Uno's Announces May Beer Dinner

Uno's brewer Mike Sella has announced that the next Uno's Beer dinner will take place on Monday, May 19 at 7 PM. A measly $45 gets you an outstanding six-course meal, a nice selection of beers to accompany each course and the witty repartee of yours truly.

It's always a night of great fun, food and fellowship, so contact a bartender at Uno's, plunk down the ridiculously low ticket price and set May 19 aside. Bring a friend or a significant other and enjoy a relaxed night out.

Good Food, Good Beer, Good People!

It’s almost THAT time again…

Project Graduation? Try Project Education

   
 

June is graduation time for high schools throughout the country. To counter what some parents fear is a night of unfettered revelry, Project Graduation, usually organized by a group of caring and concerned parents, is designed to allow graduates to celebrate their graduation night in a controlled, alcohol and drug-free setting. 

 

To its credit, Project Graduation does what it was designed to do: keep the children alive. 

 

For one night anyway. 

 

What happens the next night, and the nights thereafter (like those in college), when the party urge is still there, but there is no controlled environment? 

The answer? Tragedies, usually. Some are immediate and some don't happen until months or even years later. The reasons for the tragedies are many, but principal among them is what our society teaches its youth about alcohol--and especially about beer. 

 

While wine coolers and malternatives (like Zima, hard lemonade and hard cola) are also frequently abused, the beverage of choice seems to be beer. Few high school or middle school kids would strap a funnel to their heads that was loaded with Smirnoff Ice. 

 
 

No, the main propellant in party fuels seems to be Bud, Miller, Coors, Corona, et al. And when their parents and nearly everyone else in authority tells them not to do it, you have a recipe for guaranteed abuse. 

 

We have made beer, an ancient, nutritious beverage, taboo rather than an adjunct to our lives. Regulation of the use of beer is absolutely essential; regulation does not mean abstention, but that's what we've been saying to young people for generations.

 
 

The effects of that policy are evident in the headlines--and obituaries--of our newspapers. No one denies that abuse of beer or other alcohol has negative consequences. How, then, to educate against its abuse while accepting the many benefits beer can provide?

 
 

We are simply not educating American young people about the proper purpose and use of alcohol. Their ignorance of proper alcohol use compels us to initiate things like Project Graduation. Perhaps if we took a different tack--from very early on in youth-- a Project Education, if you will, we could obviate the need for one-night, stopgap measures like Project Graduation, which, for all its success, is simply a temporary feel-good measure.

 
 

In Belgium, for example, where beer occupies a status much as wine does in France, young school children are given beer during their recesses instead of milk. To be sure, it's not a strong alcohol beer. In fact, it's usually around three or four percent, but it is beer and it is far more nutritious than milk. More importantly, its distribution by the authorities is a clear message that beer has a legitimate place in society. That's an important lesson for youth to learn, and it's not one that American youth are usually taught.

 
 

Telling youth to "Just Say No" means all beer use is by definition illicit. Perhaps that is why most Europeans, especially those who have grown up with wine and beer readily available "en tabella" (on the table), see alcoholic beverage as an accompaniment to meals rather than as an illicit drug designed to encourage--and excuse-- asinine and often dangerous behavior.

 
 

Beer has a 6000 year written history of being used as a social lubricant and as an important part of celebrations. Very likely, it was used that way before writing was even invented. Like it or not, graduation falls under the heading of celebration. No responsible person suggests that kids be permitted to celebrate with booze in an unsupervised setting, but that's what they're doing after Project Graduation is over.

 
 

Rather than send their progeny to the seaside for an unsupervised weekend binge (hoping against hope that they'll do the right thing), wouldn't parents be better off to have taught them at an early age what beer is for, how to enjoy it, and when to say when? Hoping they do the right thing at least has a better chance that way. 

 
 

American culture waits until the magical age of twenty-one to say that beer is OK, which guarantees nothing beyond taking the excitement out of procuring and drinking beer, unless you count procuring it for underage drinkers. It would be far better that children learn about the pleasures, benefits and dangers of alcohol from their parents (who may need to be re-educated themselves) or responsible adults, rather than by watching and laughing at their buddies' antics after downing a case of Milwaukee's Best in a half hour.

 
 

Simply put, America needs to rethink its approach, because the one we're using has failed. Does that mean that we should substitute beer for milk at every American elementary school? No--at least--not yet. For one thing most people would say beer doesn't go as well as milk with cookies. But that's only because they don't know that there are beers that go very well indeed with cookies.

 
 

Like our funnel-headed adolescents, these folks need Project Education, too. It's time to move from "Just say No" to "Just say KNOW." 

 
 

Hjunottsmanathr

After my recent delightful surprise with AB's Bareknuckle Stout, I guess I was feeling adventurous. So when I saw a new Blue Moon beer on the shelf called "Honeymoon," I figured it might be worth a try. Oh, I knew that Blue Moon (not a bad beer, IMHO) was a Coors product, but I was game. And thirsty. So I picked up a sixer. The bottle says that it's a "classic Summer ale made even better with real clover honey, fresh orange peel and both pale and white wheat malts."

