Ahhh Beer...questions and Allan

This is a two part blog, the first is a little bit about me and beer and people. The second is me and beer. I wrote the two at different times, so they do over lap a little bit here and there, but I hope you enjoy.

Part One

I am looking at my instructions to a recipe for an oatmeal Stout, which I plan on changing a bit with a little touch of chocolate. Yuummmmm....
It is a brew which I have been wanting to make for almost a year. I love the subtleties of this style. But other things come to mind when as I am typing.
Over the past year or so, as I have dived into the world of brewing and shared my affinity for this over facebook and twitter. I have had more than a few people ask questions. These questions were about what in the world i was doing and if i am an alcoholic. I don't take these questions as a insult, but I see them as a concern a brother and sister in Christ should ask when they are concerned about another brother or sister in the Fellowship. Then again, I am not a big fan of people wondering if I am an alcoholic, thus a little problem.

I think the best way for me to solve (or at least attend to) this problem is to be blunt. No, i am not an alcoholic. (and yes i know the first thing you are things, "the first step is admitting"), but really I am not an alcoholic! I have been drunk, not my finest moment. I don't like being drunk, in fact its something I never want to be ever again and I always take steps to prevent this. I NEVER drink to get drunk and I don't like going out with friends that i know might get drunk. I DON'T like beer because of the alcohol, rather for the art of the brew (which i will write about later). No, I am not on the attack right now, and if i sound like it I sincerely do apologize. I just want people to know, with full sincerity, that I just like beer the same way a wine connoisseur likes wine.

Ok, i feel better. I hope you do too.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So to get on with it in part two.....Yes folks, this is a little blog, (of probably more to come) about one of my favorite subjects and libations....BEER!

Part Two

If you have known me for any length of time at all, you know i am a fan of beer. It started in college with a Guinness at a friend's place. I looked at him and said, "oh..I could get into this!" That was over 6 years ago. That fateful night has spawned off what has become to be a large passion in my life.

I love beer for the art which is the brew. The over all look, smell, feel and especially the taste of a good brew is something i am coming more and more to appreciate and discern. When i pour a new brew into a glass there is this excitement in me that stirs. I try to analyze as much of it as possible and well, try to enjoy it too.
I compare it to looking at art. When i was in Europe i remember looking at the different paintings and sculptures and thinking, "what is the artist trying to tell me from this? What am I drawing out of this piece?" As i drink a brew i wonder the same things. What is the brewer trying to tell me in this glass? There are intense hoppy flavors that shout out at you for attention. There are malty flavors that melt in you mouth. Chocolate, coffee, grapefruit, grainy, sweet, bitter, toffee and the list can go on. All of them conveying some message from the brewer through the liquid on you lips.
Now that i am trying to brew my own beers, i wonder what am i conveying? Most of the time i think i am conveying that I am an amateur. Sometimes though, i feel like i hit something special. Something that grabs some attention and says, "Hey, this is good" We shall see what happens in my brews to come.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, i am sure this will not be my last post on the brew. I feel this post was a bit disjointed, but i am ok with that, this is just a blog and well, this is how i feel right now.

I hope you have enjoyed and feel free to comment.

In Christ,
Allan

Beer and wine

From Vin de Pays xmas show

I have been wanting to blog about my new come obsession with beer and wine for a while now and well, i have a 03 Napa Merlot in my glass and the Elliot Smith channel on Pandora so i don't know how better it could get to write.
A little history
I grew up with parents that didn't really drink. I saw my dad with a beer only on occasion. My mom has never really liked anything with alcohol so i never saw her drink. I saw other adults drink here and there, but it never had an automatic appeal. All through high school i knew kids that drank, but i never really wanted to drink with them because they just did stupid things while that drank and I didn't want to do that. In college it wasn't until i was spending sometime overseas in Germany that i found a taste for wine. I was in a little restaurant in Monterroso, Italy. I ordered a carafe of the house wine because it was cheaper than ordering a glass of water. It was great! A white, but it just was great. I told the people around me at the time, "yeah i could get used to this." That summer i had a Guiness with a buddy and i thought, "ohh...now that is good" and thus starting me off toward the pursuit of the better tasting beer.

Over the next couple of years i started to find out what i liked and didn't like. In wine i started in liking whites more, chardonnays were good, but i was still learning the different names. In beer i like Heineken and Guinness (total opposites i know). I never liked anything of the big 3 American beer (Miller, Coors and Bud), they all tasted like someone had poured some beer in water and tried to pass it off as something good to drink. Then as i started to try more beer/wine i found my tastes changing but i still didn't know what i was tasting.
When i moved to China I basically let go of the idea of having anything good to drink. Chinese beer sucks and well.........really sucks. I found a place or two to get a bottle of wine, but i all but gave up hope of finding any beer that didn't look like yellow water or any wine that didn't taste like it had fermented with a nickel in the bottle.
Coming back to the states i started off right back where i left off, not knowing much but willing to try anything. One day my sis (who is really becoming a wine aficionado) and i decide to go wine tasting. We do a little search on the internet and find Vin de Pays. We take the metro and head down to Long Beach. It is a small place with a beer wall and a flight of 8 tastings for 13.99 (good deal). It was here that i started to learn about beer. I found out that there were beers beyond what they had in the super market and it absolutely thrilled me! They were unfiltered and non-pasteurized. They were not yellow, but caramel or deep golds. I could taste hops, chocolates or spices in them. The wine had feeling. It wasn't just red or white now, but Merlot and Chardonnay. In it was cherry, oak, vanilla or berry. The world of beer and wine was now something to explore, not just look at from afar.

Today
Now beer and wine are a regular part of my life, but not dependants in my life. I have always told people, that i like beer and wine in the same way that i like art. I taste and see what there is to offer me in that sip. What is being expressed in that glass. What did the brewer or vinter try to show you in the glass that you have in your hand? Its not just because there is alcohol in the glass that i like to drink it. I really don't like being drunk. I have been drunk once in my life and i really don't ever plan on that ever happening again. When i do drink, i drink because i like or love what i have drinking. I am drinking because i want to know more about beer or wine, not because i want to mask pain or get away from it all. I will admit, there is something about a Corona on a hot summers day, not because it taste amazing, but because it is cold and refreshing. At the same time, i am never going to finish off a six pack because it is a hot day.

Now I am working out details to start playing regularly at Vin de Pays and am looking forward to being the house musician at a wine bar. I am also making my own beer, and if i may, the batches i have made have turned out really well. But i will blog more on that later.

Allan