PUBS AND PINTS IN EDINBURGH

“Edinburgh, where have you been all of my life?” That was my very first thought when I stepped off the train at Haymarket Station on that sunny autumn day. The stone buildings, bustling thoroughfares, and convivial pub terraces overflowing with people reminded me of London. But the further I got from Haymarket Station, the more Edinburgh revealed its own unique charms, by turns cosmopolitan and whimsical.

dinburgh’s narrow wynds, vaulted stairways, and covered alleys are like a cross between going down Alice in Wonderland’s rabbit hole and entering J.K. Rowling’s Diagon Alley. You’d half expect to meet a wizard down one of those lanes after a few too many pints at the pub.

As for those pubs, Edinburgh’s drinking establishments are a testament to when the city was one of the world’s premier brewing centers. Edinburgh boasted around 280 breweries in its heyday during the early/mid-nineteenth century.

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BERCHTESGADEN AND THE KÖNIGSSEE: ALPINE BREWERIES AND LAKESIDE BEER GARDENS

Salt was once white gold in the region spanning southern Bavaria and northern Austria. Like Salzburg and Hallstatt, like Bad Reichenhall and Traunstein, Berchtesgaden was built on a mountain of revenue from the salt trade. Founded in 1102 as an Augustine monastery and raised to the status of a market town in 1328, Berchtesgaden changed hands several times over the centuries. Back and forth Berchtesgaden and its hinterland went between the Archbishop of Salzburg and the Wittelsbachs until, in 1810, the area definitively became a part of Bavaria.

Nowadays, Berchtesgadener Land lies in the far southeast of Bavaria, like an arrowhead jutting into Austria just west of Salzburg. Salt has faded from view, replaced by tourism in the late nineteenth century as the region’s main industry. First came the painters and literary figures, then came the cityfolk along the railways, all drawn by the sublime and wild landscape.

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How to Make Washed Honeycomb Mead with Medieval Flair

By Susan Verberg via the AHA

My fascination with honey fermentation, as well as my frugal inclinations, led me down some unexpected paths: learning to keep bees for easy access to raw honey seems pretty straightforward, but that quickly devolved into boiling-wax-comb experiments, dead bees and all, to make plausible medieval must, and culminated in winning a bronze medal in the National Homebrew Competition. Who would have expected that! And why did I go down this rabbit hole? The combination of my avid interest in medieval brewing techniques with keeping the occasional hive and growing many types of fermentable fruit on our smalltool kit. Sure, boiling dead bees sounds like an excellent reason not to emulate the past, but careful examination of medieval and renaissance texts suggested that was not what they were doing, actually, contrary to popular fiction!

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US Craft Beer: The Sky is Falling/No, It’s Not

Here’s my very real question:

Written by Steve Body
WHY is bemoaning the decline and doom of craft brewing such an all-consuming obsession to so many people? Beer pundits used to be content with debating attenuation and mash temperatures and when to hop the ales. But, in increasing numbers, for AT LEAST the past fifteen years, I read this stuff about how “Craft beer is DOOMED!“, “The Craft Boom is OVER!“, “The consumers are turning away!“. EASILY fifteen years, now, and I probably missed a few of these screeds.

Here’s what’s REALLY happening: Craft beer BOOMED, in a way virtually unprecedented in American business, since the end of the 80s, when brewery numbers started to climb stratospherically. In the beginning, the craft community was insanely close and tightly knit. Everyone involved knew and took to heart that a rising tide floats all boats. Cooperation was a given. People shared ideas and methods and equipment and sometimes even labor. It was hippie-ish in its aura. Yeah, breweries failed but usually because they were run by people unprepared to run businesses at all. And the Boom went on for a LONG time.

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BAD REICHENHALL: BEER IN AN UPPER BAVARIAN SPA TOWN

Written by Franz Hofer for A Tempest in a Tankard

SCHWABENBRÄU WIRTSHAUS AND BEER GARDEN

Let’s start with Wieninger’s Schwabenbräu Wirtshaus, an inn with colourful paintings (Lüftlmalerei) depicting a mélange of religious, chivalric, and culinary images splashed across its façade. The interior is suitably rustic, but it’s the beer garden that drew my attention on that warm and sunny afternoon. This is one of those “klein aber fein” (small but fine) beer gardens with all the trappings you’d expect from larger affairs, but with one slightly different touch: grapevines round out the shade provided by horse chestnut trees.

