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Style du jour
Posted on May 16, 2008 by nmiller
Filed Under Beer, seasonal | Leave a Comment
Like most better beer drinkers, I go through phases where I drink more of one style than usual for a few weeks, maybe months.
I don’t give up other styles, but I’ll have a style that I typically don’t have that often, I’ll really enjoy it and then I’ll seek out other examples of that style from other breweries to see how they compare.
Right now, that style I just can’t get enough of are Maibocks.
Maibocks are a German-style spring beer, typically lighter than other bock styles. There’s usually a slight alcohol taste to it, but extremely smooth.
My two current favorites are both spring seasonals for their respective breweries - the Smuttynose Brewing Company’s Maibock, which is part of the Big Beer Series - and Berkshire Brewing Company’s Maibock.
These are both excellent beers. In fact, I have one Berkshire Maibock in a cooler in my car I’m bringing to a party tonight. At 6.5 percent ABV, it’s almost dangerously smooth. If you’re not careful, downing the 22 ounce bomber 
could take seconds.
Smuttynose’s version is also top notch. It weighs in at 7.7 percent ABV. The alcohol is a little more noticeable than in the Berkshire, but again a very drinkable beer.
Other Maibocks to look out for is Rogue’s Dead Guy Ale (even though it’s a Maibock and a lager, they use an Ale yeast and call it an ale), Victory’s St. Boisterous and several German Maibocks, such as Spaten.
What’s your current style of the month? Do you go through phases like me? Any other Maibocks I should look out for?
Given the big guy a chance
Posted on May 15, 2008 by nmiller
Filed Under Beer | Leave a Comment
One of the advantages of this job is breweries sending me beer. It’s like a cool little present when I see a box at my desk when I come back from going to the police departments looking for some news.
I don’t write about all the beer that comes to me, and I never request it.
The brewery that sends me the most beer is probably Anheuser-Busch. Although I rarely have positive reviews about their beers, they continue to send it.
Today, I received a bottle of the Beach Bum Blonde Ale, one of their entries in their craft beer line. 
I’ll give it a shot. I have nothing against any of the big breweries - for the most part I don’t like their beer - but any company as successful as them I think is a good thing.
I actually hope I like the beer. I’d love for a big brewery to make a six pack of beer that I’d seek out, but it hasn’t happened.
I do like some of the beers produced, or at least in part, connected to the Big 3 (Bud, Miller, Coors).
For example, Blue Moon from Colorado is halfway decent. I don’t seek it out, but it’s not all that bad. Miller Brewing owns Leinenkugel’s and I still find their beers good for fruit-based wheat beers. Anheuser-Busch’s Winter Bourbon Cask Ale is decent, if that’s all a bar has.
Have you ever had anything from the big boys that you like? Do you ever by their products? If not, is it just the taste, or is it because the company is so big you prefer to support smaller, often local, brewers?
I want you to want (to read) me
Posted on May 14, 2008 by nmiller
Filed Under Uncategorized | 5 Comments
I want your advice.
I want to know what you, as readers, want to read in this space. What kind of information would you find interesting? What would spark debate?
I enjoy writing about beer weekly in the MetroWest Daily News and whichever other papers pick up the Beer Nut column, and I like to use this blog as a diversion from the depressing news I write about the rest of the day.
However, I also want people to want to read this blog, so I want to know what you want me to write?
Do you want me to talk about specific beers? Issues? Upcoming events? Industry news? Let me know, and I’ll do more of that. I like to talk about beer, so I want to talk to more of you about beer.
Thanks for your time,
The Beer Nut, aka Norman.
My wallet feels a little bit lighter
Posted on May 13, 2008 by nmiller
Filed Under Beer, bars | 2 Comments
I’m starting to feel the rising cost of beer. Every week when I go to the liquor store I run into beers I’d love to try, but then I look at the price and back away.
It’s not just liquor stores, it is also bars. I was at a bar in Boston over the weekend and I noticed that the beers were the same prices, but for smaller glasses.
