Stan over at Appellation Beer has come up with a nifty new idea: a beer blogging day.

Food bloggers have their own cooking day once a month. Wine bloggers have Wine Blogging Wedesday.

It seems that beer bloggers around the world should have something similar. So let’s start one, an event that will occur on the first Friday of every month. It doesn’t have to have a name (yet) or a logo (like wine), just participants who want to have a little fun and don’t mind learning a little along the way.

Appellation Beer will host the first tasting March 2 (giving us time to get out the word), and the theme will be “Not your father’s Irish stout.”

Drop Stan a line if you might want to participate. (I will be.) How it'll work is you'll pour yourself a stout (for this first month) and write about it. Send Stan (or whoever is "hosting" that month) the URL to your post and it'll be compiled with pointers on the "host" blog.

Sounds basic, but it's a neat way to build a community and start an online meme. Should we call this "Beer Blogging Friday"?

I don't remember who or where I got this link from, but I'd bookmarked it last week and then forgot about it: Hot melon in your Budweiser? It's about Anheuser-Busch's new "beer mixers":

The Belgians love their cherry beers. Americans like to squeeze lime into their longnecks. Now Anheuser-Busch Cos. figures beer lovers are ready for its new fruity beer additives called Spykes.

Analysts see it as a baby step taken by the nation’s largest brewer toward diversifying its beer portfolio. Spykes is a malt liquor with a 12 percent alcohol content that can be mixed or taken as a shot, and is slightly caffeinated, for a kick.

Packaged in 2-ounce bottles, Spykes comes in such flavors as Spicy Mango and Spicy Lime — with the “spicy” referring to a slight, jalapeno-like burn on the finish — as well as Hot Melons and Hot Chocolate.

Personally, these sound a bit gross; if I want "flavored" beer, then I'll turn to craft beers that are brewed that way. But I suppose the snarky side of me wants to point out that if you're drinking the flavorless (or worse) Anheuser-Busch beers, then perhaps a squirt of syrupy fruit flavoring is in order.

Still catching up on my holiday beer reviews, tonight it's Full Sail Wassail. This is a local classic,  brewed since 1988. It's 6.5% alcohol by volume. They have the number "12" on the label... is this the 12th year bottling Wassail?

Appearance: Orange-brown with red highlights. Tan head, soapy bubbles.

Smell: Spicy, malty. Spice is (I think) from the hops. A little blackstrap, burnt sugar, a little lactic sourness.

Taste: Old strong ale; leathery dark malt, a bit bitter/astringent but more from caramelized sugar. Some alcohol heat, hops are clean and spicy.

Mouthfeel: Nice and medium-thick. Not chewy, more smooth. Tiny bit of tang.

Overall, a good spicy winter warmer that reminds me of an old ale. And old ales are "beer comfort food." Well, maybe not really, but they kind of seem that way to me.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores 86 out of 100 with 96% of reviewers reporting approval. On RateBeer, it scores 3.56 out of 5 and is in the 87th percentile.

I'd never tried any of Elysian Brewing's beers until recently: Dragonstooth Stout, which I received for "Secret Santa" at work last month. I don't know why I've not previously tried any; I've seen them around. At any rate, Dragonstooth is an oatmeal stout, 7.4% alcohol by volume, and multiple award-winning.

Appearance: Head is a chocolate froth, nice and thick. Coffee-black and opaque.

Smell: Bittersweet chocolate/cocoa and coffee. Rich and roasty.

Taste: Sweet and burnt roasted malts. Coffee, dark chocolate, bitter but not astringent. Cocoa cream. Very, very good.

Mouthfeel: Smooth, creamy, oily, nice and full. Fills and coats the mouth, slightly dry but no astringency at all.

Overall: This is an excellent, excellent stout that I quite enjoyed. Much better than I expected, frankly.

On BeerAdvocate, it only has nine reviews, not enough for a full accounting, but thus far the informal score is 3.99 out of 5, with all nine approving. There are more reviews on RateBeer, where it scores 3.8 out of 5 and lands in the 96th percentile, a very good performance.

This is definitely worth picking up, if you can find it.

This year is the 20th annual Oregon Brewers Festival, a milestone year to be sure. As a special treat, the OLCC (Oregon Liquor Control Commission) has decided to ban minors from the Festival entirely.

After 19 years of promoting the Oregon Brewers Festival as a community event, we regret that we will not be allowed to have minors under the age of 21 on the festival premises in 2007. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission has stipulated no minors be on-site, citing OLCC Rule 845-006-0340 (7) (a) in which "eating predominates" and the premise must not have a "drinking enviroment".

As Jeff on BlueOregon writes:

For kids, seeing their parents drink responsibly in a normal environment demystifies it and removes the allure of the forbidden. I don't doubt that there are parents in Oregon who think that taking their children to a beer festival exposes them to indecent behavior.  But there are certainly others who think it's a healthy celebration of local culture—and fun, to boot.  The OLCC has taken the choice away from parents, many of whom will now skip their Saturday afternoon trip to Waterfront Park.

Personally, I wouldn't bring my kids to the OBF, but not because I think the environment is inappropriate or unhealthy for them: rather, it would just make a long, boring, tiring day for them. The OBF itself is a very family-friendly venue—I've never witnessed anything in the times that I've been there to convince me otherwise.

