Breakthrough Beer Technology!

No, it (probably) won't change the world, but what an awesome/crazy idea that's become reality: pouring draught beer from the bottom up!

http://www.grinonindustries.com/

http://www.thepostgame.com/features/201101/death-beer-line

Sustainable Seafood, Recession-Proof Beverages

This ranking of supermarkets by the sustainability of their seafood operations (according to Greenpeace) makes me all warm and fuzzy because we frequently buy fish at Wegman's, but less-than-fuzzy because we also buy occasionally from Trader Joe's. Anyone else surprised that this hippie grocery enclave appears so far down on this list? Anyone not surprised that a chain called H.E. Butt is in last place?

What will we have with our fish...a nice IPA, perhaps? Recession-be-damned, we're [read: the U.S.] still drinking at about the same clip as we have since 1947, according to Callup (do these Gallup folks have a poll for everything?).

Beer: How Cold Is Too Cold?

Any true beer lover already knows this - well, maybe not the exact numbers, but he/she definitely has a feel for the right temperature range - super-cold beer doesn't always mean good-tasting beer. [The simple equation: colder = less carbonation = less aroma/taste] So the coldest beer in Baltimore, as found by the City Paper, at 30.2F? Waaaay too cold for a decent beer. Probably just right for Bud Ice; almost no chance that you'll actually have to taste it!

Of course, that helps explain why brands like Coors Light trumpet their cold-indicator bottles and cans. Some small amount of credit should be given to the marketing geniuses at Coors, though; at least their thermochromatic ink activates within the correct temperature range for lagers.

Brian Drain (aka Gordon Gekko Lives!)

This is the second time in the past few months I've seen this topic broached in our newspapers in the past year, but it seems more relevant now than it did back in February:

In his February 20 column, Steve Pearlstein of the Post railed against how the Finanical Industry operates at the top:

Wall Street's hypocrisy on this topic is nothing less than breathtaking. When times are good, its champions will claim that their brilliance and hard work account for the spectacular returns. But when markets turn and investors lose their shirts, these same brilliant managers are sent off with golden parachutes and invariably scooped up by rival firms that are only too willing to chalk up their mistakes to bad luck.

It would be bad enough if the consequences of this excessive pay were confined to Wall Street. Unfortunately, it has not worked out that way. For the prospect of earning untold wealth also has attracted an enormous amount of young talent that could have been more productively used in science, engineering, medicine, teaching, public service and businesses that generate genuine long-term value.

Is it not fair to ask whether the United States can remain the world's most prosperous and innovative economy when half of the seniors at the most prestigious colleges and universities now aspire to become "i-bankers" at Goldman Sachs?

Now Roger Cohen visits this same territory in his Wednesday column in the New York Times:

When I taught a journalism course at Princeton a couple of years ago, I was captivated by the bright, curious minds in my class. But when I asked students what they wanted to do, the overwhelming answer was: “Oh, I guess I’ll end up in i-banking.”

It was not that they loved investment banking, or thought their purring brains would be best deployed on Wall Street poring over a balance sheet, it was the money and the fact everyone else was doing it.

I called one of my former students, Bianca Bosker, who graduated this summer and has taken a job with The Monitor Group, a management consultancy firm (she’s also writing a book). I asked her about the mood among her peers.

“Well, I have several friends who took summer internships at Lehman that they expected to lead to full-time job, so this is a huge issue,” she said. “You can’t believe how intensely companies like Merrill would recruit at Ivy League schools. I mean, when I was a sophomore, if you could spell your name, you were guaranteed a job.”

But why do freshmen bursting to change the world morph into investment bankers?

“I guess the bottom line is the money. You could be going to grad school and paying for it, or earning six figures. And knowing nothing about money, you get to move hundreds of millions around! No wonder we’re in this mess: turns out the best and the brightest make the biggest and the worst.”

According to the Harvard Crimson, 39 percent of work-force-bound Harvard seniors this year are heading for consulting firms and financial sector companies (or were in June). That’s down from 47 percent — almost half the job-bound class — in 2007.

These numbers mirror a skewed culture. The best and the brightest should think again. Barack Obama put the issue this way at Wesleyan University in May: beware of the “poverty of ambition” in a culture of “the big house and the nice suits.”

39% of Harvard seniors going into the financial sector, down from 47%? I don't know what's more depressing, that some of the very best and brightest only want to make money, or that they're doing such a poor job of it. Sure, there's no guarantee that, had any of these people gone into medicine or engineering, they would have found a cure for cancer or developed a car that could be powered by mayonnaise. Who knows, maybe they'd be making weapons for our massive war machine (there's plenty of money there, too) or inventing less-weighty items. But I'd sure like our odds for a better world if they had chosen those careers. Too bad that it's just about the (obscene amounts of) money.

