HereForTheBeer.com

Diageo Gets Bit By Angry BrewDog

Tim Brady — Sat, 12 May 2012 15:06:25 +0000

There has always been a David and Goliath mentality between makers of craft beer and the big breweries that mass produce cheap beer to the masses. For those of us that have a love for all things craft beer, discovering one or two that we love almost makes us feel as though we are the rock in David’s slingshot. Every now and again though, Goliath strikes back and reminds us that we are all pretty much at the mercy of their swill. Sometimes those moves backfire, just as it recently did for Diageo who just happen to be the makers of Guinness, Kilkenny, and Harp, to name but a few.

Every year, the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) hands out an award to the “Bar Operator of the Year,” which a very prestigious award that can really put a place on the map. It wasn’t really a secret that the good folks at Scotland’s Brewdog were set to receive the award; that was until Diageo stepped in to shake things up a little bit. Diageo are one of the sponsors of the award ceremony, and they were somewhat miffed that the award would go to an establishment that had the gall to serve nothing more than their own craft beers. Diageo put pressure on BII, going as far as to say that they would pull sponsorship of the event if the award went ahead as planned.

Goliath won the first round of the battle when BII capitulated, but the firestorm that followed very much cast them as the villain and gave Brewdog more great press than they would ever have achieved by simply picking up their trophy and going home. The social media outlets lit up with customers claiming that they would boycott Diageo products, which also includes Smirnoff Vodka, Captain Morgan Rum, and much more. twitter was where the campaign really took off, with the #andthewinnerisnot hashtag trending globally.

Sensing that they were on the brink of a global black eye, Diageo released an apology that stated that they truly believed that Brewdog deserved the award they never received. They went on to say that a rogue element within the company was responsible for putting the heat on BII, which is a lone gunman theory that nobody is really buying. They may actually have done more damage to their own business with the ridiculousness of the apology, as well as helping Brewdog achieve worldwide acclaim.

We can only hope that the success that they achieve as a result of this blooper will be enough to send their brand of beer overseas. With 6 successful establishments already operating in the UK, and one more on the way soon, Brewdog shows no signs of slowing down, although that may be something to do with the Viagra laced brew they made in celebration of the recent Royal Wedding.

By the way, how do you like our first “news” story in a while? We’d love to know your thoughts, opinions and the like as we decide about the future of hereforthebeer.com - Cheers – Tim

Guinness Chocolate Brownies

Tim Brady — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:39:21 +0000

So in one final push to get your pledges for us at www.guinness.com (using blogger code HERE) so that we can enjoy some time in Ireland (you can win too if you enter!) we are tempting you with this recipe for Guinness Brownies…

Yes, brownies made with beer. And they are good. Scary good.

Tell you what, take the pledge over at www.guinness.com using offer code HERE and we’ll bake you some.

Ingredients

½ C Guinness
6.5oz dark Chocolate
1.5oz Milk Chocolate
6.5oz Butter
3 Eggs
10oz Caster Sugar
Vanilla Essence
3oz Plain Flour
1.5oz White Chocolate buttons

Steps

Line a baking tray with parchment paper and sprinkle white chocolate buttons in tray

Melt the Guinness, butter, dark and milk Chocolate together, remove from heat when melted.

Whip eggs sugar and vanilla essence (until figure of 8) and fold into the chocolate mix. Sieve in flour and coco powder, folding in 3 stages. Pour into tray and spread out bake for 20 – 22 minutes at 320F. Serve warm with Vanilla ice cream

Please note: Clearly this is a sponsored post, in the sense that we have been tempted with a prize by referring you to the www.Guinness.com website.

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Guinness and St. Pat’s

Tim Brady — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 22:02:53 +0000

Come on folks – just heard that only a handful of you pledged over at www.guinness.com using the code HERE… This could be good for us, and for you! Every pledge donates to charity and if we get the most, we score a trip to Ireland… Now we didn’t think we’d have to stoop to this, but we need your help.

Visit www.guinness.com and take the pledge (no email, no nonsense, just clickin a button!) and USE the code HERE for us. Click away – tell your friends – tell your enemies!

It’s Saint Patricks Day and we all know that Guinness is pretty much the defacto choice for the holiday. Maybe you are having trouble finding a bar near you with Guinness (right!). Check out the new Guinness Pub Finder where you can locate a pub in your area and even rate their Guinness pint on St. Patrick’s Day. (Actually, it will be nice to see where they are doing Guinness justice and pouring a proper pint).