Regardless, OLCC has decided to overrule the matter entirely, and families who would otherwise have been able to check out the Brewfest for a couple hours won't be able to go.

(An alternative, but more mean-spirited, headline I considered for this post: "OLCC says, Happy 20th OBF!")

Via Appellation Beer today comes this pointer to this article on Playboy.com of their picks for the ten best microbrews in America. It's a decent list, but like all such lists, is entirely subjective. Props to including a Deschutes Brewing beer, though. :)

Figure anything from Playboy is NSFW, although the feature itself is perfectly tame. But, in case you don't want to risk it, here are their ten best beers:

1. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
2. Prima Pils
3. Ommegang Abbey Ale
4. Boont Amber Ale
5. Sierra Nevada Porter
6. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
7. Tröegenator Double Bock
8. Samuel Adams Utopias
9. Alaksan Smoked Porter
10. Mirror Pond Pale Ale

Now that my "50 beers to drink before you die" series is finally done, I'm posting the full list of all 50 beers I selected for a handy reference. Organized by theme and the order in which I presented.

American West Coast (Part 1)

1. Anchor Steam
2. Widmer Hefeweizen
3. Shakespeare Stout
4. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot
5. Alaskan Smoked Porter

European Icons (Part 2)

6. Celebrator Doppelbock
7. Paulaner Oktoberfest Märzen
8. Lindemans Framboise Lambic
9. Guinness Extra Stout
10. Pilsner Urquell

Extreme Beers (Part 3)

11. Samichlaus
12. Cave Creek Chili Beer
13. 90 Minute IPA
14. Midas Touch Golden Elixir
15. Samuel Adams Utopias

United Kingdom (Part 4)

16. Young's Bitter
17. Fuller's London Porter
18. Theakston Old Peculier
19. Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale
20. Orkney SkullSplitter

Belgian (Part 5)

21. Saison Dupont
22. Jenlain Original French Ale
23. St. Bernardus Witbier
24. Rodenbach Grand Cru
25. Trappistes Rochefort 8

American East Coast (Part 6)

26. Sam Adams Boston Lager
27. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
28. Victory Prima Pils
29. Black Radish Dark Lager
30. Edmund Fitzgerald Porter

German (Part 7)

31. Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier
32. Reissdorf Kölsch
33. Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen
34. Köstritzer Schwarzbier
35. Aventinus

"On the scene" picks (Part 8)

36. Düsseldorf, Germany: Altbier
37. Belgium: Lambic
38. Munich, Germany: Oktoberfest
39. Burton upon Trent, England: Bitter (and others)
40. Portland, Oregon: Varied

Around the World (Part 9)

41. Sapporo (Japan)
42. Sheaf Stout (Australia)
43. Flying Horse Royal Lager (India)
44. Singha (Thailand)
45. Baltika Porter (Russia)

The Final Five (Part 10)

46. Arrogant Bastard Ale
47. Style: Sahti (Finnish)
48. Style: Kvass (Russian)
49. Homebrew
50. Your local brewery's beer

Naturally, this is an entirely subjective list—I picked the beers that I thought were representative of styles, region, and/or quality, or gave my reasons otherwise, knowing full well that other people's lists may well be entirely different. This list isn't endeavoring to be the be-all, end-all list of the worlds 50 best beers or anything—just something I've had fun with, and hopefully everybody else has, too.

There's been some good suggestions in comments, and at least one other list that I've come across that was generated by this series... I'll list those in a later post.

A while back the BBC posted a feature titled "50 things to eat before you die" and I thought at the time that this would make a good topic for beer. So in the spirit of adventure and living life to the fullest, etc. etc., I'm coming up with the 50 beers to drink before you die, in ten weekly installments listing five beers each (in no particular order, other than whatever theme I fit them into).

The final installment! Hard to believe it's been ten weeks already; back when I was first starting this series, it seemed quite a bit more daunting. At any rate, for this final week there's really no theme at all, other than "The End" or "The Final Five."

See also: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9.

Arrogant Bastard Ale

This is a bit of a vanity pick, I admit, but I also think I overlooked Stone Brewing's flagship beer the first time around. I actually had it on my list of picks, but just couldn't find the space for it at the time.

Arrogant Bastard is really the prototypical and overall best example of the newish "American Strong Ale" style of beers: when it was released it really set the stage for the new wave of American beers—the Imperial IPAs, the strong pale ales, the "double" this and "extreme" that, and I'd even venture to say the strong fresh hop beer craze. Arrogant Bastard opened the door for all that, and it's still one of the best around.

BeerAdvocate score: 90/100, 98%.

Style: Sahti (Finnish)

Sahti is a style of beer rather than a specific beer recommendation, but it's definitely one of those styles that I think everyone should try. It is a Finnish farmhouse ale, flavored with juniper berries and filtered through juniper branches and fermented (typically) with a Finnish bread yeast. For more on the style, check out BeerAdvocate's page, Wikipedia, and Michael Jackson's notes.

