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Police raided a California home today where they suspected people were producing opiates. They arrested 28 year old Chad Renzelman, who said he used dried poppy pods to brew a home beer a month ago. He obtained the pods on eBay.
“All I did was make a poppy beer,” said Renzelman. “I spent all morning in jail for brewing beer. I had no idea what I was doing was illegal.”
However, police claim that Renzelman, a PhD candidate in chemistry, used a chemical process to extract opium from from the pods and converted the opium to …read more

My post about the resurgence of Schlitz (and other “retro” or “nostalgia” beers) generated the following question:
Why did Pabst change the name of their beer to Pabst Blue Ribbon?
And here’s your answer:
Pabst changed the name to Pabst Blue Ribbon since it was the first beer to win a blue ribbon at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.

The 1893 World’s Fair also marked a few other firsts… Aunt Jemima syrup, Cracker Jack, Cream of Wheat and Juicy Fruit gum also made their debuts alongside diet carbonated soda and hamburgers, which were introduced to the United States.
Apparently, it …read more

In case you’re looking for another reason to go organic when it comes to beer, consider this: additives in beers are not strictly regulated in all countries.
And when I say additives, I mean, oh, say, carcinogens.
The Chinese beer industry, one of the top beer producing countries in the world, was found to include formaldehyde in 95% of beers brewed in the country as recently as 1995. Yep, formaldehyde.

One of the frustrating things about Pennsylvania is that it’s nearly impossible to sample a new beer outside of a bar without buying a whole case (stupid beer laws, don’t get me started). One of the things that I love about vacationing in Maine is that you can pop into local stores and buy just one or two beers – a nice option when you’re in the mood to try something new.
A few years ago, I was itching to try some of the organic brews hitting the market. Chris was a bit skeptical. And we didn’t want …read more

All summer long, I’ve beaten myself up about not planting hops. I had previously posted a quick primer on hops vines that got me to thinking about planting some in the garden. And I didn’t. I had already planted three clematis vines, only one of which has taken off, leaving my garden with an ugly bare spot. Serves me right, I guess.
Next year? There will be hops.
Hops are pretty vigorous growers and not particularly picky. Today, on twitter, the enjoyable Jeff Louella posted that he had photos of his hops garden on his blog. …read more

Last week I spent some time in London with a friend and, needless to say, we enjoyed ourselves a very nice pub crawl or two. Now, after years of drinking lager beers in Germany I’ve become accustomed to ales here in the US, so I am perfectly happy with either (most of the time, anyway). My friend, however, is German, and although he’s become more British than German in many respects, he’s still a resolute lager drinker.
That’s how I noticed that there are no more lagers from Britain, at least not on the taps of London. Lest you think I …read more

For anyone who cares, I did in fact crack open my bottle of La JBK from Kohler Rehm, and it’s neither dark nor a Maibock. To be honest, I have no idea what it was, but it was reasonably tasty, if a little on the sweet side.
I still have no idea what the name means, but the bottle did state that “elle port le nom du célèbre Général.” Other than De Gaulle, I’m not sure I know of any famous French generals, and a Google search didn’t provide an obvious answer. Anyone?
image by Chris Erb

Yesterday I wrote about Vogelbräu, a brewpub in Karlsruhe Germany. I had neglected to mention that, not only was it an evening with perfect biergarten weather it was asparagus season, as you can see from the above photo.
Now, for those of us who grew up with green asparagus, those funny looking white things in the picture above are in fact white asparagus. I’m not sure how it’s grown, although I’ve heard something about it requiring darkness, but there’s a very short season in June when the stuff is fresh and available, and it’s really quite tasty. The traditional accompaniment …read more

Vogelbräu is a brewpub on the outskirt’s of Karlsruhe’s city center. Being the selfless fellow I am, I checked it out for you in the lovely (and surprisingly large) beergarden which is hidden in the interior court of the brewpub building. The pils was delicious, but not in the classic sense. When I think of pils I generally think of a clear, light-colored, and hoppy beer with relatively little malt taste, and usually highly filtered.
The pils at Vogelbräu, in contrast, is not filtered, and the hops are challenged for supremacy by a strong malt taste. It’s a good beer, although …read more

As my wife and co-blogger mentioned, we went out for dinner the other night without kids! For those too young to know, that’s a very exciting thing to us parental types.
In any event, I was pleased to note that the restaurant, already discussed in this post, had a number of beers from the Belgian farmhouse brewery Dupont, including the highly regarded Saison and the relatively rare Blond ale. In one of those rare moments of luck, I ordered the Saison Dupont, which was quite tasty, and my wife ordered the Foret Blond, which she preferred (and which I didn’t find …read more