The beer can is 76 years old today, so drink a craft beer from a can in celebration. While you drink, check out our “beer can week” we did a few years back in honor of the beer can’s birthday, which still makes for good reading. Two more things to check out would be the number of beer can releases announced on beernews in the past year and for a full helping of reviews for craft beer found in cans checkout http://www.craftcans.com/.

Author: Dave
Categories: Beer News
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Continuing on with my Quick Notes of Interest from Amber Gold & Black (now referred to with the sexy acronym of Q.N.I.A.G.B) theme, the “Barrel Aging of Beer is Not a New Thing for American Brewers” post:

In Newark, New Jersey, P. Ballantine & Sons’ brewery… also brewed a Burton ale, with an abv of 10 or 11 per cent. In its last incarnation in the mid-twentieth century, Ballantine’s Burton Ale was aged for up to twenty years in oak vats before bottling and not sold to the public, but given to valued customers every autumn” (48).

Martyn Cornell, (2010). Amber Gold & Black: The History of Britain’s Great Beers. Gloucestershire: The History Press.

Twenty years! In oak vats! From the third largest American brewer! (Oh, how the big guys have changed.) I certainly was not aware of this info.

Author: Dave
Categories: Beer News
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As I mentioned in my review of Thornbridge Jaipur, I am currently reading Martyn Cornell’s “Amber Gold & Black: The History of Britain’s Great Beers”. I’m enjoying the book greatly and would recommend it to any one interested in brewing history (specifically British brewing history, though other area’s are also discussed). Anyway, I thought I would do a few quick posts on information, mentioned in the book, that I found fascinating.

First, the obligatory “They Certainly Drank a lot Back Then” (because every history of beer mentions how much beer people used to drink):

… six to eight pints of ale a day, every day, for every adult member of the household was the norm right through to the seventeenth century. Henry VIII, who had two personal brewers, one making ale and one the new hopped drink, beer, ran a household at Hampton Court in the 1530s and 1540s which consumed 600,000 gallons of ale and beer a year, more than 13,000 pints a day. …; higher ranks received more, so that dukes were to get three gallons a day (shared, presumably, with others), disbursed at breakfast, lunch and supper” (128).

Martyn Cornell, (2010). Amber Gold & Black: The History of Britain’s Great Beers. Gloucestershire: The History Press.

Author: Dave
Categories: Beer News
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The story of a recently resurrected 2,550 year old ale recipe of Celtic origin seems to be making the rounds. It has been posted about elsewhere but I read the ScienceNews version (via Wired). Interesting info, and some craft brewer (*cough*DFH*cough*) will probably take on the challenge of brewing it.

Three qualms with the article however. First, it would be a recipe for an ale not a beer. Second the sentence “Beer buffs today would regard Celtic beer as a strange brew not only for its flavor but because it would have been cloudy, contained yeasty sediment and been imbibed at room temperature….” Considering a “buff” is defined as a “fan: an ardent follower and admirer” how could one not have had a cloudy, yeasty, room temperature (or close to it) brew? I mean when was the last time I (you) had a hefe (or insert bottle fermented beer here)? Lastly was the mention of “extreme brewers”. Oh, the Brothers Alström must be so proud for their marketing phrase to have reached a scientific article.

Minus those three minor issues, the article is a good, quick read; interesting news for the brewing world; and yes, I would give the ale a shot.

Author: Dave
Categories: Beer News
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With Reuter’s writing the sensationalist headline regarding the days of the British pint being numbered, me posting about Pete Brown’s video blog, and me in the midst of reading Martyn Cornell’s “Amber Gold & Black: The History of Britain’s Great Beers”, British beers have certainly been on my mind recently.  So I thought, “what better time then now to review a British made beer?”  With that, I picked up a Thornbridge Jaipur, I got out my imperial pint glass, and I got to drinking.

The beer poured a huge frothy white head with excellent retention and a ton of life, so much so the head nearly cascaded over the glass’ rim. There were lots of tiny excited bubbles throughout the beer’s hazy golden hued body. Lemony hop aroma intertwined with pale malt and a touch of yeast greeted my nose. The beer had a surprising mouthfeel. I was expecting something a little watery, but the beer had a bit of heft to it that allowed the beer to make its presence known. With a smooth carbonation, the beer moved effortlessly through the mouth. Mid tongue the beer was sweet malt centric with some floral hop flavors. The lemon hops, noticed in the beer’s nose, came out at the finish, which provided a nice counterbalance to the earlier malt profile. Bitter, dry and slightly metallic were other aspects of the beer’s completion.

Certainly nothing wrong with this beer, and it fulfilled my British beer craving.

Author: Dave
Categories: Beer Reviews, India Pale Ale, Thornbridge
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