There aren't many opportunities for this style of beer outside of Finland, though recently Otter Creek Brewing released Helsinki Göld in their "World Tour" series of beers (BeerAdvocate link). Otherwise, the other likely source you'll find for this style is the Finnish brewer Lammin Sahti Oy.

Style: Kvass (Russian)

Another style of Eastern Europe—in fact, the national drink for Russia, its country of origin—that you probably won't be able to get unless you're in Europe or somebody brings some back for you. Kvass is a low-alcohol beer generally made from rye (or wheat or barley) bread, often flavored with various herbs and/or fruits, and fermented with bread yeast. It's so low in alcohol that it is often considered a "soft drink" in Russia and consumed by children.

If you can't make it to Russia anytime soon, your best best on trying kvass would be of the homebrewed variety. While the steps and methods for doing this are longer than would be appropriate here, that would be a good topic for a future article...

Check out BeerAdvocate's style page for kvass, and Wikipidia's article on it. BeerAdvocate only has four examples listed, two of which haven't even been reviewed—pretty rare.

Homebrew

Yep, just "homebrew". Any homebrew. I'm not going to quibble about style, or presentation, or region, or any of that. (Well, I hope it will at least be good.) But I don't think anybody can call their beer drinking experience complete without drinking some homebrewed beer.

For many people who are first-time homebrew drinkers, the fact that a quality beer that is as good or better than what they can get commercially can be brewed at home with minimal equipment is a revelation.

And homebrewing can expose many people (newbies and experienced folks alike) to new styles or experimental types of beer (again, hoping they're good!) that they may not otherwise be able to get. So if someone offers you a chance to try their homebrewed beer, jump on it.

And finally: Your local brewery's beer

That's right, the final beer everyone should drink before they die is their local brewery's (or brewpub's): because ultimately none of the creativity, availability, and culture of beer would be possible without the support and patronization of the local craft brewery. Not to get too preachy. :)

So head on down to your local brewpub and have a pint. Or if they bottle their brew, pick some up at the store and enjoy it at home. Either way, whatever your local brewer serves up, do yourself a favor and try some—if you haven't already.

Rudolph's Revenge Winter Ale is brewed by Cropton Brewery in England, and there's a bit of confusion surrounding the alcohol content; the bottle I had was 6% alcohol by volume, whereas on their website they indicate a 4.6%. Odd. You'll also notice their image to the right there says "Bitter" and not "Winter Ale." I don't know what the story is, but at any rate this was a beer I got for Christmas and enjoyed it appropriately.

Appearance: Brown with red highlights. Slightly murky. Not much head.

Smell: Hops—fruity and sweetish and a little spicy. Dark cherry. Sourish.

Taste: Sour and fruity—like a sour cherry. Tart. Malt is mild. No real hops—the tartness dominates. Okay, a little hops in the aftertaste.

Mouthfeel: Thin, a bit watery, lighter than a pale ale.

Overall, it was lighter than I would have liked for a winter warmer and the sour cherry/cranberry was a bit odd. Not terrible, but more gimmicky.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores 78 out of 100 with only 66% of reviewers approving—not a great showing. On RateBeer, it scores 2.83 out of 5 and is in the 31st percentile, also not a strong showing.

More odd news in the beer world: Pet shop owner creates beer for dogs. It's making the rounds on the news sites and beer blogs, including MSNBC and CNN.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — After a long day hunting, there's nothing like wrapping your paw around a cold bottle of beer. So Terrie Berenden, a pet shop owner in the southern Dutch town of Zelhem, created a beer for her Weimaraners made from beef extract and malt.

"Once a year we go to Austria to hunt with our dogs, and at the end of the day we sit on the verandah and drink a beer. So we thought, my dog also has earned it," she said.

Berenden consigned a local brewery to make and bottle the nonalcoholic beer, branded as Kwispelbier. It was introduced to the market last week and advertised it as "a beer for your best friend."

"Kwispel" is the Dutch word for wagging a tail.

The beer is fit for human consumption, Berenden said. But at euro1.65 ($2.14) a bottle, it's about four times more expensive than a Heineken.

Beef extract and malt. Weird.

A collection of some of the odd beer news that's hit the web recently:

• Bulgaria reportedly has a breast-enhancing beer
  Sources here, here, and here. Bulgaria's "Boza" beer is a traditional Turkish drink made from wheat flour and yeast and is reputed to enlarge women's breasts. Apparently, though, customs duties on the beer were too high to be worth bringing the drink out of Bulgaria... until now. When Bulgaria joined the European Union, those duties were abolished and now European men have been flocking to Bulgaria to stock up on the beer for their wives/girlfriends. Don't get your hopes up, guys.
• How to piss off people who enjoy craft beer
  Mike Seate in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review wrote an article titled, "Beer snobs forget the true meaning of beer" wherein he bemoans the rising price of "exotic" beers and blames the "beer snobs" for this ("Is it just me, or has somebody forgotten that beer is supposed to be a workingman's drink, as free from pretensions and airs as a kielbasa smothered in sauerkraut?"). This otherwise non-news item has been picked up and excoriated by the online beer community (here, here, here, commentary here and here, reflection here), which is pretty much what it set out to do. What's the best way to get traffic, links, and attention? Write an inflammatory, controversial article/blog post trashing something popular.
• "Free Beer" picks up momentum (and I still don't get it)
  The "Free" in Free Beer is "free as in speech" (it'll still cost you, unfortunately) and is the open source beer I blogged about two years ago. I didn't get it then, and I still don't get it now: is it just a publicity thing? A statement on copyright? Because there's a ton of beer recipes out there that are free for using, so what makes this one stand out? I guess I can't get past the gimmick and see anything other than, well, a gimmick.
  
