Sunday, May 15, 2011

National Craft Beer Week

Again this week there was no beer night. However, I did get to spend several days drinking beer with my family. To really appreciate beer is not always to sit and contemplate the taste in your mouth. Let’s be honest sometimes you need to set aside your pontificating and just drink beer for the alcohol. This happens to be the point of all the beer consumed over the past 4 days. Beer can be that comfort food that helps you feel temporarily better, the warmth that reminds you of the arms you wish you were being held in, beer is versatile and yet familiar. Sometimes you just need a beer.
On a brighter note, next week is National Craft beer week. Cities (and some hip towns) are having beer celebrations that highlight local American craft beers.  To see what’s going on near you, click here. We are not sure where we are going to celebrate yet, but we have several options close to us. We are already having fun picking out Chicago area brews for our beer night to honor National Craft beer week!
I hope that you all celebrate American Craft beer week (responsibly of course) by checking out some local breweries. You might be surprised at who is brewing right in your backyard. Try going on a brewery tour, or take a pint (or two) from a local brewery to a park and picnic. Have some friends over and sample different American craft beers, you may be surprised at the diversity in taste. You don’t have to break the bank to enjoy craft beer; actually local craft beer might be less expensive than you would think.
Have a happy beer week!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

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.

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