
Beer Selection - Podcast 8
We had a wide range of beers for podcast #8 in honor of our guest this week Dr. Dre. It turned out Dr. Dre was not the rap mogul of NWA and headphone fame, but a sharp witted physics post-doc who had some very funny things to say in response to Dan's very pointed interview questions. Anyway first on our list of beers was another Lost Abbey beer Lost and Found. This was bit darker and a bit stronger (8% ABV -- alcohol by volume). My take on the beer was again "It's good". Actually I'm getting the idea that I'm not such a big fan of Belgian style beers. But anyway according to the official description there's some hint of cocoa, raisins and banana tones or other gum esters. Maybe, just maybe, I got the cocoa but as for the rest ... anyway it was a good beer. Oh and I noticed that each beer has a back story to it. For example, for Lost and Found we are told "He pauses to inhale the aroma of figs and dried fruit that remind him of the orchard near the west walls of the abbey grounds. He sips the liquid bread contemplating the balance of sweet malts and a nutty dry finish. ..." and it goes on like this but you get the idea. Anyway I want this guys job i.e. the one who writes this beer porn description. For the full story you can go to
http://lostabbey.com/beer/lost-and-found-abbey-ale/
The next beer was from the Alaskan Brewing Company in Juneau Alaska Alaskan Amber. The website lists this as an "Alt" style of amber (alt meaning old in German) this beer was voted "best beer in the nation" in 1988 but not sure who voted it best beer. It was OK. Despite my mocking of the Lost Abbey flowery descriptions of their beers I thought the Lost and Found was better. I was the one that brought the Alaskan Amber and this was based on having sampled their seasonal winter ale which was brewed with spruce tips and did have a piney flavor which I liked (hmm... beer and Pine-sol -- no actually the winter ale is good and interesting). Nothing really wrong with the Alaskan Amber but I guess based on their winter ale I expected something more unique.
http://www.alaskanbeer.com/our-brew/year-round-beers/amber.html
My favorite beer of the night was the Radeberger which Dan brought. This is a German pilsner and the fact that I was born in Germany did not at all color my judgement in this matter. Radeberger has a list of famous people who claim it as their favorite beer. Otto von Bismarck (first chancellor of Germany) liked it so much he elevated it to "Kanzler-Bräu" (chancellor brew) in 1887. During the splitting of Germany into East and West Radeberger brewery was run by the communist East German government. A young Vladimir Putin apparently favored Radeberger when he was a new KGB agent on assignment in Dresden in the 1980s. In fact it was rumored Mr. Putin used to practice walking shirtless and flexing while enjoying a Radeberger. You can find out more about this awesome beer at http://www.radeberger.com/
There were two other beers on this podcast, but I've got papers to grade and these other beers -- Stella Artois and Fire Rock a pale ale from Kona Brewing in Hawaii (so we had two beers from the non-contiguous states in the US, Hawaii and Alaska) -- are more commonly found in the supermarket where we shop so we'll have these again at which point I should be less lazy and write something about these beers.