Tag: A Book & A Beer

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A Book & A Beer – Fairy Tale by Stephen King

Stephen King made his mark with horror but he has a firm grasp on many genre styles including pot boiler, thriller, crime. The dude could probably write books for toddlers and sell them like hotcakes. He is back into fantasy with the somewhat blandly named Fairy Tale.

It takes awhile to get to the tale and the action as King patiently sets up the main character that you will be following through the journey, Charlie Reade. Unless you are a dog person, then the main character might just be Radar.

As usual King books move. Even the early pages turn quickly. But I felt the book tried too hard to make Charlie a saint by his actions but a flawed one by his early teenage bad days which were continually brought up again.

And I almost preferred the front half story about the father and the son and the mysterious man in the crumbling house. The fairy tale land is purposefully pale but that makes it less interesting.

To pair with a book with such a there and back again quality, I would go for a one beer, then a variant of that beer. A pilsner, then an Italian Pilsner, West Coast IPA then Cold IPA or maybe a Pale ale with a past like Sierra Nevada paired with a Belgian Pale ale

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In the Tap Lines for January 2023

Welcome to 2023! Are the years moving fast for you as well? I know time is a construct of humans but boy does it move fast at times. This blog now enters its 14th year!! Crazy. Let’s start strong with….

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the Hop Culture Best New Breweries list of 2022 like Fox Tale Fermentation Project, Bizarre Brewing and Mahalo Ale Works

~ special featured reviews of ciders received for Christmas from Portland Cider Co.

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads Fairy Tale by Stephen King

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Seen Through a Glass

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

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A Book & A Beer – The Revolutionary Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff

Samuel Adams has a beer connection, you might have heard of it. Now I got the chance to read Stacy Schiff’s take on The Revolutionary, Samuel Adams.

This is an atypical biography for sure. It does not march lockstep from birth to death with hearty doses of familial backstory. Nope, Schiff has Adams on the run from the very start. A trio of Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere are wanted whether thet be on land or on sea.

Adams comes across as a prodigious writer. His hand must have hurt all the time. Penning tracts for newspapers, writing correspondence and then almost as quickly destroying it lest it fall into wrong hands. His true strength also lay in his thinking about how to outwit the British governor and Lieutenant governor in Boston. He was a prime antagonist.

He seemed built for this particular slice of American history. To joust with words over the definition of liberty and freedom. As Schiff points out, his life had been just kinda normal before and them quiet again after the revolution. Almost a designated hitter for the birth of America.

For beer, I would lean towards something that was revolutionary for craft beer when microbreweries and brewpubs were starting out. Look for an amber ale, a fruity wheat ale or a brown ale. They are not in supply at some breweries and you probably won’t find a 16oz can but maybe on tap and maybe you can read the paper (on your phone) and see what the city, state and world is up to.

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In the Tap Lines for December 2022

Congratulations! You made it to month 12! Some people are into Easter eggs, some love a BBQ on the 4th while others love a costume and scares. Me, I like Christmas even in Southern California. There will be holiday beer fun all month so get ready…

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from Western New York where the snow is as deep as I am tall

~ special featured reviews of Winter Seasonals

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads Revolutionary Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens The Sunshine Place

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

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A Book & A Beer – Endless Night by Agatha Christie

My parents had the full collection of Agatha Christie books. I never really got into them but I saw a lonely book of hers in a Little Free Library so I picked it up as a change of pace.

The book is Endless Night…

It was not what I expected. Yes, there was an heiress, greedy relatives, a curse and a few scattered murders but it was set in a more modern ’60s-’70s England and there was no detective to gather all the suspects around a fire. I guessed half correctly but I liked the rather fierce ending to the tale and the landscape conjured by Christie.

This was an excellent fall read and so I would recommend a couple beers to pair with this. Specific to Los Angeles choices but similar beers can be found in your area.

First is Foliage, an Autumn Lager from Enegren Brewing. Here are notes about the beer, “German malts give this lager its copper color and full body, while American Chinook and Cascade hops add a snappy pine and citrus kick.”

Then to Beachwood for Freudian Sip which “is brewed with toasty Vienna malt & floral German hops. This crisp amber lager is no slip of the palate.”

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In the Tap Lines for November 2022

Halloween just passed, Turkey Day a’comin quick and before you can blink, Christmas. All of that means holiday beers and winter warmers and IPAs dressed up cold for the snow. Plus, this…

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the Brewseum Breweries

~ special featured reviews of the Sierra Nevada Bourbon Barrel Bigfoot Barleywine

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads Endless Night by Agatha Christie

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to The Briefcase featuring Casey Holdahl

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

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A Book & A Beer – Less by Andrew Sean Greer

I am not a prolific Facebook poster but what I do post the most about are the books I am reading and the book that has sparked the most feedback has been Less by Andrew Sean Greer.  The Pulitzer Prize winning book follows the travels of Arthur Less as he avoids the wedding of a former flame.

Billed as a comic novel, it is subtly narrated by that former flame in a very effective way that I found the book more inner quest than laugh out loud comedy.  There are moments such as the fruitless attempt at securing a VAT refund that are funny and quite a few one liners that are chuckle inducing but once Less gets a piece of bad news early in the book it starts the gears of his mind rolling and the book becomes poignant.

I found out about the book because a sequel is now out, Less is Lost. So with that in mind, the beer choice is to find a sequel beer.  A new Little Thing from Sierra Nevada, a fruited American Gose from Anderson Valley or a Mind Haze from Firestone Walker to name three California ones.  

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In the Tap Lines for October 2022

Each year, I give my royal blessing for the beer loving masses to drink pumpkin beer now that we have reached October.  So run and buy a pumpkin, hollow it out, pour a pumpkin beer or three inside and put a tap on that gourd.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from around California

~ special featured reviews of Autumnal beers

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads Less by Andrew Sean Greer

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Scam Likely

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

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A Book & A Beer – Bourbon Empire by Reid Mitenbuler

Of course the book of the month is about bourbon. Reid Mitenbuler looks at bourbon through slightly jaded eyes in Bourbon Empire.

The sub-title gives the scope of the narrative, The past and future of America’s whiskey. Overall Mitenbuler does a succinct job of pulling back the curtain on the business of bourbon detailing how the beverage looks way more artisanal than the business structure behind it actually is.

I did find the constant referencing back to Jefferson v Hamilton a bit overdone and a little too easy to boil things down to local and agrarian v business and industry. I also felt there was a missed opportunity to show the way that bourbon spun out of prohibition in comparison to beer and wine. I would almost prefer less time spent in that era and more in modern times detailing the new small distilling operations that have sprung up mostly because the chapter on Coppersea Distilling was quite interesting.

This book excels when it is busting myths and showing how the sausage is made without a PR firm spin to it. The fact that done brands were actually traded between competing firms was new news to me.

To drink with this book, I suggest getting yourself a California Common or the Kentucky version and compare it to Anchor Steam. That copyrighted name and its fallout is a close cousin to some of the business going on in bourbon.

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In the Tap Lines for September 2022

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This month I will be making my first ever trip to Kentucky, specifically, the Bourbon Trail from Louisville to Bardstown.  So get a snifter out, there is going to be some bourbon talk this month.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from cities that also distill spirits
~ special featured review of Kentucky
~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark
~ A Book & A Beer reads Bourbon Empire by Reid Mitenbuler
~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Bourbon Pursuit
~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.