  At any rate, they've been picking up steam despite my doubts, and I predict we'll be seeing more of them in the news this year.

I got a bottle of this from my Secret Santa at work before Christmas. Lucky me! I loves me a good Samuel Smith's.

Appearance: Clear, deep amber tinged with gold—like a dark honey. Fluffy smooth head, white-beige.

Smell: Clean, with a rich malt and low hop profile that reminds me of an old ale. Some delicate floral notes.

Taste: There's a sour note—kind of lactic but more an acidity from roasted or black malt. Some spiciness, a hint of heat from alcohol. Old leather. Hops are very dry. Nice pale/bitter base.

Mouthfeel: Clean and smooth with a sour astringency at the back. Not thick, but not watery.

Overall: It's good, but maybe I'm just more used to the stronger, more "out there" American styles these days; for a winter warmer this strikes me as bland.

On BeerAdvocate it scores 83, with 93% approval. On RateBeer, it scores 3.24 out of 5, and is in the 64th percentile.

A while back the BBC posted a feature titled "50 things to eat before you die" and I thought at the time that this would make a good topic for beer. So in the spirit of adventure and living life to the fullest, etc. etc., I'm coming up with the 50 beers to drink before you die, in ten weekly installments listing five beers each (in no particular order, other than whatever theme I fit them into).

We're closing in on the end here. This week I wanted to get away from the Western European-North American centrism that dominates beer, and explore a few from around the world. So this week's theme is "Around the World."

See also: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 10.

Sapporo (Japan)

There are a number of Sapporo-brand beers from Japan, but the one I'm referring to here is the classic "Premium Beer" that is widely available here in the United States in the curvy-shaped can. BeerAdvocate indicates the style is that of a "Japanese Rice Lager," similar to the "American Macro" lager but brewed with a larger percentage of rice.

Japanese beers in general tend toward the lighter, rice-or-other adjunct lager styles, and Sapporo is a good and accessible example. Be that as it may, though, I'll be brutally honest: you won't be impressed with this beer if you're used to the craft beer scene. But, as the title of this series indicates, it's certainly one you should drink at least once, and it's a good bellwether of what beer is doing in Japan.

BeerAdvocate score: 74/100, 37% approval.

Sheaf Stout (Australia)

I suppose when one thinks of Australian beers, popular culture leads them to Foster's. I rather think Sheaf Stout is a better exposure to the land down under. A little harsher and grittier than the more "refined" stouts of the West, it's still a good example of the Foreign/Sweet Stout category (which admittedly can be a bit nebulous).

And, something about this beer says "Outback" to me, and seems a better embodiment of Australia than all of those lager offerings.

BeerAdvocate score: 84/100, 92% approval.

Flying Horse Royal Lager (India)

For it's size and population, there is very little in the way of native beer and brewing happening in India. As seems to be common among East Asian brewing, Flying Horse is a lager in the "American Macro" style, although as I reviewed here, it's a darker, grainier version of the style.

BeerAdvocate score: 76/100, 64% approval.

Singha (Thailand)

Another of the ubiquitous lagers, though Singha bills itself as "the most exotic beer in the world." While I'm leery about any beer that tries to claim that—especially one of this type—I do advocate this as a Must Try.

Some of the reviews out there indicate that this would be an excellent accompaniment to Thai cuisine—so if you can find it at your local Thai restaurant, give it a shot.

BeerAdvocate score: 74/100, 52% approval.

Baltika Porter (Russia)

Baltic Porter is to "regular" Porter as India Pale Ale is to "regular" Pale Ale—that is, a stronger, more robust beer designed to survive ocean-crossing voyages to get to their destinations. Baltika #6 Porter is one of the better-known beers to come out of Russia and a decent example of the style. Michael Jackson wrote about it after a trip to St. Petersburg:

Baltika Porter has an ebony colour; an alcohol content of 7.0, from an original gravity of 1068; and a woody aroma, with oily, creamy, fudgy, toffeeish, juicy, flavours. It is soft and lightly dry. This beer, too, contains crystal, and some carbonised malt.

BeerAdvocate score: 84/100, 94% approval.

Over on A Roughneck's Take on Beer Wörtwurst has posted a link to a handy chart on Realbeer.com listing alcohol content and calories on many brands of beer. Pretty interesting and illuminating, having that compiled together in a handy format; something I can use later, I think.

He's also found or put together a fun chart showing the "Fluid Ounces of Alcohol per Calorie" for many of those beers. Very interesting, though I'm not sure if it tells us anything useful or is just a curiosity. Worth checking, though.

A little past the holidays, I know, but I had a bottle of Butte Creek's Christmas Cranberry Ale around that time and figured, better late than never to write it up.

