Throughout December I posted The Beer Drinker’s Holiday Gift Guide Parts 1 & 2, focusing on books, novelty items, and big ticket presents. With Christmas mere days away Part 3 is going to focus on those last minute gifts that you grab on the way to a Christmas Party, your family’s house, or as you step out to ‘run an errand’ Christmas Eve. So ladies and gents, when you’re pressed for time and all out of ideas the best present for a beer drinker what do you buy? Beer of course! But, the question remains, what beer?

When I think of the holiday season three main beer styles come to mind. Any one of these styles are welcome during fireside gatherings, and better yet some can be cellared as a keepsake if the gift receiver so desires. With this in mind, the truecask.com three best beers to give as gifts during the holidays:

1.) Winter Warmer – Admittedly, I am not the biggest fan of winter warmers. All to often they miss the mark and end up tasting like a cup of christmas spices. That said, when the are on, they are fantastic. As this is the lightest beer in this category some versions may or may not be worthy of cellaring. A good rule of thumb is anything over 8% ABV is good for cellaring, anything under not so much. Click the title link for Beer Advocate‘s list of the best winter warmers.

2.) Imperial Stout – Of the three styles listed here, this one has to be my favorite. Russian Imperial Stouts are dry, with big burnt malt and chocolate flavors. Some compare the experience of drinking an imperial stout to that of drinking a fine whiskey. As the Russian Imperial Stout goes from 8% ABV to upwards of 20%+ in extreme cases they are perfect for cellaring. Click the title link for Beer Advocate‘s list of the best imperial stouts.

3.) Barleywine – Except for the most extreme imperial stouts, Barleywines are the grandaddy of high-alcohol beers. Although they have no relation to wine itself, the strength and complexity of barleywines helped spawn their name. If any beer was designed to be cellared like wine, this is it. Click the title link for Beer Advocate‘s list of the best barleywines.

That’s it for the truecask.com holiday gift guide. I look forward to picking up 2010 where 2009 left off. Have yourself a fantastic holiday season, I wish you and yours all the best!

A couple of weeks ago I posted The Beer Drinker’s Holiday Gift Guide Part 1, breaking down the best books to buy the hop-head in your life. With Christmas fast approaching, I figured it best to post part two in order to avoid this becoming a Valentines Day gift guide.  In this part, I break down a couple of big ticket items as well as a couple of cheaper, yet still well thought-out gifts.

Organization Membership: Often beer lovers wish to explore their passion, yet they lack a group of like minded-people to share experiences with. With that in mind, I feel one of the best gifts you can give to a beer lover is a membership to a local beer club, group, or organization. Locally, we have CAMRA Vancouver; abroad there are many other organizations such as the Craft Brewers Association, and CAMRA UK.

Beer Education: One of the greatest assets I’ve had in my exploration of beer was my Beer School education. It can not be understated how important knowing what you’re talking about is when in the company of beer geeks. Not only that, but it should help you find out what exactly you do and don’t like when it comes to beer. The ability to sample all kinds of beer is the true selling point of this education; otherwise, who is to say you aren’t a lager lover and have to immediately take a trip to Germany for Oktoberfest? Speaking of Oktoberfest, that would make a great gift, but probably out of most people’s price range.

Glassware: I’ve covered glassware before. That said, variety is the spice of life and there is no such thing as having too many beer glasses. If the person you’re buying for already has beer glasses, then I suggest finding out if their favorite brewer has a line of glasses and buying them some of those. Most brewers tend to have a line of beer glasses that suit their beer, so you’re more than likely going to come across them easily. If they lack beer glasses, then I suggest you refer to my A Note On Glassware post and see what I think is the best all around beer glass on the market.

Bottle Opener: Most people will scoff at this idea, as it is a little cliché. However, I have found a bottle-opener that is far from cliché; in fact, it is possibly one of the best bottle-openers I have ever seen. The Ring Thing is a stainless steel ring with a bottle opener on the bottom. Although rather simple, I know many people who wish they had a bottle opener on them at all times and now they have no excuse not to. Additionally, it is actually quite low-key and no one will know you’re packing a beer accessory at all times. Add in the party trick factor of being able to open a bottle with your hand and no visible tool and you’ve got a winner.

