Ringing in the New Year

Well, 2008 is upon us. It seem like 2007 has gone by so quickly. I just wanted to take a few minutes to recap some great beer events from the past year.

March 13th - The day I started the blog. When we actually started to grow the World Tour Team.

March 22nd - Hitting the midway point in the tour.

May 13th - Finishing the Century of beers at Winking Lizard.

July 2nd - The First Annual Corn Hole Extravaganza

August 15th - Discovering Shipyard and Smutty Nose brewing on my trip to Down East

September 11th - Having my first try of Magic Hat #9 - which has become one of my favorite beers

November 11th - Learning how to pour a half and half from the Guinness experts

December 31st - Pouring my last half and half of the year before drinking a bottle of champagne with my sister-in-law at midnight.

A Light Beer from Iron City

Yes, my blog has been a bit quiet lately. As I have mentioned before, it is the holiday drinking season. Only a few days until it is completed. It feels like it was more of an endurance challenge than the Winking Lizard World Tour of Beer.

As I am rounding the bend to the finish line, I am taking time to go back and appreciate the beers I have enjoyed over the years. Last time, I reminisced about the Sierra Nevada Christmas Ale. Today, I am thinking about an old stand by IC Light from the good folks at Pittsburgh Brewing Company (also known as Iron City Brewing).

They do have a few other good selections such as Augustiner - it reminds me of Yuengling Lager.

Not only is IC Light one of my favorite light beers, it is amazing how innovative a company they are. Here is a list of a few I really like:

• inventors of aluminum beer bottles
• First Snap Top can, produced in conjunction with Alcoa, revolutionized the beer and soft drink industries 1962.
• First Twist Off Resealable cap, 1963.
• First brewery to print scenes honoring local sports teams and individuals.
• First draught beer available in a can, Iron City.
• First light beer, Mark V, made in 1976

Of course, I am from Pittsburgh, so there is a lot of hometown pride in there for me as well. That is amplified because I know the stories of close calls when the brewery almost shut down. If they need to sell more beer to keep brewing after 142 years, I think I can have a couple bottles to keep the production going.

Cheers!

The Long Forgotten Christmas Ale

Daily life seems to go by at a break neck pace, especially at the holidays. In the midst of this crazy pace, I have forgotten many things. Life is quite lovely in the way it reminds us of the things we have tucked away in our memories.

I attended my company holiday party on Friday. At the holiday party, there was Rouge Ale - Santa's Private Reserve and Anchor Steam Christmas Ale. Both were really good brews, maybe not as good as Great Lakes version. However, they stood up on their own.

With all of these Christmas ales hitting the market, I seem to have forgotten the first seasonal ale that started the tradition for me. As I was getting beer for my own holiday party, a lovely 12 pack of Celebration Ale was staring me down in the beer aisle. It has been a long time since I had the good stuff from the people at Sierra Nevada. How could I be so forgetful. I enjoy their Pale Ale all year long.

I even have a special connection from the days when I first graduated from college and was extremely poor. A good friend of my sisters introduced me to Sierra Nevada. She also had the good grace to bring along some Celebration Ale to a party my parents were hosting one year. (nothing better than the girls kicking the boys butts at Taboo and making them sing Christmas carols in front of the tree).

I fell in love with the Celebration ale. It was really expensive; and I didn't really have the resources to buy a case of it. I was more of a Rolling Rock for $10 a case type of girl back then. I guess people and their tastes grow up.

At any rate, I was doing some Christmas shopping at a local mall. As I walked in, I spotted a wad of cash on the floor. I picked it up and looked around. There wasn't anyone near me. I was tempted to take it to the mall concierge desk, but I was enough of a veteran of the mall to know it would never make it to its rightful owner.

I stopped for a minute. Maybe this was a small miracle - a gift. There was about $30 in the stack of cash. That was just about enough money to buy a case of Celebration Ale. In general, I didn't have this kind of money and it did happen to fall into my path.

Maybe I won't go to heaven for taking found money and buying a case of beer with it. I know I definitely enjoyed having those beer with my friends. Maybe I am OK with that when I think of these famous lines.

"In heaven, there is no beer. That is why we are drinking here."

The Holiday Drinking Season

It is true that I did not write a post to ring in the official holiday drinking season. Yes, it starts on Halloween. Think about it. When Halloween hits, all bets are off.

It quickly wanders into Thanksgiving, the mac daddy of all drinking holidays. It is a holiday that is engineered for you get together with friends, have dinner, drink wine and beer, the eats lots of left overs. I think the idea of black Friday isn't just about retailers making boat loads of dough from holiday shoppers, it might be that people are a little hung over or drink so much on Thursday night they black out by Friday.