Are we pimpin Guinness right now. Hell yeah. Is it for a good cause. Of course! Is it a stand up beer from a stand up brewery – YES. So what are you waiting for?

Look at this picture. My sexy friend Ingrid took that just to motivate you to take the pledge… Tell you what, if you can guess what bar that is and we’ll hook you up with some cool swag and beer. Enter in the comments. And of course, don’t enter here if you haven’t taken the pledge!

So come on, visit www.guinness.com and take the pledge (no email, no nonsense, just clickin a button!) and USE the code HERE for us puhllleease.

Please note: Clearly this is a sponsored post, in the sense that we have been tempted with a prize by referring you to the www.Guinness.com website.

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The Largest St. Patrick’s Day Celebration

Tim Brady — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:32:19 +0000

So we’ve been pretty quiet on the blog lately. Life get’s in the way – right! With our inn getting busier and busier, our plans for opening our own brewery and even a new dog – blogging has taken a backseat.

But recently the folks at Guinness reached out to see if we were up for helping promote their Largest St. Patrick’s Day celebration to the good people of our home state of Vermont. Considering it was an opportunity to help a charity, and that we are clearly going to be celebrating St. Patricks Day, and that we like Guinness…. It seemed a no brainer to help spread the word.

So here’s how it works. We need YOU to go to www.Guinness.com (and yes, they have age verification which you know I love) and just pledge to be part of the party. They don’t even want your email or anything…. Just use the code HERE to get us the points for our charity.

Then on St. Patricks Day, raise a pint of Guinness (responsibly of course) and toast to being part of the worlds largest St. Patricks Day celebration.

So visit www.Guinness.com now and pledge with the code HERE. K?

Please note: Clearly this is a sponsored post, in the sense that we have been tempted with a prize by referring you to the www.Guinness.com website.

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We’re back. In time to take a break. But watch out for 2012.

Tim Brady — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 23:34:24 +0000

Sorry for our absence these last few weeks. Things get hectic around our Vermont inn during fall foliage. But now things have calmed down a touch and we are back in full force with a ton of fun beer news for 2011. Starting with the official announcement of our new “Meet the Masters” series of meet the brewer weekends here at our Inn. The first weekend of each month (hopefully) in 2011 we invite you to join us to meet some killer brewers and sample some of their wares. So far we have the brewmaster from Harpoon, Switchback and Otter Creek all lined up and hope to get some more signed up soon. The details are all on our inn website but we will of course be sharing the good stuff here as well.

We were psyched to get some coverage today in the Boston Examiner too, including mentions of here for the beer and the meet the brewer weekends.

So look out 2011, we are back with a vengeance and a cellar full of good beer. Thanks for your patience with us and we wish you all a Happy New Year! Cheers from Here for the Beer!

BXL Belgian Pub NYC

Tim Brady — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:26:56 +0000

We have been really busy recently as foliage season is coming up at our Vermont B&B and of course, that has led to our neglecting our beer duties (if you can call them that).

So we were floored to get this video from one of our awesome beer friends Steve, who shot his own here for the beer episode while he was in NYC at the BXL Belgian Pub.

We haven’t been to the BXL yet ourselves, but after this video it certainly seems like the kind of place we should make a point to visit. The atmosphere seems like the kind of place we would dig and New York is only a 3 hour train ride away.

Thank you to Steve and friends (and Matt – the BXL beverage manager for making an appearance). We appreciate you helping us out and being “there” for the beer!

Do you have a “here for the beer” experience you would like to share? We would love to hear from you. Send us an email, a tweet or a message on facebook. After all, we are all just here for the beer!

Six Point Craft Ales – Interview with Founder Shane Welch

Three Penny Tap Room – Montpelier, VT

Tim Brady — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:38:46 +0000

We stopped at the Three Penny Tap Room in Montpelier, Vermont on our way to the Vermont Brewers Festival in Burlington, Vermont. There has been nothing but great buzz about the Three Penny Tap Room so we had to go see for ourselves.

Montpelier turned out to have a quaint downtown full of shops, restaurants and our state capital building, which gleaming in gold is quite the site to see. We strolled through the streets of Montpelier until we came upon our destination, the Three Penny Tap Room and were greeted by a BA friend out front. Once inside we were greeted by another friend from Stone Brewery – a good sign – clearly this was a craft beer lovers bar. I already liked this place and felt right at home with the clientele. The entire place is one big bar with a few seats in the front window. The walls are covered with black boards listing all of the wonderful beers on draft, 24 of them to be exact. We choose to sample number 25, the cask conditioned offering of the day, which in this case was a tasty Cisco IPA. They also have a growing bottle list as well, which is for some reason a rarity in Vermont.

