Let’s see. Over two feet of snow four days ago, and now in the midst of getting between 10 and 20 more inches today and tomorrow. I was assured that this type of thing doesn’t happen around D.C.

I would definitely like to be somewhere warm, and soon. A beer festival in Tempe, Arizona sounds ideal.

Press release:

22nd ANNUAL GREAT ARIZONA BEER FESTIVAL TO FEATURE ARIZONA’S LARGEST FESTIVAL SELECTION OF SPECIALTY AND MICRO-BREWED OFFERINGS

TEMPE, Ariz. – (Jan. 15, 2010) – Thousands of beer lovers from throughout the region are expected to flock to Tempe Beach Park the weekend of March 6-7, 2010 for the 22nd Annual Great Arizona Beer Festival. The annual festival is the primary fund raising event for Sun Sounds of Arizona, a reading service for people who are blind or whose disability prevents them from reading printed material, such as newspapers, magazines and best-selling books.

Presented by azcentral.com, the festival is dedicated to the enjoyment of fine craft brews. More than 7,000 beer aficionados, Arizonans and guests attend this weekend-long festival each year to celebrate and sample more than 200 specialty and micro-brewed beers – more than any other festival in the state – from all over the Southwest and beyond. The festival also features live music, games, a variety of great food, and fun for people age 21 and over. This year’s live entertainment will be provided by local bands Big Nick and The Gila Monsters (Saturday, March 6) and Major Lingo (Sunday, March 7).

Additional event sponsors include 944 magazine, which is the presenting sponsor of the VIP Experience. Casino Arizona is the Safe Ride Home Sponsor, KDKB is the official FM Radio sponsor, and Yelp.com is also a featured sponsor.

This year’s event will include several exciting new components, such as:

• For the first time in the history of the festival, select beers will be judged by a panel of representatives from azcentral.com, 944 magazine and DRAFT magazine.
• The VIP Experience, presented by 944 magazine, will feature casino-style gaming including blackjack, Texas Hold ‘Em poker, roulette and craps, with opportunities to win and bid on raffle and live auction prizes with casino “winnings.” All proceeds benefit Sun Sounds of Arizona. The VIP area will also feature a variety of other games and catered food.
• Guests can try their luck in the virtual paintball laser shooting gallery, a new attraction that offers a realistic paintball experience without the mess of traditional paintball presented by Tempe Paintball. A perfect score qualifies guests for a prize drawing.
• Also, returning this year, the popular beanbag game Cornhole will be hosted by tournament organizers Cornhole Arizona.
• The Designated Driver pavilion area will feature free massages provided by Arizona School of Massage Therapy, a variety of non-alcoholic drinks provided by The Pop Shop, and designated parking.
• Leading up to the event, the GAZBF will host a variety of online contests and promotions through azcentral.com, 944.com and their fan pages on social media sites Facebook and Twitter.

“I think this year’s event is going to be a great one! In addition to great beer and vendors, we have a lot of new ideas to entertain the crowd,” says Sue DesParte, chair of the 2010 event. “I’m also looking forward to raising as much money as possible, since every nickel we earn goes directly to Sun Sounds of Arizona.”

Tickets are $40 in advance and $50 at the gate for general admission, including up to 24 different beer samples, or $80 in advance/$90 at the gate for VIP admission. In addition to catered food, shade, VIP entertainment and games, separate restrooms, and other amenities, VIPs may also enter an hour before the festival starts and will receive a free event T-shirt and gift bag. Designated drivers receive general admission entry to the festival for only $20 and VIP entry for $30.

The Great Arizona Beer Festival will be held on Saturday, March 6 and Sunday, March 7 from 2 to 6 p.m. Tickets are available at www.azbeer.com and at participating pubs and retail outlets. Visit www.azbeer.com or call 480-774-8300 for details.

The Washington, D.C. region was hit with a record-setting snowfall* starting two days ago and ending around 4:00 PM yesterday. They’re not used to snow in these parts, much less two feet of it.

After six hours of digging to free my two cars, I finally got to sit down with a well-deserved beer**.

Man, that’s good. That may be the best beer I’ve ever had.

Oh, look. They’ve brought in the heavy equipment.

The best beer in the world is the one you have before the pain of your back-breaking labor lays you up for two days.

* It’s being referred to as “snowpocalypse” and “snowmageddon”
** In this case, it happens to have been a Flying Dog Raging Bitch

Fizz is a marketing company in Atlanta. They’re having a contest to give away a pass to the conference*, held February 28-March 1 at the Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa in Phoenix. Normally, the pass costs about $1,100. But you could get in for free.