I know there is a lot of reasons beer prices have increased - the prices of raw ingredients such as hops and malt, glass prices have increased and the cost of transporting the beer has skyrocketed because of the rising cost at the pump.
Because of the rising price on your average beer, I notice it even more on some breweries. I’ve stopped buying Jolly Pumpkin beers because the 750 ml bottles have jumped up by an average of $5 a bottle.
Allagash Brewing Company’s special releases are fantastic, but at $16 or $17 a bottle, I can get other beer at or near the same quality for much less.
There are a couple of bottles of beer I considered buying, but I just couldn’t justify it for the price. Bøgedal No. 103, a Belgian Dark Ale, is available at 
Julio’s Liquor store in Westborough. There is only 680 bottles available in the United States, so I expected it to be pricey, but $29.99 was out of my reach.
Brooklyn’s Schneider Weisse is another beer I want. At $12.99, I’ll probably eventually breakdown and get it, but I’m going to wait a little while.
Beer prices are still far away from wine prices, but the gap is narrowing. At some point, there has to be a ceiling.
Is there any solution? I don’t know. What do you think? Has it affected your buying habits? How about homebrewers - are the ingredients more expensive?
The payback
Posted on May 9, 2008 by nmiller
Filed Under Beer | Leave a Comment
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how a friend from California sent myself and a coworker a box of great beers from out there.
Now, it is our turn to send some stuff back to him. He made a couple of requests, and then we filled in with a bunch of quality stuff.
We wanted to get him a good mix of beers, some unusual and some from breweries that we know don’t make it all the way to the west coast. We had to keep in mind he prefers big beers.
The first two selections were actually Michigan beers, both from Founders Brewing Company. He’ll be trying the Devil Dancer, which the brewery calls a triple IPA, and the Old Curmudgeon,
a strong ale aged in oak barrels. The Old Curmudgeon is a fantastic beer. 
The Devil Dancer is not the most balanced beer on the market, but the bitterness levels are off the charts and worth tasting at least once if you’re an imperial IPA fan.
The next two selections came from the Smuttynose Brewing Company in Portsmouth, N.H. We decided on giving him the excellent imperial stout and Baltic porter from their Big Beer Series. Smuttynose is a truly under appreciated brewery and he should really enjoy the two beers.
We went a little more local with our next choice, Berkshire Brewing Company’s Coffeehouse Porter. 
This is one of my favorite porters. The beer is wonderful, and the coffee really brings out a lot of fantastic flavors.
Staying local, we threw in a Steve Stewart’s Firth of Forth Ale, one of the latest 100 Barrel Series from Harpoon. I know when I get beers from other areas, I like to try limited editions and I think my friend will, too.
The next two beers we chose came from Pennsylvania - Victory Brewing Company’s Baltic Thunder and Weyerbacher’s Double Simcoe IPA. Victory was one of the breweries my friend requested. I picked the Double Simcoe because it is a very clean tasting IPA, made with only Simcoe hops. I thought it would be a nice way for him to compare an east coast IPA to the hop bombs he drinks in southern California all the time.
Another brewery he requested was Southern Tier from New York. Unfortunately, the one I wanted to send him, the Oat, was unavailable, so we chose the Unearthly, another imperial IPA. If you haven’t had it, it is definitely worth seeking out. Despite being more than 100 IBUs, it’s extremely balanced.
Hoppin’ Frog’s B.O.R.I.S. the Crusher Imperial Oatmeal Stout was one of 
our final choices. This is as flawless a beer as you can get, if you like big stouts.
We still want to throw one beer in - preferably a 22 ounce bomber of a 750 ml bottle. We actually bought him an Allagash Four, which is a Belgian-style quad, but forgot he has easy access to Allagash beers.
Any suggestions? What do you think about the beers we’re sending him? I think it’s a good mix of big beers. If he was more into lower alcohol beers, the selection probably would have been a lot different.
