Kitsock: Hops tops grapes

Greg Kitsock's column in the Washington Post this week looks at beer-and-food pairing in advance of a big event happening in D.C. this May, SAVOR: An American Craft beer & Food Experience. Kitsock makes much of the beer-wine rivalry that's been growing as craft beer takes off. From his lead:

How often in a high-end restaurant have you been handed a wine list that runs on for pages, while the list of available beers could easily fit on an index card? Yet many brewers say that as a companion to a fine meal, beer is the equal of wine, if not its superior.

There's a mouthwatering photo with the story picturing a glass of stout and a plate of brownies made with the super-dark ale. Anybody else got any favorite dessert & beer pairings?

Beer is back. It's also in the office.

It's interesting that a local church group is advocating now for a ban on alcohol in Oxford (Thanks to Star reporter Andy Johns for the item below). April marks the 75th anniversary of the first legal brewing of beer after Prohibition. An Amendment to the Volstead Act allowed the brewing of beer up to 4 percent ABV in the spring of 1933, which quenched the nation's thirst until the full repeal of Prohibition that December.

By coincidence, a package arrived this morning here at the office from Anheuser-Busch. A PR rep from the company had asked if they could send along a CD of historical materials regarding the April 7, 1933 "Beer is Back" celebration. There's news clips, photos, industry data and an audio clip of August A. Busch Jr.'s address to the nation early that morning on CBS radio.

What I didn't know they were sending was a fancy wooden crate, and a five-pack (one of the bottles broke in shipping) of Budweiser. That's the goods pictured at right. The CD will be a handy refernece for next week's column. I'm not a big fan of mass-market American lagers, but I'll drink one of the bottles out of courtesy and curiosity. The other four will probably wind up in a grilling recipe for one of the newsroom's frequent outdoor cooking experiments. As for the crate, I'm not sure what to do with it. Any ideas? How about recipe suggestions for the remainder of the Bud?

Group urges Oxford council to ban alcohol

At last night's Oxford City Council meeting the deacons of Meadowbrook Baptist Church presented a letter to the Oxford City Council. The letter urged the council and mayor to consider banning the sale of alcohol in the city. The council did not respond to the letter.

My thinking is the council will not consider the proposal because restaurants (like all of the new ones built over the last decade) would be very unhappy to see their profits decrease when they can't sell beer.

Brilliant

Is there a beer-lover in the world who hasn't imagined this before? A bar in Atlanta has tables with two tap handles each that customers can operate themselves. Here's a story from the AP (courtesy of MSNBC) on the system, at STATS, a sports bar. There's also an AP video report embedded below.

What do you think about it? The video shows there's plenty of variety in the bar, but you don't get to select the beer flowing through your taps unless you make a reservation for a specific table. I wonder what impact this would have on tips for the wait staff?

Beer drinkers' delight: table-top taps

Another one for the ages

There's more coverage of the effort in some states to lower the drinking age from 21, this time in a story from USA Today. (We first discussed this a few days ago.)

The story says 77 percent of Americans are against the idea, citing a 2007 Gallup poll. The poll also found that 60 percent of Americans believe penalties for drinking underage should be tougher. Young people, men and people who drink were more lenient in their attitudes about the age limit and the penalties. Older people and women (and older women, especially) were less tolerant. 81 percent of women over 50 thought penalties for underage drinkers should be more strict. 77 percent of non-drinkers felt the same way.

What do you think? Should we be even tougher on people who get caught drinking before they're 21? Should the drinking age be lowered? To 19? 18? (It's worth noting that it's legal to buy at 18 in most of the rest of the world). Are there other ways to keep traffic deaths down besides prohibiting alcohol for adults 18-21? Should there be different ages for beer, wine and liquor?

Beer on the radio - nationwide

NPR on Wednesday aired a segment on the effort to lift Alabama's 6-percent alcohol by volume beer limit, on its All Things Considered program. The report was by WBHM's Tanya Ott.

It's a good, basic overview of the issue. Rev. Dan Ireland of ALCAP gets to say how afraid he is that expensive beer will get into the hands of Alabama teenagers. But that's quickly countered by Rep. Patricia Todd, who says teenagers are likely looking for the cheapest hooch available - just like she did when she was a kid (kudos for your reasoning and on your honesty, Rep. Todd).

Today's column

Here's today's column. The Bud Light commercial referenced is embedded below for your viewing pleasure. Here's a link, in case you need it.

Pitcher This: Use your head — Mastering the perfect pour

03-19-2008

Say what you will about their beer, but the folks at Anheuser-Busch make what may be the best commercials in the business.

A couple years ago, they ran a classic Bud Light spot about properly pouring beer.

It began with three guys in a bar watching a friend pour his beer from a bottle into a tall pilsner glass in one smooth motion, leaving a perfect, frothy head atop the brew.

"How'd you learn to pour like that?" one buddy asks in awe.

As he gazes into his past, we see the pourer's memories of training, Kung-Fu-Grasshopper-style, with an older Asian man in the art of proper decanting. The master whacks his student mid-pour with a cane.

Pour down side, no good. Pour down center to release carbonation and aroma. Again!"

We see the student repeating his lesson suspended between two trees, then while being dragged by a running horse.

Now, AB should get credit for encouraging its customers to drink beer properly, from a glass. And they did a good thing trying to educate folks the best way to pour a brew. But their advice is just a little off.

To get the goods in the glass, one must both ignore the old master's teaching, and apply it.

Zen enough for you?

Yes, pouring your beer straight down the middle of a glass will help develop a head, important in getting the right amount of aroma from a brew. But pour it all down the middle and you risk foaming the head right over the rim.

Instead, start off pouring down the side of a clean, un-chilled glass, held at about a 45-degree angle. When you've got it about half full (or half-empty?), hold the glass straight up and pour right down the middle. For most 12-ounce bottled brews going into a standard 16-ounce pint glass, this will provide just enough head to fill the vessel.

Of course, every beer is different. The brewing process gives some styles and brands more fizzy carbonation, making for more foam when you pour. Hefeweizens and other wheat-based beers are particularly heady, and so there are special, taller glasses designed to hold them. With these, it also can help to swirl a bit of beer around the side of the glass before pouring in the rest.

Pouring faster and holding the bottle higher over the glass will develop more head. Pouring slowly and holding the bottle close makes for less.

Using a British-size 20-ounce pint glass leaves more room for error when you're pouring the typical American-sized bottle. But that's cheating, in my view. If you're going to use a British-sized glass, you might as well pour a full imperial pint, and you'll need just as much skill to do it right.

So for every beer you decant, it helps to know what to expect when you tip a bottle over the rim. And the only way to get a good feel for each brew's foamy tendencies, of course, is practice. Lots, and lots of practice (trees, horse and canings from aged Asian master are optional).

Again!