When this used to be a personal blog I would occasionally post about music. I’d put up interesting songs I’d come across, sometimes even posting full albums. Well, I’ve decided to sneak one post about music into this beer blog. In particular one song, a favorite of mine, “Hard Times” by Baby Huey & The Babysitters. It’s sort of obscure. If you’re a fan of hip-hop you might recognize it as it’s been sampled dozens of times. It was written and produced by Curtis Mayfield. It’s got a real funky/soul sound to it, great beat and horns. But what really stands out for me are the lyrics. It gets into themes of paranoia, alienation, insecurity and poverty with introspective honesty. How could you not love a song with lyrics like, “Eatin’ Spam and Oreos and drinkin’ Thunderbird baby”? I’ve scoured the internet looking for lyrics to this song but unable to find any I took it upon myself to sit down one night and transcribe them myself. Enjoy.
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One of my favorite scenes from Mad Men is from its premier episode “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”. Let me set up the scene before you watch the clip. It’s 1960 New York City, Don Draper is the genius creative director at Sterling Cooper, an advertising agency on Madison Avenue. Unable to come up with an idea for bigtime client Lucky Strike, Don drops the ball while giving his presentation. Frustrated, Lucky Strike execs get up to leave when Don has an epiphany.
This scene immediately came to mind when I saw a Miller Lite ad touting that it’s “triple hops brewed”. It made the Bruce Banner beer geek in me go a little Hulk. Saying your beer is “triple hops brewed” is like Honda saying their cars come with four wheels. Most beer is brewed with three hop additions. Bittering hops, flavor hops and aroma hops, in that order. Miller is cleverly taking ownership of hop additions the same way Lucky Strike used the toasting of tobacco to differentiate its brand from the competition.
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Posted in Beer, Marketing |
- Sit down at a table of strangers without asking.
- Tell them to buy you a beer because it’s a holiday celebrating an important figure in U.S. history and you are the same race of said figure.
- After 30 minutes of listening to you beg for a free beer, get angry when they ask you to leave them alone.
- Tell 5thape “Sit your ass down and drink your beer,” when he looks over to see what’s going on. 5thape likes to enjoy his Black Butte Porter at his own pace.
- Push the girl who’s trying to defuse the situation.
This is not how you get a free beer. This is how you get your head combed back and then tossed onto the sidewalk.
I don’t know what I was more offended by, the fact he pushed a girl or that he believed MLK’s martyrdom had entitled him to a free beer. Either way, pretty sad.
I won’t lie, the past month’s been a little scary. But I’m glad to say that I’ve managed to find a position at a great brewery/restaurant! I won’t mention the place by name but I’m pretty confident that it’s gonna be a great opportunity. I’ll be a server but with some time and a bit of luck I might be able to charm my way into the brewery once in a while to learn their brew system as well. I’m pretty excited. From talking to brewpub owners and people who work in the restaurant industry they all say if you wanna learn the business, get paid to learn. The next most common advice is to look for a restaurant that is 1) high-volume, 2) has good systems in place and 3) is similar to what you’d like to open. Luckily this establishment has all three. I go in next week to sign papers and train. I’ll have more updates then.
Posted in Work | Tagged brewery, restaurant, Work |
I shouldn’t of expected much. It’s an article about beer in a fitness magazine. But I was still hopeful when I saw the link on the front page of Digg. The title read “Beer 101 - Men’s Fitness”. I thought this was going to be a simple, easy to understand introductory article to the world of beer. So I click opened the link and read the first line
Lager is the most common, base level of beer against which all other brews are judged.
A base level of beer? What the hell does that mean? And why are all other beers judged against lagers? But it gets worse
Characterized by a smooth but crisp bite, it’s brewed over a four- to 12-week period in very cool temperatures using a yeast that ferments at the top of the barrel.
WRONG! Lager yeast ferments at the BOTTOM of the barrel, ALE yeast ferments at the top. I stopped reading the article after that. I skimmed the rest of the way and soon realized this was the Natty Ice of beer articles. In fact it almost seemed like the person who wrote the thing secretly despised beers. This has inspired me to write my own article for beer beginners. I’ll have something up by next week.
Posted in Beer, Media | Tagged article, Beer, beer 101 |