Beer invading my sleep
Posted on May 8, 2008 by nmiller
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
I often have very vivid dreams that I remember in good detail. It’s not unusual for work to be the focus of my dreams, or to at least have a random co-worker make an appearance in a strange situation. I think that means I spend too much time at work, but who doesn’t.
But, it is unusual for me to dream about beer. Maybe it’s a combination of a vacation I’m planning that involves beer, purchasing beer festival tickets recently and the fact that I’m writing about beer fairly often. I don’t know.
I like to share, so I will tell you about my dream. It features one of the best beers I’ve had in a long time, Kate the Great Russian Imperial Stout, which is brewed at the Portsmouth Brewing Company in New Hampshire.
Next month, they’re having a release party on June 24. They will sell 10 cases on that day and the following day and then five cases a day until there is no more left. I read a lot about it the past few days, and I hope to get up there to buy a couple of bottles.
My dream is about that trip. In my dream, I drive up to Portsmouth with a friend to buy some Kate the Great. 
We go into the little retail store right next to the brewpub and we each buy a case of the stout. The case looks strange, as the beer is bottled in a strange combinations of bottles, two liter bottles, medicine bottles and flasks.
After we purchase our cases, we go into the brewpub where we eat lunch and drink beer. When we walked to our car, I realize I left my case in the store so I go back to get it.
As I return, I notice a man leaving with my case and I yell, “Hey, that’s my beer,” and he runs out. I complain to the store employees who told me “You didn’t buy it. You didn’t have your picture taken.”
They said there was only one six pack left of the special black Kate the Great (I don’t think it’s possible to make Kate the Great any darker) but a woman already had it in the hand.
The dream gets a little confusing at that point because my dog barked and partially woke me up. When I fell back to sleep, the dream changed. Instead of myself arguing with the store employees, there is a random man arguing almost as if I’m watching it on a screen, and then there’s fires and a dragon.
That’s pretty much the end because my alarm went off.
Why am I sharing this? I figured, why not? All I know is, I really want to get up to Portsmouth and get my hands on a few bottles of the great Kate the Great.
Where is the best beer made?
Posted on May 7, 2008 by nmiller
Filed Under Beer | Leave a Comment
In addition to writing this blog, I write a beer column of the same name for the MetroWest Daily News. The goal is to introduce people to knew beers and give them a brief review of their offerings.
Usually, my column focuses on a brewery that has recently added a new beer to its lineup, or a brewery that has started distributing in the Bay State for the first time, such as Ballast Point, which is featured this week. Click here to read the article.
Ballast Point is the fourth brewery from the San Diego area I have featured so far this year, and the fifth overall in the nearly two years I’ve been writing the Beer Nut.
That got me to thinking, which region is the best beer producers. I’m talking just about bottled beer, not brewpubs.
As far as states, California, Colorado, New York, Michigan and Pennsylvania all have some world class breweries, but how about by region.
Take the San Diego area for example. There’s Stone Brewing Company - if you like hoppy, big beers, you like Stone. Then there’s AleSmith, with such fantastic brews as the Speedway Stout, the Wee Heavy and YuleSmith.
But there’s more in San Diego. Ballast Point is very good, while Green Flash produces beers hop heads dream about.
If you like Belgian ales, then try some of the Lost Abbey line of beers from the Port Brewing/Lost Abbey Brewery. They have one of the most impressive portfolios of beer in the country.
Then there’s the Denver/Boulder, Colo. area. You have Great Divide, who brews one of my favorite imperial stouts, Oaked Aged Yeti. The Hercules Double IPA is fantastic, while the Samurai Ale provides a nice delicate brew to balance out the heavyweights in their lineups.
Again, if you like big beers, Avery joins Great Divide in the Denver/Boulder area. They have a lot of high alcohol beers that beer geeks seek out on a regular basis.
Boulder Brewing - one of the oldest microbreweries in the U.S. - and Flying Dog, also offer some very nice beers.
And if you like commercial beer, Coors brews a lot of theirs in Denver.
