Love Good Beer

Drink like an Egyptian

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011 | Beer | 2 Comments

Did you know that beer was the first alcoholic drink ever discovered?  It was discovered in mesopotamia (by accident) way back in the day and was widely consumed by ancient Eyptians for both sustenance and good times. I learned about these things in an interesting book called A History of the World in Six Glasses, which also explains how the British became drug dealers in their quest for tea and how Coke used to be poison.  I recently visited Egypt, mostly to see the ancient stuff, and was disappointed to find that modern Egypt no longer considers beer an important drink.

Typical Egypt picture, proof I was there

Being a Muslim country, alcohol consumption in Egypt is generally only an option for foreigners and tourists via nicer hotels and restaurants.  Luckily, thanks to the British and their imperial greed, Egypt has a bit of a legacy when it comes to beer consumption.  I say luckily because there were times when I sure needed a beer.  Egypt is in rough shape as a country and is also largely economically dependant on tourism.  Due to recent events, the tourists have been staying away.  I felt like we were the only two tourists in Egypt not part of a tour group.  As such, we received the brunt of the local attention in the form of hassle.  I can’t really complain, having been blessed with western privilege, but I sure can say that a nice cold beer after a long, hot, hassle filled day sure hit the spot.

Egypt has a few staple beers, all lagers, that we found almost everywhere we went.  Stella, not Stella Artois, and Sakara Gold are two such beers, which are essentially Heineken rebranded.  There was also a brand called Sphinx, though my googling hasn’t let me know who makes it.  In any case, Egyptian beer can be summed up as boring macro lager, which in Egypt is the sweetest tasting nectar of the Gods.  When there’s no alcohol to be found in a hot and irritating Egypt, Heineken tastes ever so good.  Here are some picture of our Egypt beer experiences:

Sphinx beer and a sunset, not too shabby

If I find beer this relaxing, am I an alcoholic?

Stella relieved Rachel from the heat in Luxor

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: egypt, Heineken, history of the world in six glasses, sphinx, stella

Nice little weekend

Sunday, June 21st, 2009 | Beer, Breweries, Events | 2 Comments

Dave, Tristen, and I enjoying too many free cocktails at The Vancouver Club

This past weekend was a good one for my friends. On Friday, my friend Dave had a party to celebrate earning his Masters degree.  Master Simington lives in Chilliwack near Old Yale Brewing and treated his guests to a 19L keg of Old Yale Pale Ale.  Old Yale is not a very well known brewery in these parts, but is definitely one of my favorites.  It was cool to catch up with old friends and celebrate with a keg of tasty, affordable, local craft beer.

On Saturday, I attended Adam and Lesley’s wedding at the Vancouver Club.  I’d previously posted about the Vancouver Club, wondering what their beer selection might be like.  I guess Adam and Lesley read the post because they both asked me if I approved of the beer.  I didn’t really, but the wedding was awesome!  The venue, the food, and the company were all wonderful.  The Vancouver Club is a great place for a wedding, shoddy beer menu aside.  All the best to Adam and Lesley, thank you for inviting us to enjoy your special day!  We had planned to stop off at The Railway Club before the reception, but didn’t quite make it.  There was a cocktail hour before the reception featuring drinks and tasty food, and who am I to pass up graciously provided sustenance?  And if you were wondering, the beers available were Molson Canadian, Stella Artois, Heineken, and Becks, four generic lagers.

Also at the wedding on Saturday, I received the most surprising text message of my life to date.  As we were sitting down for dinner, Peter, of guest post fame, announced the birth of his first child, wooooo!  Baby Aaliyah Chandler arrived 18 days early, but healthy and with minimal fuss.  We visited the newly formed Chandler family this morning and can attest to the cuteness of said family, thanks in large part to the most recent addition.  To tie this event into beer, I’ve heard that stout is supposed to help in breast milk production.  This may or may not be true, but I’ve also heard that drinking stout is good times, so who really cares?  The Chandlers can expect some stout from me in the near future.

