Beer links for the post Labor Day funk

The unofficial end of summer is here but the heat hasn't gotten the message, at least here in Virginia. We haven’t done the news lately so let’s get caught up.

In the News
Beer Drinking: Shape Up! (The Economist by way of the Chicago Tribune)
In other words my tulips are trying to mess me up.

Yes, I do wish I was still on the beach.

White House beers just in time for the debates (Washington Post)
Homebrewers get brewing…for America!

White House Beer: A Brewer Weighs In (New York Times)
Now that the recipes have been released, everyone has an opinion. I still just want to taste the originals, though I am not holding my breath with my interview request.

SAB Miller Relaunches Spiced Indian Beer (Wall Street Journal)
I would be curious to try these, and I think you could do some cool things with Indian spices but based on the brewer I don't think these will pass muster.

5 intoxicating facts about beer (Mother Nature Network)
Beer…it’ll get you drunk.

Budweiser turns to music in bid to attract younger beer consumers. (Los Angeles Times)
Two things in this article that are interesting, the first is that Budweiser knows it missed the boat on changing tastes, the second is the Project 12 Brews. Stay tuned as we will be tasting those.

How to get beer into backcountry without turning hikers into pack mules (Alaska Dispatch)
Having hiked a few miles with a pack on my back all I want to know is how it tastes after 20 miles of hoofing it.

Japanese Beer: A Look at Asian Craft Brews (The Daily Meal)
Some cool new names to track down for that Japanese Untappd badge.

The 20 Top Selling Domestic Beers (Huffington Post)
Not only is the list deceiving it is also depressing.

2012 NFL Beer Bible (Esquire)
Just in time for the start of the season. Yay!

In Site News
Macro month is over and there is a lot of ground uncovered, partially from me refusing to get out of my vacation mindset and the rest from the fact that I found more material than I could shake a stick at. Something bigger is will be coming out off all that research so stay tuned, I just don't know what that format will be yet.

Now we dive into the big pool of flavor that is Oktoberfest month. Also it is the start of the NFL season, (Go you Packers go!) So what can you expect? A little history, reviews of a variety of Oktoberfest brews, and whatever else we can scrape up.

As always thanks for following. Remember to like/ follow/circle/friend us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Untappd. We made it easy, just click on the widget in the top right corner. 

Don't look now, but here comes the Jolly Good Fellows podcast!

UPDATE!


You can now subscribe to us on iTunes. Find the podcast here!



The year might be almost over, but new things are still happening here! That's right folks, we have recorded our first podcast. The "we" in question is your hosts Skye Marthaler and Dan Maiella. In this our very 1st edition, we discuss beer in the news, how rock bands are paid in NYC,  bad explanations about glassware, and other random bits of information.

If you like it, have suggestions for improvement, recommendations for other topics then please let us know down in the comments.


*Be forewarned we do work a bit blue*

You can find the podcast here or copy and paste the link below.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/54968204/beerfellows01.mp3

Personal Voyage in...glass?

Personal Voyage in…glass?

Let’s face it, despite the increased quality and diversity of beers as a result of the re-emergence of craft brewing in the United States and elsewhere, our cool thirst quenchers will never be accepted as the social equal of the grape.  The wine served at a dinner can make or break the meal.  Your social standing can rise or fall as a result of selecting the right wine. 

Beer does not have such power and for that I am actually thankful.  I can relax with my beer, it compliments its surroundings, and beer invites a bit of experimentation.

One thing, however, that I believe that can be taken from the devotees of the grape, though, is the issue of glassware.  The right glass helps to bring the other senses to the party, especially the smell and the texture.  Being able to take a nose of a hoppy IPA enhances the flavor.  Guinness is better in a pint glass than a pilsner glass. (Guinness is always better on draft, but the delivery method is an argument for another day.)

For the moment, I find that my favorite all-around glass is the class pint glass.  Now I am sure that there is a whole science to which types and shapes of glasses are better for different types of beers and we’ll explore it as we go along.  A simply shaped, wide mouthed, unadorned thick clear glass is the way I like to take most of my beers because it really does them justice.  Is it the best for lighter beers?  Not really, but it feels good in my hand.

I drink mostly bottled beer at home.  As such, I don’t really use a true pint glass.  My current favorite is actually a 13.5-ounce tumbler called the Kartio. Simple, clear, clean design, originally done in 1958 by the Iittala design house of Finland, I happened upon it through a series of serendipitous connections.

My wife exposed me to Iittala glassware.  She had received a really cool vase for tulips called the Aalto.  A simple wavy design, it really captures important elements of Scandinavian design for me.  My family had had pretty traditional American taste in glassware and tableware, so it was fun to explore the Scandinavian design palette through my Swedish wife and living in Stockholm.

After my Mom passed away a couple of years ago, my Dad began to develop some new social outlets with people in his retirement community.  For Christmas one year, I decided to get him some new cocktail glasses (Mom had used juice glasses for years) to compliment his renewed social calendar.  So, I found some nice looking glasses on the Fjorn Scandinavian site and ordered him a set of four.  (By the way, Fjorn Scandinavian has great customer service – when one of the glasses arrived broken, they sent two replacement glasses immediately for free!)

