Beercraft 3.0 is now live

The Beercraft Blog is now hosted under its own domain:

http://www.beercraftsite.com

All future positing will be done there. Update your bookmarks and come join us for a pint!

-Mark

Beercraft on the road, in Amish Country!

This Friday, I’ll be heading down to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, along with my fellow beercrafters Bruce and Pat. The goal: visit some of those great Southeastern PA breweries I’ve been hearing about, and some of whose beer appears regularly in my fridge. I’m pretty jazzed on hitting Stoudt’s. There’s a lot of positive buzz about their beers, which are unavailable here in Upstate New York. The Victory Brewing Company also figures highly on my list. Of course, any recommendations from readers would be most welcome.

It’s tempting to try to hit Monk’s in Philly as well, but that seems a bit ambitious for a weekend road trip. So we’ll stick to the Lancaster region and enjoy the rustic rusticness, old-style folkways, and annoying furniture-hunting tourists from NYC.

-Mark

Happy New Year!

Yeah, you know the drill.

Merry Christmas from Mark and Bruce.

We wish a happy holiday to our readers, and we hope you have the chance to enjoy yourselves with family, friends, and a good beer.

I am so pissed off right now.

I spent a freakin’ hour on my fest review post, then while trying to flip a browser tab I accidentally clicked the bookmark bar and flopped to a different webpage. Everything was freakin’ deleted!

I’m going to destroy something. Then I’m going to destroy another thing. Sorry, but look for the fest review tomorrow.

-Mark

The Sisters of Murphy (My Irish Band) at Monty’s Krown this Friday

That’s Right, Rochester’s favorite Irish-y pub rock band, the Sisters of Murphy, will be poguesing it up at the Krown. I sing (and dabble in concertina) and Bruce plays Bass.

Our regular guitarist, Tim Shannon, is sitting out to finish up his musical doctorate. Sitting in will be Jona from 5 Watt Bulb, Hinkley, and every other freakin’ band in Rochester.

-Mark

Learn about beer from a guy who brews tons of it

Dave Schlosser, head Brewer for the High Falls Brewing Company, will be teaching a 5-week class on “Beers of the World” at the University of Rochester as part of their “Always Better Adult Continuing Education” program. Students will learn what goes into beer, how brewing differs from region to region, and the part beer plays in culture. In addition they’ll probably get to try a bunch of beer. Enrollment is $95 for the five 3 hour sessions.

-Mark

More goodness from Ommegang

I discovered through the Beer Advocate Forums that Ommegang is releasing a new beer.

It’s called “Chocolate Indulgence,” and it’s a light lager.

I’m Kidding. Chocolate Indulgence, according to Ommegang, “comes with a thick tan head of foam resting on top of the rich onyx-colored liquid. The aroma immediately speaks of dark chocolate and dark malts. The gentle herbal nose of Perle hops compliments the darker notes, making the beer savory to the senses.”

Sounds fantastic, and that’s without even considering the flavor. Being a pioneer of Belgian-style beers in the USA, Ommegang has the know-how and inventive spirit to create some fantastic, unique beers. Betcha this one’s gonna shine.

-Mark

Off-Topic: It’s that time of year where I get dyspeptic

As you are certainly aware, a dark evil masquerading as spirituality has formed in the east around a nucleus of pure evil. The proponents of this “religion,” while claiming they live among us as brothers, are responsible for countless heinous acts, attacks on good Americans, and general erosion of tenets most fundamental to the United States.

And those are just the Red Sox fans living in Boston. Every year, thousands more are churned out by the “institutions of higher learning.” located there to disseminate their twisted, perverted views throughout our great nation.

Believe it or not, some people have suggested that my views on the Boston Red Sox and their fans are, well, irrational. But I can’t help the bile rising in my throat every time I see David Ortiz’ grinning, porcine mug on TV or hear about Many Ramirez being excused from some act of near criminal stupidity simply because he is Manny Ramirez (the pundits repeating their criminally clichéd mantra ‘That’s Manny being Manny’).

And it’s not just because of the franchise’s great success in recent years. As a lifelong Yankee fan, I always want to see my team win, but without competition the drama, the excitement is missing from the game. Omniscience is boring in sports; we fans want to worship men, not gods.

No I hate the Red Sox because of the way they win, and because of the smug self-righteous hive-mind superiority that induces in their fair-weather fans.  Seemingly every Red Sox game ends in a come-from-behind victory with an Ortiz walk-off home run topping the game like a cherry on a hot fudge sundae. Or a pitcher gets cancer, beating the disease in the off-season and returning to the mound amid the popping off of both flashbulbs and the fawning mouths of sports talk hosts. Or some schlub comes up from the minors and pitches a no-hitter in his first game.

Or the Yankees lose 4 games in a row to choke away the American League pennant.

It’s uncanny, movie script after movie script, all written to be pitched to the Hallmark Channel. And, naturally, the media loves it. An endless stream of television segments about the Sox’ saccharine heroics has transformed their players into, not demigods, but flawed, earthy heroes. Likewise, that dilapidated hovel Fenway Park has eclipsed the great Yankee Stadium as the true temple of baseball in the minds of the people. And Red Sox fans are eating it up.

Incidentally, I’ve yet to actually meet a Red Sox fan. All I’ve encountered are smug post-collegiate types who speak and act as if they have the world by the balls. Because college is the best time of your life, and everyone goes to college in freakin’ Boston. In fact, it’s depressing top note how seditious these fans are, turning on their original teams the moment they’re in an big city, living on their own for the first time, and faced with the very real possibility that they might get laid. It’s worth noting that, when the chips are down, Red Sox Fan is equally treasonous to his or her adopted team. When the Sox tank in the pennant race, a feat they perform with astounding regularity, there’s nary a ‘B’ to be found on the person of Sox fans.

But the worst characteristic of the Red Sox Fan is the constant loud-mouthed hypocrisy.  They yap their eloquent mantra, ‘Yankees Suck,’ though they cannot come up with any evidence that backs this well-reasoned argument. They crow about ‘reversing the curse’ with their 2004 World Series win, although all they did was prove that, for the previous 86 years, their team simply sucked.

And then there’s the hypocrisy. The Red Sox fan is quick to accuse the Yankees of ‘trying to buy the championship,’ by paying for high-priced talent. As if Boston fielded a team of volunteer local boys from Southie.

Dreams can’t always come true, and my dream involving the demolition of Fenway Park and replacement with a Starbucks on the corner of Landsdowne Street and Yawkey Way, which would house a display case featuring Ted Williams’ frozen head won’t be realized either.

But, as a true Yankees fan through thick and thin, the Red Sox can never take away my dreams. Or, for that matter, my sanity.

 

 

Taste beer with Garrett Oliver at The Old Toad

Garrett Oliver, Head Brewer of the Brooklyn Brewery, author of The Brewmaster’s Table, and undoubtedly one of the most recognized faces in the American craft beer scene is coming to Rochester’s Old Toad on Wednesday, September 19.

Oliver will conduct a tasting of Munich’s Schneider Weisse side by side with his own Brooklyner Weisse, as well as answering questions, talking beer and brewing.

This is a fantastic chance to learn from a real pro. You know what? On second thought, never mind. The Toad is probably too small for this event. I’d appreciate it if you just stayed home.

-Mark