Come up with the best beer brand name that would never get approved by the Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). Bonus points for sending a mockup label to go with your beer name or doing anything else that we think is funny. Email your entry by Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time (EST). Yep, it’s that simple.Entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• Humor
• Cleverness in breaking rules
• Unapprovability
• General wit

Go here for the details: Contest: Best Un-Approvable Beer Name

* The Beer Summit gathers 500 professionals from the beer industry to talk about the biggest issues in beer and beer marketing.

Some may think that cerebral topics like word origins and “the people’s drink” don’t go together (much the same way I don’t like chocolate in my peanut butter and vice versa) but I think it’s great.

Zythophile: Words for beer (2) – was ‘beer’ originally cider?

To rub in the point that ealu and beór were seen as distinct and separate drinks a thousand years ago, Ælfric, abbot of Cerne Abbas in Dorset, who lived from around AD 955 to AD 1010, wrote of John the Baptist in one of his “Homilies” that “ne dranc he naðor ne win, ne beór, ne ealu, ne nan ðæra wætan ðe menn of druncniað,” that is, “nor drank he neither wine, nor beór, nor ale, nor any other liquor that makes men drunk.” Ælfric, who was a conscientious writer, clearly felt he needed to differentiate beór from ealu, as well as ealu from win. Beór, then, comes through from Anglo-Saxon texts as strong and sweet, and different to, or separate, from ealu.

Fascinating stuff

I love when two of my passions intersect. The other, in this case, is Dungeons & Dragons. I played quite a bit in my teens and twenties, but gave up on it when other time-consuming stuff entered my life (marriage, children, home ownership, sucky commute, etc.). In the last year or so I’d been really missing it, so I found a bunch of like-minded fellas in similar straits and we get together every couple of weeks (schedules permitting, naturally).

I recently spotted this:

Geeks are Sexy: Six Geeky Drinks for the Dungeons and Dragons Table

While I don’t recommending getting out-of-your mind drunk while playing (certainly gets in the way of focusing, and unless you’re in the middle of a tavern scene , it can make for some truly less than stellar roleplay… not that I, um, speak from experience…) there are a variety of drinks out there which can certainly lend an extra layer of geekiness to your game. Some are clearly put together for the geek set, while others retain their geek cred through the virtue of their historical appropriateness. Here’s a few of my suggestions:

My recent favorite, and the first in the beer category, is Wychwood Brewery’s Hobgoblin, a delightful ruby beer. The website characterizes it as having a “toffee malt flavour balanced with a rounded moderate bitterness and an overall fruity flavor.” I will admit to buying this beer primarily on its namesake alone at my local wine and beer shop; however, I was absolutely in love with the taste from the first sip.

In addition to some other Wychwood offerings, they also offer up as appropriate for this category Rogue Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout and Trappist ales (offering Chimay as an example).

Now I know there are many more beers that could fit this category. At the risk of pegging my “Geek Meter”, here are some off the top of my head: Most of your fantasy realms hearken to the Medieval period in Europe, so virtually anything from Middle Ages Brewing seems appropriate. Bad Elf Ale and its brethren come to mind, if you go by name alone and ignore the Christmas art on the label. (I’ve certainly encountered my share of “bad elves” in my adventures.) Weyerbacher also has a few, with Old Heathen, Heresy, Merry Monks, or Prophecy. The Clipper City’s Heavy Seas line would be good if you’re fighting pirates (or are one). Magic Hat Hocus Pocus, Monty Python’s Holy Grail Ale, and Great Divide’s Claymore Scotch Ale (“is that a sword under your cloak or are you happy to see me?”) also would fit the bill. And let’s not forget all those Stone Brewing gargoyles.

What else could fit in a fantastic realm? What were Frodo and his pals drinking at The Prancing Pony?

NPR: Burger King Rolls Out The Beer Barrel

Burger King may be number three after McDonalds and Subway in terms of sales in the fast-food restaurant business. But it plans to be the first in at least one area — serving beer and I’m not talking about the root beer.

Reports are that Burger King will be serving beer at a location in Miami Beach which will be the first in the chain to serve alcohol.

According to the Associated Press they’ll be offering Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors products. That’s a good thing, because I don’t need a temptation to go into a fast food joint.

A small sampling of beer-related news that recently caught our eye.