My Dad passed soon after that Christmas.  When my wife and I were cleaning out his apartment, I ran across the glasses and put them aside to keep.  Cleaning out the apartment was hard work, so one night a cracked open a cold Sam Adams and poured into the Kartio tumbler.  From that point, it’s been my beer glass of choice.  I purchased a couple of more when we got home to create a set of eight.

When I write up my beer reviews and preferences, you can bet that a lot of them will be influenced in part by my collection of Kartio.

The 1st Annual Jolly Good Fellows Gift Guide

Once again, first image Google shows
when you type beer gifts. I have to stop doing that.
The above is an option but you can do better.

Welcome to December, the month where we give presents to people, some of whom we actually like.  We proudly present to you the JGF 1^st annual beer lovers gift guide. So you have a beer lover in your ranks and you need to get them something. You could go the easy route and just pick up a sixer, or bomber of their favorite beer,  you could also do this, or you could do that AND add something special to the mix. 

Below are several suggestions from myself, Rudy and Brian on more good beer related gifts.

While receiving beer is nice the extra bits are appreciated. You may wish to get them something extra from their favorite brewery, apparel, coasters, etc. (I think I may need this Lagunitas butterfly opener.) A quick Google search can set you on your way. 

If your up and coming beer aficionado is just getting into beer then some glassware may well be the ticket. I have asked for these Spiegelau glasses. If they prefer a certain style of beer or brewery then get them the corresponding glassware. Along with those a beer tasting kit might come in handy. Here’s one example, here is another. If they have a nostalgia bent you can find some excellent breweriana, here were a few interesting things recently spotted on eBay as examples.

In our effort to improve literacy and thereby gain more readers to Jolly Good Fellows, here are several books to help them through the winter months. (We recommend stouts and strong ales to go with winter reading)

• The Oxford Companion to Beer (You can get this on sale right now!) 
• 1001 Beers You Must Taste Before You Die (The book that led to the creation of this site)
• The Complete Joy of Home Brewing

Need something to hang on the wall and fill in some space? Pop Chart Lab’s poster, The Very Many Varieties of Beer Poster may well fit the bill. 

Plan for a day trip with a  tour and tasting session to your beer drinkers favorite brewery. Here is the one for St. Arnold Brewery as an example. Want to go bigger? There are many excellent beer festivals around the North America and worth attending, but there is only one Great American Beer Festival. But you say you want to go bigger?! Well then it is Belgium tour time. A true mecca for beer connoisseurs around the world. 

Sarah, who runs the excellent site Beer Meets Cheese, is running a month long gift guide. We recommend heading over there to check out her recommendations too!

In the end if all else fails there are gift certificates. Believe it or not this is actually a pretty solid choice. One of the things I enjoy most as a beer drinker is being in the store, looking at the selections, and picking out new things to try. It is even better if what I want to purchase is already paid for.  

Thanks for stopping by!

And now there is one...

A decent beer glass makes all the difference. In a nutshell it brings all the nuance and details out. The wine community has been all over this for years. The right beer in the right glass makes for a better drinking experience.

Early last week two of my partners in crime met their end, both in rather inauspicious ways. One was a Hacker Pschorr weisse glass I had acquired as a pack in with a six pack over a decade ago.  The other was a glass that I had received at Rock Bottom Brewery, I don’t remember the circumstances but I know it was acquired honorably. These were 2/3s of the stalwarts in my beer drinking glasses and now they had succumbed to the rigor of dishwashing and random sink collisions.  The last third has escaped unscathed…knock on wood.

The Hamm's chalice in action

My all time favorite beer glass is a Hamm’s beer chalice. (See photo on right) My little brother Cody found it at a garage sale for 50¢. It got packed up with a lot of his stuff when he shipped off to basic training. A few years later I had to go through my old memories and paraphernalia at my parents’ house. Since Cody’s and mine were all lumped together I uncovered the Hamm’s relic and made it mine. (This is still a minor point of contention between us brothers)

I have been using it ever since. For me it is my standard for a perfect glass. I love how it feels in my hand, how it drinks, how the beer pours into it, and aesthetically I find it appealing. Fortunately the Hamms chalice has proven to be built of sturdy stuff and has not suffered the catastrophic failures of the other two.  It is my go to glass when I am trying a new beer or ale at home.

Now it is time for another confession. The truth is while I have consumed a lot of beer I have rarely done so in the appropriate glassware. If one of the three was not available, and let’s be honest they weren’t always the right glass for the occasion either, I would pour the beer into a shaker glass or just drink it out of the bottle. Smacks of heathenism and blasphemy, but I still enjoyed it. (I’m a pragmatic drinker)

So here is an opportunity to upgrade my glassware. A fortune smile as it is the holiday season, but as mentioned above my knowledge in this area is slight. I find myself in a position where I can improve my drinking experience but I don’t know what to ask for. So in addition to me doing a little research I put the question to you the commentariat. What glasses do I need, what are nice to haves, and what are non-essentials?