Wednesday Beer Quiz!!

Yes! It's official! It is already Wednesday! I check the calendar three times to make sure...
So, the answer to last week's quiz.... What is the best temperature to serve beer at? 100% of the people who took the quiz got it right (go you!). The correct answer is, It's different for each type of beer. Looks like you know how to serve your beer. You can find out about specific temperatures for you specific beers at ratebeer.com. Now if only the temperature outside would cool off, we are approaching 100 degrees.

Did you enjoy the articles and blogs I routed you to on Monday? I hope so... but not too much that you wont' keep coming here to read my blog.

Today I would like to take a second to give you another handy website that I found... It is a page dedicated to keeping track of beer festivals! http://www.beerfestivals.org/ has every month of the year for you to peruse, and peruse you should!

I am sorry to break it to you, but this week there won't be a quiz. I just am out of trivia at the moment. If you have a good idea, topic or question to be the quiz for the week, please, please, please email it to me.

I got so many interesting beers this Saturday at my daughter's birthday party that we should be set for a few weeks for tasting beer, but if there are any that you want to suggest, I will reward your email suggestion with not only gratitude and a shout-out on this blog, but also your choice of stickers or pens( sorry nothing cooler)

Still no word on the domain problem that is plaguing me, but don't worry, I am still writing and putting together the photo gallery (which means I need you to keep sending pictures of you with beer, or just beer).

Hang in there, this week is already half over!

Wednesday Fun Quiz

I won a House Party from Budweiser, and my party is this weekend. I am prepping for the party and trying to plan fun things to do. I got a bunch of free stuff for the party and vouchers for Budweiser products. I thought that it would be nice to do a quiz about Budweiser this week, since I am trying to brace myself for drinking Budweiser this weekend. I have been going over all of the "suggested games" that Budweiser sent me and thought I would steal one of their trivia questions. You can find the answer here.
How I won this Budweiser party escapes me honestly. I applied for it laughing because I thought they would see my blog, or read my questions about using the vouchers on Goose Island instead of Bud products. I never thought I would win, but I did. I even had to take a survey to say how familiar I am with the Bud family of products and if I drink them and if I recommend them to friends (which I answered no to). I am guessing that they are not desperate for hosts, because I know people who didn't win it. My only conclusion is that they want to change my beer-snobby mind by sending me free stuff... well played Budweiser... well played. We will see how it works out.

I have my vouchers, and I am going to the store Friday night. I got coupons for charcoal and sausages too. We got cool Frisbees, t-shirts, cups, beer coozies and $5 mail-in re-bates to give out to our guests. This is all under the auspices of promoting their limited edition patriotic cans. If you haven't seen the commercial, here it is.

I think that the patriotic can is cool looking, I will admit that. I am not sure why they are so excited about a limited edition can... but hey, I am getting free stuff so I can't complain.

Needless to say, this weekend's post will be all about our Budweiser party. Since I haven't had Budweiser in like 7 years, it will be interesting.

Don't forget to take this weeks quiz, answers will be given next Wednesday.

Wednesday Post (on Thursday again)

I am getting so bad with this posting on time thing... BUT this time it wasn't my fault... I am blaming Mother Nature. Mother Nature sent a super nasty storm across the country and I was stranded in New York without my laptop, so that is why there was no post yesterday.

Alright, time for the quiz. No one (not a single person) emailed me an answer to the quiz this week, so I am assuming that means it was too difficult to look through old posts to find the answer, which was Solstice d'hiver(Winter Solstice) and it was terrible. SO, no one gets stickers... I feel like I am being really mean when I say that....

I am not sure if our palates are not cultivated enough to enjoy barley wine, or if that was a bad example of barley wine. According to Beer Advocate, it could be both, they describe the beer a little bit but have some suggestions for the best out there, and the one we tried isn't on the list. Barley wine is simply a strong beer that has a specific gravity (chemistry stuff that I don't understand at this point in time) and is in a specific range of alcohol content, between 8% and 12.5%. Each brewer makes their barley wine differently and I think that this difference could be the key. You see, we had a barley wine from Two Brothers that we really liked. It wasn't overly alcoholic in taste and unlike the Solstice d'hiver, it actually tasted like beer. My suggestion to you all is, try one of the barley wines that beer Advocate suggests... let me know how it is, and what you think. It could just be me :)

No quiz this week... not a punishment, just don't have the time for it today.

