Happy Friday!

Need a lift?

Too sick for a barleywine?

I posted here that when I am sick I like a nice barleywine.  Sitting here now, sick as a dog, I have no appetite for a barleywine or any other beer.  It's a sad, sad day.  Hopefully I'll feel better soon, and perhaps even have that barleywine!

Whose slogan is this?

"Beer speaks.  People mumble."

How's your liver?

With San Diego Beer Week officially over, I reflect on the above question.  I can't tell you how many times over the past 10 days I heard that, or similar phrases, uttered.  So much so that I began to question the very idea of SDBW.  To me those 10 days were to be a celebration of all things craft beer in San Diego.  A way to spread the gospel of craft, if you will.  An opportunity to open the uninitiated eyes of craft beer virgins to what beer, real beer, can and should be.  When I hear people talking about the deterioration of their livers due to the extended week's festivities, even if in jest, I wonder if the event has somehow changed over the past 5 years, morphing from something more closely resembling this ideal I hold so dear into some kind of frat boy keg party brouhaha.  Craft beer is for savoring, enjoying, and sharing, not chugging, guzzling, and regurgitating.  Perhaps I'm too sensitive.  Perhaps I take myself and craft beer too seriously.  Perhaps I've given you something to think about.  Perhaps we've all got something to think about.  Perhaps, like San Diego Beer Week, this rant has come to a close.

Yep

The Brewery Project: Prohibition

 

The good, the bad, and the ugly.  That sums up my visit to Prohibition Brewing Co.  I'm happy to say that "the good" was the beer.  Hef-U-Up, though sophomorically named, was quite good.  A 7.5% hefeweizen, the cloudy brew had the sweet notes I look for in a beer of this style, was full bodied, and very drinkable.  I would definitely order this beer again, and the finesse with which it was brewed makes me want to try their other offerings as well.  That, unfortunately, was the end of "the good".  "The bad" may be considered a matter of taste.  When I ordered the aforementioned beer the bartender asked if I wanted a slice of lemon with it.  Perhaps it was a slice of orange.  I was so thrown by the question that I honestly don't remember.  If I go to Chili's and order a Blue Moon, I expect the glass to be adorned with a piece of fruit.  This is not something I expect to encounter at a brewery.  Again, this is my preference.  Some people may like a piece of lemon or orange with their beer, and that's okay.  For me, it's not okay.  That brings me to "the ugly".  The bartender asked the guys sitting next to me at the bar what they wanted to drink.  They said they didn't really care and that they just wanted a beer, so to bring them an IPA.  As she was getting their beer she responded, "I know what you mean.  Beer is beer."  Really?  Again, if I was at Chili's I might expect the bartender to have this kind of attitude, but at a brewery?  How can a brewery expect to distinguish itself in the San Diego market when its main public representatives, their bartenders, don't care about the product they are serving?  This left a bad taste in my mouth, overshadowing the previous good taste from the beer.  The beer was good enough to have again, but I think I'll look for it elsewhere.  Someplace where "beer" is much, much more than just "beer".