My studies in Norse lit revealed an interesting origin for the word "honeymoon,"  In a nutshell, the word derived from the ritual use of mead (honey-based) by newlyweds for a month--supposedly right after the bride was kidnapped, but before her family stopped looking for her. (Hey, "sensitivity" is not a word usually associated with the Vikings.) Anyway, the newly weds supposedly drank large amounts of mead and did whatever such consumption led to (use your imaginations here, or recall your college days) for a month. Thus "honeymonth" or hjunottsmanathr came into being. Though there are several etymological explanations for the word, they're not as cool as this one.

But I digress. The beer, brewed in Canada by BMBC and imported by Coors, is actually a very decent summer ale. Pale yellow, almost straw-like, the beer is light and refreshing. The honey is not cloyingly sweet, nor does the orange peel dominate the palate. Both flavors kind of "dance" through the mouth and nose, and, interestingly, the beer improves with each swallow. While it could qualify as a "Lawnmower" beer (drunk greedily after a mowing session on a hot summer afternoon) it actually deserves more attention. Tasting, rather than slugging, can bring nice rewards with Honeymoon. Kind of like a Viking bridegroom taking some time with his kidnapped wife rather than doing the old wham-bam.

I pulled out some Meier's multigrain crackers--the big suckers--and spread some of the missus' newly made tunafish salad on them. Voila! The beer and the food made a perfect pair, kind of like those Viking newlyweds on holiday.

Wouldn't be a bad choice for newlyweds to have this at their nuptial celebration, IMHO.

Blue Moon Honeymoon Summer Ale is worth your time. Just be gentle.

Quiz

April 7, 1933--a date which will live in infamy (if you were a member of the WCTU or the Anti-Saloon League)-- marked the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition--but only for beer. Other liquors got their freedom about eight months later.

OK, so today is April 8. But I say better to celebrate a day later than never. And just to see if you're up to snuff history-wise, click below for a comprehensive Prohibition Quiz. The PubScout will be the tester and you will be the, um, testees. And while you're testing, have a glass of your favorite brew, say a silent "Thanks" to Herbert Hoover and all those who worked to allow you to have that brew--legally, of course.

Cheers!

 

Quiz

That's Dr. PubScout to you, pal!

Congratulations are in order, dear readers, for me. After many years of arduous study and heart-wrenching self-sacrifice, I have obtained my Doctoral Degree, (Thank you, thank you!)

Now before you get all verklempt in your unbridled joy at my achievement, let me explain. My doctorate is not in medicine, philosophy or even education. It's in "Stoutology."

Yes, Stoutology. And what it means is that I know my stouts. Here's the story of how I got there.

The missus and I stopped for brunch at a roadside diner on Rt. 1 in Edison called the Skylark Diner. Though the design and the decor make it look like it's right out of the old Jetsons TV show, the food was very good and pretty reasonable, too.

And it has a bar.

And on the bar was a taphandle, among others, that said Bareknuckle Stout. It was a unique looking taphandle, so I ordered a pint with my breakfast of Virginia Ham and eggs. I watched it come from the tap and it poured like Guinness does out of a nitro-tap or when you empty one of those cans with the nitrogen widgets in it. Reverse bubble flow and all that, you know. Looked pretty appealing.

Tasted pretty good, too, even before the sweet ham. Nice, smooth, rich mouthfeel, decent nose and black as pitch (once it settled) with a creamy off-white head about a finger and a half high. It got better as it warmed, too.

But--call me ill-informed-- I hadn't heard of it before, so I resolved to look it up when I came home, because, while it wasn't Mackeson's Triple X or Lancaster Milk Stout, it was definitely very drinkable.

As Gomer Pyle would say, "Surprahz, suprahz!

It's made by Anheuser-Busch in Merrimack, NH. And it only comes from a tap, according to its blurbs.

Anyway, my research led me to the site below. Click on it, enter your birthdate and then a picture and some Lounge Lizard music will come on. Click on the group of people on the far right sitting at the bar, and take the final exam to see if you can get your Doctorate in Stoutology. I didn't miss a question. How about you?

If you get your doctorate, I'll buy you a Bareknuckle Stout at the Skylark someday. Go anytime. Just wait for me there.

(Hint: you might do better on the test if you click on the group of people on the far left of the scene first.)

Cheers!

 

Bare Knuckle Stout

McGillin's Olde Ale House

My friends at McGillin's (nee The Bell in Hand) are celebrating a special anniversary--a 75th--in honor of the repeal of Prohibition. While you never need an excuse to go to this classic pub, keep in mind that your taxes are due a week later....

 

McGillin’s Olde Ale House threw open its doors the year Lincoln was elected president. That’s shortly after the Liberty Bell cracked and long before ground was broken for Philadelphia City Hall. The beer taps have been flowing since 1860 -- making it the oldest continuously operating tavern in Philadelphia. It has outlasted Strawbridge’s, the Civil War and even Prohibition.
What’s the secret? McGillin’s has become just like the fictional “Cheers”- with comraderie, good food at a reasonable price and the best selection of local & regional beers on tap.

Prohibition Repealed -- Join us for 75th Anniversary party on Mon, April 7.

Trip to Ireland - Join us for a 7-day adventure in the Emerald Isle. Our longest road trip ever!

McGillin's Olde Ale House

Beer Trivia: Test your Beer Knowledge - AOL Food

Think you know your beer facts? Many answers may surprise you!

Click the link below!  Happy Easter! Cheers!

 

Beer Trivia: Test your Beer Knowledge - AOL Food