People are on holidays and I have quite a lot of work (fortunately). This means a short round up this time, but a juicy one nonetheless.
Let's start with something to read at the beach, a fascinating story of Brettanomyces, by Martyn Cornell. I've had a couple of 100% Brett beers, I liked them, much to my surprise, my wife liked them, too. I understand why some people have become fans of this kind of beers, and I understand why other people might think they taste like a cocktail of cat's piss and curdled milk. If given the choice, I'd go for something like Orval, where these microorganisms play a memorable supporting role, rather than the lead.
Meanwhile, Pivní Recenze muses over the meaning of "Premium Beer", reaching the surprising conclusion that it means a lot of fuck and a bit of all.
In Argentina, Ceresvis carries on with its analysis of the local beer scene. They agree with many of the things I've been saying for some time and, in fact, one of the paragraphs was in great part what inspired me to write my praise of macrobrewers (which was a hit in Brazil).
Boak and Bailey introduce one of the must useful gadgets ever invented. A device that can automatically end the most heated beer debate, The Craftometer. It is able, among other things, to measure passion in parts per millionth/mg. Amazing! If any of you has a beer fetishist in the family, this will be a great present.
What is a beer fetishist? Adrian Tierney-Jones explains it very well. Basically, someone who enjoys talking about beer, wishing beer, worship some beers more than actually drinking beer. We all know someone like that.
Beer fetishism, by the way, reminds me of the silliest question I've seen in a long time, posted on a RateBeer forum, "Is there a bias in beer ratings against big corporate macrobreweries?". I actually believe there is a bias against almost any beer that isn't hard to find/rare/extreme/expensive, etc. For some time I've been thinking that perhaps, the owners of sites like RateBeer and Beer Advocate should find a way to factor price and availability in the ratings, where lower price/wider availability would favour the score. But well, it's not my problem, after all, I care about beer ratings as much as I care about the results of archery in the Olympics.
Na Zdraví!
Travel to the Czech Republic and stay at the best Prague Hotels
I was going to buy my boyfriend those Brett beers, but with you calling it good cat piss/curdled milk, i'm not wasting my money on something so hit or miss. I'll stick to something else.
ReplyDeleteKelly, if your boyfriend is familiar with sour beers already, he will like a brett one. Otherwise, buy him a bottle of Orval and see what he thinks about it.
Delete