Beer Discrimination

@bhopps83 #BeerRun @run_beer

When Rolling Rock first arrived in Saskatchewan, I couldn’t have been more excited. This “Extra Pale” lager has been one of my favorite American brands of beer for a long time, and to see it stocked in the shelves of my local pub was, for me,a sign that things were changing around here. The stereotypical prairie beer drinker was finally starting open up to a wider variety.

I thought that way, until I actually started talking to people about Rolling Rock. Here’s an example of how one of my conversations went:

Joe Prairie Six-Pack: “Rolling Rock? Never heard of it, is it any good?”

Me: “It’s one of my favs, you should try it!”

Joe Prarie Six-Pack: “What’s it taste like?”

Me: “It’s kind of like an American version of Steam Whistle.”

Joe Prairie Six-Pack: “AMERICAN?! Pbffff pass...”

This might come as a surprise, but there are some pretty good brewery’s and beers coming out of the states. Although The Latrobe Brewing Company’s Rolling Rock brand was sold to mega-beer company, Anheuser-Busch in ‘06, it still happens to be very good.

First brewed in Latrobe Pennsylvania in the late 1930’s, Rolling Rock stayed out of the big guys hands for nearly 70 years, and was probably one of the more recognisable micro-brewed brands. Once Anheuser-Busch got a hold of the recipe, they brewed Rolling Rock out of their Newark plant, and the rest is as we know it today.

I have to laugh when someone sneers at an American brew because chances are they’re missing out. Rolling Rock in Particular because it’s very light and crisp, perfect for a hot summer day.

Dismissing a perfectly good beer, based entirely on where it comes from is descrimination in it’s highest form. Without trying to get extremely preachy here, there are laws in place that ensures you don’t do the same to your fellow neighbour. Shame on you folks who dismiss the beer for where it comes from.

Now, taking my arguement back to liquid form, unfortunately, I think alot of beer drinkers in this province are the same people who subscribe to the Tim Horton’s rule for coffee, in thinking there is only one type of coffee.

There is more than one type of coffee in the world, and, as well as  having more than one type of person on earth, fortunately there is more than one type of beer. yum. I for one say, “love thy neighbouring brews.”

Warm Beer

@run_beer @cwmoulding

Most of us have all choked down a warm beer while the rest are cooling off in the fridge. The entire time our tongue cries out in disgust. To avoid us from drinking warm beer marketers place “coldness indicators” on their cans and bottles. But is the cold indicator strip on the Coors Light can really there to tell you when your beer is cold? Can you not tell with your own hands that your beer is cold? Why now do they have two strips, one that informs you when it’s cold, and one that informs you when it’s “mountain cold”. What the hell is the difference? Why is Coors so obsessed with their beer being cold? Have you ever had a warm Coors light? Did you enjoy it?

There is little doubt that a cold beer is usually more enjoyable then a warm beer. Coors obsession with the temperature of their beer is understandable. If you’ve ever had a warm Coors Light you can understand why they need to ensure your drinking it at it’s coldest. Lets be honest Coors Light is absolute rubbish when it’s warm.

Not all beers share that same temperature characteristic. As you begin to experience more craft beers you will quickly find that some beers are actually brewed with the intention of being served at room temperature. At first this is a difficult concept to grasp. It’s made difficult by the marketing campaigns of the big guys, and all of our own experiences with a cold beer on a hot day. But craft beer is more then just drinking a beer after a hard days work; it’s more then just drinking a beer in the back yard. It’s about new beer experiences. Beer can be as sophisticated as wine, and as such be enjoyed in as many different ways.

It’s easy to identify beers that are best consumed at room temperature. You simply need to consider the color, smell, alcohol content, and type. To know if a beer would be better enjoyed at room temperatures first consider color. Beer that t is darker, brown, or red in color is usually more at home at room temperature. Smelling a beer can say a lot about the ingredients used to brew it, and more importantly, in this case, can reveal alcohol content. Alcohol gives off a very distinct smell and the stronger the smell the more alcohol the beer has.

Coincidently darker colors and higher alcohol content are characteristics found in the types of beer that are best enjoyed at room temperature. If your willing to try a beer that is suited for warmer enjoyment look for brown ales, stouts, porters, doppelbocks, and barley wines. All of these types of beers are darker, a bit heavier, and contain an above average alcohol content. Finding good craft brewed stouts, porters, and barley wines isn’t difficult to do; Canadian craft brewers have won numerous awards and accolades for their brewing skills with these types of beer.

We’ve been drinking our beers at “Mountain Cold” temperatures for so long that a room temperature beer is difficult to accept. Entering the world of craft beer is going to change more then what you demand of your beer, or what you think a beer is. It’s going to change everything about the beer experience. Put aside, just for a moment, the idea that a beer needs to be cold. Give a room temperature porter a try. It may change the way you view your favourite beverage.

Uptown Girls

@bhopps83 #BeerRun @run_beer

What’s to be made of a beer brand like Uptown Girl Beer? It’s a product from Minhas Creek breweries, and as the commercial states on the Uptown Girl website, it’s now available in Edmonton. Given the fact the brand is available in Alberta, there is a somewhat decent chance it will be available in Saskatchewan in the future.

I can see how one could perceive it as an aggressive marketing structure for a new ad campaign. Its target demographic is very specific, and it projects an image of self worth for that target. In short, Minhas knows who they’re going after. It’s that single, mid-twenties to early thirties urbanite female. Think “Sex and the City” girls, only instead of finding them sipping on cosmopolitans, they’re chugging a cold one.

Here’s the sales pitch: at 57 calories and 1.9 grams of carbs per bottle, it’s definitely cool to the last drop.

One way to cut down on calories with beer is to have less of the stuff. Minhas has done exactly that by offering Uptown Girl Beer in smaller quantities. Their bottles are 207ml, compared to your standard 331ml bottle. Granted, the soda-pop companies have been doing this sort of thing to reduce sugar intake from your average Joe Pop-Can for years, but HOW DARE you do this to my precious beer bottle.I’ve always believed that with fewer calories in beer, the closer you are to drinking water, so you might as well just have a tall glass of H2O, and call it a night. Ergo, you won’t be selling me any Uptown Girl Beer with a campaign for fewer calories.

I’m getting away from the point I want to make about why Uptown Girl Beer is good for the craft brewing business.

With names like “Cherry Belgian Red” and “Strawberry Blond Ale,” Minhas is giving a definitive demographic, whom I believe wouldn’t otherwise know these types of brews are around, a peek into the world of craft brewing.

As I’ve said before in previous articles, blending fruit and beer isn’t a new concept. Quite frankly, given the right Saturday afternoon, and the Sun has to be pointing in the right direction, but a strawberry blond ale can be very refreshing. Usually, blending beer with cherries results in a sour texture, so if you’re trying these out, be forewarned.

Uptown Girl Beer is selling their product to a select crowd, I am in full recognition of that, but I also think it’s a good idea from Minhas to have gone after that crowd.

I was able to perform a quick survey at my day job, targeting all the women in the office. All of whom fall within Minhas’ target audience with Uptown Girl Beer. The question I put to them was simple, I offered a look at the Uptown Girl website, and asked, “Would you try these beers?” Every girl in the office (I make it seem like I work with hoards of women, but really there are four of them) responded with a “yes, I would try that,” or something to that effect.

They now know that cherries and strawberries can coexist with beer and not just Vodka chillers.