We luckily also ran into one of the owners, Scott, who was gracious enough to show us around and tell us a little about the place. Scott explained that he and his partners Matt and Wes feel strongly not just about great craft beer, but also about supporting local food producers. While they do not have a full kitchen they are turning out some creative small entrees full of healthy and fresh local foods. For Scott and his partners it is clear that their really passion is for craft beer and a mission to “convert macro beer drinkers into craft beer lovers”. These are my kind of guys.

Check out the video and be sure to stop in for a pint, you’ll probably run into someone you know! If you do head up to the Three Penny Tap Room, they are open at 1pm Monday – Friday and at 3pm on Saturday and Sunday. They are located right downtown in Montpelier, at 108 Main Street. Be sure to say hi from us and let them know that you too are here for the beer!

Slow Fest – A Celebration of Session Beer

Tim Brady — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:49:25 +0000

In April, the first ever Slow Fest was held in Boston, MA. Put on by Dig Publishing (the folks who publish Beer Advocate Magazine), Slow Fest was a celebration of low alcohol beers (under 5% alcohol by volume or ABV). As a big “session beer” fan (a term used to describe lower alcohol beers) I was excited to get a chance to attend this event.

The Slow Fest included over 30 breweries, including some that would surprise you to know brew quite a few low alcohol beers, like Stone and Victory. In addition, the Slow Fest incorporated an element of slow food to accompany the “slow” beer.

Slow Food is a movement that is centered around getting people to be more aware of where their food comes from and taking the time to enjoy meals. It’s essentially the complete opposite of “Fast Food”. A perfect pairing for craft beer, which despite a debate on the definition of the term, really is the opposite of mass produced beer.

The event was a great chance to try a lot of flavorfull beers, perfect as the temperatures rise and session beers become more of what I crave.

Hopefully they will do this event again next year. If they do I will certainly be there, and as always, I”’ be here for the beer.

American Craft Beer Fest ACBF Boston MA 2010

Tim Brady — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 19:49:56 +0000

In this quick episode, I take a trip out to Boston for the night to check out the East Coast’s largest craft beer event – the American Craft Beer Fest.

With over 80 breweries and 400+ beers available to sample, the fest is well equipped to handle the 12,000 attendees that will pass through in the weekend.

I had the chance to talk to the founders of Beer Advocate and this event, the Alström Brothers, Jason and Todd, about this 3rd year event. Even as the doors just opened, they shared expansion plans for next year. The Bro’s have really raised the bar on craft beer festivals and often tailor those events to the craft beer lover. In this case, they share that the ACBF is geared more toward introducing craft beer to those who may not make it an everyday first choice.

Overall the event had that feel to it, but not in a bad way. There was a strong regional representation, with most brands being from MA and the surrounding area. It gave me an opportunity to revisit some of my local favorites, as well as sample some new breweries I had yet to try. I attended the Friday night session, which is usually the quieter of the 3 sessions, and didn’t have to wait long to taste anything. I was impressed that the longest lines were at some of the smallest breweries, a testament to the crowd and the work that Beer Advocate (and other craft beer supporters) do to put focus on these smaller brands.

Overall it was a nice night out in Boston and it was great to see some fellow beer geek friends that I tend to only run into at these events. I look forward to the next Beer Advocate event, sure to be shared right here – on here for the beer!

PS – If you are interested in attending tonight, there are still tickets remaining on the Beer Advocate website.

Brattleboro Brewers Festival 2010

Tim Brady — Wed, 26 May 2010 22:55:12 +0000

We are happy to say that the first ever Brattleboro Brewers Festival was this past weekend and it was a great time. 40 breweries were represented, with many brewmasters and owners actually coming out to show their support and pour. Big breweries and small came together with great music from local favorites Peter Miles and Terrapin Island as well as great food from Vermont Country Deli (who actually created 7 dishes with beers from the festival), North End Butchers and Top of the Hill Grill. Thankfully the weather held out and it was a beautiful day for a festival.

Check out our video to see a quick overview of the event (we were pretty busy during and didn’t get to give it a real “hereforthebeer” production). There is also a great series of photos of the festival taken by Mallory Finnley over on her Flickr page.

If you were able to come out for the fest, we would love to know your thoughts – post a comment here or on facebook. If you didn’t make it this year, we hope that you will be able to make it next year. Keep an eye on the Brattleboro Brew Fest website or right here on here for the beer for the details. Cheers!

HereForTheBeer.com

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