Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Suggested websites to visit to further your beer education.
A Beer in the Hand is my featured blogger of the month.
This is what first caught my eye on the site:
BrewDog Abstrakt AB:01
BrewDog Abstrakt AB:02
BrewDog Abstrakt AB:03
BrewDog Abstrakt AB:04
Limited edition beers are like catnip to me but then I started reading the posts too and they are really good and have some home brew information that I sorely lack.
So take a read.
What do you get if you cross FourSquare with beer?
You get Untappd.
Take a look…..
It allows you to check on what others are drinking (right now) as you input what you are drinking.
The only downside other than being pretty addictive to watch the beers scroll by is when an industrial water lager pops up. So sad that people would waste time and money on that and then proclaim it. It’s like tweeting that I aerosoled some Cheese Whiz into my mouth. (I would never, ever do that)
Every month I like to point other beer bloggers out that people should check out to get a different perspective on beer than mine or your own.
This month we get Lost in the Beer Aisle.
JD has loads of reviews on his site but he also hosts events, does creative beer Facebook posts and has guest reviewers contribute to his site. (Like me) He also does group beer reviews. Lots of good stuff to scroll through here.
The wine world has sommeliers and us craft beer geeks have ciccerone’s. And if you want to learn about craft beer from a certified ciccerone and really funny guy then head to the Craft Beer Class.
And when you are done watching the video, head to the main Drink Eat Travel site for food and beverage tidbits from the LA area. All good stuff.
If you are a science geek or you enjoy taking the beer tour and learning about the process of making beer then you should also enjoy the science of how we enjoy our beers.
Beer Sensory Science gets a little wonky at times but there is good information and nuggets of wisdom in each of the posts that I have read so far.
The tips for buying beer has some good information and learning about the “off” flavors is interesting too. Another good post has loads of descriptive adjectives that really can help the beer reviewer.
One word of caution, the posts tend towards the negative results. Not in a sky is falling way but in a slightly patronizing tone. Maybe it was just my interpretation but most people will not notice that oxidization in beer is rampant. The writer is a professional and has a palate that is much more attuned to nuance than mine and probably most people. If you don’t taste oxidization or diacetyl as much then count yourself blessed and keep drinking.
Americans are awash in great beer. So much so that other locales are ignored somewhat simply because our ‘fridges and interwebs bookmarks are packed with great beer and great beer blogs.
But I suggest taking the time to read the Pencil and Spoon by Mark Dredge.
I talked with Mark briefly at the Beer Bloggers Conference last year and can tell you that he knows and is passionate about beer. And it shows in his writings.
Having been at the first conference in Boulder, I am pleased to announce the 2nd and 3rd are on tap!
“We are very pleased to announce the dates and locations of our two 2011 Beer Bloggers Conferences:
May 20-22: London, UK
August 19-21: Portland, Oregon
We hope to build on the success of our 2010 conference, which had 108 attendees this past November in Boulder, Colorado. While the London conference is designed to appeal to European beer bloggers and writers, we also hope it will attract bloggers from other geographies, including some intrepid traveling bloggers from North America.
Neither the Portland nor London conferences could exist without the support of our initial sponsors: Molson Coors (UK), Wells and Youngs, and Fuller’s in the UK and the Oregon Brewers Guild and BridgePort Brewing in Portland. These organizations make it possible to bring the Beer Bloggers Conference to you at extremely reasonable prices.
Registration is now open and space is limited due to our conference locations and the ability of our dinner hosts to accommodate large groups.
The best way to navigate the beer scene of an unfamiliar or large city (I.E. New York) is to check out the local craft beer blogs.
Brew York, New York is another source of beery information for the traveler or local alike.
Craft Cans.com is one of the most eye pleasing beer websites out there. The layout and design is really pops and they have chosen (or were chosen) by a growing and fun segment of the craft beer market.
Here is what they say about themselves…”CraftCans.com is a site dedicated to news and reviews for the “Canned Beer Revolution”. Here you’ll find a database of all craft beers now available in cans, information about new canned beer releases, as well as unbiased reviews of canned craft beers.”
Craft Cans is one of my weekly beer information stops and I suggest you give it a look too.
….Pete Brown and his great videos of pubs and beers in Great Britain. You will learn something.
Click HERE
If you haven’t read any of his books. Do yourself a favor and add them to your Christmas list. You can take my word for it or you can read his review of the Stella Black beer….“So what’s it taste like? I told you my expectations weren’t that high, but I was prepared to be open-minded. Well. No aroma whatsoever. I don’t know what they did with the Saaz hops, coriander and orange peel, but they didn’t put them in this beer. It’s so long since Stella has seen whole Saaz hops perhaps no one at the brewery knew what they were and they made a weird, bitter salad with them instead.
The taste has a very brief flash of malty sweetness, then a chalky dryness that disappears almost instantly, and that’s it – until the unpleasant aftertaste starts to build after a few sips. Then you need another beer to get rid of that. Stella Black is one of those special, rare beers that manage to be both tasteless and unpleasant. A beer that’s merely tasteless we can all understand, but this? It’s like a 4.1% standard lager with a weird, Special Brew type finish. The worst of all worlds. Utterly undrinkable”