quickly became an important part of the daily routine of eating healthy. Foods found there were local, fresh, or made in a way that was “closer to nature”. As far as beer is concerned, it was the health food stores that first started to carry microbrews, and especially organic beers.

It is true that organic products cost more, and organic beer is no exception. The question is, what price are you willing to pay for food that has never been sprayed with poisons and other chemicals? There is probably no better way to spend your money than on the quality of the food you eat and the beer you drink. Buying organic supports farmers and brewers that have a commitment to making the world a better place – and not poisoning the earth or you. If you consider the grand scale of large scale commercial farming operations in this country, we are lucky that the organic food markets aren’t more expensive.

A fundamental mindset change must take place to enter organic eating into your diet. You must realize that you don’t want to die young, you want to be healthy your entire life, and you are committed to enhancing your quality of life. Organic foods are more flavorful and some studies show that organic foods carry significantly higher levels of vitamins and nutrients. Make no mistake, beer is food. The Soil Association Scotland has shown that organic produce contains between 10 and 15 per cent more phenolics (compound that may fight cancer) than non organic. In addition to being grown pesticide and chemical free, organic products also lack the preservatives and additives that many non-organic products have.

I have been a home brewer for many years, and the change to organic, for me, was an easy one. I made the change to brewing organic beer before I started eating organic. Consistently, I found that organic beers tasted much better than non-organic ones, and that the quality of water used to make the beer was also a very important factor. Luckily for me, some friends in a nearby town told me of an organic home brew supply shop where everything was organic! I quickly became friends with the collective members there and, with access to a large variety of organic malt, extract, and hops, I was well on my way towards organic brewing. The Seven Bridges Cooperative brew store has a healthy mail order business, and you can check them out and place orders for organic brewing ingredients online at www.breworganic.com.

We are lucky that we live in this golden age of micro brews, where local and even organic beer is available across the nation. Microbrew organic beer can be found at Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and, of course you local health food co-op or small business. As always, drink it in good health.

Cask Ales

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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.

A quick summary of Cask Ale conditioning: it is a process that affects the final stage of beer production. Cask ale is un-pasteurized, un-filtered, and carbonated with the natural action of the yeast that is used in the fermentation of the ale, and without the aid of artificial carbonation or nitrogenation. Some cask ales are served with the natural yeast included, and in others the yeast has been filtered out. If the yeast has been filtered, it cannot be called a “real ale”. The concept of “Real Ale” is promoted by an association called the CAMpaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), based in the United Kingdom. According to the CAMRA’s definition, Real Ale is: "beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide". One method that brewers and barkeeps have discovered to keep cask ale fresh-looking and clear is to add “finings” to the cask. Home brewers will be familiar with the term “Irish moss” – this is a “fining”, an addition to the beer which causes free-floating sediment to fall to the bottom of the beer. Sometimes, cask ale is served at room temperature, but it is mostly available at cellar temperature (50 or 55 degrees) in most pubs.

Barkeeps doctoring the beer you say? One historical note about Cask Ale is that it is easy for barkeeps to do just that. In older times, barkeeps would add additional hops, finings, or even illicit herbs to doctor the beer. Some unscrupulous bar owners would take ale that was going bad and water down good ale with it and put it on sale, and others would add wormwood to the concoction to make the ale seem stronger.

Many fans of Cask Ale site their beers more subtle fizz as a main selling point. The lesser degree of carbonation, they claim, allows the more subtle flavors of their beer to be enjoyed. Guinness, the famous stout, imitates this more subtle cask ale carbonation, although by the means of different technology.

The degree of carbonation in Cask Ale is actually controlled via a device called a “soft spile”. Once the cask reaches the brew pub, the barkeep hammers this soft spile into the corked hole in the keg known as the shive. By judging the flow of foam through the soft spile, the barkeep eventually takes out the soft spile and replaces it with a hard spile, which allows no more seepage. Once this process is complete, the Cask is ready to be served, via a gravity feed.

Cask ale is becoming more and more popular in the United States, where it is still uncommon to find. The New York Times reported that one beer distributor, Union Beer Distributors, has had their accounts more than triple for cask ale sales in 2007. UBD is the leading cask ale distributor for the New York metropolitan area, and a strong indicator that cask ale is a fast growing trend, at least in New York City. Let us keep in mind that New York City sets trends internationally. Keep your eye out for cask ales at your local brew pub, you may be pleasantly surprised by this taste of the past.