I'd had the bottle for a while (since a summertime trip to Portland, I think), and when I opened it, it came off as rather old—like I'd had it too long. It wasn't terrible, but the cranberry character I had been hoping for wasn't really there.

Appearance: Clear, light orange with pink tones. Like an iced tea. Tan head.

Smell: Light fruit—cranberry/berry—some malt bitterness or woody aroma. Hops? Musty hops?

Taste: Bitter—age? A pale ale with delicate, sourish fruit. Possibly a hint of spice. A hop flavor that seems out of place. Twiggy. Earthy.

Mouthfeel: Nice and medium—for a pale ale—with a sense of lightness. Old? Bitter coating.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores a relatively low 76 with only—surprisingly—42% of reviewers approving. On RateBeer, it's a similar story, with 2.93 out of 5 and in the 36th percentile. This makes me wonder if in fact the bottle I had wasn't too old, just not that good.

I know it's a little early to be announcing this one, but I'm going through my email and trying to be good about checking out and posting items people have sent me...

Rogue Ales: Brewer's Memorial Ale Fest (Benefiting the Humane Societies of Oregon)

Join us in Newport at the brewery for the 1st annual (dog friendly) Brewer's Memorial Ale Festival which benefits the Humane Societies of Oregon. Events include: a brewer's dinner, dog wash, doggie Olympics, and a Texas holdem game. Live music, 30+ breweries, food, and craft vendor booths ($10 admission: includes commemorative glass and 5 tasting tokens).

Dates: Friday, May 18th 2007 4pm-10pm and Saturday, May 19th 2007 12pm-10pm.

Location: Rogue Ales Brewery
2320 OSU Drive
Newport, Oregon 97365

Contact: Amy Cline - 541.967.3660 / amy@rogue.com or Robin Winfield - 503.241.3800 / robin@rogue.com

Jumbo Box of Beer Gumbo Will Benefit Katrina Assault Victims in Louisiana

Magic Hat Brewing Company has announced the release of a very limited edition Mardi Gras 12-pak to mark the season and support Crescent City women in need. The exclusive carnivale in a carton will be available only during the days surrounding the Vermont brewer's legendary Mardi Gras Weekend in Burlington. Sales of this very special boxed krewe of brew will benefit the Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault's Katrina Rape Victim program.

A Grand Parade of Promenading Potions

The festive Limited Edition Mardi Gras 12-pak will offer three bottles each of four different ales:

#9®  A reveling revolution of very-nearly-but-not-quite pale ale with a light-to-medium body; a nose of malts, fruit, and vanilla; a smooth malty sweetness; and a dry finish accented by an understated hop bitterness and a touch of tropical fruit.

hI.P.A.®  This mid-winter happening of hops has a fresh and fertile hop aroma filled with strong notes of pineapple. Our spring SeasonAle begins and ends quite hoppily yet has a supportive body of malts in the middle of every sip.

Circus Boy®  Our hazy shade of hefeweizen is a light-bodied unfiltered fat brewsday of ultimate drinkability whose wheat malt character is capable of quenching serious thirsts of all kinds.

Mardi Gras Mystery Beer®  A jazzed-out bottle of pourably good ju-ju, this light-to-medium ale honors the tradition of northern German pilsners. From its flowery nose of noble hops to its big-bite finish, it's a refreshingly crisp and dry sensation filled with a pageant of hops from start to end.

*A Very Special 12-Pak for a Very Special Cause*

Proceeds from the sale of each Mardi Gras 12-pak will benefit the Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault's Katrina Rape Victim initiative, www.lafasa.org, which seeks to ensure that victims of sexual assault during the hurricane's aftermath get the services they need.

The first of its kind in Magic Hat history, this very special limited edition 12-pak joins the brewery's other seasonal boxes, which together rotate through the four corners of the calendar to provide a selection of tastes attuned to the needs of each season.

Don't miss the 12th annual Magic Hat Mardi Gras Weekend February 16-18. Details at magichat.net

Magic Hat Brewing Company and Performing Arts Center, creators of #9®, Circus Boy® and Hocus Pocus®, supporting the Arts Community and educating consumers that "Great Sex is Worth Protecting."

Product samples available on request. Contact Kate La Riviere at (802) 658-2739. www.magichat.net

A while back the BBC posted a feature titled "50 things to eat before you die" and I thought at the time that this would make a good topic for beer. So in the spirit of adventure and living life to the fullest, etc. etc., I'm coming up with the 50 beers to drink before you die, in ten weekly installments listing five beers each (in no particular order, other than whatever theme I fit them into).

This week's theme is a little different from what I've been doing. Instead of picking a specific beer that you could (theoretically) get anywhere and drink at home, I'm going with styles of beer of a particular destination that you will have to travel to for the experience. "On the Scene" picks, as it were, and something everybody should do at least once.

In most cases, these are styles from which I've already picked bottled examples, but I think they're worth revisiting for the world traveler.

See also: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 9, Part 10.

Düsseldorf, Germany: Altbier

Altbier in German literally means "Old Beer" and refers to the old, pre-lager style of brewing this beer: it is brewed with ale yeast but stored at cold, lager-like temperatures for up to eight weeks. I once heard it opined that the only place in the world you can drink true Altbier is in Düsseldorf, where the style originated—other beer purporting to be an Alt doesn't measure up. Ever since then, I've personally considered Altbier to be the modern Holy Grail of (regional) beer.

