Love Good Beer

What makes a beer good?

Saturday, December 13th, 2008 | Beer | No Comments

We plan to review beers on this blog periodically, which brings about the question, what makes a beer good?  I think the only true answer to that question is, do you enjoy drinking it?  It’s a simple as that, if you like a beer, then it is good.  Personally, I am often annoyed by overly detailed reviews of beer that elevate beer tasting to the levels of snobbery that wine enjoys.  Beyond a few key points, such as style, colour and key characteristics in taste, I find the most important element of a beer review is the verdict. Do you want to drink more of it and would you serve it to guests?  Even this question is dependent on the tastes of this reviewer, which means that review readers should be as careful when choosing their reviewer as when choosing their beer.

Reviewing things, like beer, that are subject to taste is hard.  That being said, I hope that we can provide readers with a sense of the story that goes along with each beer, in addition to our reviews of the beer itself, as an interesting aside.  I hope you enjoy what we have to say.  We welcome comments from all readers and would love to hear from you, whether you agree or disagree with what we have to say.  If there is any particular beer you would like us to review, please let us know.  We also welcome the excuse to buy more beer.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: Beer, good beer, Review, taste

Why we started a blog about loving beer

Thursday, December 11th, 2008 | Beer | No Comments

Chris, Erik and Dads at Swans in Victoria

Earlier this year in September Erik and I took a beer trip to Victoria, BC with our Dads.  We visited breweries and brewpubs and drank a lot of good beer.  It was one of the coolest things I have ever done, not because of the itinerary, but because I got to bond with my father, father-in-law, and brother-in-law and make some great memories (good stories coming in another post).  I love the taste of beer, but what I love most about beer is how it can bring people together.  The times that I drink beer, after soccer games with the team, Friday at five with coworkers, and on weekends with friends and family, are generally the most enjoyable times of my life.  Such is my passion for beer.

We started this blog because we love beer and we want to learn more about it.  I have Erik to thank for kicking my interest in beer up a notch.  Erik brews his own beer and is very dedicated to his craft.  Spending an entire weekend carefully monitoring a boiling mash and then suffering through the rigorous cleaning of his brewing equipment is his idea of fun.  I am already tired thinking about it; I think I need a beer.  I on the other hand, being the inquisitive engineering type, love learning about how beer is made, that and drinking it.

I love drinking the beer Erik makes. I once asked him why his beer tastes so much better than the typical liquor store varietals.  Turns out he uses high quality ingredients and puts a lot of care into it, which seemed quite obviously like a good way to go about brewing to me.  He told me that Anheuser-Busch brews Budweiser using a percentage of rice, which, if you know anything about beer, is blasphemy.  Quality beer is supposed to only contain water, barley, hops and yeast.  Rice is used because it is cheaper than barley, ferments more quickly, and imparts very little flavor, which basically translates to cheap, flavorless beer.  You may not have noticed, but Budweiser has started advertising that it is now brewed with six-row barley, letting it be known that they no longer use rice.  The funny thing here is that six-row barley is the less preferred (cheaper, less suited for beer making) kind of barley that craft brewers try to avoid (two-row barley is where it’s at).  King of beers my ass.  Hearing of this opened my eyes to the disparity that exists in beer and got me much more interested in drinking good beer.

I always knew that I loved drinking beer with my friends, but now I find myself really excited about beer in general, excited enough to start a blog.  My goal in starting this blog is to learn more about beer, find better beer to drink, and hopefully help the people who care to read this blog drink better beer too.  We plan to blog about:

• beer we drink
• places to drink beer
• making your own beer
• beer events
• beer recipes
• breweries we visit
• anything else beer related that pops up

If anyone has any suggestions for us, we’d love to hear about them.  Please comment on any of our posts or email us.  Also, don’t drink and drive; it totally sucks.  Also, please feel free to send us free beer.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: barley, bc, Beer, budweiser, craft, good beer, good times, love, rice, victoria