Most of us will be gazing at the Super Bowl beer ads this weekend, but James R. Walker, a professor of mass communications at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, will be analyzing them.

He and a colleague at Xavier, Nelson Hathcock, study beer ads. They have compared the way beer was pitched to Americans between 1946 and 1956 with the way it was pitched between 1961 and 1971. They wrote a chapter about this in a recently released book, Sport, Beer, and Gender: Promotional Culture and Contemporary Social Life.

Right after World War II, beer ads stressed home and hearth, Walker told me in a brief phone interview. The idea was to make Americans comfortable with drinking beer at home, with women, not just in male-dominated taverns. "Beer was touted as the beverage of moderation." It was a "social lubricant," Walker said.

In contrast, the beer ads of the 1960s showed beer drinkers asmostly males in taverns, or participating in sporting activities.

Lately, he said, some of the beer ads aired during the Super Bowl show young males in embarrassing situations. These young beer drinkers feel they are separated from conventional society, but they are happy, he said.  The ads depict young men  "celebrating their isolation, their unique beer drinking culture," Walker said. 

So during Sunday's game, I too will study those beer ads.  I will attempt to figure out if they are placing beer in the middle of family life, or in the lair of single, fun-loving guys.

I am betting on the fun-loving guys.

How about you?  What are your favorite Super Bowl beer ads?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Mark you calendars for Baltimore Beer Week, Oct. 9-18.

Modeled after Philly Beer Week (March 6-15), the event plans to celebrate the beer culture of Baltimore and the quality beer of the Chesapeake region.

As outlined by committee chair Joe Gold, the ten days will be filled with tastings, tours, beer dinners, and  educational seminars on all things beery.

The Baltimore Beer Week committee, of which I am a member, has met a couple of times. Things are still in the early organizing stage, but the dates are firm.

The Baltimore Beer Week web site will post more infomation as it becomes available. . Suggestions  and questions should be sent to jnkgold@comcast.net.

Anybody attend Philly Beer Week last year? Impressions?

There also was a beer week in New York. Anybody hit it?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Our friends at A&P --- I remember when all their grocery stores went by that moniker --- have sent out a list of items every household should have to be "storm ready."

The list includes: first aid kit, flashlights, battery powered radio, extra batteries, bottled water, canned foods such as soup, vegetables, fruit, battery-powered can opener.

It fails, of course, to mention one vital provision: beer.

There is nothing better than coming into the house after a long snow shoveling session, peeling off layers, and downing a cold one.

There is nothing worse than shoveling for hours, returning to the warm house and finding out you are high and dry -- no beer in the abode.

This happened to me during the snowstorm of 1979 and ever since I have taken precautions.

Other folks may buy bread, milk and toilet paper when a storm threatens.  I buy beer. Folks at local liquor stores tell me I am not alone in this behavior.

What is in your fridge when the snow falls? Ever been stuck high and dry, surrounded by snow and unable to get to a "dispensary" to refuel?

What did you do?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Usually when I watch a film at a movie theater I don't buy eats or drinks, not even popcorn. I harbor a lingering belief, instilled in me by my parents, that shelling out money for concessions at a movie is "profligate behavior." Go figure.

But Friday night I broke this rule. Sitting in the Landmark Theatre in downtown Baltimore waiting for "The Wrestler" to begin, I made my way to the bar in the theater's lobby and bought a beer.

The bar did not have any beer on tap, but it did have bottles of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I gave the bartender $6, he poured the beer in a plastic cup, and I went back to my seat in the theater. The seat, I noticed, had a cup holder, just like a ball park.

It was Friday, I reminded myself, prime beer drinking time. So I sipped the Sierra Nevada as I watched Mickey Rourke portray Randy The Ram Robinson, a down-on- his luck professsional wrestler, and his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Marisa Tomei, a stripper.

The movie had it moments, but it dragged. This, in a way, was a good thing, because when nature called, as happens when you drink beer, I didn't miss much.

I am not sure "The Wrestler" will win an Oscar. Both Rourke and Tomei are nominated.