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Brew Biz: Werts and All, Bagg’s Square Brewing

    Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Salt City Homebrewers in Syracuse, NY. Former member of Escambia Bay Brewers, Clarksville Carboys and Music City Homebrewers. Ken has been writing on beer-related topics, and interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast, for well over 20 years.

    A casual review of one of Utica’s newer breweries.

By Ken Carman
    Millie and I met in 1974 at MVCC: Mohawk Valley Community College. Back then we felt blessed we had ONE brewery: FX Matt Brewing, noted mostly for Utica Club, Matt’s and occasional one offs like Maximus Super. This was just a few years into the craft boom and almost all of them out west, like Anchor.
    Once we got married we lived, briefly, in Utica, then moved to Nashville area for 45 years. Meanwhile when we came back to visit relatives, and then when I was on tour, FX morphed into Saranac, basically the same brewery, same family owning it, but now increasingly more dedicated to craft beer. And eventually breweries like Woodland, Nail Creek and Bagg’s Square popped up.
    On St. Patty’s Day Millie had a doctor’s appointment, so we stopped. Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All, Bagg’s Square Brewing”

A RECIPE FOR STOUT IRISH STEW

Written by Franz Hoffer @A Tempest in a Tankard

It’s Friday afternoon, the day after our homebrew club’s St. Paddy’s Day Potluck.

It’s also been a long stretch without a break from translation projects and beer writing projects, a few of which you’ll soon see in print.

And it’s been quite some time now since I posted a recipe. The last time was just as the pandemic hit, when I wrote an article about fermenting cabbage into sauerkraut.

So it’s nice to take a break from writing by … writing. Writing about something completely different for change is actually quite relaxing.

And today’s actually St. Patrick’s Day, so there’s that, too. If you’re like me and have left your food plans till the last minute, you might just get this recipe in time for your St. Paddy’s Day festivities over the weekend. In this case, fortune favours the procrastinators. Even if you don’t cook this for dinner this weekend, it’s still stew season for at least another month.

*I’ve included a number of tips below. These are helpful for any stew you’ll make, from goulash to stoofvlees (Flemish stew).

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History of the Bavarian Brewery Building

YOU’VE ENTERED THE BAVARIAN BREWERY OF OLD…

The Bavarian Brewing Co., Inc., was once the largest brewer in the state of Kentucky and the largest employer in Covington, KY. Out of dozens of breweries that operated during the 19th and 20th centuries in the Cincinnati area, it’s the only one with a remaining structure that was used for former Brew and Mill Houses. This edifice is visible and easily accessible off I-75 at the 12th Street Exit in Covington. (See a location map to visit.) It was formerly Brew Works and Jillian’s, and was re-purposed in 2019 for office use as the Kenton County Government Center. There is also a Bavarian Brewery Exhibit that explores the history of the brewery and it buildings, accompanied with artifacts and Breweriana items on display. A Riedlin – Schott Room (named after the families who owned and operated the brewery), is available for community activities, meetings and events. This room and the exhibit (including the display areas), will be used for brewery tours featuring the history of the brewery. In addition, this website will help augment the brewery’s history, while also documenting the progression of inventions and events that impacted the broader brewing industry.

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Psychedelic Rabbit Transcendent IPA

Description

If you go, chasing rabbits, may you find yourself in a new realm wonderland juicy-hop filled bliss. Feed your head with this Transcendent IPA using Cascade, Cashmere, Mosaic,
Azacca and Citra hops along with the new Thiol-active Star Party yeast designed to provide an atomic burst of Passion fruit, Pineapple, and Tangerine juiciness that will blow your mind… go ask Alice, I think she’ll know.

Side Bae Double IPA Idaho 7

Description

Super small batch IPA brewed with experimental malt formulas and hop combinations. These are the most heavily-hopped NEIPA’s we’ve ever made, brewed exclusively for the taproom.

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