I would like to show you some pictures from my Father's day excursion to Indiana... My cousin and her wonderful husband made us a fantastic German and Polish feast. I also asked them to guest post for me on their recent trip to Germany.

Check out the centerpieces that my cousin made. Isnt' that the cutest use for recycled beer bottles? Have you ever done anything with recycled beer bottles or cans?

This is my super awesome grandpa with his beer.

This is my dad and my daughter.... what a cutie pie!



Autumn



I know I said this blog wasn't about my daughter, but I love her and this is a super cool picture of her looking super cool. No, she didn't drink that beer, this was posed and at no point did she handle any alcohol.

It feels like Fathers' Day was weeks ago, not days ago!

I hope that you are all looking forward to this weekend's post. I will be talking abotu drinking beer in another state! And there will be pictures of beer!

Wednesday Quiz

The answer to the beer quiz, “Which brewery is America's oldest operating commercial brewery?” is Yuengling Brewery. Established in 1829 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Yuengling is the oldest still operating brewery in America. I hear it is really good beer that hasn’t been changed/watered-down/ruined over a hundred years of marketing to the American palate, unfortunately since they are only distributed on the east coast I can’t say I have tried it (note to anyone going to the east coast, bring me back a beer).

Next we have, Joseph Schlitz Brewery , established in 1848 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Schlitz is synonymous with cheap beer after they changed their recipe in the early 1970’s, but in 2008 the Schlitz Brewing Company brought back the original recipe to a huge amount of fan-fare, and not just from my dad! Sadly this too is a beer I haven’t had…mostly because I forget about it. Maybe I will buy a six-pack and share it with my pops on Fathers’ Day this Sunday. Schlitz has a very interesting history, and it has become a beloved institution of the Midwest.
Anhueser Busch Brewing Company was established in 1852 and has gone on to become one of the largest beer corporations in America. I could go on for hours about Anhueser-Busch, the history, the current goings-on, etc. But I won’t… and that goes the same for another Milwaukee institution, Miller Brewing Company. Miller was established in 1855 and is the other GIANT beer corporation in America.

So there you have it, the oldest operating commercial breweries in the United States. Love them, hate them, never tried them, you can’t deny that they have had a long history in the country, and have shaped the beers we drink today. The answers were split evenly across the board for all of the breweries.

For this week, I am thinking that I will try a suggestion that I got. It was suggested that I should make my quizzes about something on the blog, so the reader (you) don’t have to go pull up Google and type in the question. Now you have to look through old posts! HA!(evil-half- cackle) This week I will also be offering a very swanky prize!!! Brace yourself!!! Ready?!?! STICKERS!!! (this is where I am imagining you screaming with enthusiasm, like Oprah show enthusiasm, not the sort of bummed out face you are actually making).You heard it! I have finally dropped some cash on some Hoppy Beer Girl swag to hand out. The thing is, in order to verify that you have the correct answer and not someone impersonating you to get my awesome stickers, you will have to email me your answer… I know… more work… email me at hoppybeergirl@gmail.com with Weekly Beer Quiz in the subject line. Then you can give me your answer and any praise you want. I will send everyone with the correct email address a message next week to get info to send you cool stuff.

Have a good rest of your week! And prepare to have your mind blown by my Fathers’ Day beer plans! Well maybe not, but I think it is a good plan…

Oh and thank you to Amy for the suggestion

They Call it a Beer Revolution

... I don't care what they call it, it tastes good!
Last week's quiz, Which country has the highest beer consumption per capita in the world, had a 50/50 split between Germany and the Czech Republic, so whoever picked the Germans, sorry, you were wrong (shocked I know). The Czech Republic has the highest amount of beer consumed per capita of any country, as demonstrated by fancy graph on wikipedia. Surprisingly, Ireland comes in second and Germany is in third place, sort of ruins the idea behind the movie Beerfest, I know.

Please remember to take the weekly quiz/poll, I get really excited when I see people have taken it, and I think it is fun. But if you don't take it, I won't make it anymore...

This week is a little bit of American Beer history, enjoy!

Happy Wednesday on Thursday...

I am a day late on everything this week! I only had a couple of suggestions for pairing food with beer, and they all involved cheese in some way. Not that there is anything wrong with it, I actually tried one of the recipes that I was sent, Cheesy Beer Dip.

            How about using beer as a marinade? I have marinated pork chops in black ale and cooked potatoes in lager, but one of my favorites is Cerveza Shrimp!