And I am not sure I will drink beer again at the movies.

How about you; do you drink beer at the movies?

What did you think of "The Wrestler"? As I recal,l no one drinks beer in this movie. Only shots of booze.

Posted by Rob Kasper at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Today is the beginning of Super Bowl hype week, when everything associated with the football game is touted as being of colossal importance. 

So I was disappointed to learn that in the rankings of our nation's big beer holidays, Super Bowl rates a lowly eighth.

According to data from the Nielsen Co., consumers bought a mere 51.7 million cases of beer in the two weeks surrounding last year's Super Bowl. That trails the 68.1 million cases bought during the top beer holiday, the 4th of July.

Our nation's top beer holidays are as follows:1. July 4, 2. Labor Day, 3. Memorial Day, 4. Father's Day, 5. Christmas, 6. Thanksgiving, 7. Easter, 8. Super Bowl.

Other beer tidbits of interest for Super Bowl.:

*Beer sales go up in the city that plays host to Super Bowl and in the cities that have teams participating. Last year, for instance, as the Giants battled the Patriots in Phoenix, beer sales in grocery stores jumped 5 percent in Phoenix. Meanwhile, they went up  3 percent in metro New York and 12 percent in New England. 

So if the Ravens had made it to the Super Bowl, local beer sellers would have very happy. 

*Budweiser and Bud Light had three of the "most likeable" ads in last year's Super Bowl.

They were:

A Dalmation trains Hank the Clydsdale and the horse makes the team that pulls the Bud beer wagon.

A Bud Light ad in which Carlos Mencia tells guys that chicks love men who speak in foreign accents.

Another Bud Light ad that promises its drinkers they will be able to breath fire.

Do you remember these ads?

Did they encourage you to drink beer?

Did you need any encouragement?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

The snow is still on the ground and the road salt is eating our cars -- sure signs of of winter -- but already the "spring" beers are popping up.

The folks at Flying Dog tell me their spring offering, Garde Dog, a farmhouse ale, is in the stores this weekend.

Anybody had it?

Meanwhile, the Magic Hat company up in chilly Burlington, Vt., is sending out a Spring Fever 12 Pak. One of the beers in this bundle is Hi.PA, a brew that first appeared last spring. I had one the other night. Tt was very hoppy (Columbus hops, according to the specs) with English Pale malt. 5.8 percent ABV.

The hops certainly said "hello," but the malt did not get overshadowed. There were some sweet malt notes, and a long finish. Good stuff.  

Yet somehow it feels "wrong" to drink a spring beer before St. Patrick's Day. I think the beer gods might regard it as a seasonal sin.

Anyone else feel this way?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

I have this leftover beer, some Iron City.

The cans are remainders, if you will, from last week's taste-off with Natty Boh. I am looking for suggestions for what to do with it.

There are about 28 cans, so I could build a beer can pyramid.

Or I could put the cans out on the curb and see if they are picked up by anyone from the Pittsburgh nation.

Or I could wait until spring, pour it in pans, and use it to kill slugs.

Which one do you vote for?

Any other bright ideas?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Thanks to a post from Sandy Mitchell, who writes his own blog for the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, on Tuesday I was able to sip a pint of a dark cherry porter from Ommegang brewery in Cooperstown, N.Y. The brew is known informally as Obamagang. I found it at Alsonso's bar and restaurant in Roland Park.

As I sipped the dark beer and watched the inaugural parade on the bar's TV, I did not, as every TV commentator felt compelled to say, feel "that I was a part of history."

But it was a pleasant experience. This beer, which apparently could not be sold in bottles because of a fight with the feds over putting the new president's image on a beer label, is sold only on tap and is called both 2009 Ale and Obamagang. It is dark , a porter, and a little over 6 percent alcohol by volume. It was a tad too sweet for me. That and the $8 price tag -- some of the proceeds are said to being going to charities -- limited me to one pint. Barack did say we are going to have to sacrifice.