Al Korzonas in his excellent Homebrewing, Volume 1, describes Altbier thusly:

Düsseldorf-style Altbiers are very malty and intensely hoppy.

Some interpretations are not very fruity in the nose, but most are quite fruity... in both aroma and palate. Malt flavor and aroma are strong, but hop bitterness dominates the palate.... All are medium-bodied, but are still refreshing.

Should you find yourself in Düsseldorf, head down to the Old Town and enjoy an Alt or four at Zum Uerige, of which Michael Jackson writes, "Fashion icons, rock stars, punks, men in suits, old ladies with big hats... everyone in Düsseldorf drinks at Zum Uerige by the river."

Style links: BeerAdvocate, Wikipedia.

Belgium: Lambic

The one style of beer associated with location more than any other is lambic. The unique combination of wild yeast and bacteria that spontaneously ferments this beer is only found in a small region of Belgium, and it can be rightly argued that the only true lambic experience can be found in the country itself.

And while I covered Lindemans Framboise in Part 2 of this series, I don't think any such list can be complete without including the straight-from-the-source version. There are actually four different styles of lambics available in Belgium: unblended (traditional), fruit, gueuze, and faro. Outside of the country, the bottled lambic you'll find most often are the fruit and gueuze varieties; if you want to try the others, a trip to Belgium is in order.

Style links: Unblended, Fruit, Faro, and Gueuze on BeerAdvocate, Wikipedia.

Munich, Germany: Oktoberfest

This is much more an event-driven beer recommendation than for the style (which I already covered in Part 2). But if you're going to drink an Oktoberfest, than what better place to do it than at the king of beer festivals in Munich? 'Nuff said.

The Wikipedia Oktoberfest page has the dates for the next nine years—for 2007, it goes from September 22 through October 7. Buy your tickets now!

Burton upon Trent, England: Bitter (and others)

When one thinks of Beer in England, the first place that comes to mind is Burton upon Trent, in Staffordshire. In fact, Burton upon Trent has been associated with the English brewing industry for centuries, largely because of the high quality of water there, which produces excellent beer.

The bitter recommendation here is rather arbitrary, but since there's no other ale as quintessentially English as a bitter, I went with it. But really, you could go with any local-brewed beer; the English pub experience is as much about the locale as the beer.

If you get there, try the Burton Bridge Brewery—still locally-owned and brewing authentic British ales.

Portland, Oregon: Varied

Like the event-driven Munich recommendation above, this is more of a place-driven recommendation and is not tied to any specific beer. But Portland, Oregon is a beer aficionado's paradise: home to more breweries than any other city in the country, and possibly the world, Michael Jackson in 1999 considered Portland a contender for the title "Beer Capital of the World."

Where to start? You might check out The Portland Brew Bus—they offer chartered and scheduled public tours of the brewery scene in Portland:

Our tour bus will take you around Portland to three or four breweries, where you can have samples of 15-25 different fresh beers. Our on-board guide gives a fun, educational tour of Portland, the history of craft brewing, and more.

A very good cross-section of Portland breweries participates.

If you're looking for more of a "taste of Portland" as far as beer goes, three breweries I would recommend are Widmer (their Gasthaus), BridgePort Brewing, and Hair of the Dog. (Not to slight the many other really good breweries there, but to me these three are very "Portlandy.") And for a beer? Since this is hop country, go with an IPA—perhaps BridgePort's signature version.

I thought about it, and realized there were some predictions I could make. Nothing earth-shaking here, I think they're reasonable extrapolations based on what we've been seeing.

• Continued growth in the "extreme" (and out-of-the-mainstream) brewing trends.
  Really, this seems like a no-brainer. This is a hot area right now as brewers are challenging the boundaries on what can be done with beer. And I don't just mean "extreme" as in high-alcohol, super-strong beers; expect traditional styles with unusual ingredients and/or brewing processes.
• To that end, expect Dogfish Head to brew another historic beer.
  Sam Calagione and Patrick McGovern will team up again and produce another historic (or pre-historic) brew, using molecular archaeology to analyze the residue of a drinking vessel (yadda yadda yadda), just like their Midas Touch and Chateau Jiahu beers. These types of stories are crowd-pleasers, but I won't even try to take a stab at what kind it will be.
• Anheuser-Busch will continue to produce and market on the craft beer trend.
  I think this is pretty much a given, considering their track record lately: Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale, their gluten-free offering, and so on. Hazard a guess? Just for grins, I'll say that a spruce beer will be in the works.
• Beer and food, "fine beer" knowledge/appreciation will increase.
  This is kind of a nebulous topic, but the gist of it is that I think we'll see much more awareness of beer as a "fine"/complex drink along the same lines as wine, and more attention will be made to pairing food and beer (in restaurants). The main indicator will be a marked increase in the mainstream media coverage of this topic, moving away from the common "uncultured" treatment of beer.

Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale is Anheuser-Busch's offering to the world of craft beers, a seasonal release that they first announced in 2005. I was under the impression that it was only available in the Midwest, but my wife found it here locally.

