This Week in Beer - Ale-Induced Anecdotals Part Four

Every now and again RealManTravels.com pauses to bring you the latest from the world of beer. For beer is not boring, nor idle; indeed, beer is dynamic, ever-changing, free (in a non-monetary, hippy kinda-way! So without further adieu, here are the latest and greatest beer stories the internet has to offer.

Have Sewage, Will Beer

Kinda gross, in principle. The state of Oregon is running a competition on who can make treated sewage water into the best beer. The contest is actually a fun way to promote the state's filtered water, which they claim is as clean as clean can be.

Crappy Beer? Teabag it!

Not your Queen mum's teabag. A student in Maryland has created tea bags that make any run-of-the-mill beer as delicious as their higher-caliber craft cousins. Currently a campaign on Kickstarter, the sachets contain hops, fruit peels and natural ingredients that improve beer's flavour and aroma.

Beer Pong Meets Tech

In another Kickstarter campaign, a creative Saskatoon man created a crazy beer pong table that incorporates LED lights, a touch screen score keeper and a ball washer. Who knew college could actually lead to success!

Space Yeast!

Just for giggles, a beer company in Oregon (all these stories from Oregon, go Beaver State go)  sent yeast into space. Fortunately, it survived, and now they've brewed beer with it. Good for them!

A Bottle Opener, in Your Mouth

In a hilarious campaign from Argentinian beer brand Salta, rugby players who lost teeth on the field were offered implanted beer openers to replaced their cast away cuspids. Check out the video:

And finally, check out these guys playing Johnny Cash's greatest hits on beer bottles!

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Beers to Impress - Bring These Brews to Your Next Party

A post by Scott F

Looking to make an impression at your next party? Bringing great beer can be a perfect conversation starter (particularly if you're looking to converse with beer people, who I consider most worth conversing with). Bring a bag of some of these beauties to your next party and become known as “that guy, you know, the one with that awesome beer.”

Goose Island Matilda Belgian Style Ale

This beer covers a gamete of flavours: spice, sweetness, hoppy bitterness and hints of fruit a floral. All these flavours make it an approachable "big beer" with a very nice presentation.

Saison Dupont

Saisons are a refreshingly flavourful beer with very forward yeast character. Dupont is one of the most widely available and quite genuine to the style. Spice and citrus are predominate here. Best enjoyed in spring and summer.

Mort Subite Kriek Lambic

Lambics are fruit beers fermented with wild yeasts (yeasts not added to the beer but allowed to infiltrate it from the environment - how cool is that). There are not many available but Mort Subite is a good entry-level lambic rich with cherry flavour.

Grand Cuvee Weizenbock

Not many will have tried a dark wheat beer at whatever party you bring this to. Sweet, almost to the point of being overwhelming, but complex in flavour even with hints of maple syrup.

Flying Monkeys The Chocolate Manifesto

Brewed out of beautiful Barrie, Ontario, this is a dark beer that is absolutely accessible to everyone at a party. The chocolate is so pronounced while being especially balanced. This style is particularly easy to mess up so it’s great to see that Flying Monkeys nailed it.

What impressive beer would you add to the list?

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This Week in Beer – Ale-Induced Anecdotals Part Deux

A post by Scott F

People do crazy things with beer: they put strange things in it, consume nothing but it, put it in things where it normally isn't, and regularly drink far too much of it in too short of time – with varied results. Ale-induced anecdotals captures the weird and wacky from the world of beer and distills it for the Real Man Travels faithful.

Let’s play a good ol’ game of hide the beer.

Some dude (or dudette) is going around hiding beer in Vancouver and tweeting about it. This is on the heels of other similar accounts that have hidden money or “other intoxicants.” I hereby grant this individual the title: Sudsy Games Master of the Thirsty Games!

Rebuilding bones... with beer!

Some sophisticated Spaniards realized that brewing waste is made up of the same chemical components found in bone, like, calcium and stuff. So they decided to go ahead and make bones out of it (well, kind of). Read more.

Check out that fancy picture of beer bone goodness.

Japanese Bee Yeast.

The good folks that bring you Sapporo (actually in Japan, not Guelph, ON) discovered a yeast that appears on bees as they do bee stuff. Evidently Sapporo is a huge supporter of bees and bee culture in Japan. They say the yeast imparts a unique cinnamon flavour and they've managed to harvest enough of the stuff to make beer. Joke for this section: “where does a bee hang out it Japan? At the clubzzzzzzz.” Boom! 

Dill Pickle Beer.

Canadians do crazy stuff with beer too! Ben Johnson, of the exceptional Ben’s Beer Blog, teamed up with Great Lakes Brewery to create Dill Hole IPA. Who needs a bag of chips with your beer when you can have it all-in-one? Convenience. Value. Taste. Fierce. 

And to wrap things up, this guy.

Drink safe, friends. 

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Five Exceptional Beers You Can Get (Almost) Anywhere

A post by Scott F.

Regardless of where you live, finding retailers that carry some of the world’s finer beers can be a struggle. There’s nothing worse than hearing a friend wax poetic about a favourite brew they romantically discovered while finding themselves in Europe - or to read a salivating review written by some vivaciously verbose beer blogger - only to find that your local purveyor of potent potables does not carry it.

This can be particularly difficult in jurisdictions with stricter liquor control laws. Sure, you can track down those fancy brew pubs with stellar revolving beer lists. But for those who like pulling out a great bottle at a party, enjoying a quality drink in the backyard or at the cottage, or drinking alone in their underwear, the need to make such a trip (or perhaps to go outside at all), can be displeasing.    

For that reason we’ve pulled five of our favourite beers that are available more widely than many of the other top-rated selections. These bottles are sure to impress friends and pallets everywhere.

Criteria: Available at more than 75 LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) locations:

1. St Bernardus ABT 12 – Belgium – Abbey Ale, Quadrupel – 10% ABV

Highlighted by its balance, sweet, bitter and hoppy. Fruity nose with cherries and caramel on the tongue. Long considered one of the best beers in the world.

2. Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier – Germany – Hegewizen Ale – 5.6% ABV

Hard to say, great to drink. Smells and tastes of banana and nuts. If that description turns you off, fear not, both sensations are short lived and replaced by a balanced malty flavour.

3. Chimay Grande Réserve (Blue) – Belgium – Belgian Strong Ale – 9% ABV

A traditional strong ale. Fruit and spice all through the nose with flavours of plum and raisin. Smell a hint of clove.

4. Schneider Hopfen Weisse – Germany – Weizenbock – 8.2% ABV

A hoppy wheat beer. Flowers and hops on the nose. Classic citrus flavour with a touch of earthy, grassy taste. Very approachable.

5. Innis & Gunn Original – Scotland – Scottish Ale – 6.6% ABV

A bold selection better suited for after dinner. Rich caramel, vanilla nose with alcohol prominent. Taste is sweet, liqueur-like, with plenty of tasty vanilla and toffee. An absolute treat.

What are some of your favourite, widely available beers? Post in the comments or tweet them to @SFRealManTravel.

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