Other area establishments pubs serving this beer, according to the Ommegang web site , are Max's on Broadway, Mahaffey's, Racer's and  Frisco's Burrito's.

Anyone else sample this brew?

What do you think? Is it an historic winner or a pricey disappointment?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Brew reviews
        

I spent the long weekend in the Berkshires in Western Mass., where there was a lot of snow and a lot of competent snow removal. It snowed twice over the weekend; no big deal. They plow the roads, and the shoulders. Amazing how normally things functions when the roads are plowed.

After a 6-inch snow on Saturday, my brother, my sister-in-law, my wife and I stopped at the Route & Grill in Great Barrington, Mass. This place specialzes in serving local fare.  With our really good pulled pork, beef brisket sandwiches, and BLTs,  we had some quality New England beers.

I had a Harpoon Celtic Ale: crisp, clean, and an ideal companion for my BLT.  I have not been a fan of this Boston brewery, mainly because I think some of their Christmas beers have been  over-spiced.  But this one, a red ale served on tap, was a keeper.

The ladies, not big beer drinkers, had glasses of Allagash White. This beer from the Portland, Maine, brewery was clean, light and flavored with orange. The ladies loved it.

Anybody else had these brews?

Anyone else observe, as I did driving back in yesterday's snow flurries, that in Baltimore we have an exceptional number of snow-challenged drivers?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

I am not traveling to Washington for the inauguration of Barack Obama tomorrow, but plenty of people from the Baltimore area are making the trip. Some of them might want to get out of the cold and sip a beer.

So I asked our 23-year-old son, who lives in Washington, to pass along some  of his favorite beer drinking spots.

He told me likes the beer list and the heated roof top deck at the Reef, 2446 18th St. N.W., in Adams Morgan.

He also mentioned the Brickskeller near DuPont Circle, 1523 22nd St. N. W. (between P & Q streets).

Finally he listed the Round Robin bar in the Willard Hotel, at 1401 Pennsylvania Ave. (smack dab in the middle of the parade route), adding that he could only go there -- beers are $6.50 -- when his parents were picking up the tab.

I poked around and found a couple of D.C. brewpubs that are making special beers for the weekend.

Capitol City Brewing (at 1100 New York Ave, N.W.) has an InaugurAle, a pale ale that features a honey from  Illinois, the president-elect's home state. For $8 you get a pint glass commemorating the inauguration, filled with InaugurAle.  

Barrett Lauer, the brewmaster at the District ChopHouse & Brewery, 509 7th Street N.W. (7th and E) has brewed  Barack Bock, a strong amber lager, and will serve it on draft ( $5.75 a glass) until it is tapped out.

With the large crowds and the tight security, getting around Washington could be difficult. But good luck and good sipping to those who make the trip.

Any other suggested beer spots in D.C.?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Part of the ritual of a sports rivalry is for fans to make silly, good-natured bets. Here is one.

The CEOs of Pittburgh's Iron City and Flying Dog in Frederick have agreed that if their favorite team loses on Sunday, they will dress up in the opposing team's color and toast the victors with the opposing city's brew.

So if Pittsburgh wins, the Flying Dog execs will dress up in Steelers colors and swill Iron City. If the Ravens win, the Iron City bosses will  don Ravens colors and toast the Ravens with Flying Dog.

I consider this a step up from the usual mayoral ritual bet of food; for example, Maryland crabcakes against a Primanti Brothers sandwich. 

You ever make any beery bets on games?

How did they turn out? Any regrets?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Thanks to a post from Yup, I checked out the Pittsburgh Post Gazette story reporting today that Iron City will move its canning operation out of Pittsburgh.

Apparently the current canning line needs to be repaired or replaced. Until that happens the beer, while still brewed in Pittsburgh, will be canned at another brewery, possibly the High Falls brewery in Rochester, N.Y. The bottling and keg operations will continue in Pittsburgh, the story said. The change is set for March 1.

So now like Natty Boh and the Colts, the Iron City can will leave its hometown. 

Posted by Rob Kasper at 1:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

I am guessing that a lot of beer is going to be consumed this weekend as Baltimore prepares itself for the Sunday night game with the Steelers.