Anheuser-Busch InBev shipping water to Haiti
ABIB is shipping 600,000 cans of water to aid in Haiti. They’ll also be matching donations to the American Red Cross and have shipped over 5 millions cans of drinking water to victims of natural disasters in the last two years.

Workers’ strike against Anheuser-Busch InBev affecting supplies in Belgium
Inventories of Stella Artois and Leffe are just about depleted.

Another reason to drink beer
Xanthohumol, found in hops, shows promise in fighting cancer.

Beoir
A new beer consumer’s group for Ireland.

Trying to remove the ban on mixed beer drinks in Nebraska
Regulators say they just want to remove an archaic and unnecessary law. Opponents say they’re trying to open the door for alcopops.

Give a pint, get a pint
Cascade Regional Blood Services (based in Tacoma, Washington) says that their promotion of giving a pint of beer when you donate a pint of blood worked so well that they’re going to expand it.

From the press release:

BrewAdvice.com, a community-driven site focused on answering all questions related to beer, officially launched today [January 16, 2010]. Unlike forums, message boards, Facebook, or Twitter, BrewAdvice.com is specifically set up as a simple question and answer knowledge base. Ask a question, get a number of answers, select the best one, and get on with brewing. The site was quietly opened to the public a little over a week ago, and the response was overwhelmingly successful.

Questions range from basic homebrewing process questions, like “How do you choose a yeast”, to more theoretical brewing questions, such as “What does ‘Imperial’ mean with regards to style?” to the more advanced side of the craft, for example the effects of aging on Alpha and Beta acids in hops. There are also questions that aren’t strictly for the homebrewer, such as a question about pairing beer with mussels, and general beer storage advice.

Users on the site gain reputation through activity. The more active a user, the more power he or she has on the site. One gains reputation by asking good questions and leaving good answers. As users participate more, they gain access to commenting, voting, and moderation tools. “It’s a site run by the community,” says co-founder PJ Hoberman.

The site is built on the StackExchange network, which is itself based on StackOverflow, a web site for programmers that I frequent daily. It’s an interesting and different way of collecting and sharing information. Many newcomers mistake it for yet another forum, but that’s not what it is and after a little while you just “get” it. Since it’s community-driven, the more you put in the more you get out. I know there’s a lot of homebrewing knowledge out there; this will be a good way to tap it.

One pleasant side effect of my Beer-a-Day project is hearing from the brewers whose beer I included. One such is Pyramid Breweries, who were so happy to see five of their beers in my list they sent me some tchotchkes:

I love the industrial-strength church key as well as the t-shirt for my wife. Very thoughtful. Thanks guys (especially Meech)!

Speaking of Heineken’s purchase of FEMSA, Public Radio’s Marketplace had a story on how consolidation of brewing giants can help craft brewers.

Marketplace: Are beer mergers a good brew for biz?

Uli Bennewitz owns the Weeping Radish Farm Brewery in Jarvisburg, N.C. He also runs a butchery and an organic farm.

Everybody is wary of “where does this stuff come from?” There is clearly a move towards local, local, local. And I think that is an advantage for small breweries.

They also follow up with a bit of analysis on the Marketplace blog:

Maketplace Scratch Pad: One world, one beer company?

Paddy [Hirsch] recently visited Stone Brewing Company near San Diego, and they told him they loved it when the big companies merged. The mergers turn off beer-drinkers, perhaps in principle but also because something bad seems to happen to the flavor of a decent beer when it gets swallowed up by a mega-corporation. People start looking for alternatives.

Could I perhaps have inspired others? I’d like to think so, but not likely.

Anyway, someone else is attempting the “beer-a-day” thing for 2010.

A Year of Beer

His dedicated blog is much prettier than my attempt, and he’s putting in more information for each beer. Please give your support and encouragement. We all know how hard it is to do.

Know anybody else doing this? Let us know in the comments.

A sixer of news items on beer that we spotted recently.

BBC News: Anheuser-Busch InBev to cut 800 European jobs
That’s about 10% of their European workforce and is ” a response to falling beer sales”. Well, if they made any products I’d want to drink…

Idaho Statesman: It’s been a good decade for craft beer
Patrick Orr talks about some of the gains and newsworthy items in craft beer during the aughts.

Heineken to buy FEMSA beer operations for $5.5 billion
Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A. de C.V. is the Mexican brewer of Sol, Tecate, and Dos Equis. This deal gives the Dutch giant a larger foothold in the Americas. I don’t expect much innovation here. In fact, I just expect the same old fairly bland mass-produced beer, just produced by fewer companies.

