"Summer is no time to fuss with the petty details of wine"

One of the best things about Malt Advocate becoming part of M.Shanken Communications is that I got a comped subscription to Wine Spectator. I'm learning a lot about wine, and a lot about magazine design, too.

But one thing I learned pretty quickly was to turn to Matt Kramer's column first, and the latest issue was no disappointment. That quote in the title of this post was the takehome for me, and it applies equally to beer or whiskey. Dude. It's summer, we're out on the deck, it's either the weekend or one's coming. Relax and enjoy. Or as Kramer said, "Even I, a professional wine obsessive, find myself during the warm summer season saying, well, to hell with it..." Yup.

So I present my own version of his points.  

• Rediscover pale ale. Sierra Nevada, or the new ones from Victory or Left Hand. Pale Ale is a drinker, not a thinker, and still great cold. Best of all, at around 5-6%, it's still big-glass beer. Yeah.
• Summer beers have returned. After being off the radar for a few years -- why? I don't really know, maybe brewers catching their breaths -- summer beers are back in a big way. Try that Citra-spiked Narragansett Summer in the big blue can, or the Stoudt's Kolsch, or whatever your local brewpub's got that's light and frisky. 
• Hefeweizen! The summer beer that never, ever goes out of style. Don't want to go to the trouble of washing those big weissbier glasses? You're absolved, my child: go forth and pour hefe into any good beer glass you want. Want/don't want a lemon slice? Do as you please, and don't let anyone tell you different.
• Try something new. There are always beers out there you've never had, whole styles of beer you've never tried -- or liked, and maybe this is the time to give it a shot. Go to a bar, saddle up, and grab a new handle. You're out, you're drinking beer, you're having fun. 
• Relax. This ain't no time to argue. It's time to enjoy. Grill. Chill. Tip a few.

Sound good? Indeed. Just don't remind me of this when something pisses me off in July and I start ranting!

Magic Hat Single Chair

"Golden Beer," it says on the Single Chair label, and I'm thinking, well, this is as about as exciting as it's gonna get. Truth be told, Single Chair is pretty light, but it might just be the ticket to get Uncle Freddy up Beer Mountain. Because the first sip is pretty tame, but by the second one, you're starting to realize that there's a twitchy zip of bitterness in there that you maybe missed the first time around. I'd have liked a bit more body, but it's not all bad. Give me a hot day, and I'd finish a couple of these. They're anchoring Magic Hat's summer assortment 12-pack, and it's worth it just to get to the Blind Faith IPA (do you remember Blind Faith? I sure do).

Hey! I'm alive, and I'm having a drink. You should, too.

It's been nuts around here. In the middle of trying to get caught up after the earlier events of the month -- about six stories (13,000 words), editing the proofs of PA Breweries 4, and wrapping up the next issue of Malt Advocate -- I went to Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans (and I'll get something up on that) last week and we took Thomas up to Boston University for orientation over the past three days (yesterday was a marathon: a big "Albanian omelette" at Victor's Diner in Watertown, four hours of orientation wrap-up at BU, then about 500 miles of driving to get around traffic, pick up Nora and the dogs in Lancaster, and home again about 11 PM). This morning Cathy and I went over to the Delaware River, turned off our cell phones, and rode fifteen miles of trail, then went to the Newtown Farmer's Market and got some good eats, and then I came home and took the dogs for a half hour walk (Maud's exercise program, and she's doing well).

So I think I've earned a drink. I built a big one of Jack Daniel's Single Barrel and ginger ale, with a lot of ice for the heat. It's tasting pretty damned good; not as sticky as Jack and Coke, but while the ginger ale is spicy, it doesn't overwhelm the whiskey. I just did a whiskey story for Massachusetts Beverage Business (it's coming out in September; my "What's Hot in Beer" piece will probably up tomorrow, including a sidebar on session beer and nanobreweries), and the JD folks told me that Jack and Ginger is the drink they're pushing: more appeal to women (not sure why), and more upscaling options: ginger ale, or Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, or muddled fresh ginger. I'll have to try the fresh ginger option...

Five Summer Beers video

After the way CBS screwed the pooch with their silly "Five Best Beers Made in America" poof piece (as I commented on FaceBook, "I have not seen this clueless a set of comments about beer from a wine person in years. I really thought we were making progress...clearly I was wrong."), I opened a link to a TIME magazine video about "Five Beers To Try This Summer" with some trepidation. I was pleasantly surprised: this is so much better than the CBS coprolite I can't even quantify it. Have a look; nicely done.

Spring Tonic

I know you're all waiting on several things, and I will get to them, but...something else first. Back in January I got a box of samples from Fentimans: non-alcoholic, naturally flavored soft drinks. We tried them -- the Curiosity Cola (quite different), the Dandelion and Burdock (not pleasant, I'm afraid, kind of like bubble gum and meat), the Ginger Beer (good, but there are others just as good for less money), and the Victorian Lemonade (meh...but more on that later). There was a bottle of Tonic, but it was hardly G and T weather, so we put it aside. I didn't blog on them, because unless something's spectacularly bad, I don't generally blog on things that are so-so.

Then it warmed up, and I asked Cathy if she felt like a gin and tonic, her preferred hot-weather tipple. I sliced up a lime, cracked some ice, poured in a measure of Burnett's Gin (which alternates with Gordon's as our house gin), and fizzed in the Fentimans Tonic. Cazart! What an awesome drink...and look, we buy Burnett's because it's good (and quite reasonable in price), not because it's wonderful, but this stuff took Burnett's by the hand and led it to the promised land. What a fricking zing in a glass. Then I tried some gin in the Victorian Lemonade: we split on that one, I loved it, Cathy hated it. Try that yourself, but I think I may have to try some of that Schweppe's Bitter Lemon stuff.

We're finding more Fentimans. I suggest you do likewise, before Memorial Day and the traditional start of the G and T season.