While gathering provisions for the weekend I spotted a bargain, Stoudts Oktoberfest, marked down to about $5 a six pack. This beer is out of season; Oktoberfest ended, well, back in October.

The story I got was that when the distributor of this beer went out of business, the new distributor, Bond, found several skids of the beer left in a warehouse. Now they are out of the warehouse and on sale. Back in the fall, this beer cost $8.99 a six pack. I paid $4.99 the other day at the Wine Source. I brought it home, popped it open.  It was not as crisp and sweet as it was in October, but it was drinkable.

I would like to start a weekly "bargain beer" posting.

Anybody else seen good beers at a nice price?

Anybody else drink Oktoberfest in January?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

Having established that Iron City is the lowliest beer of Pittsburgh, a position Natty Boh holds in Baltimore, we switch now to a higher level.

What do we think are the best beers brewed in these towns, as well as those of Philadelphia and Phoenix, the other two cities with teams still in the NFL hunt?

Let's limit the nominees to bottled beers.

For starters, I say the best beer Pittsburgh has to offer is the Penn Pilsner brewed by Tom Pastorius at Pennsylvania Brewing Company.

As for Philadelphia, since we don't get Yards or Sly Fox in this market, I feel the best bottled beer that we can get our hands on comes from the distant suburb of  Downingtown, Pa. That would be Victory Prima Pils.

I come up dry for Phoenix. I would guess Bud Lite.  Anybody got a good Phoenix bottled beer?

As for Baltimore, I see a four-way race between bottles of Resurrection, Winter Storm, Pursuit of Happiness, and Flying Dog Gonzo Porter.

The floor is open for nominees.

Posted by Rob Kasper at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)
Categories: Brew reviews
        

This is Steeler week, meaning that emotions run high and common sense runs short. An ideal time, in other words, to compare and contrast two of the lowliest beers associated with these two towns -- Baltimore's National Bohemian and Pittsburgh's Iron City.

Price: Both are cheap. Not inexpensive; cheap. Natty Boh is cheaper.

I bought a six-pack of Natty Boh cans for $3.30 at the Wine Source in Hampden; that is, 55 cents a can. I bought a 30-pack of Iron City at Wells Liquors on York Road for $18.99. (This was the only available package in the store as the six-pack of bottles was sold out. Fresh supplies are on order.) This works out to 63 cents a can.

Color: Advantage, Iron City.

Natty Boh is an extremely pale yellow. Iron City is described by its fans as golden. To me, it looked like a Dollar Store yellow.

Aroma: Tie.

Natty Boh: Oh-so-faint aroma of hops. Iron City: faint aroma of spilled beer.

Taste (performed while blindfolded, eyes covered with a "terrible napkin"): Advantage, Natty Boh by default.

Natty Boh: Very little body, but no foul aftertaste. Iron City: Very little body, but foul aftertaste.

Aesthetics: Tie.

A difficult subject to address when talking about these two canned beers. but we shoulder on.

Natty Boh: Good slogan -- "From the Land of Pleasant Living."  Gains points for the handsome mustachioed Mr. Boh on the can. Loses points for leaving town, like the Colts. The Natty Boh in cans is now brewed in Eden, N.C., and the beer in bottles is brewed in Wilkes Barre, Pa.

Iron City: Good slogan -- "Official beer of the Pittsburgh Nation." The shiny can does look "steely." But it is made of aluminum, and when emptied, in keeping with the tradition of the Pittsburgh nation, it should be crushed on the forehead.

So, in my opinion, Iron City is the more terrible of the two because it has a foul aftertaste, while Natty Boh has almost no taste.

