The human body is almost 62% water, and we can all agree that people are pretty important. The Earth’s surface is 75% water, and clearly, the planet is very important. Beer is roughly 93% water, so clearly it must be the most important thing in the world. Given my inscrutable reasoning, it pains me to say that there is one thing more important than beer, and that is water itself — which, given the amount of various compounds it contains, is roughly 99.985% H2O.  Because of this remaining 0.015% , not all water is the same, and I don’t mean to sound bigoted, but some waters are better than others. Various brewing styles around the world weren’t initially dictated by marketing campaigns but rather by a region’s respective natural water supply. The differences in the beers are often black and white, or in brewing terms, black and light. For example, [...]

First came the steam engine, then refrigeration, and then lager beer… and lager beer became damn popular. Shortly after the California Gold Rush, the pioneers gave the world steam beer. You see, lager beer is aged briefly, or “lagged” at cold temperatures. But there was no refrigeration yet in San Francisco in the 1850s, and all those thirsty miners wanted lager. So the brewers tried making lager beer without refrigeration — at ale temperatures. At first it was a total flop. By the time the hot brew of hops and barley cooled, wild yeasts and other buggers had gotten in and spoiled the batch before the lager-style yeasts could be added. Some nameless, innovative brewer came up with “cool ships”: long shallow pans into which the beer was poured, allowing the wort (unfermented beer) to cool much more rapidly. Once the temperature had dropped to where the lager yeasts could [...]

Chrome bags and Miller High Life have partnered up to give away the ultimate tour of Milwaukee, the midwestern beer mecca.  Check out all the details here

Take a look at the bottle of wine/beer/spirits in your hand. How did it get there? Well, after it was produced, the producer sold it to a distributor at less than 50% of its retail price, who then sold it to a store at a large profit, who then sold it to you at a markup 18-25% higher than its intended retail price. There may have been a broker in there as well. Why so many middle men, and why so complicated? Prohibition and the three-tier system. Prior to prohibition, the alcohol industry was very loosely regulated, and dominated by a few very large producers. Anti-competition practices abounded: if a brewery or distillery didn’t have its own bar, it ‘invested’ in bars by giving loans or furniture and, in exchange, demanded that no other brands be sold on the premises. These big, bad breweries also required increasing sales, so the [...]

Join us for the Drink Me’s Grand Tasting Party – filled with spirits, beer, wine and fun hats.  There is NO better party going on next friday. WHERE: 111 Minna // WHEN: Friday, November 4th // HOW: www.DrinkMeGrandTasting.Eventbrite.com

Happy Friday, folks! Here’s a roundup of the most fun links we’ve come across this week. So cheers to you, reader, and have a great weekend. And don’t spill your drink on that new iPhone!

“It may seem a little quaint in light of all that has come since,” says Dave McLean, owner of the San Francisco brewpub Magnolia, home to Old Thunderpussy, an 11% alcohol barley wine. He continues, “But our observation back in 2001 or 2002 was that these big beers were generally special occasion beers, commemorating events, marking time, celebrating holidays, or maybe just intended as wintertime sipping beers to take the chill off in cold-weather brewing nations.” He’s talking about February’s Strong Beer Month, Magnolia and nearby 21st Amendment Brewing’s celebration of big, bold, boozy beers that typically hover around the 10% mark when the law, in some states, mandates beer be brewed to a mere 4% ABV. To most religious zealots and even many craft beer connoisseurs, the strength of certain beers has gotten out of hand in an arms race to see who can reach the highest number. Scotland-based [...]

NY Craft Beer Week kicked off this Friday with Freaktoberfest, a party hosted by Shmaltz Brewing Co. that featured representatives from over 20 breweries, a bevy of Coney Island freakshow performers, 2 floors of live music, and a mustachioed emcee named Donny Vomit who juggled knives and swallowed balloons between sets.  The third annual celebration went down at Southpaw, a raucous music venue in Park Slope, Brooklyn where beer geeks boogied and sipped unlimited tastings alongside soul singers, industry types, and burlesque dancers. The spirit of the event was embodied by its highlighted beer and official drink of NY Craft Beer Week: Geektoberfest, a collaboration between Captain Lawrence, Ithaca Beer Co., and Shmaltz Brewing Company, is a blend of seven barrel-aged sour brown ales.  The beer, only available on draft during Craft Beer Week, is a spirited, tart ale with hints of raspberry, a kitchen-sink project that brings together sours [...]