The Cheap Beer Taste Test

People across the world have amazing ways to kick off the new year, and for our celebration, three of us here at Happy Hour decided to do a cheap beer taste test. The three sampled a number of cheap beers and made very simple notes on each without knowing what was what. Check out the results:

‘Brew Masters’ Debuts On Discovery

For months, I have anticipated the debut of this show. ‘Brew Masters’ is exactly the kind of thing I’ve been talking about since getting into beer, and being an avid Discovery Channel watcher built the anticipation even more. The show is hosted by Sam Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware. Dogfish Head is currently one of my top 5 favorite breweries in the nation, so this helped build the steam in my mind, as well. The approach to the show can be expressed as ‘How It’s Made’ meets ‘Mythbusters’ meets ‘American Chopper’ meets ‘a delicious pint of 90 minute IPA.’

Episode one introduced us to the brewery, told us a bit about the process, sprinkled in some history of brewing and let us meet the characters of the show. And I do mean characters. Sam and his collaborators have a fun sense of humor that comes across in the show and have crafted themselves easily as likable hosts. I’m excited for the show and don’t really want to wait another week to learn about turning spit into beer!

…Until then, I better go find myself a Theobroma to cool me down.

1814 Beer Flood Sounds Like Heaven To Brother Jon

See now this would not be a problem for brother Jon. Drowning in beer? Come on...

So an accident, happened in London 1814, 3,500 barrels of beer caused a flood and drowned 9 people, also destroying 2 houses. In this case, it is safe for me to believe that this event would be a child's dream come true for our beloved Jon. As for me, it would probably be... something like immersed in a flood of dragon fruit juice.

So what would yours be?

Source

Beer With Jon :: Alec Mull, Founders Brewing Co.

For anybody who may have missed it on last week's show, here is a clip of an interview I did with Alec Mull, the Director of Brewery Operations at Founders in Grand Rapids, MI. Topics include: RateBeer Rating & Breakfast Stouts @ Founders.

Portland Has Beer.

I was on a trip to Portland, OR this week on biznass. So I drank some beer! Here's the scoop on the sampling I did:

1 - Hopworks Urban - 12 Beers - All organic, 2 casks, pretty good solid options

2 - Hair Of The Dog - 6 Beers - All good, "Greg" was a no hops w/ squash, good barleywine

3 - Deschuttes - 7 Beers - Decent selection, decent XPA and gluten free. Split across 2 visits.

4 - Tug Boat - 6 Beers - Wasn't on my list, decent bock, good atmosphere, only ok overall

5 - Rogue - 9 Beers - Good hazelnut ale, chocolate stout = hershey bar, more than i could taste alone, nice waitress brought me a free sample of red and a portland beer map

Stats: 3 Days, 5 Breweries, 40 beers

::Jon's East Coast:: Holy Tornado!

On our way to the final brewery, WE DROVE THROUGH A TORNADO (actually four touched down...)

Our final beer count for this trip is:

275 Beers

33 Breweries

Hooray!!!!!!

::Jon's East Coast:: Beer Update #2

Midway through our trip, we have hit 21 breweries and have sampled 206 different beers!

::Jon's East Coast:: Beer Update #1

After the first two days of breweries, we have hit 9 breweries for a total of 84 beers sampled. More to be updated as we go!

Interested In Michigan Beer?

Check out the documentary Jon Whiting produced on Michigan brewed beer, featured above on Vimeo. Interviewees include Paul Stewart, Mark Rieth, Ken McPhail and Travis Fritts from Crunchy's, Atwater Block, Hideout, and Detroit Brewing, respectively.

Getting Drunk At Work: No Longer Allowed??

So this is something that will piss you off:

For years, workers at Carlsberg Brewery (the no.4 brewery in the world) have been able to drink all day at work. SUDDENLY, the brewery seems to think that they should only be drinking at lunch and removed all the beer from fridges and stuff around the workplace!

WHO THE HELL DO THESE PEOPLE THINK THEY ARE TRYING TO TELL ME WHEN I CAN AND CANNOT GET DRUNK AT WORK??

Jon's Short List - Beers @ SXSW

So when on a trip, I like to try a variety of different beers. When in Austin, TX for SXSW, I had the following beers (in no particular order or quality):

- Miller High Life

- Guinness

- Red Stripe

- Fat Tire

- 512 Fireman's 4

- Pabst Blue Ribbon

- Shiner Bock

- Shiner Black Bohemian

- Tecate

- Lone Star