Your views on these two?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 2:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (36)
Categories: Brew reviews
        

In the interest of promoting good beer and good fun, I recently turned a couple of glasses of beer to the color purple, the hue that is the official color of the Ravens.
It is pretty easy. Just apply five or so drops of red food coloring and two or so drops of blue food coloring in the bottom of a beer glass. Pour in the beer, watch it turn a manly shade of purple. The flavor of the beer is not affected.
You can buy food coloring in grocery stores. It is sold in the baking aisle. About $4 for a four pack.
I also experimented with a vial of neon purple food coloring. It produces a lighter, somewhat girly purple. I used it to turn a glass of Iron City, sorry stuff, into a purple haze.

Posted by Rob Kasper at 4:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

Over the weekend I ate a lot of kraut and drank some good German beer.

I found both at the annual kraut fest at Gertrude's restaurant in the Baltimore Museum of Art. Way back in the fall I spotted John Shields of Gertrude's at the downtown Baltimore Farmers' Market, where he was securing the cabbage for the kraut. Lots of it. Enough cabbage to yield about 400 plus pounds of kraut.

The kraut-making process is laborious and takes weeks of fermenting. The results were delectable. The kraut was served with sausage from Binkert's and Ostrowski's, and was much more flavorful and delicate than canned kraut.

The dish that blew me away was the sauerkraut ice cream -- smooth and sweet, with a caramel topping and the distinct, but strangely welcome, taste of kraut. Who knew?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 8:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

If you are going to Nashville for the Ravens-Titans game, or know someone who is there and is thristy, I recommend you try the beer at Boscos brewpub in Hillsboro Village, a neighborhood near the Vanderbilt medical complex. For details, go their website.

Chuck Skypeck, the brewer of the beer ,spoke with me Friday from the brewery headquarters in Memphis. He  said he was worried about the Ravens' defense. That is a good sign.

I tasted his beer, a terrific Hefeweizen, in Washington last spring at SAVOR. the beer and food tasting sponsored by American craft brewers. Good stuff.

We hope that after Saturday's game, the Tennessee fans will be crying in their beer.

Anybody else taste any good stuff from Tennessee?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Last night I cracked open a bottle of Jewbelation Twelve, the ale celebrating the 12th anniversary of the brewery that gives us HE-BREW, The Chosen Beer.

Jewbelation is a dark, rich beer, brewed with 12 malts and with 12 percent ABV. It was, the label said, conceived in San Franciso and brewed by Shmaltz Brewing Co. in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Jeremy Cowan,  the witting proprietor who calls his company the "smallest, biggest and most award-winning Jewish beer company," moved his brewing operation in 2003 from California to New York state.

I cracked open Jewbelation about a week too late to celebrate Hanukkah. But it was just in time to spin the empty bottle and predict the winner of this Saturday's Ravens-Titans game. According to Jewbelation, a win for the Ravens is written in stone, on tablets.

As for the brew, it was exceeding dark and malty. It was so rich I had to down the bottle in two halves, just like football.

Anybody else experience Jewbelation?

Any opinions on the other beers in the HE-BREW line?

I had their Bittersweet Lenny's RIPA, a beer brewed in honor of Lenny Bruce.  It was more bitter than sweet.

Posted by Rob Kasper at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Mark Fesche sends word from Raleigh, N.C., that he is opening a brewery there, the Boylan Bridge Brewpub, next week and is soliciting names for his beers.

Fesche reports that when he brewed at Twin Lakes in Greenville, Del., "I named one beer 'Brew 52' after Ray Lewis. I want to name another after him, but it has to be subtle, with all these Carolina fans down here."

He will brew an IPA, pale ale, an amber and some lagers.

As for payment, his web site  says this: "If you have an idea for a beer name and wish to share it, please email us at newbeernames@boylanbridge.com. If we use your name, we'll point at you and say, "...that's the dude who gave us that cool beer name!" or, we'll give you a free beer,... not sure yet. But definitely one of those two things."

Seems to me naming a beer is like naming a kid. The parent  has veto power. Then again, I wanted to name one of our sons Kareem, figuring that with a name like Kareem Kasper he would always get picked for any basketball team. That name was vetoed by my wife, proving that some vetoes are more powerful than others. 

Anybody got any good names for these beers.?
Best I could come up with was Above Average Lager.

Posted by Rob Kasper at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)