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It’s Oktoberfest!

Sep28th
2011 Written by admin

It’s Oktoberfest!

We are currently smack in the middle of the world-famous beer festival that is the  Oktoberfest.  It runs from late September to early October, a continuous drinkathon of between 16 to 18 days. It was once set at a standard 16 days and finished on the 1st Sunday in October but following the introduction of Unity Day (October 3rd), it can now last until then.

It’s the world’s largest fair, attracts around 5 million people every year and only beer

Oktoberfest girls enjoying a beer

Oktoberfest girls enjoying a beer

produced within Munich’s borders is allowed to be sold here.  Between 7 and 8 million litres are consumed at the Oktoberfest annually along with a prodigious amount of sausages, sauerkraut and other  traditional German food.  Bavarian beer is served in the famous 1 litre glass jugs.

The Oktoberfest began as a celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig to Prince Therese in Oktober, 1810 which took place outside the City gates of Munich, where the Oktoberfest is still held.  The celebration was repeated the next year with the traditional horse race to close the festival.  For the next sixty years or so, the festival was more of a traditional fair than a beer drinking celebration – until the late 19th century when breweries began to sponsor the event and take part in the various competitions.  Huge beer tents were also erected and the first glass beer mugs were used in 1892.  Stats from the 1910 centenary show that 120,000 litres of beer were consumed and the fair gradually became a celebration of Bavarian beer.

The German diaspora ensures that Oktoberfests are held in many countries around the

Oktoberfest decor

Oktoberfest decor

world containing citizens of German ancestry.  The largest is in Canada, attracting up to 1 million visitors every year but Brazil, the United States and Argentina also host huge festivals.

Tourists make up a significant minority of the Oktoberfest’s visitors but many (especially foreigners) are caught out by the strength of the beer.  While Germany beer averages 5.2%, Oktoberfest beer is usually brewed between 5.8% and 6.3%, ensuring that the various ‘recovery’ areas are always well populated.

 

 

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Brewing News 16/3/11

Mar15th
2011 Written by admin

Health Groups Not Impressed by UK Govs Proposals

Something a bit more serious for this news item and it relates to the fact the the British WHO logoconsumption of alcohol units has been steadily (and not so steadily) climbing for some years now. The World Health Organisation recently released a report detailing the drinking habits of every country in the world and the U.K. ranks at number 17 with 13.4 litres of alcohol consumed per person per year (Moldova is number one with 19.2 litres). You can read the whole report here. The top 25 are almost exclusively European with the one exception appearing to be South Korea.

In light of this and in light of the constantly increasing costs of alcohol abuse for taxpayers, the UK government has attempted to formulate a strategy to make alcohol less affordable among other measures.  In the UK the costs associated with alcohol abuse are mostly related to pressure on the taxpayer funded National Health Service, although there are other costs such as policing in town and city-centres on weekend evenings.  Of course there are also social problems associated with alcohol related to domestic violence and anti-social behaviour.

So what did the government come up with?  Well, not much it seems if the response of many from the health industry is anything to go by.  There’s certainly nothing concrete in the measures and it looks like the government have just got together with the immensely powerful drinks industry and formulated a few impressive soundbites – the result of which is a continuation with the status quo.

Health groups seem to agree and the full list of those unwilling to sign up to these measures is a long and influential one – Alcohol Concern, the British Association for the Study of the Liver, the British Liver Trust, the British Medical Association, the Institute of Alcohol Studies and the Royal College of Physicians.

Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, said: “It’s all carrot and no stick for the

Don Shenker - Alcohol Concern

Don Shenker - Alcohol Concern

drinks industry and supermarkets”, and this appears to be the view from the other organisations.  It’s worth pointing out that the measures will not affect pub-goers – the changes are mostly related to alcohol bought from supermarkets.

News, Organisations, Top Tens    , , , , , , ,

A Few Beer Cocktails…..

Mar1st
2011 Written by admin

A Few Beer Cocktails…..

A beer cocktail sounds like the sort of drink that should be consumed in the summer, perhaps a cool, refreshing blend of a pale beer and a fruity addition of some sort.  Well maybe from now in it can be.  If you think a beer cocktail starts and finishes with a Boilermaker (a shot of whisky in a pint for the uninitiated) then we can put you on the right track today.

One of the most popular centres of the beer cocktail is Northern France.  Personally France was the first place I ever tried the bottled concoction called Desperados, beer with added Tequila – it tastes just like a lager and lime but you probably shouldn’t drink too many.  That was some years ago now so maybe it was the forerunner of today’s beer cocktails.

This is something of a fledgling industry but we can break the cocktails down into three styles

- beer blends: beer mixed with another type of beer

- beer mixed with something else: a fruit juice or similar to lessen the alcohol content

- beer mixed with an existing cocktail

So, in order, let’s take a look at one recipe from each category:

Beer Blends

This is the most well known and probably the easiest to mix up when half-cut.  Good examples are the Black and Tan (equal parts Stout and Ale), the Irish Setter (Stout with a dash of IPA) and a Half and Half (equal parts Stout and Lager).  These drinks will garner you horrified looks from locals and purists (and local purists) but don’t let that put you off.

