November 7, 2008


Outside of my affinity for nips I seem to now have an affinity for smaller (or tasting) versions of glassware. As with numerous hobbies the tool that provides the hobby is almost as important as the substance and beer is no different. There are beer geeks with a large collection of glassware. This obviously takes up a lot of room. So for me, it seems, smaller versions of glassware is a new "little" hobby. As pictured above there are 4 glasses that are smaller versions of the regular glasses.

There are more out there that I will hunt down as well. Smaller version of La Trappe, Moinette and Val Dieu goblets, as well as La Chouffe and Duvel tulips are out there and I will be looking for them as well. These versions hold between 3-6oz whereas the regular sized glasses hold over 12oz. For comparison the picture above show a regular sized glass from New Belgium as well as a 750mL bottle with the smaller/tasting glasses up front.

November 4, 2008


Long time no write. Since the summer I have moved to Kansas, yup ruby red shoes, tornadoes, and everything KANSAS!

Well it's not that bad, I live in Lawrence, KS a college town with two brewpubs, both very good. The more famous one is Free State Brewing which has been known by beer geeks throughout the country for their Old Backus Barleywine and Owd Mac's Imperial Stout. A fine brewpub that is on the verge of expanding to bottling their brews. The second is 23rd Street Brewery, a younger brewpub but with a lot of potential. 23rd Street will be releasing a Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout this winter, which should get them a lot more cred in the beer geek community. This will be a brewery on the rise.

I also live just about 30 minutes outside of Kansas City, which has a few brewpubs and many beer stores. The best part is the prices, much lower than what I was paying in NYC without losing much selection. Still plenty or imports and a lot of the Midwest beers I could never get on the East coast. This includes Schlafly, Bells, and Boulevard. I even get East coast brews like Southern Tier cheaper in Kansas than I do in NY and the damn beer is brewed in NY.

Speaking of Boulevard brewing, I moved into the area at the right time. Boulevard seems to be in a bit of an expansion, the fun kind. About a year ago they started to release their Smokestack series, a line of higher gravity, 750mL cork and wire bottled, specialty ales. This year they have expanded the line with a Saison-Brett, a beer that was bottled with one of beer geeks' favorite wild yeast, Brettanomyces. They will be expanding the line with a Russian Imperial Stout.

Outside of that I make lots of trips throughout the Midwest, particularly to Minneapolis, which it self is full of brew fun plus everything in between, which is all of Iowa. Plenty of stuff to discover in this part of the country so I will look forward to it.

June 24, 2008

I guess this is where I reminisce about beery Belgium. First of all, it was amazing, amazingly amazing. I made a list of beers to find and I found almost all of them, particularly the sour ones. Everyone was extremely nice, almost every beer place we visited and started a conversation we were blown away by generosity. But here is the million dollar question, what was best. Was it the metropolitan Brussels, or the touristy Brugge, or maybe Antwerpen with its famous Kulminator. Well, if I could only visit one region on a follow up trip it would be the countryside between Brussels and Brugge, or better known as the Lambic region/Pattojenland. The flat meadows, small two way roads, and the out of the way places are amazing. We drove by the now defunct Eylenbosch brewery which was so cool. And the one place that blew my mind above all was De Heeren van Liedekercke and here is a nice write up by John White.

Here are some pictures that say a 1000 words.

May 24, 2008


So I just got back from my beer pilgrimage to Belgium, 8 days and 7 nights. It was wonderful in many respects, particularly the beer part. At the moment I want to cover some of my non-beer observations.

I visited Brussels, then drove through the Pajottenland (lambic region) to Brugge and finally one day in Antwerpen. Was supposed to visit Ghent but we were just to tired and loved Brugge to much to leave. There are some very stark differences between these places.

Brussels seems to be what we normally consider a capital city. The weekdays are packed with traffic and suits. On the weekend the whole thing just shuts down. I am a bit biased because I stayed in the European Quarters, the area where the NATO, European Union, and such things are placed. However, I got this impression from the whole city. While there is obviously a large tourist faction of the city its contained within a very small area. The rest is like walking through an empty old city. So basically, what I mean to say is Brussels is a large business city that happens to get tourists.

On the other hand, Brugge is a small city that gets all its business from tourists. I got the impression that Brugge is there for tourists only (and I do not mean to at all take away from the rich history and people of Brugge). It is understandably so, I read something close to 100,000 thousand people live in Brugge while the city sees over 2 million tourists a year, a tradition that started a long time ago when the Brits would come over all the time. This is still evident, I am pretty sure I saw more Brits than natives. These differences are most evident when entering any bar, restaurant, or store. In Brussels, everyone would always assume you speak French and engage you in that tongue. In Brugge, you are always engaged in either 2 languages at once or just straight English. I was amazed and of course being an American this made me feel much more comfortable. The city is built to maintain the "old" feel, almost akin to Disney Land, and of course as any tourist I really loved it. And while Belgium has its share of antiquity it does not seem like its forced upon the people. In Brussels there is a hustle and bustle of everyday life, in Brugge its just for a hustle to do all the touristy stuff.

Now the most dazzling places I saw were on my drives through the lambic region. To see this beautiful green fields with cows everywhere, I mean everywhere, while you are drive down a road that barely fits your car. Driving through these little, clean, beautiful full of farmer workers and townspeople, I could see myself living there. Just opening up a little bar, open 5 random hours during the week, that I could see for myself, something I did not want from either Brugge or Brussels.

Antwerpen, well, it felt like a smaller version of Brussels, like LA to NYC, one might say.

April 28, 2008

I am moving to Kansas soon so my beer adventure will take on a whole new direction. Recently been brewing with my friend Boris Zee on his set up.

Been drinking a lot and got more new nips, will try to keep this updated.