Guide to Drinking Songs

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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.

The biggest variety of drinking songs and the most well-known come from the Irish and the Irish-Americans. From many types of beer to whiskey, grog, to Poteen (Irish moonshine), this genre covers a lot of the different drinks out there. Any one interested in drinking songs should pick up the album Irish Drinking Songs – a split album with Clancy Brothers and the Dubliners. It contains many of the Irish ballads that are the best known, such as Finnegan’s Wake, All for me Grog, the Jug of Punch, Whiskey You’re the Devil, and, of course, Whiskey in the Jar. I learned many songs from these recordings, and I recommend this album as a good listen, and as a good starting point for those musicians interested in building a repertoire of drinking songs. Most of the songs are 3 or 4 chords, making the easy to learn, and are traditional songs (no copyright issues). These songs are all popular examples of the tradition of the Irish drinking song, and there are many more of equal rousing quality, although lesser known, as I discovered on my travels through Ireland.

Here is a drinking song I learned from my friend Sean, whom I met in the town Ennis in County Claire. This song is a fine example of an Irish drinking song, sung at a medium-fast pace a cappella or with accompaniment. It is a song about Puchin, which is Irish moonshine:

The Hills of Connemara (traditional)

Gather up the pots and the old tin cans
the mash, the corn, the barley and the bran
run like the devil from the excise man
Keep the smoke from rising, Barney!

Turn to the left, and turn to the right
the tall, tall men are out tonight
Drinkin’ up the tay in the broad daylight
In the hills of Connemara!

Gather up the pots and the old tin cans….

A gallon for the butcher, a quart for Tom
A bottle for the poor old father John
to help his poor old soul along
in the hills of Connemara!

Stand your ground, it is too late
the tall tall men are at the gate
Glory be to paddy, but they’re drinking it, Nate
In the hills of Connemara!

Gather up the pots and the old tin cans….

From the realm of Irish music, we see some crossover into the genres of Bluegrass and Old-Tyme Music. Songs such as Whiskey for Breakfast, and Rye Whiskey are examples of drinking songs from these genres, both with and without words. With tunes like these under your belt, you can liven up almost any party. You may not recognize Rye Whiskey by it’s name, but it is a very common tune, and only one of a few songs that share similar lyrics:

Rye Whiskey, Rye Whiskey, Rye Whiskey I cry, If I don’t have Rye whiskey I surely shall die!

You might hear this verse in a different musical circle, played with the same melody:

Oh moonshine, oh moonshine, how I love thee, you killed my old father, but, ah, you try me!

This particular song also enters the genre of Cowboy music. By “Cowboy music”, I mean old trail songs – the songs actually sung by cowboys back when driving cattle across the wide-open range. These songs differ from country music because they are songs of the people, of the workers. Cowboy songs are a mixture of folk songs and early country, but lack the fundamental principles of popular music which are an essential part of country music. Which isn’t to say that country music doesn’t have its fair share of drinking songs – it certainly does.

If a country song isn’t about being broken hearted, or even if it is, it is probably about drinking. Early country music greats Jimmie Rogers, Hank Williams, and Ernest Tubb all have a good selection of drinking songs, a tradition which has extended to nearly every country music musician since. Some modern names in country music to look out for are Lucky Tubb, and Hank Williams III.

One genre that contains drinking songs that is often over looked is that of Klezmer, a folk music which comes from the Jews of Eastern Europe. Jewish culture has no problem with drinking. Especially on certain Holy Days, one is expected to drink as part of the ceremony. The song “L’chaim”, from Fiddler on the Roof, isn’t the only Klezmer drinking song. There are quite a few songs from the Chassidic culture and Shabbes tunes as well. One well known tune is called Ma Yofus, or "Der Rabi hot geheisen freilich sein" (Avrom Goldfaden copyright 1912), which translates from the Yiddish into “the Rabbi has been drinking liquor instead of wine”.

This quick overview of drinking songs from different genres of music barely skims the surface of the variety and flavor of the world of drinking songs. Visit your local library and search online to find many more of these interesting tunes, fun to learn and to simply enjoy hearing. Cheers!