Oddbits…trolling the beer blogs this morning, Evan Rail, author of the Campaign For Real Ale’s Good Beer Guide: Prague and the Czech Republic, who writes the Beer Culture blog from Prague says the impact of Beeradvocate.com declaring Westvleteren Tripel, the Belgian Trappist beer the best beer in the world a few years ago and Ratebeer.com jumping in has had a devastating effect on availability of the beer.

The monks have not increased production since 1946 and don’t intend to. It’s sold only at the monastery and the monk ask purchasers to buy only for their personal use. Surveying beer hot spots in Brussels, he found the beer crossed off beer lists. Ah, the brave new world of the net. Crap. Read the whole post...

.On the same subject, travel writer Ron Pattison, who writes the Shut Up About Barclay Perkins beer blog from Holland (He’s English), cheers beeradvocate’s latest declaration that Struise Brouwers are the best in the world…

Struise is another matter. Availability is already crap. They basically brew for the US and Scandinavian geek market. So that’s where most of their beer goes. Not that it worries me. Apart from Aardmonnik, I don’t get that excited about their beers…He’s just happy, he says, because the availability of beers he really cares about won’t be affected…Read the whole post here….

Onward…more events ahead at the Bistro, 1001 B. St., Hayward, CA. following Saturday’s 11th annual IPA festival (11 a.m. -7 p.m.). On Wednesday about 5 p.m. Jennifer Gilardi of New Belgium says they’ll be tapping the next in a series of small batch beers: Le Fleur Misseur at the Bistro. Haven’t tasted this one, but it’s predecessor Eric’s Sour Peach Ale was a stunner.

Jennifer says Eric’s Ale can now be tasted at Luka’s and the Trappist is getting Eric’s Ale next. Next beer in the series is Abbey Grand Cru. And, by the way, the series has a totally weird name: Lips of Faith. Huh?

About Luka’s and my daughter’s post on the glasses they use...I’ll be Eric’s Ale isn’t serve in a glass like this… (Cel phone photo of Eric’s Ale at La Trappe SF).

Meanwhile, back at the Bistro…Other dates to pencil in are: Saturday, Oct. 4, Wet Hop Beer Fest and Saturday, Nov. 15, Third Annual West Coast Barrel Aged Beer Fest.

On the biz beat… from Molson/Coors… “Sales increased in the last three months, fueled by…”double-digit growth by Blue Moon and Keystone Light. ”
Comment: U.S. consumers are a varied lot, Blue Moon AND Keystone Light. The mind reels...Boston Beer (Sam Adams) reports sales are up eight percent for the last three months to 598,0000 barrels, up 10 percent for the year. Sobering thought: 598,000 barrels in three months, impressive. But the Blue Moon brands, the wit, which I like and the others which are way bland, sold somewhere close to 8 million barrels in 2007. That’s over 666,000 barrels A MONTH.

AND FURTHERMORE...Rogue Grows it own: They’ve bought a hop farm in Oregon and are planting 22 acres of Perle, Sterling, Horizon, and Centennial hops. First harvest: ‘09. Watch ‘em grow. Yes, they have a Webcam.

Marketers who handle Foster’s, the Australian, big-can beer, trying to boost sales of “Foster’s Special Bitter” have renamed it: Foster’s Premium Ale. Same beer. What’s it taste like? I’ve always found it kind of bland and actually prefer Foster’s Lager – love the big can. Here’’s a quote from a taster at beeradvocate.com

Taste is malt, metal and some bitter hops in the finish. Light to medium mouth feel. It is what it is - a big ass can of cheap beer, but it’s not THAT bad.beer advocate.com

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There’s been a craft beer revolution in the United Kingdom parallel to what’s been happening in the United States and Canada fro the last 20 years. While major English breweries are now foreign owned (sound familiar), and major brewers have mostly turned their backs on real ale, new breweries and smaller local breweries thankfully are taking up the slack.

What brings this to mind is the Campaign For Real Ale’s announcement of the Champion Beer of Britain today on the third day of the Great British Beer Festival in London. Unless you’re English or travel to the UK frequently, you most likely won’t recognize many of the winning beers.

The Champion Beer of Britain is Alton’s Pride, a 3.8 percent ABV bitter (in bottles, bitter is called Pale Ale), from Triple fff Brewery in Alton, Hampshire. Alton is southwest of London.

Huh? This quote from Roger Protz, a finalist judge and Editor of CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide and many other books on beer excplains why mostly we Yanks have never heard of the beer or the brewery:

“A magnificent victory for a craft brewery that opened in 1997 with a five barrel plant and has just opened a new brewhouse with a 50 barrel kit. It has grown due to consumer demand for its rich and complex beer and proves that the future for real ale in Britain is assured.”

I love what the brewery says on its homepage:

The Secret of Triple fff’s success, is to always use the finest Maris Otter Barley. This is malted in the age old way at Warminster Maltings, and blended with selected whole hops to achieve a fuller flavour. The water used to brew the beer comes from the Hampshire chalk downs. This water has percolated for centuries through the great aquifer, consisting almost entirely of chalk laid down in the Cretaceous period, 65 to 100 million years ago.

I’ll drink to that. Wish I could hoist a pint of Alton’s Pride tonight.

Looking down the list of winners in the many categories there are very few national beers. Fuller’s won a second place silver in the Strong Bitter category for Fullers ESB, and silver in the Bottle-Conditioned Beers category for Fullers 1845. Wells and Young (created by the 2006 merger of Young’s and Charles Wells (Bombadier) won Bronze for Young’s Special London Ale.

I absolutely love every one of those beers, which tells us how fierce the competition is these days.

You can find the entire GBBF winners’ list here.

Also at the GBBF today (really late last night here) CAMRA released its laters book: “A Beer A Day” by Jeff Evans.

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, is launching A Beer a Day by offering both real ale aficionados and novices an opportunity to complement every day with an expert beer recommendation. The book will be on sale for the first time at the Great British Beer Festival, Earls Court, on Thursday August 7th.

Not content with the simple association of light-coloured beer in summer and dark-coloured in winter, CAMRA, through A Beer a Day, is hoping to show consumers that drinking beer has significance for us all. Whether this is through cultural change, historic figures, or national landmarks, the publication offers an informative, light-hearted approach when commemorating the diverse and somewhat unusual events in world affairs.

The Los Angeles Times had an interesting article this week on cask-conditioned ale, something that apparently has been discovered in the mighty Southland. READ IT HERE….

They skipped the San Francisco Bay Area entirely and missed the best Southern California beer fest of all — the 11th annual Real Ale Festival at Pizza Port in Carlsbad this weekend, but the Los Angeles Times on Sunday had an excellent list of beer festivals coming up this summer and fall. Read the rest of this entry »

William: I enjoy reading your column in the Contra Costa Times. I read your article mentioning the Maui Brewing Company just before a buddy headed over there. Unfortunately, I told him Lahaina B.C and he wasn’t able to find it nor bring back a couple bottles of the coconut porter. Fortunately, I read your follow up article about it coming to Bev Mo and was able to pick some up there.

I recently read your article about Alaska Summer Ale. I agree with you, it is a really good ale and would like to point out that it is served on Alaska Airlines during the summer with Alaskan Amber served during the rest of the year. Read the rest of this entry »