But, maybe it should not be all about big beers.
Portland, Maine breweries, for the most part, specialize in sessionable brews.
Geary’s, Gritty McDuff’s and Shipyard all specialize in British-style ales, while Casco and Sebago Brewing add some good, lower alcohol ales.
Also, Allagash Brewing Company is one of the best U.S. brewers of Belgian-style ales, so there is some variety.
My vote goes to San Diego. How about you? Which region do you think is the best? Did I leave an area out? Tell me why you think it should be considered.
Free beer, some BBQ and wine
Posted on May 6, 2008 by nmiller
Filed Under Beer, festival, food, tasting | 2 Comments
There are several interesting beer events coming up in the next few weeks to keep an eye out for.
Gordon’s Liquors at 894 Main St., Waltham, will be hosting a BBQ beer dinner on May 15 at 7 p.m.
There will be grilled meats from Jake’s Roadhouse paired with craft beer. Tickets are $35 (this is not the free beer I mentioned in the headline). Log onto gordonswine.com for tickets.
On May 22, the Vin Bin at 27 South Bolton St., Marlborough, will be hosting its annual Memorial Day BBQ.
The event is free, and to go along with some good barbecue, such beers as Smuttynose’s Old Brown Dog Ale, IPA, Shoals Pale Ale, Robust Porter and Maibock will be sampled. Other beers such as their Summerweizen and Hanami may also be poured.
Several bottles of wine may also be opened to go along with some burgers. The event will start at 5 p.m.
On June 1, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Julio’s Liquors at 140 Turnpike Road, Westborough, will be hosting it’s Spring BeerFest. More than 250 different beers from more than 50 breweries will be available for sampling that day, as well as some food samples.
This is always a good time, but unfortunately, I’ll have to miss it because I’ll be on the way back from Canada.
On June 4, Friendly’s Discount Liquors of 1167 Providence Road, Whitinsville will host its Summer Beer & Wine Fest from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to walk around the store and sample the numerous beers, wines and spirits that will be available.
RSVP by calling 508-234-7951.
Hopefully, I’ll have a chance to head to a couple of these myself and maybe I’ll see you there.
If you know of any events, feel free to post them on your comments, or email me at nmiller@cnc.com.
Cinco de Mayo? Who cares?
Posted on May 5, 2008 by nmiller
Filed Under festival, real ale | 1 Comment
I was originally planning on writing about Cinco de Mayo and Mexican beers today, but then it hit me - I really don’t care about Mexican beers.
There are a couple that are passable beers - my favorite being Negra Modello - but overall, there is not one Mexican beer that I will seek out.
So, instead, I decided to right about the 12th Annual New England Real Ale Exhibition I attended this past weekend.
Held in Somerville by the Cask-conditioned Ale Support Campaign, or CASC, it’s a great time.
Numerous hard-to-find ales from England were the highlight of the four day festival. Many of these beers are not available in the United States except during such festivals.
Several American breweries also submit their beers to the festival on cask. It’s a wonderful time, if you haven’t been, you really should. Keep a lookout for a smaller, satellite festival they may have later in the year.
This was the third NERAX I have been to, and I think it may have been the best. The beer selection was absolutely incredible, and there was a good mix of British and American beers.
And for the first time, my favorite beer was an American beer - the Velvet Elvis from Martha’s Exchange up in Nashua, N.H. 
This is a wonderful stout, about 4 percent ABV, full of flavors. You can easily pick up the roastiness from the malts, as well as strong flavors of vanilla and hazelnut.
Another highlight was Bikes, Trikes, and Beer from the Bank Top Brewery in Bolton, Lancashire. People who say you can’t get complex flavors from sessionable beers should try one of these 3.6 percent ABV British beers.
Along the lines of the Velvet Elvis was the Coffee Hazelnut Porter from the Saltaire Brewery in West Yorkshire. The lightest porter I have ever seen, this burst with flavors. 
Do you like cask-conditioned beers? Where are the some best places to get beers on cask around here?