Here is the thing that is important about the drinking season. First, it provides so many opportunities from Halloween until the New Year to go out and be social. Second, it also provides a chance to try lots of different types of beer, wine or other assorted drinks.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I was in Atlanta. While I was there, I was introduced to Sweetwater Brewing Company. I had the Sweetwater 420 at a local pub when I was in town. This Extra Pale Ale was a great little brew. It is Georgia's equivalent to Great Lakes in Cleveland. Although I do have to say, any beer company would not have a tough time in comparison to the local favorite, Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR).

I have never really enjoyed drinking PBR. People are super loyal to this brand. My brother indicated it was a Southern thing. I guess my neck wasn't red enough to really enjoy it. He said if it is really cold, it tastes better. I commented that it needed to be so could you couldn't taste it.

I will say this for Atlanta, the Guinness was great. Everywhere we went, they managed to pour a good glass of the black stuff. Apparently, the bartenders in the Peach Tree State are well versed in the pouring technique necessary for a good pint.

Well, the holidays are underway (as you can tell by the Christmas decorations that have popped up everywhere). The holiday ales have made their appearance . . . and I love it.

Now, the only thing to really worry about it the amount of time I need to exercise to stave off the inevitable holiday sludge that manages to attach itself to my body during the days of eating, drinking and being merry.

Does the walking during a bar tour constitute as exercise?

Guinness Believer Event in Chicago

As I was cruising through all of the random emails I get every week, one caught my eye . . Guinness True Believer. I thought it was probably spam, but when it comes to Guinness, I am willing to take that risk.

I opened the email and it was an invitation to a Guinness event being held in several locations, none of which was my current hometown. As you know with the Irish, luck happens upon us from time to time. One of the events was in Chicago the weekend I was going to be there for business.

My co-worker and I made our way to the West Loop of Chicago. We started standing in line a couple of minutes early . . thank heavens because it was first come, first entry. I had no idea what to expect, the sign outside of the event didn't give any indication either.

We get into the venue after a few minutes in the windy Chicago evening (our event was at 9pm). When you get into the room, you take a token to the bar and great a freshly poured pint of Guinness. I was liking this event already. They told us we had until 9:40 when we would be asked to go to another room.

My co-worker and I moseyed up to the bar, waited in line for a bit and waited for the nice bar keeper to pour our pints. I was fevered with anticipation. Could there be a band inside? We had all kinds of theories.

Of course the reality was not as good as us imaging U2 was playing a super secret gig in Chicago and we were there to see it.

It was pretty cool. There was a Guinness pouring competition. Everyone learned how to pour a half and half. We got mini pint glasses and a half and half spoon. There were a few other things going on. Overall, it was definitely worth the trip and the experience.

It made me really long for Ireland. How much I miss the relaxing experience of sitting in a pub, reading a good book and having a few pints. Slainte!

Something I always knew . . beer can be good for you

So I am always excited to hear some good news about beer. I am not quite sure what I think about anyone who isn't. Before I go on a tangent, I want to share some great news that I read this morning.

According to a story in the British Telegraph, people can benefit from drinking a beer after strenuous physical activity. Now, it does indicate you need to limit the consumption to one or two (that is where the goodness of the theory falls apart).

The study talks about how Spanish researchers have determined that beer can help someone who is dehydrated retain liquid better than water. I knew those Hash House Harriers had something going there.

Personally, I had a couple of pints after I ran the Army 10 miler and I felt ducky the next day. I have to say, one of my favorite races is the Arlington September 11th Memorial Run. Not only do you get to run around the Pentagon at sundown, the sponsors serve beer and pizza at the finish line.

So there you have it folks. Motivation to run a couple of laps around the neighborhood!

World Tour . . Japanese Style

On the World Tour of Beer, participants drink beverages from all over the globe. I have talked about some of the fine brews we have had from the Czech Republic, from Trappist Monks in Belgium and from spots as exotic as Sri Lanka.

One of the countries that was not represented in this year's tour was Japan. When I was working at the Swage, we often hosted associates from Japan. Although there was a language barrier, we often found common ground in the fact that they love beer and we love beer.

I have to admit, the Japanese are not the only people in Asia who like to drink. Our friends in China and South Korea like to participate in their fair share of a good time. If you ever want to inquire, Hollow Leg and the Cruise Director have very incriminating photographs to back up my claims.

Partaking of some great Japanese beers like Ashi, Sapporo or Kirin can get you into a party mood and a little hung over. It made me wonder about the cultural experience of the Japanese. As we know, Americans like to drink. When we drink too much, most of us get hungover . . . with the exception of Hollow Leg.

I went exploring this topic on the Internet. I found a great blog entry about How the Japanese cure a hangover. Even better was the detailed explanation about the Japanese culture of the two-day and three-day drinking session.

I think they have the Americans beat here. There are actual words for two-day drunk and three-day drunk in their language. We just call it a lost weekend.

With a series of hangover remedies listed in the posting, the author rightly poses the question - what do YOU do to prevent a hangover?

My answer - have a Bailey's and coffee or just start praying for lunch hour to go sleep it off. Not that I EVER had to do that.