Sunday, February 29, 2004
1) We're racking the IPA tonight. I hope it's okay; we had a sanitation mishap (forgot to sanitize the fermenter) which held up the wort-cooling process. Better to slow up the process than to risk infection, though.
2) I miss pubs. I keep getting invited out to "bars" in LA that turn out to be asshole hipster hangouts with dancing, lines in front, and mediocre $5 beer. There are a few good pubs/bars in LA, of course. But even when I escape beer that is both mediocre and expensive, I get beer that's mediocre *or* expensive. GodDAMNit. It just doesn't pay to drink outside my apartment. Increasingly, it doesn't pay to drink beer someone else brewed.
3) My latest cheap swill experiment from the 99 Cent store was Yanjing, the official state beer of China. I expected to finish that experience cursing communism, but hey, it wasn't bad for 50 cents. I do woefully miss what 50 cents got me in Germany, though.
2) I miss pubs. I keep getting invited out to "bars" in LA that turn out to be asshole hipster hangouts with dancing, lines in front, and mediocre $5 beer. There are a few good pubs/bars in LA, of course. But even when I escape beer that is both mediocre and expensive, I get beer that's mediocre *or* expensive. GodDAMNit. It just doesn't pay to drink outside my apartment. Increasingly, it doesn't pay to drink beer someone else brewed.
3) My latest cheap swill experiment from the 99 Cent store was Yanjing, the official state beer of China. I expected to finish that experience cursing communism, but hey, it wasn't bad for 50 cents. I do woefully miss what 50 cents got me in Germany, though.
Sunday, February 22, 2004
Ooh, I want to go here. From my latest issue of Budget Travel magazine:
"I found the best bar in the world in Botswana's Okavango Delta. A large wooden deck with a cave at one end and the Delta at the other, the Cave Inn...is a memory that I will always cherish. There's no bartender, just a cooler full of beer and a list of names. A check next to your name meant one beer consumed and a rand owed to the house. We drank Tafel and Rhino beer, played darts, and watched elephants, hippos, and crocodiles, all from our bar in paradise."
So I forgot to mention that our second batch of homebrew, a weizenbock, turned out well. This was mostly Rick's baby as I wasn't sure we were ready for a high-alcohol beer, but I should have helped more and thus been able to take more of the credit, too ;) Yummy yummy.
We're doing Batch #3 tonight, a straight-up IPA from the homebrew supply store's vault of recipes. I'll be doing this one mostly myself, in return for Rick doing the last one mostly himself. Also, there's some poetry to the woman doing most of the work on a hoppy, bitter beer. Yay, hops!
"I found the best bar in the world in Botswana's Okavango Delta. A large wooden deck with a cave at one end and the Delta at the other, the Cave Inn...is a memory that I will always cherish. There's no bartender, just a cooler full of beer and a list of names. A check next to your name meant one beer consumed and a rand owed to the house. We drank Tafel and Rhino beer, played darts, and watched elephants, hippos, and crocodiles, all from our bar in paradise."
So I forgot to mention that our second batch of homebrew, a weizenbock, turned out well. This was mostly Rick's baby as I wasn't sure we were ready for a high-alcohol beer, but I should have helped more and thus been able to take more of the credit, too ;) Yummy yummy.
We're doing Batch #3 tonight, a straight-up IPA from the homebrew supply store's vault of recipes. I'll be doing this one mostly myself, in return for Rick doing the last one mostly himself. Also, there's some poetry to the woman doing most of the work on a hoppy, bitter beer. Yay, hops!
Saturday, February 07, 2004
I hate Bud as much as any beer snob, but this is absurd. Reelbeer.com says:
Steve Berman, a class action lawyer from Seattle, had filed a lawsuit in California against the world's two biggest brewers, accusing them of advertising to minors and seeks $4 billion in disgorgement of profit. The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court against Anheuser-Busch Co. and SABMiller, takes advantage of two California laws. One bans advertising intended to influence underage drinking, and the other allows individuals as well as the state's attorney general to sue for violations of state consumer protection laws on behalf of the state. Berman previously successfully sued tobacco makers in 13 states by charging, in part, that they targeted youth. Aside from the $4 billion in profit, the California suit seeks an injunction
barring any further efforts to reach an underage audience.
Pray tell, how is anyone supposed to advertise anything to ensure that no one under 21 ever sees it? Hate to tell you, but 18-year olds are old enough to do absolutely every legal thing in this country, except drink -- so no beer ads in porno movie theaters, wedding chapels, voting booths, military recruitment centers or on cigarette packs, either, or the "children" may see it.
Want to know why American young adults remain virtually teenaged forever, living with their parents until they're 35 and generally rejecting maturity at every possible opportunity? It's not just because we won't let them drink alcohol until they're "adults" plus three years, but that infantilization of legal grown-ups doesn't help anything. Like any other non-Muslim country in the world gives a shit if a 19-year-old settles down with a pint!
But then, this is the country where a breast on television is cause for zillion-dollar lawsuits. I miss Germany. A lot.
Steve Berman, a class action lawyer from Seattle, had filed a lawsuit in California against the world's two biggest brewers, accusing them of advertising to minors and seeks $4 billion in disgorgement of profit. The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court against Anheuser-Busch Co. and SABMiller, takes advantage of two California laws. One bans advertising intended to influence underage drinking, and the other allows individuals as well as the state's attorney general to sue for violations of state consumer protection laws on behalf of the state. Berman previously successfully sued tobacco makers in 13 states by charging, in part, that they targeted youth. Aside from the $4 billion in profit, the California suit seeks an injunction
barring any further efforts to reach an underage audience.
Pray tell, how is anyone supposed to advertise anything to ensure that no one under 21 ever sees it? Hate to tell you, but 18-year olds are old enough to do absolutely every legal thing in this country, except drink -- so no beer ads in porno movie theaters, wedding chapels, voting booths, military recruitment centers or on cigarette packs, either, or the "children" may see it.
Want to know why American young adults remain virtually teenaged forever, living with their parents until they're 35 and generally rejecting maturity at every possible opportunity? It's not just because we won't let them drink alcohol until they're "adults" plus three years, but that infantilization of legal grown-ups doesn't help anything. Like any other non-Muslim country in the world gives a shit if a 19-year-old settles down with a pint!
But then, this is the country where a breast on television is cause for zillion-dollar lawsuits. I miss Germany. A lot.