Counterfeit beer in China
Apparently, “fancy” beers like Corona and Budweiser are being substituted with cheaper lagers. Fleeced customers apparently don’t notice.

UK beer drinkers should expect beer prices to go up
Brewing giants InBev and Diageo both cite sluggish economy as the need for the increase.

Mid 18th-Century beer mug may auction for upwards of $100K
“A 268-year-old beer mug that was spirited to Canada during the American Revolution by an iconic Loyalist refugee — Rev. John Stuart, the future founder of the Anglican Church in Upper Canada — hits the auction block this month in the U.S. and is expected to sell for close to $100,000 because of its remarkable provenance.”

I have taken a few timid steps toward cellaring some of my beer. Last January I had some Brooklyn Monster Ale and very specifically put aside a bottle to have…oh, about now. It’s been an awful temptation to see it back for just about all of 2009. This is a bottle from 2008.

Very pretty caramel color and clear. What little head it has falls fairly quickly. There’s some vanilla in the aroma, plus a bit of floral, but mostly it’s significantly malty/bready. It’s thick. Not syrupy, but obviously very high gravity. Big malty flavor with a little bit of heat from the alcohol.

Question is: Is it better than it was a year ago?

I say yes. Most of the “harshness” I found in it last January has certainly mellowed. It’s warm and complex. It’s good. Should I cellar it for longer? I don’t know, but it would be hard to leave it alone for that long.

Monster Barleywine

UK writer Pete Brown has won yet another trip to České Budějovice, Bohemia, Czech Republic. (You know, where Budějovický Budvar is.) He loves the place, but has decided that a third trip for him won’t have the same universal karma as making it a first trip for someone else. So, he’s giving it away. You only need to write a little something.

Working in conjunction with Budvar UK and The Publican, we’re launching a mini-competition to encourage new beer writing talent.

This is open to anyone who is passionate about beer, wants to write about it, but has not yet had anything published in print media. We can’t and don’t want to exclude bloggers because most people who are keen to write about beer have started doing so electronically, but we want to offer someone the chance to break into being published offline for the first time.

It’s simple. You need to write a thousand-word piece on the subject of ‘Why Beer Matters’, interpreted in whatever way you see fit. You need to send this to me (Pete Brown) by 29th January, remembering to include your real name, postal address and contact telephone number.

Judges will include me (Pete Brown), and Publican editor Caroline Nodder. The winning entry will be published in The Publican, and the successful writer will be invited on a press trip to Ceske Budejovice, which also takes in a day trip to the stunning medieval town of Ceske Krumlov some time in early spring.

This is open to any writer, anywhere (though you’d have to get yourself to either London or Prague under your own steam if you live outside the UK.)

PETE BROWN: WIN MY TRIP TO THE BUDVAR BREWERY!

Better get to work!

Now that I’ve done it I can hardly believe I made it through. It was harder and more different than I expected going in. When I first did some research to see if anyone had ever done anything like this I couldn’t believe how few had actually tried it, almost all failing to finish, with many quitting before getting even halfway.

By the time I got to the third month I understood why. This is hard! I mean, not only was I drinking more than I ever had in my life, but I had to make sure I did it each and every day. Things went best when I brought home my mixed case and photographed all the bottles before putting them in the fridge. Then I could fix up the photos and prepare the articles so that when I actually did drink the beer I needed to only add my impressions. Unfortunately I wasn’t always able to do that, so there were many days that were a bit of a scramble.

Never in my adult life did I ever think that I would say to myself  “Oh, damn. I have to drink a beer today. Nuts.”

In late November I was on the home stretch, confident that I would finish and feeling good about myself. Of course, that’s when I found out about Dale Van Wieren, who is now over 10,000 daily beers. I’d have to keep going for 24 or so years to catch up. It was rather disheartening to be sure. I consoled myself with a beer.

Many thanks to Ye Old Spirit Shop in Frederick, Maryland. If it wasn’t for their extensive selection and encouragement to buy single bottles I never could have done this. For the last third of the year, I had to go shopping with a list of beers that I’d already had as part of this project so I wouldn’t buy them again.

Thanks also to those Hop Talk readers who offered up enthusiasm and encouragement over the course of this past year.

And thanks most of all to my patient and understanding wife, who was not only the inspiration for this project but also my biggest fan. She helped me sample quite a few beers and reminded me more than once of my daily obligation.

