Beer Review- He'Brew Brewing Bittersweet Lenny R.I.P.A

Beer Review - Berkshire Brewing Berkshire Ale

Beer Review - Harpoon Octoberfest

How to Pour a Beer

Damn if I know how to pour a beer. If you Google it you will find videos showing you how to tip the glass to pour. Then you will find videos showing the straight down pouring method. Both claim to release flavor and aromas. Both claim to release the carbonation leading to the proper head on the beer. Both claim to be the 1 true religion of pouring. So here is my simple solution, open the beer pour it in the glass and drink it. Beer is about fun. Beer is about good friends. Pour it then drink it and you will have correctly poured a beer!

PS: If you watch the videos I have poured both ways.

Redesign

Playing around with the blog templates. I am having issues integrating Word Press and Facebook so I might stay with blogger.

Beer Review Brooklyn Brewery Oktoberfest

Beer Review- Shipyard Brewing Pumpkinhead Ale

Beer Review - Grittys Halloween Ale

SAB Miller buys Fosters

http://soc.li/40KMwLL

This is not a good news. I was hugely disappointed in the Grolsch that I tried recently which is brewed by SAB Miller.

Beer Review-Smutty Nose Homonculus

An Alarming Trend

I was looking up Magic Hat when I came upon this piece of disturbing news. Magic hat was bought by North American Breweries in 2010. Ok, I thought what is this North American Breweries. I checked them out and they own Genesee Brewing, Dundee Brewing, Pyramid, Magic Hat, and MacTarnahan's. This is a trend that alarms me. If you go back to the 60's and 70's which was the great wasteland of American beer there were 2 things that ruined our beer. First was consolidation as a country we were down to only handful of breweries left and those few left were being dominated by the giant national breweries. The second trend was the cheapening of ingredients in the name of profits. Rice and corn in beer are cheaper than barley malt but they also have less flavor. I can't tell if this a local phenomena or a national trend but for our taste buds I hope we don't return to the 70's.

PS: Genesee became Dad's choice when 'Gansett became too expensive.

Beer Review - Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter

Beer Review - Grolsch Premium Lager

Beer Review - Magic Hat HI P A

Beer Review - Stoudt's Gold Lager

Magic Number 300

Drumroll please the 300th beer was Magic Hat Ourtoberfest!

297 Beers and Counting

As many of you know the reviews and the Blog come from my list of all the beers I have tried. Mrs. Amazing and I are our way this afternoon to the Beer Fest at the Holyoke Canoe Club. I will break the 300 mark this afternoon and then some. I love my job! 'Gansett most likely was the first beer I ever tasted. It was the beer that Dad drank and my first was a sip of Dad's beer. This is a picture of the can I remember we would have opened with a can opener no flip tops back then.

Beer Review - Sam Adams Octoberfest

Beer Review - Thomas Hooker Blonde Ale

Favorite Beer

One thing I get asked all the time is what is your favorite beer or what is the best beer. Now you would think this would be an easy question to answer. The easy answer for me would be Sam Adams Boston Lager other than in a brew pub this is most likely the beer I would order when out. The tougher answer is I am not really sure, one I am on a journey of discovery (so much beer so little time) two I am never drinking the same beer twice. Though check out my Naughty Nurse review that was a very pleasant surprise. I have been pondering this post for several weeks as a follow up to the only 2 beers I never finished. Falstaff was far from the best beer I have ever tasted but it some respects it was my favorite. In high school and college I worked summers building boat trailers. From 8 to 5 every day we worked assembling trailers. It was hot sweaty dirty work. At 5 we hopped into our cars and headed to a local lounge. The lounge had 20 oz mugs chilled and the draft beer was Falstaff. Now these mugs were over chilled the beer would actually have ice floating on the top. I know that beer that cold loses flavor but nothing ever went down better than that ice cold Falstaff on a 90 degree work day. Some days you would drain the whole mug in one sip. I swear you would see steam coming off us as we drank that beer. That my friends was my favorite beer.

Beer Review - Otter Creek Otter Summer

Beer Recommendation

A friend recommended that I try the Halloween Ale! Looks like I am on a mission.

Beer Review Otter Creek Black IPA

Beer and Friends

I will be heading out after work to meet friends from high school. We will be gathering at a local chain restaurant 1 town from where we all graduated. When we used to do this back in the day it would have been Bud and Schlitz. Today there is a fine array of flavorful beers including Sam Adams, Long Trail and Blue Moon on tap. Beer has always been in taverns and inns. One of life's simple pleasures is to enjoy good friends while enjoying a good beer.

Cheers!

Beer Review - Dogfish Head My Antonia

Beer Review - Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

Beer Review -Anchhor Brewing Brekle's Brown

Anchor Steam Beer

Anchor Brewing Company is a legend among the beer cognoscenti. If you go back to the middle 70's most of the smaller regional breweries were going out of business. We were left mostly with the national giants Miller, Budweiser and Schlitz with their pale watered down excuse for a beer. I have to admit I drank a lot of Miller back then and enjoyed it. The major brewing revolution that created the fantastic flavorful beers of today was still in the future. Anchor was formed in 1896 by Ernst Baruth and Otto Schinkel Jr. The reason it is called steam beer is lost to the mists of time however by 1896 Steam Beer was the term for most west coast beers. Anchor stumbled along in one form or another for the next 70 years including doing what no one knows during prohibition. In 1965 the brewery was set to close again when the hero of the story Fritz Maytag appeared on the scene. Fritz enjoyed drinking Anchor Steam at the Old Spaghetti Factory in San Francisco. When owner of the Spaghetti Factory mentioned to Fritz to go see the brewery before it closed he rushed down there and soon bought 51% of the operation. It took Fritz 10 years to turn the old girl around but Fritz and Anchor were pioneers in what is now known as micro brewing. I have been to San Francisco and had bottled Anchor Steam. Now out of the blue I have found Anchor Steam on draft in Western Mass. It is not a big bold beer like many of the new creations . Anchor Steam is a nice amber rich but smooth drinking beer slight hop flavor and nice head. 6 caps is my top rating but I had 8 of them last night so you know I kept on drinking this beer.

If you are a beer fan you have to drink an Anchor Steam at least once in your life as Anchor Steam is one of the bedrocks of our modern beer drinking experience.

Drink more Beer

I am on the way to a wedding of a friend's daughter last night. Mrs Amazing and I are talking about how the camera really does add 10 lbs. She turns to me and says "You are going to keep drinking beer for the reviews". I think to myself I really love this woman!

The Big Weekend Needs Big Beers!

This is the beginning of the labor day weekend. Don’t tell the boss but I did sneak out early for a wedding tonight at which I will be have a brew or two. Both of these bottles are specialty brews one from Dogfish Head and the other from Anchor Steam. They are 22oz bottles and I am planning on trying both of them this weekend. I will be a happy beer drinking man. Look for the reviews later in the weekend. Till then I will be uncapping some cold ones!!!