Congrats to my friends on their major life achievements!  If you are up for further celebration, I’m up for a few beers.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: becks, breast milk, chilliwack, cocktail hour, generic lager, Heineken, molson canadian, old yale brewing, old yale pale ale, stella artois, stout, the railway club, vancouver club

Protect your beer from the sun

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 | Beer | 1 Comment

Have you ever been outside on a hot day and craved a cold beer ever so badly?  I have and I can remember finding that first sip of ice cold Corona (with a lime) gloriously refreshing.  Have you ever noticed how that same Corona doesn’t taste nearly so good a few minutes later? Note: noticing this might depend on how many Coronas you’ve already had.  I’ve noticed, but I thought it had to do with the beer warming in the sun.  Turns out I was wrong, the sun hates beer.  It is an indisputable fact of science.  Okay, I made that up, but the sun can turn a beer “skunky” in a matter of minutes.  Scientists have noted that UV light interacts with certain hop byproducts found in beer.  When UV light hits these chemicals they breakdown into the very same chemical that humans revile in the scent of actual skunks.  Who knew?  Turns out these scientists did.

Apparently humans are super sensitive to this chemical and can detect less than a milligram in a swimming pool.  This is why you might find yourself enjoying your beer a little less if you’ve been out in the sun.  I’m writing about this because I found myself turning my nose up at a glass of delicious beer this past weekend.  I was really concerned there was something wrong with me until I recalled reading about the sun’s malicious intent in a recent issue of Beer Advocate.  I figured I’d best blog about this and spread the word.  This Summer, if you plan on drinking your favorite beer out of a clear glass or drinking Corona, Sleemans, Dead Frog, Heineken, or Stella Artois out of the bottle, shield your drinking vessel from the sun to preserve the taste.

Have you seen those Corona commercials where two people are sitting on a fabulous beach with their bottles of Corona?  They are advertising skunky beer and I find that funny.  If only you could taste ads, more people might be drinking quality BC microbrew, no lime required.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: Beer Advocate, corona, dead frog, Heineken, science, Skunky Beer, sleemans, stella artois, uv light

Beer in Greece

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries | 2 Comments

I’ve returned from our vacation in Greece and am now sufficiently recovered from jetlag to write a bit about the beer there.  While in Greece I learned that hobbies of Greek people include yelling at each other, smoking, and driving their vehicles wherever they might fit.  I also learned that Greeks drink macro lager.  Everywhere in Greece that sells beer, and there are a lot of places in Greece that sell beer, offers Amstel, Heineken, and Mythos in bottles and cans.  Literally everywhere, no matter where we were, we could count on picking up a 500ml bottle of one of these three for a euro or so.  We did encounter a few different varieties of lager for sale here and there, including Alfa (the other big Greek brand) and Lowenbrau, but always lager.  But as they say, when in Greece do as the Greeks do.  We did enjoy some of these brews (mostly because they were cheap) while sitting on patios or watching sunsets and we did find them refreshing in the Greek heat.  We also noticed that some establishments in Athens had Craft Lager on tap, Craft being the name of the brewery.

A cool Mythos at a taverna on a hot Athens day

We ventured to visit the aptly named Craft Microbrewery, the only microbrewery in Athens.  I expected great things of Craft based on the glowing Beer Advocate reviews of the place, but left a bit disappointed.  They certainly put the effort on presentation with shiny vats and tap handles glistening at their location, but we found their “pub” reminiscent of every other Athens cafe we’d visited.  They did not manage to put forth the homey brewpub atmosphere I’d hoped for.  I was impressed to be presented with a complimentary taster of their six brews upon arrival.  The beers themselves consisted of a lager, a pilsner, a dark lager, a red ale, a wheat beer, and a smoked lager.  I found all of the beers to be very light and hollow tasting, merely average, and was not particularly impressed.  Still, I am glad I visited the only microbrewery and brewpub in all of Greece.

Craft Microbrewery Athens

Tasters at Craft Microbrewery Athens

The bottle lineup at Craft

A pint of Craft's Athens Lager

As suspected, it turns out that Greece is not much of a beer country, some great wine though.  We did come across a few specialty bars and restaurants serving some interesting Belgian and German beers where I enjoyed a very expensive Paulaner Hefeweizen (could have had eight Mythos!).  Other than the odd case, it was just the big three everywhere.  I do have fond memories of enjoying Mythos or Amstel in some fine locations, but I think it may have had more to do with the locations.  The Greek islands were lovely, but the wife has already agreed to my beer tour of central Europe for our next trip!

Enjoying the Santorini Sunset with an Amstel

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: alfa, amstel, athens, craft microbrewery, greece, Heineken, lowenbrau, mythos, paulaner

Where’s the Greek Beer?