Next week I’ll get into those last minute gifts we all know you’ll need suggestions on!

Every year people around the world struggle to find gifts for friends and family come the holiday season. In the past, my trick was to figure out their hobby and then research useful items that pertain to that passion. However, this is a dangerous way to go as you could end up buying them something completely useless despite its relation to their hobby. I know I have my share of gifts I grinned and thanked someone for, then thought to myself ‘what the heck am I going to do with this?’  With that in mind, I have set out to provide the loved ones of us craft beer fans a holiday gift guide. Each item was researched with care, taking the input of many craft beer fans to help make this as universal as possible. Without any further delay, the beer drinker’s holiday gift guide 2009 part 1:

Books:

It’s simple to suggest books and leave it at that. It’s more difficult to suggest a short list of books with the sheer mountain of literature written on the topic of beer. Because of this, I have chosen to divide the books into four topics and pick my favorite in each:

Tasting & Styles: Tasting Beer – If you were to buy one book on beer, this would be it. No book out there covers every aspect of beer in such detail. Including history, brewing process, instructional details on how to taste, and breaking down every major common style, this book has it all. Clearly there is a reason it’s the Beer School text book.

Pairing: The Brewmasters Table – Now that you’ve filled your brain with beer knowledge, it’s time to expand your understanding of pairing beer with food. The ultimate guide for this is Garrett Oliver’s The Brewmasters Table.  At 400 pages it’s anything but vague, yet offers only enough detail to get you started pairing and doesn’t hold the reader into thinking only certain foods pair with certain beers.

Brewing: Radical Brewing – Admittedly, the art of brewing is something I am just starting to get into, thus I could not offer personal experiences with this book. That said, Radical Brewing came highly recommended among my peer group. The general consensus is that it is the most readable and expansive, containing the most interesting aspects of brewing. Although not a beginner’s book, it’s probably the most used in a home brewer’s arsenal. Once you’ve learned to taste and pair beer, this is the logical next step.

Business: Brewing Up a Business – Every home brewer has thought about turning their hobby into a business at some point. This inevitable step is best accompanied by literature that describes the process of starting one’s own brewery from start to finish. Of all the books out there on the subject, and there are a lot, I found Sam Calagione’s Brewing Up a Business to be the best introduction to the subject. Though many will argue that The Brewers Association’s Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery is a more comprehensive tomb, I feel that  the story of Dogfish Head’s founder is a much more interesting read, thus it is my number one pick for beer business books.

Based on the titling of this post, you’ve probably assumed this will be a multi-part series leading up to the holidays. Initially I wanted to get this covered in one shot on December 1st but the amount of detail I wanted to include explaining each choice would have made the post a daunting read. With that in mind, I have chosen to break it down in order to give you the best experience possible. Check back regularly for updates in the coming weeks as I hope to have this gift guide wrapped up before the 15th, giving everyone enough time to purchase their favorite recommendations for the hop head in their life.

Finding a Utility Glass

Over the years, debate has raged on regarding what type of glass beer is best served in. Many beer lovers will tell you that every beer style has its own corresponding glass that it should only be drank out of. Although this is often the case, the logistics of being able to do this are not exactly practical. Obviously, during these rough economic times not everyone is interested in spending hundreds of dollars on their glassware. Dimple mugs, imperial pints, American pints, steins, weizens, yard glasses – on and on the investment in a proper beer bar never seems to end. With this in mind, I have set out to find the ideal ‘utility glass’ one can purchase in order to have the best experience from as many beers as possible. Here is what I have found to be the best all around beer glass and how I found it…

Eliminating Glasses

When trying to figure out what is the best all-around glass for beer, one must first eliminate those with undesirable traits. For example, dimple mugs are made from thick glass. Thick glass, due to thermal mass, has more heat being pushed into the cold beer and thus changes the temperature of said beer quicker than other glasses.  Other things to consider when picking a glass include its ability to retain head, and if the shape holds aromas into the glass or lets them out easily. Many glasses have various tricks in order to counteract all of these problems; however, very few tackle every challenge. Picking the right glass means eliminating as many of these concerns as possible. For this reason, I chose to eliminate any glasses made of thick glass, any glasses that allow aroma to escape easily like the tumbler, and any glasses that overly promote one style of beer like the flute.