Of Beer and Hostile Takeovers

If the Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev wants to buy Budweiser - that's their problem. As for any patriotic defenses of the American-brewed "king of beers"? Andrew Leonard at Salon sums it up much better than I ever could (excerpt below):

For true beer-lovers across the world, Budweiser is a joke. It's embarrassing. Since when does America mean watered down pablum, forced down the throats of an unthinking populace by sheer power of mass marketing muscle? Since when does America stand for homogenized, lowest-common denominator swill? Michelob? Busch? These are not the names of American patriots -- these are signposts of the triumph of a particular strain of capitalism in which true identity and taste are sacrificed in the service of gaining greater market share.

If we're looking for real American icons that represent the grandest traditions of our founding fathers, who threw off foreign rule so they could stand independent and seek their own destiny, we have to search elsewhere than in the realm of giant conglomerates with humongous Super Bowl advertising budgets. I'm talking homebrewers, microbreweries, and those brave, privately-owned breweries that have yet to sell out to the false dream of "going public" -- and all the betrayal of brewer freedom that such slavery to the market implies.

Well said!

October Sand

I spent last week on the beaches of the Outer Banks in NC, where the surfing conditions were unseasonably bad (no weather systems to stir things up) but the weather was awesome. My dad and I also tried out some beginner's hang gliding on Jockey's Ridge, which was interesting but also frustrating (it was really too windy for a beginner's lesson). And Marty is a dog who pretty much refuses to get into the water at all - she just laid on the beach for most of the week. I think she still had a good time though.

One piece of unsettling news - the Weeping Radish Brewery and Restaurant has moved from its sound-side location in Manteo to a mainland location along Route 158, in Jarvisburg. Dumb move - please explain the brilliant business plan that advocates relocating to an area the most people simply drive past? I wish them luck, if only because their beer is so tasty and the Eco Farm idea sounds interesting, but I just don't know whether I'll ever visit them at the new location.

Dusting off the Carboy

It's been years since I've done any homebrewing, but that's changed for the better in the past few weeks, as I now have a partner in brewing. Barry has already proved to be a bit impatient about the whole process - no Dad, we can't drink it yet - but it's more fun (and less work) with two people, so I think we'll be able to sustain operations and not have another three year haitus.

We've got two batches going now, a Scotch Ale that will be ready to drink just before Christmas, and a German Dunkel that will be ready...when it's ready.

Let's see, what else; the new Bond film, Casino Royale, is excellent, if a bit on the long side (2 1/2 hours).

I saw this bizzare boat docked at the Inner Harbor last night when I went running - certainly doesn't look like any boat I've ever seen before, and it runs on biodiesel. In March it begins an attempt to break the record for circumnavigating the globe by boat; the record is currently 75 days, set in 1998.

Finally, for the uninitiated - an explanation for this post's title. Here are some carboys, aka fermentation vessels.

In Heaven There Is No Beer...

...that's why we drink it here. Yes my friends, it's that magical night that only occurs once year, Saint Patrick's Day Eve. A night when beer drinkers everywhere stay up late, decorating their kegs, dusting off their collection of pint glasses, hoping that this is the year that the leprechaun sneaks in and leaves a pot o' gold or, even better, a dark ray of sunshine (a case of Guinness, people, try to stay with me please).

How often do the leprechauns actually make it to people's houses to leave their gifts? Not very, unsurprisingly - it's a busy time of year for them after all, lots of celebrating to do! They've barely recovered from that nasty month-long Christmas season nogg-induced hangover/coma by early February, and then Mardi Gras comes along (what, you think that the little dudes don't celebrate Mardi Gras? Leprechauns are Catholic, you know), then their signature holiday the month after that - it's a bit of a rough time most years. Then, even if they do make a visit, you still have to measure up; have you been a nice or a naughty drinker this year? Do you offer to buy rounds, make fun of those haughty and imperialist English whenever possible, and visit your Irish friends in the hospital? Or do you offer your friends cheap beer when they visit, confuse Ireland and Scotland, and begin beer-related discussions with the phrase, "Guinness is OK, but..."? The answers to those questions may very well determine whether the luck o' the Irish is with you tomorrow - I hope for your sake that you've represented your fellow drinkers well over the past year.

As if Saint Patrick's Day could be any more special, this year it not only falls on a Friday, but coincides with the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. Maybe I'll devote an entire post in the near future to the criminality of neither Saint Patrick's Day nor the NCAA 1st round being national holidays. But for now, my bracket is kicking some serious ass! As of this writing, 11 of 12, with the late games looking decent as well. That probably means that I'll go 5 for 16 tomorrow, but hey whatever - tomorrow's for celebrating, no matter how the games end.