Medium, cleaned raw shrimp

1 bottle of hoppy beer (or cheap Mexican style beer aka Corona)

2 limes

4 cloves of garlic

2 tsp cumin

Black Pepper

Salt

Chipotle in Adobo sauce (optional)

Cilantro

Cut up the garlic and put half in large freezer bag with shrimp and the bottle of beer, add salt, pepper, cilantro, cumin and lime juice from one lime.

Let marinade for about 2 hours… more if you want.

With a dash of olive oil, start cooking the remainder of the garlic until soft, on low heat.

Drain some of the liquid (about half the liquid) and pour contents into hot sauté pan.( this is where you would add one  diced chipotle and a tsp of adobo sauce from the can into the mix)

Cook until shrimp is cooked through and serve with rice and sliced lime for garnish.

Here is the Recipe for Cheesy Beer Dip

Cheesy Beer Dip

2 pkgs(8oz) cream cheese

1 envelope dry Ranch dressing mix

1/3 cup beer

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

in large bowl, beat together cream cheese, beer and mix( you may add more beer if necessary to mix)

stir in cheese. serve with pretzels

Thank you Cathy for contributing your recipe!

This week’s quiz is an interesting tid-bit about global beer consumption, so Enjoy!

And please don't be afraid to email me abotu anything beer related

Happy Wednesday!

This was designed by Mark, who did my logo as well.

So last week we had a poll rather than a quiz. The question was what sort of Hoppy Beer Girl stuff would you be interested in? We had an overwhelming win for Hoppy Beer Girl Pilsner glasses, followed closely by coasters and T-shirts, then Stickers. Apparently no one wants key chains... Fair enough. I am looking at getting some of the aforementioned items made, some will be give aways for quizzes, and I am contemplating making the pilsners and offering them for sale, as they are terribly expensive to have made. Tell me what you think. Did you see the contact me section at the bottom of the page? It's new... try it. I would love to hear from you.

This week is devoted to beer and food (what a wonderful pair!). You may have gone to a beer and food pairing, I know that bars around us offer bacon and beer tastings. You may cook with beer, you may just drink beer when you cook. Send me some of your favorite pairings for beer. Let me know what you like to cook with beer. I will share a few recipes next Wednesday, so help me out. If you don't have it, or don't want to scroll to the bottom of the page, you can email me at hoppybeergirl@gmail.com or find me on Facebook and message me.

Wednesday Quiz and New fun stuff

So last week's quiz question was, The Code of Hammurabi, the first written law codes, stated that any drinking establishment that was caught watering down their beer was to receive the following punishment. The correct answer is Death.

The Babylonians are credited with many of the "firsts" in western civilization, including the first set of written laws. King Hammurabi is credited with unifying the laws and having them committed to tablets. Several of the laws were regulations on beer, since water was not always a safe thing in ancient (and in some modern) times. Beer was a way to get hydration and nutrition in a safe (and fun) way.

As you may have noticed, I have a logo (yay!), thanks to Mark at http://www.tomcuttingboardcomics.com.
Other new stuff, a new quiz this week :) Now let me put this out there, if you aren't interested in the weekly poll/quiz please let me know. I am open to suggestions...
This week we have a poll, because your opinions matter, enjoy!
Oh and don't forget to support your local craft brewers this week for National Craft Beer Week!

Wednesday Quiz

I do apologize for no beer tasting this past weekend. There will hopefully be one this weekend, but I cannot promise it for sure.We had some family stuff come up.

The answer to last weeks’ quiz is, Lagers require colder temperatures to ferment. They do often use different yeasts as some of you thought, but the different yeasts are more for flavor, while the colder temperature is the main component for a lager versus ale. You can check out the history of Ale and the history of Lager, it is very interesting, well at least to me. 75% of you answered that Lagers require colder temps, so good job!

This week’s quiz combines my two favorite subjects again, beer and history.

Wednesday Quiz

Sixty Six percent had the correct answer to the quiz last week, the earliest brewers were women, and this trend continued until beer started to become commercialized. Beer was one of the few ways women could make a decent living, a.k.a not selling themselves. So thank you beer for helping women! Much like making cheese or butter back in the day, beer making was an artisanal craft, much like it is becoming again today in America.

This week’s quiz is what I think a very important thing to know. The difference between how a lager is made and how ale is made changes the way the beer is flavored, the way it tastes. There is of course ways the brewers can get around this and not all ales taste like ales and not all lagers taste like lagers. Good luck, I look forward to seeing what you all think.