It was okay. Not great, but not terrible, either. Most of the craft brewed pumpkin beers I've tried are better, especially my own.

Appearance: Pours deep orange with red hues, very clear. Head is light tan.

Smell: Some pumpkin pie spice notes, but it's more of a caramelly malt. Grainy and a barest hint of hops.

Taste: Tastes like an amber ale with a bit of a tang—spices? Some spice in the aftertaste. A hint of sweetness and a wash of bitter. No hops. If I taste pumpkin, it's on the sweet side, almost caramelized.

Mouthfeel: Light and fizzy. A step up from watery, feels very clean in the mouth.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores 79 out of 100 with 80% thumbs up. On RateBeer it seems to score somewhat less favorably, with 2.74 out of 5 and in the 26th percentile.

I can't believe I hadn't posted a review of the 2006 Jubelale yet... I've had it written down in my notebook since around Thanksgiving. I guess that gives an idea of how far behind I am in posting them here. Of course, that makes for good blog fodder. :)

Anyway, each year's Jubel is a winner, and the current one is no exception. And, of course, every year they commission an artist to create a new label. This year:

Every year we seek out a new artist to capture the festive cheer of Jubelale on canvas. Katherine Taylor of Bend, Oregon is this year’s artist, painting a warm depiction of the Deschutes Brewery Public House on a cold Central Oregon winter’s night. We love what she created and hope it entices you to cozy up by the fire with your friends and a tall pint of Jubelale. More of her vibrant oil-paintings can be viewed at www.katherine-taylor.com.

So, on to my review notes.

Appearance: Nice tan head. Deep garnet amber in color, with red highlights when held up to the light.

Smell: Burnt sugar, caramel, alcohol. Dark fruits (raisins, plums), spicy.

Taste: Right up front is the alcohol strength (6.7% by volume), warming and slightly astringent. Spicy hops. Slightly fruity. Rich and dark.

Mouthfeel: Full-bodied; puckering in the alcohol with a slight dryness.

Overall, it's definitely another winner for me. On BeerAdvocate, it scores 88 out of 100, with 100% approval. On RateBeer, it scores 3.65 out of 5 and lands in the 91st percentile.

It's still on the shelves; get some before it's gone!

Just like last year, I'm doing a stats and data wrap-up for the site. I suppose this is mostly interesting only to me, but I like giving an idea of what the site has been doing over the past year.

• Number of blog entries: 226 (Last year: 222)
• Approximate total number of words written: 49,059 (Last year: 38,371)
• Average words per entry: 217.1 (Last year: 172.8)
• Total visitors (including all the bots, crawlers, RSS readers, and junk): 661,777 (Last year: 236,445)
• Average visitors per day: 1,813 (Last year: 647)
• Total real visitors (approximate): 347,972 (Last year: 119,300)
• Average real visitors per day: 953 (Last year: 326)
• The most active months were December and October, with 80,434 hits and 77,916 visitors, respectively.
• Ten most popular blog entries:
  1. Beer Tycoon: 3,988
  2. A-B's Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale: 2,601
  3. The Beer Hacker: Best of the cheap beers?: 2,354
  4. Buying beer online: 2,163
  5. Heineken Premium Light: 1,936
  6. The Heineken Premium Light press release: 1,736
  7. Bend Brewing Company's Poor Richard's Ale: 1,707
  8. Beer ice cream: 1,685
  9. 50 beers to drink before you die, Part 1: 1,684
  10. Pumpkin beer ruminations: 1,578
• Total number of non-spam comments: 208 (Last year: 182)
• Ten most popular search engine queries landing here:
  1. beer tycoon: 2,062
  2. pumpkin ale recipe: 1,191
  3. sam adams utopias: 1,179
  4. valentines ideas: 948
  5. sam adams triple bock: 762
  6. oktoberfest 2006: 757
  7. samuel adams utopias: 650
  8. pumpkin ale: 635
  9. pumpkin beer: 621
  10. simcoe hops: 579
• Top five search engines:
  1. Google: 47,721
  2. Yahoo: 4,461
  3. MSN: 1,882
  4. AOL Search: 299
  5. AskJeeves: 244
• Approximate breakdown of browsers and agents of visitor traffic:
  • Internet Explorer: 42.99%
  • Mozilla/Firefox: 28.47%
  • Opera: 0.83%
  • RSS readers/agents: 13.46%
  • Other stuff: 14.25%
• Total number of bot/crawler hits: 250,063

Time for a quick review. Terminal Gravity Brewing is located in the tiny little Eastern Oregon town of Enterprise, and I'd been hearing good things about their IPA, so I picked some up back around Thanksgiving (yes, I'm a bit behind on reviews). Turned out to be a pretty good IPA, I thought.

Appearance: Murky and brownish, like a dark raw cider.

Smell: Clean hops, not overwhelming. Malty with a hint of fruitiness.

Taste: Hoppy—bitter, a bit spicy, slightly dry. Clean. Good malt base, a little nutty and caramel with no burnt notes.

Mouthfeel: Nice medium body, dry from the hops and alcohol (6.7%).

