Speaking of Beer

OK, you’ve got about seven days to find these brews:

1554 (New Belgium Brewing Co.)
[alternatives: Leffe Bruin, Petrus Winterbier, anything proclaiming itself a Dark Belgian Ale]

Old Chub (Oskar Blues Brewing Co.)
[alternatives: McEwan's Scottish Ale, Odell 90 Shilling Ale, anything proclaiming itself to be a "Scottish Ale"]

Good luck on Old Chub…it’s only available in about 10 states or so….

Prebeer Preamble: How do you save someone you love from their own bad beer habits?

Beer 1: After a shocking act of self-sacrifice, Eric and I crack open some Pilsner Urquell. Discussion of hop varieties, history, and skunkiness ensues.

Interbeer Interlude: Beerlosophy Essay “Pay Attention”. I rant about how no one notices anything, then recount the touching tale of my conversion to good beer *sniff*.

Beer 2: Eric and I now dive into the complex and uniquely Californian Anchor Steam beer. Could this be the one to turn Joe Megabrew’s head?

Beer Geek Moment: Lager and Ale. The crucial and often misunderstood distinction between the two families of beer is made crystal clear in under three minutes.

Postbeer Postscript: How do these two beers fare in our merciless evaluation process? And will the best “conversion beer” be the best beer of the day?

 

 Show 1: Gateway Beers: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1349)

We’re about a week from show #1, so it’s time to scare up the drink-along beers. I’ll leave the show theme a mystery, but the beers will be

Pilsner Urquell [alteranatives: Warsteiner Premium Verum, Bitburger Premium Pils]

and

Anchor Steam [alternatives: this one's tough due to its unique stature.. if any local brewery produces a "California Common" beer, go for it]

Two towering classics, and as such should be easy to find just about anywhere. Good hunting.

Prebeer preamble: Can a beer taste like a country?

Beer 1: I’m joined by my friend Eric to quaff some Old Peculier. It’s an English beer, but does it taste that way?

Interbeer Interlude: Beerlosophy essay “Beer Is Proof.” The history and evolution of beer in six minutes or less, with a bunch of people named Jones.

Beer 2: Eric and I return to home soil to find out if Arrogant Bastard stirs our nationalism. We find that it kicks our collective keesters, but does it evoke Old Glory?

Beer Geek Moment: Import or Domestic? Important question or Non-issue?

Post-beer postscript: Eric and I rate the beers we consumed, using our scientific evaluation process. OK, it’s more “scientific” than scientific…

 

 Show 0: You are where you drink: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1484)

Show 0 is coming soon, so it’s time to scare up those drink-along beers! We’ll be looking at beers that may (or may not) express the cultural character of their point of origin. Yeah, I know, a pretty heavy theme for the first show…but eh, we’re still drinking beer so it’s all good.

The beers are:

Theakston’s Old Peculier (and that’s NOT a typo) from Yorkshire, UK [alternates: Fuller's Vintage Ale, Thomas Hardy's ale]

Stone’s Arrogant Bastard from California, USA [alternates: Great Lakes Nosferatu, ummm....Stone's Double Bastard?]

Happy hunting and stay tuned. We should be speaking of beer any day now.

With a little help from my friends, I’m starting a podcast about beer.

Beercasts abound, and while their quality varies wildly, they’re all bout our favorite topic, so they can’t be that bad. What’s a new ‘cast got to add to all that sipping and slurping and slurred speech? Well, when I inform people that I’m starting a podcast about beer, after we get through all that “what’s a podcast?” stuff, they invariably say something like, “You’ve got to have something else in there too–you can’t just talk about BEER the whole time…” To them I say, “Oh yeah, just watch me!” Beer is a deep, deep topic, and it’s also a helluva lot of fun. And that’s me in a beerglass: I’m into philosophical good times.

Besides being a tasty drink that can give you a wicked buzz, beer intersects almost every aspect of the human condition: beer is history, beer is science, beer is metaphor, beer is cuisine, beer is lifestyle, beer is a social tie that binds. Beer is snakes on a motherf****n’ plane, man! No beercast out there (that I’ve been able to uncover) touches upon all of these aspects, and surely none do it in my particular style.

What can you expect from “Speaking of Beer”? A little “Ebert and Roeper”, a little “Good Eats”, a little “Mythbusters”, a little “DragonPage Wingin’ It!”, a little “Geek Fu Action Grip”, a little Charlie Rose, a little whatever-the-hell-else pops into my head. I’m a pretty eclectic guy, influence-wise, but I like to think I only steal from the best.

One part of the show I hope you really embrace is the “drink along” aspect. Each week we’ll feature two beers. On the show, myself and one or more of my rotating cast of co-hosts and special guests will consume them in real time, and discuss and disect our experiences as we go (NOTE: tangential conversations are almost inevitable because–hey–we’re drinking beer), and evaluate each beer at the end.

While we’re doing this, I’d really like YOU to be doing it to, with the exact same beer if possible. Think of the beer segments as a sort of “commentary track” to your beer. For those willing and able to play along, I’ll post the beers for the next show on this site at least a week in advance, giving you some time to track them down. I’ll also list 2 or 3 close alternatives that would make admirable substitutes. It’s a cool way to expand your beer horizons, and you might just find a new favorite in the process.

Besides the featured beers, there with be an Interbeer Interlude and a Beer Geek Moment segment. The former will rotate among Beerlosophy (philosophical musings inspired by beer), Burpin’ Legends (putting beer myths and beer lore to the test), Beer as Folk (interviews with beer/homebrew industry insiders), and Adjuncts (non-beer topics beer lovers enjoy, e.g. barbecue or cigars). Cute names, huh? Anyway, you never know what you’ll get til you tune in. The Beer Geek Moment will be a short (I promise!) but deep delve into a narrow geeky topic, like yeast strains or malting techniques, that will give you tons of cred at your next beer-themed event.

I hope you’ll like it. Stay tuned for further development. I’ve got one show in the can, but I’m still struggling with the start-up stuff (note the generic coolness of this site!), so expect the first show to hit the podosphere in a couple of weeks. Listen for me on Wingin’ It, and I’ll try to keep you updated there as well as here.

Cheers!

I’m a long-standing beer enthusiast, who’s ridden the waves of the craft beer revolution out of the dim watery megabrews of my young adulthood. I tasted my first homebrew in the late 1980’s, and was from that time forward captivated by the concept of engineering my own buzz. Many, many dozens of batches of homebrew followed, from the expected (stouts, hefeweizens, IPA’s) to the experimental (Crunch Berry Ale–with real crunch berries!).

My homebrewing endeavors reached their pinnacle at the dawn of the current decade, when I was awarded the Silver Medal in the “stout” category at the Arizona Homebrewer’s Association’s Octoberfest competition in 2000. It was my first and only foray into competitive brewing.

As a by-product of all that brewing, I’ve developed a deep appreciation for beer in all its manifestations. I’ve tasted the best I could find all over the world, wherever fortune would take me, including brews from (and consumed in) California, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Washington, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. There’s lots of terrific beer I’ve enjoyed from other places as well, and one of many reasons to keep living is the anticipation of all those great beers I haven’t yet tried.