Beer from Coal (1959):

Taken from ‘Mining Review 12th Year No.10′, this lovely story shows how coal, rather spuriously, contributes to the brewing of beer, featuring some gorgeous shots inside the Charrington Brewery in the Mile End Road. Posted by the BFI.

Okay, I have been taking photos since my desktop was packed up and none of them have made it online yet … but that is about to change …

Here are the first ones, from Cliff’s Birthday trip to Wychwood Brewery in Witney.

Unfortunately, none of the photos inside turned out well … anyway, more photos to come soon!

Sealed with a kiss of hops

This 1944 Schlitz beer advert features one of their more interesting tag-lines – “Sealed with a Kiss”.  During the early 1900s, Schlitz surpassed Pabst as the largest brewery in the world and remained that way until they changed their brewing process in the 1970s!  By 1981, it was a dying company … and today it is owned by its once rival, Pabst.

This set of vintage beer cans on Flickr is quite cool and the range of cans is quite impressive!

Of course, the images of the cans are very interesting (I could see a collage of them making a great poster), but would you want to pay $300 for an empty beer can?  Well, there are people that will do that!  From Beercanman.com …

I plan on spending over $100,000 on beer cans over the next 12 months and would love for some of that to go into YOUR pocket!  I am a COLLECTOR and this is my HOBBY.

It just proves that old saying … one man’s trash is truly another’s treasure!

via TheDieLine.com

During this week, over 6,000 pubs (and quite a few breweries) are celebrating Cask Ale Week.  The week is sponsored by both CAMRA and Cask Marque.

Unfortunately, their website is a little low on information (1) … their is nothing about the breweries involved and none of the pubs that I checked had any details about events included.

Luckily, that is not the only source for information about the week’s events in/around Oxford.  Hook Norton has a range of activities planned and details are available online … these include a meeting with their female brewer at the Coach & Horses in Banbury.  For more national news about the week, CAMRA has a whole page devoted to the week.  Additionally, I found the themes for the week at the IFBB site:

• Monday 6 April: National Beer Day – calling for the Government to recognise this as an official holiday
• Wednesday 8 April: FemALE Day – only 16% of women have tried cask ale, activities will take place to encourage female customers to sample Britain’s national drink
• Thursday 9 April: Introduce A Friend – the majority of cask ale virgins are introduced to it by a friend. Through the power of social networking sites and celebrity ambassadors, we will be asking cask ale fans to introduce a friend
• Friday 10 / Saturday 11 April: Visit A Brewery – breweries from around the UK will be opening their doors to the public for behind the scenes tours and sampling
• Saturday 11 April at 7pm: World’s Biggest Toast! Help set a world record and raise a toast to cask ale

Read more »

Never heard if this brewery until I saw these ads … because today, it has been converted into a site for small, creative businesses.

This advertisement is from Pleasure Gardens Guide: Festival of Britain.  If you are interested in learning more about the Festival of Britain (FoB), click here.

This image is under Crown copyright.

Okay, those who know me know that I enjoy a good pint, when I can get one!  I will try just about any beer at least once … that even means horse-pi** like Carlsberg or Stella (which I have tasted a couple of times)!  So, when I got the regular Budget Travel email, it was nice to see an article about drinking like a local that highlighted a couple of places that look really interesting …

Two of the places in New York really caught my attention – Spuyten Duyvil and the Beer Table.  They both are places that specialize in unique beers and, from the descriptions and their websites, appear to have gotten the ambience correct.  Next time I am in NY, I will do my best to check at least one of these places out … descriptions are below the fold.

Here are my personal highlights of the two places:

• Spuyten Duyvil – Belgium selection, especially their 11 Cantillon lambics.
• Beer Table – the focus on specially crafted, unusual, and quickly rotated beers (aka … their daily changing menu)

Read more »

Okay, been listening to the back catalog of the Distillations podcast (subscribe via iTunes) and a couple of interesting ones have caught my attention …

Episode 24: Beer and Brewing has a great explanation of the properties of hops and their uses in brewing. Hops are probably the least understood ingredient in a beer and this episode does a very good in explaining them. In addition, the coverage of historic beverages from Dogfish Head Brewery, like Theobroma, was interesting – especially since I am always game to try a new (or in this case, old) brew!

Episode 52: Wine was not as interesting, to me, as Episode 24 but it was nice to see the chemistry of wine given the treatment. Covering oxygenation and sulfites, it debunked one wine myth and reinforced good wine practice. Pointers that anyone can take away from the episode include the fact that hangovers are caused by a combination of food, water, and wine (not by anything in the wine) and that storing open bottles upright is better than on their side (less surface area for oxidation).

Now, they just need to do one on the chemistry of whiskey production … and their is plenty to talk about with it – flavor compounds, effects of oak, differences in still types, and even in types of distillation.

The area around Charlottesville is historically known for its wine, but that is changing because beer is becoming the new table beverage, just as it was for Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson served beer and cider with his meals and he brewed his own in the basement of Monticello. Today, there are plenty of stops to make in the area, if you want to explore the local beer scene (for an example of the type of trip you can make, see this WashPost article). They are even creating a brewey trail (think vineyard trail, but with beer).

Here are a few of the breweries and brew-pubs in the area … all of which I would love to visit: Read more »

When travelling, it is always good to drink what the locals drink. Budget Travel has a short list of local drinks, here is their list:

• Italy: Sambuca
• Brazil: Cachaça
• Russia: Vodka
• Greece: Ouzo
• Ireland: Whiskey
• Japan: Sake
• Scandinavia: Aquavit
• Mexico: Tequila
• France: Absinthe
• Iceland: Brennivín

But, I have a couple of problems with this list … Read more »