Best places to have a beer
Posted on May 1, 2008 by nmiller
Filed Under Beer, bars, festival | 5 Comments
I stopped at Barnes & Noble the other night and looked through All About Beer, and they had an article on the top 125 places to drink a beer before you die. It’s also being heavily discussed over at Beer Advocate today.
I thought the list was interesting. There are several places mentioned that I do want to go to, including the Great British Beer Fesival, Oktoberfest and Grand Place in Brussels.
But there were several others I have no interest in at all, including tailgating at a SEC football game and the infield at Daytona International Speedway.
The one thing I took from this list is there are a heck of a lot of places I want to go.
Here’s the list with the places I’ve been put in bold face:
1. Great American Beer Festival, Denver, CO
2. Grand Place, Brussels, Belgium
3. U Fleku, Prague, Czech Republic
4. Great British Beer Festival, Earls Court, London, England
5. Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany
6. Augustiner Keller, Munich, Germany
7. Abbaye de Notre-Dame d’Orval, Orval, Belgium
8. The Gravity Bar, Guinness St. James Gate Brewery, Dublin, Ireland
9. Monk’s Café, Philadelphia, PA
10. The Great Canadian Beer Festival, Vancouver, BC
11. Hofbrauhaus, Munich, Germany
12. The Brickskeller, Washington, DC
13. Rick’s Café, Negril, Jamaica
14. The Market Porter, Stoney Street, London, England
15. Cat’s Eye Pub, Inner Harbor, Baltimore, MD
16. Seats on top of the Green Monster in Fenway Park, Boston, MA
17. Mondial de la Bière, Montreal, Quebec (I’ll be there later this month)
18. Horizon’s Café, CN Tower, Toronto, Ontario
19. Clubhouse box seats at the Saratoga Race Course, Saratoga Springs, NY
20. Beer Club Popeye, Tokyo, Japan
21. The Publick House, Brookline, MA
22. Infield at Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, FL
23. Henry’s 12th Street Tavern, Portland, OR
24. The Hopleaf, Chicago, IL
25. World Beer Festival, Durham/Raleigh, NC
26. French Quarter during Mardi Gras, New Orleans, LA
27. Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy
28. Zum Uerige, Dusseldorf, Germany
29. Toronado, San Francisco, CA
30. The Olde Mitre Tavern, Ely Court, Hatton Garden, London, England
31. Turn 4 Suites at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis, IN
32. Rogue Brewery, Newport, OR
33. The Wynkoop Brewery, Denver, CO
34. Spuyten Duyvil, Brooklyn, NY
35. Great Lakes Brewing, Cleveland, OH
36. McMenamins Kennedy School Hotel, Portland, OR
37. Atelier am Dom, Cologne, Germany
38. Anchor Brewing Tasting Room, San Francisco, CA
39.The Flying Saucer, NC, SC, TN, AR and TX
40. Arend’s Nest, Amsterdam, Holland
41. Blues Bar, Stone Town, Zanzibar
42. SandLot Brewery, Coors Field, Denver, CO
43. Clark Street Ale House, Chicago, IL
44. Tailgating at a Southeastern Conference Football Game
45. Selin’s Grove Brewing, Selinsgrove, PA
46. The Great Lost Bear, Portland, ME
47. The Map Room, Chicago, IL
48. The Blue Tusk, Syracuse, NY
49. Woolwich Arms, Guelph, ON
50. Beach Bar at the Atlantis Hotel, Paradise Island, Bahamas
51. The White Horse Pub, Parsons Green, London, England
52. Redbones Restaurant, Somerville, MA 
53. Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel, Sydney, Australia
54. Falling Rock Tap House, Denver, CO
