Dr. Bunsen does an analysis of Beer Advocate:
Below I’ve plotted the bottom 10 and top 10 beer groups sorted by posterior probability of receiving a 5/5 rating, respectively. An interesting observation from this analysis is the positive correlation between alcohol concentration and posterior probability
I continue to love data driven drinking.
This Evernote solution by Mike Vardy has almost everything I would want for a beer cellar system. His clever use of tags solves one of the big problems I had with Evernote for this purpose, contextual search.
I don’t think this is for me though. I like structured meta data and Evernote provides very little of that. I want to be able to quickly search by Brewery, Inventory Date, Quantity and Rating.
I don’t know. Sometimes it’s better to keep the minutia to yourself. Unless you’re talking to another beer nut, there’s no way to describe a beer that doesn’t sound ridiculous and douchy. I do think it sounds fun to take a beer sommelier course.
This is such a great account of brewing. Just some people that love the magic of making something good. No competition. No pettiness. Just excitement.
For what it’s worth, the Once Upon a Time series from Pretty Things is an extraordinary experience. It faithfully recreates beers from recent history. They are not all great beers. In fact some are down right plain. But it’s a great experience to drink a beer the way it was made during WWII.
I think this is a great idea. Armstrong Brewing has a cheap membership requirement to support their small batch brewing.
“What we wanted to do was have a side of the business that was much like a boutique vineyard,” says Armstrong. “We want to be able to cater to a specific group of people. The model is already there, we’re just doing it with beer.” With an entry-level membership beginning at just $30 a year, there is a smaller barrier to entry than typically found at a winery or other “mug clubs.
Sure, I’ve seen longer lines at an iPhone launch, but this line for Pliny the Younger beats any line I’ve seen for a Samsung product. Rightfully so.
This is such a great idea and one of the reasons I love the world of small breweries. Flying Dog is not only making their recipes available but they are selling a stove top kit to brew your own.
Independent brewers are the happiest people I’ve ever seen. They are also very generous with the core of their business, the “intellectual property”.
Nanobreweries are a wonderful new thing.1 They are the indie developers of beer and make some of the best beer around. I expect this trend to continue and expand and for it to make beer more interesting than ever.
Sorry for the Boston Globe link and their shitty popups. Use Instapaper to read it. ↩︎
What a fantastic little article from The Economist.
Beer, they suggest, may have emerged in an attempt to make wild barley edible by mixing it with water and fruit. The thick beer produced in this way would be just as nutritious as bread, in addition to being slightly alcoholic.
On occasion, wine was also diluted with seawater. According to Pliny the Elder, one of several Roman authorities on wine, this was done “to enliven the wine’s smoothness”.
The American Homebrewers Association has a great source for determining how ass-backwards your state is. If your state requires a permit or the exclusive use of local ingredients, then it’s probably time to move to the civilized world.