Here’s the top 10 brands I sampled this year:

1. Samuel Adams – 20
2. Flying Dog  – 15 (19 if you include Wild Goose)
3. Saranac – 12
4. Brooklyn – 11
(tie) Dogfish Head – 11
(tie) Victory – 11
7. Great Divide – 10
8. Abita – 8
(tie) Samuel Smith – 8
(tie) Weyerbacher – 8

I didn’t try to rate the beer as I sampled them; I just tried to give my impressions. There were some surprises: Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout, Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout, and Flying Dog Raging Bitch are three I rather liked, but there were plenty more that I was glad I had.

As for ones I wasn’t so glad about, an awful lot of the European lagers in green bottles were lightstruck, which I suppose shouldn’t be a surprise. What is surprising is how many people still drink them and think that’s the way quality beer is supposed to taste. Back in July I had several American macro lagers. Of them, I found Miller Lite the best of the bunch, but, honestly, that’s not saying much. I did try to keep an open mind, though.

You can see the list of beers in order in each of the monthly recaps, but here’s an alphabetical list:

• 21st Amendment Brew Free or Die IPA
• 21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon
• Abita Amber
• Abita Christmas Ale
• Abita Golden
• Abita Jockamo IPA
• Abita Purple Haze
• Abita Restoration Pale Ale
• Abita Turbo Dog
• Affligem Blond
• Allagash Dubbel
• Allagash Tripel
• Allagash White
• Amstel Light
• Anchor Christmas Ale 2009
• Anchor Liberty Ale
• Anchor Porter
• Anchor Steam Beer
• Atwater Block Dirty Blonde
• Atwater Block Vanilla Java Porter
• Atwater Block Voodoo Vator
• Avery Old Jubilation Ale
• Barley and Hops Annapolis Rocks Pale Ale
• Barley and Hops “Dirty Dirty”
• Barley and Hops Hoptopsy ESB
• Barley and Hops Schifferstadt Stout
• Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout
• Barons Black Wattle Superior
• Barons ESB
• Barons Pale Ale
• Beamish Draught Irish Stout
• Beck’s Dark
• Beck’s Pilsner
• Beck’s Premium Light
• Belhaven Scottish Ale
• Birra Moretti
• Bitburger Premium
• Blue Moon Belgian White
• Blue Point Blueberry Ale
• Blue Point Oktoberfest
• Blue Point Spring Fling Ale
• Blue Point Toasted Lager
• Boont Amber Ale
• Boont Extra Special Beer
• Brewer’s Alley 1634 Ale
• Brewer’s Alley Kölsch
• Brewer’s Alley Pilsner
• Brewery Ommegang Witte
• Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
• Brooklyn Brown Ale
• Brooklyn East India Pale Ale
• Brooklyn Lager
• Brooklyn Monster Ale
• Brooklyn Pennant Ale ‘55
• Brooklyn Pilsner
• Brooklyn Summer Ale
• Brooklyn Winter Ale
• Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse
• Brooklyner Weisse Beer
• Bud Ice Light
• Bud Light
• Budweiser
• Buffalo Bill’s Blueberry Oatmeal Stout
• Buffalo Bill’s Orange Blossom Cream Ale
• Busch Beer
• Caldera Ashland Amber
• Caldera IPA
• Caldera Pale Ale
• Capitol City Brewing Organic Saison
• Captain Lawrence Smoke From The Oak – Apple Brandy Barrel Aged
• Carlsberg Elephant
• Carlsberg Premium
• Cerveza Pacifico Clara
• Clay Pipe Backfin Pale Ale
• Clay Pipe Hop-ocalypse India Pale Ale
• Clay Pipe Pursuit of Happiness
• Clipper City MärzHon
• Coors Light
• Czechvar
• Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA
• Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA
• Dogfish Head Aprihop
• Dogfish Head Burton Baton
• Dogfish Head Festina Pêche
• Dogfish Head Immort Ale
• Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale
• Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron
• Dogfish Head Punkin Ale
• Dogfish Head Raison D’Être
• Dogfish Head Shelter Pale Ale
• Dominion Millennium Ale
• Dominion Oak Barrel Stout
• Dominion Spring Buck
• Dos Equis
• Dubbel (homebrew)
• Dundee Honey Brown
• Ed Hardy Light Beer
• Ed Hardy Premium Beer
• Ellicottville Pantius Droppus
• Erdinger Oktoberfest Weizen
• Erdinger Weißbräu
• Estrella Damm
• Flying Dog Dog Schwarz