55. Sleeping Lady Brewery/Snow Goose Restaurant, Anchorage, AK
56. In de Wildeman, Amsterdam, Holland
57. Andechs Monastery, Andechs, Germany
58. Charlie’s Bar, Copenhagen, Denmark
59. PINT Bokbierfestival, Amsterdam, Holland
60. Sierra Nevada Brewing, Chico, CA
61. Kr?ma, Ceske Krumlov, Czech Republic
62. Sapporo Beer Garden, Higashi-ku, Japan
63. Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island, MI
64. Sail and Anchor Brewpub, Fremantle, Australia
65. F.X. Matt Brewery Tasting Room, Utica, NY
66. Delerium Café, Brussels, Belgium
67. Birreria l’Orso Eletricco, Rome, Italy
68. Gösser Bierklinik, Vienna, Austria
69. Bariloche Ski Resort, Rio Negro, Argentina
70. d.b.a., New York, NY
71. Brewer’s Art, Baltimore, MD
72. Au General Lafayette, Paris, France
73. Schlenkerla Brewery Tavern, Bamberg, Germany
74. De Hopduvel, Antwerp, Belgium
75. Mr. Sancho’s Beach, Cozumel, Mexico
76. City Tavern, Philadelphia, PA
77. Die Weisse, Salzburg, Austria
78. Halve Maan Brewery, Bruges, Belgium
79. Tinkoff, Moscow, Russia
80. Le Bier Circus, Brussels, Belgium
81. TY Harbor Brewery, Tokyo, Japan
82. Irseer Klosterbrauerei, Irsee, Germany
83. Stockholm Beer & Whiskey Festival, Stockholm, Sweden
84. Goose Island Brewing, Chicago, IL
85. Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
86. Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown, NY
87. Deschutes Brewery & Publick House, Bend, OR
88. Baumgartner’s Cheese Store & Tavern, Monroe, WI
89. Icebergs Bar, Sydney, Australia
90. Cantillon Brewery and Gueuze Museum, Belgium
91. Dogfish Head Ale House, Rehoboth Beach, DE
92. Belgo Central, London, England
93. Bruxellensis Festival of Characterful Beers, Brussels, Belgium
94. Felix in The Peninsula Hotel, Hong Kong
95. Brasserie Federal, Bahnhof Zurich, Switzerland
96. Heineken Brewery, Amsterdam, Holland
97. Clark’s Ale House, Syracuse, NY
98. The Shakespeare, Aukland, New Zealand
99. Mahar’s, Albany, NY
100. Steamworks Brewing, Vancouver, BC
101. Cooter Brown’s, New Orleans, LA
102. McSorley’s Ale House, New York, NY
103. Kelly’s Caribbean Bar, Grill & Brewery, Key West, FL
104. Rose & Crown Pub, Epcot Center, Orlando, FL
105. The Church Brew Works, Pittsburgh, PA
106. Brick Store Pub, Decatur, GA
107. Sunset Grille & Tap, Boston, MA
108. The Ghost Bar at the Palms Hotel, Las Vegas, NV
109. Norwich Inn/Jasper Murdock’s Brewery, Norwich, VT
110. The Gingerman, Austin, TX
111. Library Ale House, Santa Monica, CA
112. t’Bruges Biertja, Bruges, Belgium
113. beerbistro, Toronto, Canada
114. The Dubliner, Washington, DC
115. John Barleycorn, Chicago, IL
116. Anchor Bar, Buffalo, NY
117. Gritty McDuff’s, Portland, ME 
118. Top of the Hill Brewery & Restaurant, Chapel Hill, NC
119. The Bell, Aldworth, Berkshire, England
120. The Golf Tavern, Edinburgh, Scotland
121. Old Ebbitt Grill, Washington, DC
122. 5 Seasons Brewing, Atlanta, GA
123. Tim Schafer’s at Lake Norman, Sherrills Ford, NC
124. Stumbling Monk, Seattle. WA
125. The Happy Gnome, St. Paul, MN
Have you ever been to any of these places? Which ones?
Have you been somewhere you think deserves to be on the list?
I have - this little bar up in Lovell, Maine called Ebenezers Pub. Just an incredible place to get beer that isn’t available anywhere else in the country.
keep looking »