On BeerAdvocate, it scores 85 out of 100, with 87% approval. On RateBeer, it scores 3.67 out of 5, and is in the 92nd percentile for the style. Try it, it's worth your time.

We caught a re-run of the History Channel's Modern Marvels series on Brewing, and I have to say, it was pretty good. They covered the history of beer and brewing pretty decently in an hour's time, and were pretty fair overall. And I do mean history—from brewing's earliest known origins in the Sumerian civilization, through Egypt, pre-historic Europe and on up through the ages.

Most interesting to me was some of the people they interviewed for the show, including Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head, Jim Koch of Sam Adams, author Gregg Smith, and others. And, seeing behind the scenes of the commercial brewing process, both for big breweries (with 180,000-gallon fermenting tanks) to small craft breweries (drawing off beer right from the small tanks through the filtration system straight to the tap).

Anyone else catch this? If not, keep an eye to the listings for it to come around again. It originally aired December 13, but the History Channel site doesn't have a time for the next time it's on. But it's worth it if you can catch it.

A while back the BBC posted a feature titled "50 things to eat before you die" and I thought at the time that this would make a good topic for beer. So in the spirit of adventure and living life to the fullest, etc. etc., I'm coming up with the 50 beers to drink before you die, in ten weekly installments listing five beers each (in no particular order, other than whatever theme I fit them into).

This week's theme is German beers. Like the Belgian beer theme a couple of weeks ago, you simply can't consider the world of beer complete without acknowledging the huge influence Germany has had.

Now, I have to admit that for this bunch, I cheated a little bit. I wanted to cover several of the broad styles of German beers (other styles are touched upon elsewhere in this series), but my knowledge of actual German-from-Germany beers is on the sparse side. So, I relied exclusively on BeerAdvocate and pulled this week's recommended beers from their top-rated list in those categories.

See also: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10.

Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier

A Hefeweizen in the true style: cloudy, yeasty, fruity, spicy with the flavor of banana and cloves. The beer weighs in at 5.4% alcohol, a nice middle ground for a crisp, refreshing wheat beer. The Weihenstephan Brewery is the oldest brewery in the world still in operation today—so I think it goes without saying that they know what they're doing.

BeerAdvocate score: 91/100, 100% approval.

Reissdorf Kölsch

Kölsch originates from the city of Köln (Cologne) and is characterized by being very light, low in hops and rather dry. It was definitely one of the German styles that I wanted to cover, and while Reissdorf isn't at the top of the BeerAdvocate list, it had the most reviews which makes it, I think, the most qualified.

At 4.8% alcohol, this light, golden German ale is the perfect session beer.

BeerAdvocate score: 84/100, 94% approval.

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen

Rauchbier (smoke beer) is another quintessential German beer style that had to be covered. The Aecht Schlenkerla brewery produces several varieties of Rauchbier, so I went with the one that seemed (to me) to best highlight the style: the Märzen variety. Their own description:

Our dark, bottom fermented speciality since 1678, brewed with Original Schlenkerla Smokemalt from our maltings and tapped according to old tradition directly from the gravity-fed oakwood cask.

Rauchbier is definitely an acquired taste, and certainly not everyone will like it. But everyone should at least try it once.

BeerAdvocate score: 87/100, 95% approval.

Köstritzer Schwarzbier

Schwarzbier means simply "black beer." They are lighter in body than porters and stouts, nicely hopped, and are often winter-seasonal beers. Not much more to be said; I picked Köstritzer because it's near the BeerAdvocate top and many of the review comments highly praised it. Go find some.

BeerAdvocate score: 86/100, 97% approval.

Aventinus

A Weizenbock by any other name is, well... a wheat bock. More of a wheat Doppelbock, actually. Another style that is quintessentially German, and Aventinus is at the top of the list. Nice and strong at 8.2% alcohol, the brewer's description of this beer is:

Dark-ruby, almost black-colored and streaked with fine top-fermenting yeast, this beer has a compact and persistent head. This is a very intense wheat doppelbock with a complex spicy chocolate-like arome with a hint of banana and raisins. On the palate, you experience a soft touch and on the tongue it is very rich and complex, though fresh with a hint of caramel. It finishes in a rich soft and lightly bitter impression.

If you want to treat yourself to a great beer, this is the beer to do it.

BeerAdvocate score: 91/100, 99% approval.

No, I'm not making any 2007 predictions myself, I'm pointing at others who are doing it for me. :)

Jay on the Brookston Beer Bulletin has five predictions, more generally on the business side of the beer industry. I think they're pretty sure bets, especially his gluten free beer prediction ("Gluten-Free beer made for the growing number of people with Celiac disease will surprise most predictions and become a bigger niche than expected.")—which I kind of touched on in my 2006 trends post.

Stan on Appellation Beer weighs in with a set of nine goofy 2007 predictions. Nothing serious here, but it's all fun.

The Brew Lounge has their predictions, mixing it up a bit between serious and silly predictions. I like their first one in particular, that of a growing trend of "smaller" beers (as opposed to the recent trend of "big" imperial/double styles), and number five, more growth in the unusual/outside-of-mainstream beer trend.

Okay, after reading these over, maybe I will make some 2007 predictions of my own. I'll think about it.