• Flying Dog Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale
• Flying Dog Dogtoberfest
• Flying Dog Garde Dog
• Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter
• Flying Dog Horn Dog Barley Wine
• Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat
• Flying Dog K-9 Cruiser Winter Ale
• Flying Dog Kerberos Tripel
• Flying Dog Old Scratch Amber Lager
• Flying Dog Raging Bitch
• Flying Dog Road Dog Porter
• Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA
• Flying Dog Tire Bite Golden Ale
• Flying Dog Woody Creek White
• Flying Fish Imperial Espresso Porter
• Fordham Copperhead Ale
• Fordham Queen Anne Kölsch
• Goose Island Honker’s Ale
• Goose Island India Pale Ale
• Great Divide Belgica
• Great Divide Claymore Scotch Ale
• Great Divide Denver Pale Ale (DPA)
• Great Divide Hercules Double IPA
• Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti
• Great Divide Saint Bridget’s Porter
• Great Divide Samurai Ale
• Great Divide Titan IPA
• Great Divide Wild Raspberry Ale
• Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout
• Greene King Abbot Ale
• Guinness 250th Anniversary Stout
• Guinness Extra Stout
• Hacker-Pschorr Munich Gold
• Hacker-Pschorr Weisse
• UFO Hefeweizen – Harpoon’s UnFiltered Offering
• Harviestoun Old Engine Oil
• Heavy Seas Below Decks
• Heavy Seas Hang Ten Weizen Dopplebock
• Heavy Seas Peg Leg Imperial Stout
• Heavy Seas Red Sky At Night…
• Heavy Seas Small Craft Warning Über Pils
• Heineken
• Hoegaarden
• Hook & Ladder Golden Ale
• Hook & Ladder Lighter
• Hook & Ladder Pipe & Drum Irish Ale
• Ithaca Cascazilla
• Jersey Summer Breakfast Ale
• Kalik
• Keegan’s Mother’s Milk
• Kona Brewing Fire Rock Pale Ale
• Kona Brewing Longboard Island Lager
• König Pilsener
• König Ludwig Weissbier
• Lake Placid India Pale Ale
• Lake Placid Ubu Ale
• Lancaster Winter Warmer
• Leffe Blonde
• Legacy Brewing Fat Boy Lager
• Legacy Brewing Hedonism Red Ale
• Legacy Brewing Midnight Wit
• Leinenkugel’s 1888 Bock
• Leinenkugel’s Classic Amber
• Leinenkugel’s Honey Weiss
• Leinenkugel’s Oktoberfest
• Leinenkugel’s Red Lager
• Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat
• Mackeson Triple Stout
• Mad River Brewing John Barleycorn Barleywine
• Mad River Steelhead Porter
• Magic Hat #9
• Magic Hat Circus Boy
• Magic Hat hI.P.A.
• Magic Hat Howl
• Magic Hat Lucky Kat
• Magic Hat Roxy Rolles
• Magic Hat Wacko
• Mendocino Black Hawk Stout
• Mendocino Blue Heron Pale Ale
• Mendocino Bock Beer
• Mendocino Red Tail Ale
• Mendocino White Ale
• Mendocino White Hawk IPA
• Metolius Dolly Varden India Pale Ale
• Michelob Dunkel Weisse
• Michelob Lager
• Michelob Ultra
• Middle Ages ImPaled Ale
• Miller High Life
• Miller Lite
• Milwaukee’s Best
• Mountaineer Brewing Nut Brown Ale
• Mountaineer Brewing Pale Ale
• Mountaineer Brewing Red Ale
• Mountaineer Brewing Stout
• Murphy’s Stout
• Negra Modelo
• Newcastle Brown Ale
• New Holland Ichabod
• New Holland Brewing The Poet Oatmeal Stout
• North Coast Brewing Blue Star
• North Coast Old Stock Ale
• North Coast Scrimshaw
• Old Peculier
• Old Speckled Hen
• Orkney Skull Splitter
• Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale
• Oskar Blues Mama’s Little Yella Pils
• Oskar Blues Old Chub
• Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout
• Otter Creek Winter Ale
• Paulaner Oktoberfest Märzen
• Peroni Nastro Azzurro
• “Plush Chair” Pale Ale (homebrew)
• Poleeko Gold Pale Ale
• Pyramid Audacious Apricot Ale
• Pyramid Haywire Hefeweizen
• Pyramid Rollick Amber Lager
• Pyramid Snow Cap Ale
• Pyramid ThunderHead IPA
• Red Hook Long Hammer IPA
• Red Hook Sunrye Summer Ale
• River Horse Tripel Horse
• RJ Rockers Bald Eagle Brown Ale
• RJ Rockers The First Snow Ale
• Rock Bottom Lumpy Dog Light Lager
• Rock Bottom Raccoon Red
• Rock Bottom Rock Creek Pale Ale
• Rock Bottom Stillwater Stout
• Rogue American Amber Ale
• Rogue Brutal Bitter
• Rogue Dead Guy Ale
