Milos' So Many Beers So Little Time: Women just do not appreciate beer...or do they?

Milos' So Many Beers So Little Time: Women just do not appreciate beer...or do they?

Women just do not appreciate beer...or do they?

And if they do, it has to be some kind of girly lemonade. Yeah, you heard right. Over past twenty plus years of living in Canada I heard this so many times with just slight variations!
I love it! There are two "tough" 230 lbs. guys sitting on one end of the bar watching three girls in their mid twenties. What is it they're drinking? Oh, that is Koningshoeven Quadrupel. Yeah, looks like a proper girly drinks in those pretty little glasses, the other one replies and takes really big gulp of his Bud Light.
And what is the other one having? Oh, that is  Maredsous 10.
...Never heard of it!...
...It is another beer from Belgium...
....Oh, man I heard about those Belgian beers... different... fruity..I tried this one last year and it was just like a piss.. can I have another Coors Light? And can you put a couple of them on ice for me.. this one isn't cold enough... I though you were the beer bar!!
I am sure you all heard at least once some parts of this conversation.
All the serious manufactures of carbonated alcoholic liquid are sitting in their oversized boardrooms trying to figure out how to appeal to a female part of population. The beers, packaging and ads do not seem to work for ladies, it is really puzzling. It is a great commercial: countless young women either scantily clad or stuffed in extra short and tight clothing hop around in a state of total elation while they are trying to please all the guys. What's not to like about it?
So they go and roll out a new beer for a modern female. It must have a sexy bottle with wild colour label and some exotic tasting fruit flavour because them women do not like the real taste of the beer.
Fine that's enough, stop hurling heavy sharp objects at me!!!
All the italic text is here to get your attention. Why? Well because all you girls who just t do not appreciate good beer are heroines in my little tale of fermentable starches.
Having been on a crusade to convert infidels to the gospel of taste and personality in their beverages for past twenty some years, I find it intriguing how many women are willing to be converted or already are carrying a cross with a chalice of great beer on top of it! Perhaps there is something wrong with me.. no I mean even more than the usual, but I find it extremely sexy when a female ask for our beer list and proceeds to order beers like Southern Tier Imperials, Belgian Quads or other more interesting beers we have to offer.
Let me spell it out for you:
Women perhaps are not as smart as all the "guys" who figured a long time ago that all the ads on billboards, magazines, TV and interweb are true because there is no way big brewers would choose to spend money on brainwashing people in media rather than brew something worth drinking.
So if you want to appeal to them, try the archaic idea of offering some kind of real taste instead.
So here is to all feeble minded gals. Let us all raise a glass to toast  your silly feminine refusal to drink crap just because!!

Cheers


Milos
So many beers and so little time!

Lambics...are they doomed?

Several years ago while in Europe, I decided to check one more item from my bucket list and drive to Belgium to sample lambics in their home fearing these beers might be soon s subject of Beers that fell victim to ignorance and E.U.

There are many realities of European Union.  One is the ease of traveling from one country to another. No borders, no customs and in most of the member countries same currency is used. 

Hold on, I don't want to start a discussion on this topic.

Another angle is EU's  bureaucracy push to unify and standardize every little aspect of its members' lives. Imagine McDonald's establishing their own country and you get the picture. Everything looking and tasting the same, mediocre at best. No space for local traditions, culture of preferences. Don't tell boss somewhere in HQ not all diners go crazy over his idea of cardboard taste! You get the message. That's how some parts of what's happening over there seem to me.

What does it have to do with lambics you ask?

Well, if rumour has it right, EU is pushing really hard to get all the lambic brewers to clean up. Not their act! Their breweries! It means dusting every corner of premises, taking down  all the cobwebs, making the places as clean ad possible. That is exactly what you want you will argue. No bacteria other than your own yeast, no contamination. It seems to be a gospel even home brewers are religiously reciting.

Not so fast, my little friend. If you are a lambic brew master, you worship the "devil" himself. The crazy and wild bacteria and yeast are omnipresent in every lambic brewery. Little less than hundred different "bugs' live here according to some sources. They are present in the air, wood structures and every other welcoming place they can find to live long and prosper The two most worshiped ones are Brettanomyces bruxellensis and  Brettanomyces lambicus.

So if you clean up really well,  you are going to wipe out the entire family of meanies and nasties including Beelzebub himself. The downside to that is that you will send to oblivion one of the oldest preserved brewing traditions and deny future generations chance to fall in love with this unique member of family of beers so dominated by multinational bottom line hostage monstrosities producing megagigazilions of gallons of bland tasteless carbonated liquid so many are hypnotized into believing to be beer.we desire.

We should meniton that on of the main reasons lambics are still produced is total fascination with everything from Belgium on North American continent. 

Lambics are not the most popular when it comes to beer styles. 

Perhaps we should learn from the big brewers: When I snap my fingers, you will wake up and head over to the nearest liquor or party store and ask for lambic. You will repeat this routine once a month. ......SNAP!!! 

Did it work Do you have an urge to go out and try some lambic?

Good! You might be the one to make them stay for all the future beer lovers.

SNAP!! if it did not work, why not give it try anyway. 

Cheers

Milos

So many beers and so little time!!

My Canada includes craft beer

Hello there is beerland.

We (myself and my girlfriend Lisa) want to know where almost everything we use of buy comes from, always trying to find label that says: produce of Ontario, made in Ontario or at least Canada. We live and shop downtown London as much as we can. Lisa designs and makes her own ladies clothing and accessories known as Weezi, I manage Chancey Smith's bar and restaurant. We both try to support local independent businesses and appreciate the same in return.

While there is good beer brewed all around the world and I really enjoy finding and sampling every good example of well made brew, it gives me always the greatest pleasure to find something new and exciting brewed here in Ontario. Here is one example:

When Shortly after I started working in Chancey Smith's I met Bob Hanenberg owner of Grand River Brewing in Cambridge, Ontario and eventually met Rob Creighton the brewmaster and great craft beer enthusiast extraordinaire and Jane Southgate who makes sure there is money left to pay taxman!

We sampled Grand River Beers with few beer loving friends and fell in love wiht them!! Chancey Smith's added a permanent draught live featuring at present Galt Knife Old Style. It is probably the best and closest beer to my beloved Pilsner Urquell found locally.And it is much fresher tasting. The entire line of Grand River beers is a powerhouse of well made beers with superb ballanced taste and flavour without excessively high alcohol content, so your  can enjoy more than one, two or three glasses.  Russian Gun Imperial Stout is one of the finest examples of the style in Ontario with 8.4% abv is offering an opportunity to sample with lower alcohol presence than many of it's cousins.

Ratebeer reviews of Grand River Beers

Don't just take my word for it. Next time you want to do something fun, get in the car and head to Cambridge to visit the brewery and try if for your self, you will be glad you did. You can buy supplies for home, too! 

And if you don't want to drive, come to Chancey Smith's and try it there.

Cheers

Milos

So many beer and so little time