The Final Selection

Thanks to the process of elimination, my glass choice narrowed down to the tulip glass and the snifter glass. Both are usually fairly thin, both allow for head to form, and both have a bowl-like shape that has excellent aroma-holding capabilities. In the end I chose the tulip glass for the style. The reason for this is that the flared head on the tulip gives it a slight edge in terms of head and aroma. When it came time to purchase, the Spiegelau Stemmed Pilsner ended up as my selection. Although the name indicates otherwise, this is in fact a tulip glass. The reasons for picking Spiegelau are two fold. The first is the fact the brand is well known for making quality crystal wine glasses and thus I trust their reputation. The second is they are one of the largest glassware producers in the world, resulting in them being readily available. In the end, whatever you choose just make sure that it has the ability to maintain the temperature of the beer longer, that it promotes head formation, and that it allows you to smell as much of the aromas as possible. If you stick to these principals you can’t go wrong.

A few weeks ago, I posted about attending Beer School at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts. Instead of weekly updates, I have opted to do a midterm update as well as a postmortem in order to give you my impressions of the course. Seeing as we are at the half way point of the course, I’d better get summarizing. (note – if you like the beer school homework book you can buy one here)

Class 1 – Basics, History, and Tasting

In the first class we got right down to it by covering the basics of beer, followed by the history, and then tasting techniques. Beer basics should be just that for anyone who actively reads truecask.com – basics. The differences between lagers and ales, what countries are known for what styles, and various other facts and figures mark the bulk of the information. History, of course, covers the first known beer recipes dating back to early Babylonian times, all the way up to the modern North American craft beer revolution. Finally, we got to tasting techniques. Of course when one learns how to taste beer they must, you know, taste beer. Clearly this was the reward at the end of our information rainbow, and becomes a recurring theme in the weeks to come.

Class 2 – Brewing

Class two actually started with a refresher on how to taste beer and then got into the finer points of brewing. Once travailing down the knowledge path of how to brew beer, we covered the four main ingredients: water, malt, yeast, and hops in quite some detail. In addition to this, we also covered adjuncts, but I know many traditional beer fans would be upset with me if i included them in the same sentence as the four main ingredients. From there we covered the process of brewing in great detail. Although I can’t even being to get into what was covered, I can give you the coles notes version: milling, mashing, resting, lautering, boiling, cooling, fermentation, and conditioning.

Class 3 – Belgian Styles

Pop quiz hotshot: you’ve mashed in and done both protein & beta rests – what comes next? Yep thats right; us beer pupils received a test and none of us were prepared. Call it a wake up call to all of us who thought our passion would get us through. One, yes one of our fellow students managed to pass the test with a respectable mark. Needless to say many of us need to study more. Despite the rather disappointing reality check, we eagerly dove into the world of Belgian beers. What can I say but Dubbel, Trippel, Saison, and Trappist oh my! Of course I have a special place in my heart for the Flanders Red and sure enough that night’s tasting had a fantastic example – Jolly Pumpkin La Roja. Guess Belgians aren’t the only ones who can make their beer.

Class 4 – German Styles

Class four opened with another test and although we all managed to do much better, things were not exactly perfect. I faltered when it came to the Trappist breweries, specifically my ability to name all of them. Luckily for me I had a chance to redeem myself by learning all about German styles of beer. Anyone who knows much about beer knows that in Germany if it isn’t lager, it isn’t being drank. For many people this would imply we are at the flavorless portion of the course, but keep in mind these are not your daddies American macros. Complexity in subtlety is possibly one of the most difficult things to pull off; in fact, even saying that sentence proves to be a challenge. However, this is the name of the game for the Germans. Well, that and making sure their bottom fermented brews pair well with pork. If you need that to be explained, then I suggest taking Beer School next time its offered.

