Don’t worry, the Beer Blog hasn’t gone all porno on you. The unfortunate turn of phrase that titles this entry doesn’t refer to anything untoward – and shame on you for thinking it did! – but rather, it’s the slogan for a new kind of lip balm, produced by our friends at that craft beer canning Colorado brewery, Oskar Blues, and containing their malty Scottish ale, Old Chub. (more…)

Okay, bear with me here. Because to understand what follows, first I’m going to have to fill you in on the utter strangeness of how beer is sold in my home province of Ontario. (Ontarians, feel free to skip directly to paragraph three.) (more…)

The last, for now, at least, in our series exploding beer mythology:

Myth #16 – The (Imported Brand) We Drink Here Isn’t the Same as What They Get in its Home Country

How this myth became so pervasive and enduring is quite beyond me, since it runs so obviously opposite to all business logic. I mean, really, why would a brewery jeopardize its reputation and endure the hassle of brewing a separate beer for foreign markets, particularly when ingredient costs are a relatively small brewing expense? Answer: They wouldn’t, and don’t. So the draught Guinness, bottled Becks and canned Pilsner Urqell we get in North America is exactly the same as what is sold by the brewery domestically, just slightly less fresh for its journey. (Exceptions to this myth are brands like bottled Guinness and canned Sapporo, which are produced under license on this continent and so by definition differ at least marginally from what is brewed by those companies in their respective home nations.) (more…)

I closed out this past September in Denver, Colorado, as I have a habit of doing every couple of years or so. Because, you see, autumn in Denver is Great American Beer Festival time, and regardless of what else you might think about the acknowledged “largest beer festival in the world,” there is simply no better occasion in which to grab a snapshot of the U.S. brewing industry. (more…)

And still more beer mythology:

Myth #11 – Fruit Beers Are “Girly Beers”

Get it straight: Hops only started being used in brewing about 1,000 to 1,200 years ago. Up until then, for at least five millennia, beer was flavoured with a wide variety of spices, herbs and, yes, fruits. In fact, archeological research has shown that King Tut drank fruit beer, and he was one dude you could hardly consider “girly.” (more…)

More common misconceptions about beer…

Myth #6 – Cold-Filtering

Here’s one from the marketing geniuses behind the big breweries. Simply, all beer is cold-filtered, since only a fool would run their beer through a “hot filter,” even if such a thing did exist in a brewery. What the use of this phrase is really saying, usually, is that the beer is not pasteurized, as are many of the world’s biggest selling brands. (more…)