Saturday, April 18th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries | 5 Comments

The wife and I are heading to Greece in May and I am pretty excited about it.  We plan to start in Athens and then head to a few of the islands.  Naturally, I’ve been searching the intertubes for Greece’s best beer.  It turns out beer doesn’t have much of a presence in Greece, beyond the lagers of major international brands like Heineken and Amstel.  Greece is more of a wine country (I’ll manage), but they do have a few breweries on the side.  Mythos is one such brewery, although they do not fair to well on BeerAdvocate.  Searching for craft and microbrews I found only one establishment in the entire country, the aptly named Craft Microbrewery.  At least I won’t have to make any choices, right?  Actually, all the reviews I’ve read for Craft have been glowing, so we’ll definitely be stopping by when in Athens for our one beer related excursion.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: Add new tag, amstel, athens, craft microbrewery, greece, Heineken, mythos

The life of a beer bottle

Monday, February 2nd, 2009 | Beer | 1 Comment

North American Longneck Beer Bottle

In Canada, you’ll notice that most of the major breweries, and a good portion of the microbreweries, use the standard North American longneck beer bottle.  The reasons for the widespread use of this bottle are predominantly cost related, because, what most people don’t realize, is that these bottle are reused up to 20 times!  It’s weird when you consider the bottles you often drink from may have previously visited twenty other parties via twenty other people before you.  When I think of some of the parties I’ve been to, this fact creeps me out.  Still, this is a great example of the second R in action; environmentalists should drink more beer.

I visited Fort Garry Brewing in Winnipeg on a school trip during university.  While I don’t recommend visiting Winnipeg in January, it was a pretty cool brewery tour.  It was there that I got wise to beer bottle reusability.  Fort Garry would get a dump of bottles from the depot, filter out the usable ones (Corona, Heineken, Sleeman, and other distinctive bottles), wash them, and put them right back into production.  The whole process of purchase, consume, return, wash, refill, redistribute could take as little as a week to repeat itself.  To discern the age of your bottle, take a look at the widest parts of the bottle just below the neck and above the base.  You’ll see two lines where the bottles come in contact with the production line rollers.  The more worn the lines on the bottle, the older the bottle is.

Another common perception among beer drinkers is that bottles are superior to cans.  I do find that I enjoy drinking beer out of a bottle more than out of a can, but this has only to do with feel.  I’ve heard complaints of beer tasting metallic when consumed out of a can, but pouring into a glass easily solves this problem.  Cans are actually a better storage vessel for beer because they let no light through, plus they weigh less and are cheaper to ship.  Exposure to light can greatly affect beer quality, which is why a darker bottle makes a better brewing vessel than a light bottle.  Erik wrote a great post on the affect that light has on beer, because really, who wants a clear bottle anyway?

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: beer bottle, beer can, clear bottle, corona, fort garry, Heineken, north american longneck, reuse, sleeman

Who wants a clear bottle anyway?

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 | Breweries | 3 Comments

Fresh Hops

Sleeman Breweries, Canada’s third largest brewer, is suing Langley, BC based, Dead Frog Brewing over their use of a clear bottle. This brings me to the question, who wants a clear bottle anyway? Clear bottles, and green bottles, are not a good choice when it comes to bottling beer.  Believe it or not, many people assume that Heineken, packaged in green bottles, is supposed to taste “skunky”. Nothing we consume should taste “skunky”, especially not beer.

Like most food, beer is affected by light (UV exposure) and oxygen.  Any regular glass bottle will eliminate the oxygen problem, but not the light problem. The hops in beer are extremely sensitive to UV light, and when exposed to most light sources a compound from the hops will make the beer taste and smell like it lost a fight with a skunk. A proper beer bottle should be brown or opaque; a brown bottle will filter out most of the UV light that causes beer to go bad.

I understand that in order to sell more beer, marketers are coming up with new creative ways to package beer to make it look sexier. But rule number one of marketing is to make sure you have a good product to sell. Good products need less marketing support and sell themselves. Packing in a clear bottle is taking a good product and turning it into a bad product – why do that?

I hope that both brewers realize the error of their ways and switch to a more appropriate bottle.

Erik

Tags: Dead Frog Brewery, Heineken, hops, Skunky Beer, Sleeman Brewery