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Bob's BeerStuff |
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This Page will be dedicated to Specialty Beer. As one not versed on the topic, I hope to get
contributions from outside sources, like the good folks at our Winery of
the Month selection, Clipper City Brewery; my friend, co-worker and Beer
expert whom I will call Beer Boy or Beer Boy John, and anyone else with
good solid beer information. In
the brief time I have researched this, I have come to find out the there
is a beer expert all the beer trade magazines hold in high regard, and
we will include his link in this inaugural entry to lend weight and
power to the information contain from this day forward.
His name is Michael Jackson and looks nothing like the other
Michael Jackson, nor does he like little boys. I have far less knowledge of starting this page
then starting my wino entries four years ago, as I had spent time in
Kevin Zraly’s class and read volumes on the wine world.
But looking back, my early entries kind sucked so this will
probably suck too for a while until I get my beer legs under me.
This page will be updated monthly at this point unless we can get
help, or until Wino John feels he would like to offer input. I thought about defining this page with Micro Brews
only, but as I read, it seems that some of what I thought were micro
brews, are micro in marketing only and I’m sure knowledgeable beer
enthusiast will correct me on the beers I highlight.
To them I say, hey go start your own page, this is Wino Bob’s
look into what he considers Specialty Beers.
Some may not even be special, but it won’t be Budweiser, Miller
or Schlitz I will highlight on this page.
The other difficulty I am having is finding the terms to use to
describe the beer so that too will develop in time.
All skyscrapers start with the first truckload of cement,
consider this cement. As I have mentioned in the past, Ballentine Beer
flowed in my family’s bloodstream, as my maternal grandmother was a
tavern owner in Newark one block from the plant.
Allegiances also run towards Anheuser-Busch and Pabst as they
both had bottling facilities that relatives of mine worked in. During
high school (yes drinking age in NJ was 18 and many of us turned 18 our
senior year) we mostly drank Bud and Miller.
College was Olympia and Coors (I went to school in Arizona for a
bit) but finished drinking Gennie Cream Ale and Miller Light at the pub
on campus at Rutgers. Unlike
Wino John who was downing the remains of high end wine left on the
tables at the high society members only, businessmen’s club he worked,
I attended Thursday dollar Bud nights in New Brunswick. Fast forward to several years ago when, on occasion
we would be at a meeting in California and the crowd wanted to visit the
Goat Head Tavern in Newport- which once held the Guinness book record
for most beer on tap. Then
Beer Boy John joined the crew and his love and knowledge for specialty
beer had us searching out places in many different cities for beers he
read up on and hadn’t tried. So
I partially dedicate this page to him, hoping it will obligate him to
write so great stuff in the near future. Now that some of the background is out of the way,
and seeing how my Uber Pils from Clipper City has not yet arrived, I
would like to make a simple entry today.
The reason I wanted to start this is that July is American Beer
Month. This July is the 5th
Anniversary of the month long celebration to learn and seek out great
American Brews started by the Association of Brewers in 1999.
Each week (just so you don’t jump on me already-they are
starting it on June 21st) will feature a different style of
beer including Wheat, Indian Pale Ale (IPA) Pilsner, American Pale Ale,
Brown Ale and American Amber Ale.
To learn more about the events throughout the country you can
visit www.AmericanBeerMonth.com
for those in Penn, Beer Boy John will be attending the Harrisburg
Brewer’s Fest next Saturday June 19th, which will feature
30 local breweries. On
Sunday June 27th at Waterloo Village in Stanhope, NJ our 8th
Annual NJ Beer Festival which will feature 16 NJ breweries/ brewpubs.
To learn more about the specialty beer companies of NJ you can
visit www.njbeer.org. As with everything else, I start close to home so I
will end this babbling with a simple list of the Breweries and Brewpubs
in NJ.
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