Monthly Archives: January 2011

Remind: A new beer show on tonight

How Beer Saved the World is on tonight. It is on the Kind-of-Sort-Of Craft Beer Liking Channel, errr the Discovery Channel tonight at 8:00 PM EST.  You can see the trainer on the video below. I’m looking forward to watching it and seeing how they are going to connect not living in a cave to beer.

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I love the craft beer is becoming more mainstream but I do worry that misinformation is going to cause problems. There have been several books that cover the topic of this program and most of them seem to over-estimate the changes that beer has caused. It does make for great bar talk though.

Beer Review #82 2010 Christmas Ale

Every year Anchor Brewing Company out of San Francisco, California puts out a Christmas Ale. They have done it every year since 1975 and each year they use a different recipe. Very cool of a brewery of their size to do something special each year. I reviewed their summer ale a few months ago, let’s see how their Christmas Ale measures up.

2010 Christmas Ale pours a deep, dark ruby color with a solid tan head. The nose is very complex and brings up feelings of the holiday season. I’m reviewing this beer a month after Christmas, and I was transported to the thoughts of Christmas trees (which still needs to make its way to the dump) and lights. The aromas are very earthy and herbal. Anchor’s beer had a bit of berry in the mix. I  got a bit of mint in there, but there so much happening that I’m not sure if that is the exact smell I was getting. There is also some slight sweetness in there as well. I actually got a slight tingle on my nose when smelling this beer. No idea where that came from.

The taste doesn’t have a ton upfront but some really nice roasty flavors kick in about halfway through. The herbal flavors from the smell are in there as well. The mouthfeel is creamy and wonderful. 2010 Christmas Ale comes in 5.5% ABV so it is a beer that you could have a couple of. I really dig this beer. It is complex and tasty. I could drink this all winter long and it is an excellent example of a winter style beer. Grab this one while you can! Continue reading →

Beer Review #81 Shiner Holiday Cheer

I made my first post about Shiner almost two years ago to the day. Shiner is one of the big Texas beers and at the time I was getting ready to move to Texas. Since that time, I’ve lived in Texas, and come back east and now live in Delaware. Surprisingly I can get this beer in Delaware. Shiner is brewed by the Spoetzl Brewery out of Shiner, Texas. On my last post about Shiner beer Lee from I Love Beer suggested that I try their Holiday Cheer. So I did.

Shiner Holiday Cheer pours a burnt amber color with a light tan head that quick fades back into the ale. It pours crystal clear as well. The nose is pretty interesting. The bottle says that it is an “ale brewed with peaches and pecans and with natural flavor and caramel color.” That’s a lot of “ands’.” The nose is peachy for sure. I didn’t really get anything else other than peach. The peach is super bright and vibrant. Most “fruit” beers don’t offer fresh smells, this one does. It also smelled like a fruit gum.

The taste doesn’t have a lot upfront. Peaches kick in during the middle part of the taste and continue through the rest of the beer. There is some nice biscuit in there as well. It has some slight nut character to it as well. I like it. The mouthfeel is light to watery, but it fits this beer nicely. It is a drinkable beer but I always fall into a trap with beers with fruit in them. The trap is that they are usually sweet and get undrinkable quickly. For my tastes, one glass was enough. It was easy enough drinking for more, but the sweetness would get to me. The side benefit is that I am going to be burping peaches for the rest of the day. Try it if you want something unique and easy drinking. Continue reading →

Important January 24th items

January 24th happens to be a special day in this beer blogger’s life. Not only is it a day that I get to celebrate being alive, my buddy Mike also passed along that the first canned beer was sold on this day in 1935.

1935: The first canned beer in the United States goes on sale in Richmond, Virginia. By the end of the year, 37 breweries follow the lead of the Gottfried Krueger Brewery.

The American Can Co. began experimenting with canned beer in 1909. But the cans couldn’t withstand the pressure from carbonation — up to 80 pounds per square inch — and exploded. Just before the end of the Prohibition in 1933, the company developed a “keg-lining” technique, coating the inside of the can the same as a keg.

For a long time canned beer didn’t make a craft beer drinker’s mouth water, but canned beer is making a comeback in the craft beer world. There are many reasons why it is a great choice for craft breweries but it has been a slow adoption. Happy January 24th folks!

Some site updates

If you haven’t noticed the right hand sidebar has been going under a few changes recently. I am adding a few larger buttons to more easily navigate unique parts of the site along with the social media parts of the site. We do have a Facebook page now, which I was reluctant to do for a long time. I think it mainly stems from the fact that I used to view the number of fans as a measure of success. It might be a little true, but I’m looking at it as another outlet for the site to grow.

There will be some more changes coming soon, but those are mainly it for now. I didn’t do any “2010 year in review” post or a “plans for 2011 post,” but these changes are a very small part of what I plan on doing. I really want to start adding content for people new to craft brewing along with content for people who are into craft brewing, but want to know more about beer styles, history, and the like. I also plan on homebrewing a whole lot more this year because the displeasure of bottling is now behind me. This is has been open for just over two years now and our traffic has significantly increased in that time. I also have a few side project that are beer related that should be fun, but more on them later.

Thank you so much for visiting my site. I appreciate the comments and the e-mails that I get. If you have a Facebook account go ahead and “Like” our page.