• Rogue Santa’s Private Reserve
• Rogue St. Rogue Red Ale
• Samichlaus
• Sam Adams Light
• Sam Adams LongShot – Cranberry Wit
• Sam Adams LongShot – Double IPA
• Sam Adams LongShot – Traditional Bock
• Samuel Adams Black Lager
• Samuel Adams Blackberry Witbier
• Samuel Adams Boston Ale
• Samuel Adams Boston Lager
• Samuel Adams Brown Ale
• Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat
• Samuel Adams Cream Stout
• Samuel Adams Double Bock
• Samuel Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner
• Samuel Adams Hefeweizen
• Samuel Adams Imperial White
• Samuel Adams Irish Red
• Samuel Adams Octoberfest
• Samuel Adams Summer Ale
• Samuel Adams White Ale
• Samuel Adams Winter Lager
• Samuel Smith – The Famous Taddy Porter
• Samuel Smith’s India Ale
• Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout
• Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale
• Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout
• Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery Pale Ale
• Samuel Smith Pure Brewed Lager
• Samuel Smith Winter Welcome Ale
• Saranac Adirondack Lager
• Saranac Black Forest
• Saranac Black & Tan
• Saranac Brown Ale
• Saranac India Pale Ale
• Saranac Irish Red Ale
• Saranac Octoberfest
• Saranac Pale Ale
• Saranac Pomegranate Wheat
• Saranac Pumpkin Ale
• Saranac Season’s Best
• Saranac Stout
• Schaefer Beer
• Sea Dog Brewing Apricot Wheat Beer
• Sea Dog Bluepaw
• Shock Top Belgian White
• Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale
• Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
• Sierra Nevada Kellerweis
• Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA
• Smoky Mountain Black Bear Ale
• Smoky Mountain Brewery Cherokee Red Ale
• Smoky Mountain Brewing Mountain Light
• Smoky Mountain Thunder Road Pilsner
• Smoky Mountain Tuckaleechee Porter
• Smoky Mountain Brewery Velas Helles
• Smuttynose IPA
• Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale
• Smuttynose Robust Porter
• Smuttynose Shoals Pale Ale
• Smuttynose Star Island Single
• Smuttynose Summer Weizen
• Southern Tier Crème Brûlée Imperial Milk Stout
• Spaten Optimator
• Spaten Premium Lager
• Staropramen Premium Lager
• Starr Hill Dark Starr Stout
• Starr Hill Festie
• Starr Hill Jomo Lager
• Starr Hill Northern Lights
• Starr Hill Pale Ale
• Starr Hill The Love wheat beer
• Steinlager
• Stella Artois
• Sterkens White Ale
• Stone IPA
• Stone Brewing Levitation Ale
• Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale
• Stoudt’s Double IPA
• Stoudts Gold Lager
• Stoudt’s Pils
• Stoudt’s Scarlet Lady Ale
• Summer Solstice Cerveza Crema
• Tennent’s Lager
• Tetley’s English Ale
• Tröegs Dead Reckoning Porter
• Tröegs DreamWeaver Wheat Ale
• Tröegs HopBack Amber Ale
• Tröegs JavaHead Stout
• Tröegs Mad Elf Ale
• Tröegs Nugget Nectar
• Tröegs Pale Ale
• Tröegs Rugged Trail Nut Brown Ale
• Trois Pistoles
• Victory Golden Monkey
• Victory HopDevil
• Victory Hop Wallop
• Victory Lager
• Victory Old Horizontal
• Victory St. Boisterous Hellerbock
• Victory Storm King Stout
• Victory Moonglow Weizenbock
• Victory Sunrise Weissbier
• Victory Whirlwind Witbier
• Warsteiner HiLight
• Warsteiner Premium Verum
• Weihenstephaner Festbier
• Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier
• Weihenstephaner Original Premium
• Wexford Irish Style Crème Ale
• Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA
• Weyerbacher Fireside Ale
• Weyerbacher Hops Infusion
• Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale
• Weyerbacher Merry Monks
• Weyerbacher Old Heathen Imperial Stout
• Weyerbacher QUAD
• Weyerbacher Slam Dunkel
• Weyerbacher Winter Ale
• Widmer Brothers Drifter Pale Ale
• Widmer Brothers Hefeweizen
• Wild Blue Blueberry Lager
• Wild Goose India Pale Ale
• Wild Goose Oatmeal Stout
• Wild Goose Snow Goose Winter Ale
• Wild Goose XPA
• Yakima Twilight Ale
• Young’s Luxury Double Chocolate Stout
• Yuengling Lager

