Cavalier Distributing Earthquake Relief

Cavalier Distributing is donating $2 to a relief fund for every new email address added to their weekly newsletter. Cavalier is one of the two or three local distributors responsible for the great craft beer selection in the Miami Valley and their newsletters are always interesting and informative, so this is a can't miss. Here's the text of their release on the project:

Cavalier Distributing will donate $2.00 to tsunami relief efforts for every new subscriber to our email newsletter between now and March 25, 2011, up to $10,000. Please forward this message to fellow craft beer fans in Ohio to make this effort a success.

If you are receiving this email as a forwarded message, please click the following link to subscribe: Subscribe to Cavalier's Weekly Newsletter

Update: So far we have added 632 email addresses to our weekly newsletter. Please help get the word out so we can reach our goal of donating $10,000.

Technorati Tags: Calavier Distributing, Japan, tsunami, earthquake, beer, craft beer, brewing, homebrew

Fizzy Green Beer is for Wussies

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! The family is clad in green and the boys ate their customary green-dyed breakfasts (this year, it was Blarney Cereal, which is just regular cereal with green dye in the milk. Gross, but the kids love it).

Green dye is fun for the kids, but it has no place in beer. To avoid it, check out my alternatives to green-dyed Budmillercoors in this week's Dayton City Paper. All are good alternatives, but my personal favorites are Guinness Extra Stout (I know, obvious choice, but classics are classics for a reason) and Conway's Irish Ale from Great Lakes Brewing Company.

Technorati Tags: St. Patrick's Day, Murphy's, Guinness, Great Lakes, Heavy Seas, Wexford's, Saranac, Irish Stout, Irish Red, beer, craft beer, brewing

Lenten Beer

As a follow-up to my recent article about the connection between beer and food, here's a story of a newspaper editor who plans to emulate European monks by limiting himself to only beer and water for the 40 days of lent.

Technorati Tags:Lent, monks, Abbey ale, Trappist, food, beer, craft beer, brewing, homebrew

Beer and Food Pairings

I'm late in posting this due to an insanely busy week, but this week my article on beer and food pairings ran in the Dayton City Paper.

Big thanks to Gina, my wife, who took the photos. Only cost me take-out at Taqueria Mixteca and a chocolate torte (which the kids actually ate most of). There were two other photos that I really liked that didn't run, so I've posted them here. The cake one is my favorite.

News: Thai9 Tapping Cask Hopslam Tonight

Thai9, the Thai and Sushi restaurant with a great beer list in the Oregon district, is tapping a cask of Bell's Hopslam tonight. I'm told it's one of two such casks in Ohio. This is a great beer in bottles and on tap, so I can't wait to try to the cask version. Beer flows around 7ish tonight.

Also, Thai9 is part of the Dayton Growler Co-Op (although I'd be shocked if Hopslam is included), which, along with Trolley Stop, South Park Tavern, and Blind Bob's, allows customers to pick up and fill growlers to enjoy their favorite draft beers at home. Here's the link to Blind Bob's blurb about it, as well as an article with more details by Mark Fisher of the Dayton Daily News.

Technorati Tags: beer, brewing, craft beer, homebrew, Bell's Hopslam, Bell's Brewing, Hopslam, Thai9, Growler Co-Op, Blind Bob's, South Park Tavern, The Trolley Stop, Dayton, Ohio, cask ale

Critic's Pick: Chappy's Beer Club

Just a quick note that I've been meaning to post for several days now. I have another piece in the current edition of the Dayton City Paper (the 2/2 edition). It's just a quick Critic's Pick, but it highlights the Chappy's Beer Club. If you aren't familar with Chappy's Tap Room and Grille, they've got on of the best beer menus I've seen. Lots of great beers, but more importantly, lots of information about the various beers, so it's easy to find something that suits your mood.

Technorati Tags:beer, brewing, craft beer, Chappy's, Chappy's Tap Room and Grille, Beer club, Chappy's Beer Club, Dayton City Paper, Epicurean, beer, craft beer, brewing, homebrew

Published Beer Writer

I've made the seemingly backwards leap from digital to print and am now the monthly beer columnist for the Dayton City Paper, the local alt weekly (backwards because for many years, I worked with educational publishers, trying to push them from print to digital). My first column highlighted the joy of discovering great beer and the communal nature of beer-geekdom in the Miami Valley and featured quotes from two staples in the Dayton Craft Beer community, Mike Schwartz (owner of Belmont Party Supply and Miami Valley BrewTensils) and Joe Waizmann (founder of AleFest, Cask AleFest, and AleFeast).

One interesting aside that didn't make the article was a story that Mike Schwartz told me in my interview with him. I've always thought of Mike and his shop as an epicenter of craft beer but when Mike bought Belmont Party Supply back in the 80's, it was originally just the liquor store. In fact, at the time, Mike had pretty much stopped drinking beer. He was bored by the macro-lagers, which tasted terrible and left him feeling awful.

But it was Joe Waizmann who showed Mike the right direction. Joe was working for a local distributor and one day, he brought Mike a bottle of Old Peculiar, the legendary British Old Ale. Once that first sip passed his lips, Mike was a man transformed. Like a sinner who found religion, Mike's epiphany drove him to build out his craft beer temple, evangelizing to the hoards of unknowing masses, sharing the gospel of flavor and aroma.

Yet another example of one enthusiastic craft beer drinker sharing his discovery with another so that, as Mike notes, "we all grow together."


Technorati Tags: beer community, Dayton City Paper, beer, Old Peculiar, craft beer, Belmont Party Supply, AleFest