Black and Tan Cocktail

The Black & Tan

Beer Mixed With Something Else

There’s loads of these but you can try something like the Boiling Sunrise, which is  six parts beer, six parts tequila, four parts orange juice and one part grenadine.  Or perhaps the Lunch Bucket – twelve parts beer, 1 part orange juice and 1 part amaretto.  It’s not hard really and there’s loads of scope to mix your own stuff up.

Beer With an Existing Cocktail

The Brewer’s Bramble is a current favourite and definitely a summer drink – it alters the traditional Bramble cocktail by replacing the lemon and syrup with a sour, pale beer.  Add the original ingredients – gin and blackberry liqueur and you have a beer cocktail!

Beer Brewing, Home Brewing, News    , , , ,

U.K. Finally Allows Pubs to Sell Something Other Than a Pint

Feb6th
2011 Written by admin

U.K. Finally Allows Pubs to Sell Something Other Than a Pint

Well that headline is not entirely correct of course as there are three measures that pubs andA Pint restaurants are allowed to sell beer and cider in.  These are the pint (568 ml), the half pint (284 ml) and there’s also a third-of-a-pint measure (189 ml).  Surprise your landlord on your next pub visit by asking for that last one and see what happens.

What’s the origin of the British pint then?  Incredibly it dates back to an Act of Parliament in 1698.  It’s difficult to tell why the original defined measure is quite so big but 568ml does equate to 20 imperial fluid ounces so quite possibly it was just a round number.  Regulations surrounding the size are taken very seriously by licensing bodies in the U.K. and each pint glass was historically stamped with a certification stating that the glass is indeed one pint. Recently, in line with European Union policy, the letters CE have been becoming more common as a Europe wide industry standard.

1698 Act of Parliament

So, just over three hundred years after the 1698 Act of Parliament set the original measures the current U.K. conservative government has decided, probably wisely, that there’s no real need for a such a big measure, or a half (or third measure).  However they won’t be able to serve any old measure and make up a price for it, the new measure will also be set at what is actually a two thirds of a pint level.  It’s equivalent to an Australian ‘schooner’ and is around 400 ml.

The new measure should be advantageous in a couple of ways, firstly it’s supposed to be a more attractive size for women drinkers, secondly the smaller measure is in some ways a health measure as it may help cut down per capita drinking (although this seems to be unlikely), thirdly, for those of us who like our beer cold but can’t drink a pint fast enough it will be  a little easier.

Lastly of course there’s really no reason not to, unless you’re an establishment faced with cost of buying new glasses and automatically calibrated pumps.

By Country, News    , , , , ,

The History of Beer in the Ancient World

Jan12th
2011 Written by admin

The History of Beer in the Ancient World

No self-respecting website on the subject of beer should exist very long without an article on the history of beer.  The actual basic process which results in a beer-like beverage is simple fermentation and anything which contains carbohydrates eventually ferments to some degree.  Bearing this in mind it’s almost inconceivable that beer originated in one location and then spread around the world.  It’s much more likely that it cropped up in many different spots at one time or another independently.

What is known however, are references to beer-like drinks dating back 6000 years BC in what we now call Iraq.  A famous piece of prose dating to around 1800BC entitled “Hymn to Ninkasi” contains the following last verse:

“When you pour out the filtered beer
of the collector vat,
It is [like] the onrush of
Tigris and Euphrates.
Ninkasi, you are the one who pours out the
filtered beer of the collector vat,
It is [like] the onrush of
Tigris and Euphrates.”

Between these two periods, around the period 3000BC, there is documentation and

Ebla Tablets

One of the Ebla Tablets

evidence to show that the Egyptians had a beer drink made from baked bread.  They passed this on to the Greeks who called the drink Zythos. Also at this time, various Chinese cultures were brewing a beer-like drink called Zui. In fact it seems all the ancient civilisations of this period and the next couple of millennia were brewing their own beer including the Mesopotamians, the Syrians and the Babylonians (who also used it for religious ceremonies and enacted laws for the regulation of taverns).  We know about the Syrians because of the existence of the Ebla Tablets (right) of which there are thousands, which document Syrian life in the city of Ebla until it’s destruction in 2250BC.

So here we have a drink we can firmly date back some seven or eight thousand years

although it’s form has been refined somewhat since those early days.  It was a staple part of an Egyptian citizens diet and used in religious ceremonies by the Babylonians.  In the next article we’ll have a look at beer in the modern world and the impact of industrialisation.

Egyptian Beer Mug circa 7th century BC

Egyptian Beer Mug circa 7th century BC

Part Two follows….

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