I can’t believe I’m done.

I can’t believe I did it.

I’ll have more reflections on this soon, but for now here’s the list of beers for December. Links to recaps for the other months are at the bottom of this message.

335. Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter
336. Hell or High Watermelon
337. Yakima Twilight Ale
338. Moonglow Weizenbock
339. Victory Lager
340. Magic Hat #9
341. Magic Hat Howl
342. Smuttynose Shoals Pale Ale
343. Smuttynose Summer Weizen
344. Pyramid ThunderHead IPA
345. Pyramid Snow Cap Ale
346. Kalik
347. Barons Black Wattle Superior
348. Abita Christmas Ale
349. Great Divide Belgica
350. Weyerbacher Slam Dunkel
351. Leinenkugel’s Red Lager
352. RJ Rockers The First Snow Ale
353. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
354. Ed Hardy Premium Beer
355. Ed Hardy Light Beer
356. Tröegs Mad Elf Ale
357. Samuel Adams Cream Stout
358. Rogue Santa’s Private Reserve
359. Anchor Christmas Ale 2009
360. Mad River Brewing John Barleycorn Barleywine
361. Brooklyn Winter Ale
362. St. Rogue Red Ale
363. Mad River Steelhead Porter
364. Rogue Brutal Bitter
365. Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale

Previously:

• January recap
• February recap
• March recap
• April recap
• May recap
• June recap
• July recap
• August recap
• September recap
• October recap
• November recap

Beer-a-Day #365

The long, cold nights of winter are a little brighter with Celebration^® Ale. Wonderfully robust and rich, Celebration^® Ale is dry-hopped for a lively, intense aroma. Brewed especially for the holidays, it is perfect for a festive gathering or for a quiet evening at home.

Well, this is it. Three hundred sixty-five unique beers. 2009 has been quite a year, and not just for this little project. It’s time to celebrate.

Amber, clear, with a thick head. Nice citrusy and piney hops aroma. Nice bite from the dry hops. That’s good stuff.

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale

As we say goodbye to 2009 and welcome in 2010, Ron and I and our families wish you and yours a new year full of more joys, fewer sorrows, and plenty of good beer.

There’s a lot of boozing going on tonight; be careful and be responsible.

Beer-a-Day #364

An Imperial bitter with exotic traditional floor malts, citrusy, hoppy flavor, stupendous hop aroma.

I don’t think this is a commentary on the year just ending, but Freud would probably have something to say about it.

Orangey with a chill haze. Big citrusy hops aroma. Fairly big hops, but lighter than something that proclaims itself as an “Imperial” anything. It’s good.

Rogue Brutal Bitter

Our friend Zythophile is at it again. This time with the first part of an article that explores the origins of the word “beer” with explorations of its equivalent in other languages. Etymology fascinates me; I think maybe I should have been a linguist.

Here’s an excerpt:

In Britain, as on the continent, that change from m to v meant that the old Brythonic (British Celtic) word for “beer”, *korm, altered its form, becoming *cwrf (pronounced “coorv”) in old Welsh, then cwrwf, before losing the f to become modern Welsh cwrw, pronounced “cooroo”. (Welsh being what is known technically as a “mutating” language, incidentally, certain initial consonants change when nouns are used with prepositions, and that includes hard “c”, which becomes hard “g”: I am grateful to a young woman called Kat for imparting the information that the essential order at the bar in grammatically correct Welsh would be “Dau peint o gwrw ac baced crisps, plis.” This is particularly important in the Lleyn peninsula, where you wouldn’t want the locals to think you were from Swansea.

Zythophile: Words for beer

He promises to actually get to the word “beer”, and “ale” as well, in a future article.