Getting around the prohibition

I’m not sure if this is genuine or not. From my own family here in Norway there is a tale of a prescription from a veterinarian for a bottle of Cognac for John Forbord’s sick horse.

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Advent Calendar #5 – Everybody must get to Stone

The beer scene in Berlin has been developing fast over the last few years, with micro breweries, contract breweries and beer bars popping up all over the city. I’ll get back to that.

Today I’ll just mention the one factor that will really change the European beer scene, the Stone Berlin brewery.

I hope to get back to presenting the brewery itself later. Today I’ll just recommend vising the bar and restaurant. This is an old brick building converted in a grand manner, with space for hundreds of people. When the outside space is developed, this will also be an splendid place on summer evenings.

You don’t have to splurge on a meal, just sit down at the bar and sample some of the beers. Some are exclusives brewed here, some are barrel aged rarities from the Stone catalog. Some are guest brews from across Europe.

A total of about 65 beers on tap, if I remember correctly, so it could easily turn into a long evening.

A gift shop with their canned beers and various merch, too.

It’s in southern Berlin, some distance from the nearest U-bahn stop, but there are buses. Google maps will help you find the way.

The really good news for everyone, if we are lucky to get to Berlin or not, is that we get fresh beer from the Berlin canning line across Europe. Right now there is a Christmas stout available.

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No stones unturned

These two cans sort of followed me home the other night, or, as they used to say when there was a sale of contraband in Oxford Street: “Fell off a truck, mate!”

The beers are fresh off the canning line in Berlin, where Stone have set up their European operation.

The IPA has intense hoppiness – grass and pine. A fresh, in-your-face IPA. If that’s what your’re looking for, look no further!

The Arrogant Bastand Ale is one notch up. Deep red, full malty body. PAcked With fresh hop aroma and a punch of bitterness.

Both cans show that they are part of both the Norwegian and the Swedish recycling scheme with a deposit. Should mean that they will be widely available soon.

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MAD Magazine’s classic advertising parodies

There are vintage ads. And there are vintage spoof ads. The Dangerous Minds has an article about the advertising parodies of MAD Magazine. The publication was able to survive without any outside ads – meaning they were free to make parodies. The tobacco industry was often the target, but there were some breweries among the victims as well.

This one is from September 1956. More ads on Jasperdo‘s Flickr account.

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Same photo, new thief

Once is funny, when you find it is widespread, I get annoyed.

Jørn, the brewer at Trondhjem Mikrobryggeri, has pointed out that he has found my photo at yet another website. At Mozzarella’s Grill & Bar. It’s one of a number of photos rotating at their front page.

 

It might be that the restaurant chain, this time located in various locations in Connecticut and Rhode Island, is innocent. But they could have asked for photos actually originating from their own restaurants. And they claim the copyright for their website.

My main suspect is, once again, the company behind the website. This time it is called Zevon Media. According to  their own pages, they have social media skills. We’ll see about that.

For the record, here is my photo of the beer samples in Trondheim again.  Little did they know they would conquer the globe.

 

I await a response. This time I will not settle for dimes. I know a beer blogger lawyer.

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Why someone in Chicago owes me a beer

Someone stole my beer photo.

There have been some weird sites that has taken whole blog posts and republished them, but there have been many years since I have discovered unauthorized use of my photos.

When I look back, there is a strong possibility that I have a general crappy level of photo quality, meaning there are far better sources for nicking beer pictures than this site.

But one of my readers is a brewer at Trondhjem Mikrobryggeri. And he must have a very good memory of photos. Photographic memory?  Because he spotted a photo of his beers. That had appeared in my blog post from last year. But he found it on the web site of the Hopvine Brewery in Aurora, Illinois.

 

Your beers?

 

This is my original photo:

 

 

 What’s wrong with their own beers? Don’t they look good enough?

I think someone in Aurora, Il. owes me a beer. Either the Hopvine guys. or the ones in IPC, who set up their website.

 You will find our friendly, no-nonsense method of doing business quite refreshing, says IPC.

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Farm to Barrel – two great beers from Northern California

Almanac Beer Company (which I have to admit I hadn’t heard of until a few weeks ago) has a Farm to Barrel series of barrel aged beers. I was lucky to get two of them from fellow beer blogger Jay Hinman when he visited Oslo recently.

The Farmer’s Reserve No 2 is brewed with ginger, pumpkins and persimmons, then aged in white wine barrels.

Funky aroma from the barrel, then layer upon layer of fruit, warming ginger, crisp sourness to balance it all. I am usually very reserved when it comes to pumpkin brews. This proved they can certainly be fine, especially if you avoid the standard bag of spices associated with pumpkin pie.

Best enjoyed in front to a warm fireplace, says the label of the Barrel Noir. Belgian dark ale aged in Kentucky bourbon barrels, blended with the same amount of imperial stout. 

Very dark, fluffy head. The whiskey nose, unsurprisingly, takes firmly control here. Soot, prunes, marzipan, bitter chocolate. Some intense black pepper, too.

I get the point about the fireplace setting. But, as the heat leaks back to wherever it came from, when the white hawthorn flowers are gleaming back at the cherry blossoms outside my front door, it is quite all right. Ought to get up, get in, get the youngsters to bed, do the laundry….

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A bargain in Oslo

Things are getting better and better in Oslo. The following was posted on Facebook from Schouskjelleren Mikrobyggeri this morning:

It has taken some time but finally we have installed 8 new taps in our bar. So as of today we can offer a wider selection of our own beers and beers from other craft brewers. We now have 16 beers on draft including Hop Horn, Odins Tippel, Jaipur IPA,Saw tooth ale, American dream and a greater selection of Schouskjelleren beers.

And Amundsen Bryggeri og Spiseri have adjusted their price level, apparently after feedback from their guests.  Of particularly great value are their beers of the day.

Yesterday they had these two lovelies at 50 kroner a bottle. Avery IPA, too. A bargain – at least around here.

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Brew Masters on TV

Discovery Channel Norway is airing the first episode of Brew Masters tonight at 22.30. I think their schedule is the same in Sweden, I don’t know about Denmark.

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Sons of Norway

If you ever find yourself in Duluth, Minnesota, the New York Times has some advice. Not on how to find long lost relatives of Scandinavian ancestry, but I’ve been told they are easy to find in the area. No, as this is a beer blog, I would like to recommend their article on a beer route from Duluth to Ashland, Wisconsin, covering 70 miles and four micro breweries.

There is a note in the article that Minnesota breweries cannot sell growlers to go on Sundays. Their Norwegian heritage lives on. Just let’s hope the natives are not all like in Fargo.

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