Comments on: History According to Beer

By: http://audioboo.fm/rodrigoorteg1129

http://audioboo.fm/rodrigoorteg1129 — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 04:03:41 +0000

There is not in the world so toilsome a trade as the pursuit of fame; life concludes before you have so much As sketched your work….

The sweetest of all sounds is that of the voice of the woman we love….

By: retro nike basketball shoes

retro nike basketball shoes — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 04:02:34 +0000

The theme is The Pursuit of Hoppiness,

By: D.C.-area Educational Events about Food, Beer & Wine | Food & Think

D.C.-area Educational Events about Food, Beer & Wine | Food & Think — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:21:19 +0000

[...] is on the same afternoon. The theme is The Pursuit of Hoppiness, and if it’s anything like last year’s “Beer Planet,” the suds-soaked lecture will leave your head spinning in more ways than one! (1 to 4:30 p.m., [...]

By: Larry Bennett

Larry Bennett — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:26:02 +0000

Regarding comment number 4:

Ommegang Abbey was blind tasted against Chimay Red at the Great British Beer Fest a few years back. When one beer was announced to have won the vast majority of the votes, all assumed it was the Chimay. It wasn’t. A bit of a kerfluffle ensued, results were verified, and Ommegang Abbey had indeed carried the day.

My point is not to diminish Chimay. They make superb beers. But beer is not terroir-specific, nor to the best of my knowledge improved or diminished by association with God.

A dedicated and skilled group of brewers, working with imaginative recipes, the best ingredients, and well-developed and carefully implemented processes, can make fine beers anywhere in the world. And they do.

Chimay has a wonderful tradition, an inspiring history and a beautiful site. But those do not get up in the morning and make the beer. The brewers do that.

Cheers,

Larry Bennett, Brewery Ommegang

By: Five Ways to Cook With Beer -- Super Bowl Style | Food & Think

Five Ways to Cook With Beer -- Super Bowl Style | Food & Think — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:29:07 +0000

[...] Bread. Considering that beer’s invention was probably related to bread making, it seems fitting to combine the two. The blog Farmgirl Fare [...]

By: Horst Dornbusch

Horst Dornbusch — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:53:00 +0000

I really love it when people who were not present at my presentation comment on what I said:
(a) Jeff thinks my beers were mainstream … Well, I was trying to present the actual beer culutre as it exists, which is, really, “mainstream.”
(b) SJ reminds me that “Barrel aged beers are becoming more and more popular.” I must take a note of that!
(c) WilliamB wants me to know that a book with a mix of history and English myth contains a thesis about Suleiman’s invasion of Vienna in 1529. British, eh?
(d) pd reminds me that I should have covered the Trappist Ale tradition (which I did) and that there is a Wikipedia article on Trappist Ale. I’ll take a note of that, too!
(e) Kevin wants everybody to know that you can cook with beer. No kidding!
(f) A “shocked” Barry Foy gives me a definition of BEER! Thanks buddy.
(g) lb’s “more plausible” theory of the origin of beer sounds very similar to mine!
(h) Mark McDoremott gets into the origin of Viennese coffee houses. I admit I left that out of my presentation! Sorry!
(i) Oat is aghast that people seem to leave comments merely for the sake of comments. Thanks, Oat. You are the only one who makes sense on this blog.
Cheers.
Horst Dornbusch
(The fellow who was actually at the Brick, bedcause he was the speaker!)

By: Oat

Oat — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:29:16 +0000

I love how people love to leave comments. That is my comment.

By: Mark McDermott

Mark McDermott — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:26:12 +0000

I’ll have to check out that book on the siege of Vienna. Another story we were told back when I was on a college tour of Austria and the Balkans, is that when the Turks lifted the siege, they left behind sack after sack of their coffee. Thus was born the Viennese passion for coffees.

By: lb

lb — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:03:57 +0000

The other, I think much more plausible story for the origin of beer, is the “left for a day or two” idea, but applied to gruel, not bread. The fermentation works for almost every grain, (not just the specific, later-developing variety of high-gluten wheat needed for raised bread), is a much more direct process, and as one historian put it, a beer buzz is a “pretty powerful motivator for large scale agriculture.”

The bread-first theories mostly sprang up during the early 20th century, an era of high public disapproval of alcohol.

By: Barry Foy

Barry Foy — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:11:15 +0000

Frankly, I’m shocked at the amount of misinformation that is promulgated on the subject of beer. The following should help set the record straight:

“BEER: A beverage made with germinated grain, water, hops, and
sometimes other flavoring ingredients; fermentation is triggered by the addition of yeast. The enjoyment of beer goes back to the dawn of civilization, in Mesopotamia–not that modern beer drinkers would recognize the beverage brewed by the people of the Fertile Crescent, which resembled what we now know as Dijon mustard. The ancient Egyptians, too, were fond of beer, and the beers of the Nile region were famous for their potency: A batch served at a going-away party for the Hebrews left that venerable people wandering helplessly around a smallish patch of desert for some forty years.”

from “The Devil’s Food Dictionary: A Pioneering Culinary Reference Work Consisting Entirely of Lies” (Frogchart Press, 2008)

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:14:29 +0000

If anyone is interested n cooking with beer: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113747902

By: pd

pd — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:04:54 +0000

I’m greatly surprised that any presentation of beers would skip the Belgian Trappist ales. These are by many considered the best beers in the world, and the only dubbel that was represented was an inexpensive American copy of the style. Ommegang is nice for the price, but it in no way represents the complexities present in the dubbels, trippels, and strong darks of the true trappist style. Please try one of these!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trappist_beer

By: WilliamB

WilliamB — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:48:38 +0000

As an accompanyment I recommend reading “The Drawing of the Dark” by Tim Powers. He mixes history and English myth in a nicely readable fantasy. Specifically, the book’s thesis is that Suleiman’s invasion of Vienna in 1529 was to gain control of an ancient brewery, the source of the Dark of the title. I find it delightful that every one of the book’s checkable facts is accurate.

By: SJ

SJ — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:40:35 +0000

I must agree with Jeff.
I am at least glad you enjoyed the barrel aged Allagash. Barrel aged beers are becoming more and more popular, as people are recognizing how complex and delicious they can be.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:24:35 +0000

To be honest, it sounds a bit disappointing and depressingly mainstream.

For example, there is a notable lack of Dogfish Head “ancient ales” that are specifically historically derived.

The British ales you drank were also rather boring, pall examples of the true thing.