Overall Impressions

I must say at this point the course is everything I could have asked for and more. Between the in depth lectures and varied tastings I feel as if my pallet is growing at a rapid rate. Additionally, I’m laying a solid foundation in the science of brewing and will soon be able to discuss the alchemy that it is with the best of them. Keep an eye out for my postmortem in another few weeks. By then I hope to say I am well on my way to becoming a Ciceron.

]]> http://truecask.com/2009/10/beer-school-midterm/feed/ 2 http://truecask.com/2009/09/beer-school/ http://truecask.com/2009/09/beer-school/#comments Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:13:42 +0000 cbjerrisgaard http://truecask.com/?p=619
There is only one more day to sign up for Vancouver’s first ever beer tasting course. The course, offered by the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, is an excellent step in the process of becoming a Cicerone. What is a Cicerone? Have a look at this description from their website: In the wine world, the [...]]]>

There is only one more day to sign up for Vancouver’s first ever beer tasting course. The course, offered by the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, is an excellent step in the process of becoming a Cicerone. What is a Cicerone? Have a look at this description from their website:

In the wine world, the word “sommelier” designates those with proven expertise in selecting, acquiring and serving fine wine. Lately some beer servers have adopted the title “beer sommelier” to tie into the credibility of the wine world.  But anyone can call themselves a beer sommelier regardless of knowledge or experience. And while some will be highly skilled, the only way to demonstrate that objectively is through independent testing of knowledge and tasting ability. The Cicerone Certification Program offers that independent assessment and certification so that industry professionals—as well as consumers—can be sure of the knowledge and skills possessed by current and prospective beer servers.

I for one can’t wait to embark on this eight week journey of beer knowledge. Although I have no plans on becoming a full time cicerone, I believe the certification will open up more doors in the beer world. One can never discount credibility and knowledge as valuable assets. If you are in the Vancouver area and have a passion for beer I suggest you sign up as well. At $500 for eight weeks of beer entertainment, its hard to beat.

Previously, I posted about pint sizes in British Columbia. Although this is a major issue for beer drinkers here, we’re not the only people who are getting ripped off when it comes to the size of our pints. Many people have been trying to solve this problem. Of the solutions I have seen so far, some are successful, others… not so much.

The Beer Gauge

The Consumerist recently posted this article about The Beer Gauge (via Wall Street Journal Blogs). Although the beer gauge does what it’s meant to do, it also implies that there should be no head on the beer with the glass filled to the top. Lets face it, thats not going to happen. Beer needs to have head in order for us to have the full experience. Additionally, servers everywhere would be spilling over filled glasses. Not exactly an ideal solution, and because of this I have to give the device a pass.

The Vinyl Tape Measure

This past weekend during the Gastown Cask Carouse one of the members of my group used a vinyl tape measure to check if a pint was full. Although he did this jokingly, it got me thinking – people probably use this as a way of measuring the fullness of a pint. That said, it’s not a very useful solution if the glasses do not hold more than a perfect pint for the reasons stated above. Also, watching people trying to do calculations in their head to see if their pint is right might get interesting after a couple. Seeing as you can measure from the bottom and not the top of the glass I consider this a step above the beer gauge solution, however still a failure.

The Lined Pint Glass

In the United Kingdom, draught beer must be sold in Imperial measure. United Kingdom law requires certain steps be taken to ensure that a pint of beer is indeed a pint. Various systems have been put in place for this, with the most logical of these being the lined pint glass. These glasses have a line near the top, to which the beer should be poured, with the head forming above it. Although hardly any bars use these pint glasses, CAMRA has been actively encouraging them to do so. This is the only real way you can be assured you have a proper pint of beer.