The Wake

Here’s a shameless plug for a magazine we worked on at the University of Minnesota’s School of Journalism and Mass Comm. In the battle of wine vs. beer, who wins? Head over to Digest Mag to find out.

Sometimes it seems like winos run the world; they even get better movies, à la Sideways. When you see beer in popular culture, it’s a bunch of frat boys doing keg stands or sad saps in sad bars. I don’t want a wine list longer than the Yellow Pages. Hand me a Surly, Fat Cat or Mothership and bring a few friends. That’s what makes me happy.

I’m from Cudahy, Wis., This little town lies in the shadows of one of the world’s largest breweries: Miller. That certainly isn’t an argument on beer’s side; in fact, it should …

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Schlitz is Back!

Milwaukee beers get a bad rap, but heck don’t most of the Ameircan mega-brews. Schlitz was once at the heart of Milwaukee’s brewing powerhouse. But don’t be worried, there’s plenty of brews still being brewed in my hometown and a lot of them aren’t half bad.

The “Beer that Made Milwaukee Famous” is back and I just happened to have seen a few sightings and tasted the original recipe not to long ago. No, they’re not returning to the 1849 recipe, which would be awesome, but they have returned to the “classic” 1960’s recipe. Now I know we’re going to have detractors from both sides. Some may call the beer utter crap, but I have to say it …

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Because I’m not that interested in writing today here is a history of why beer is great today and where it came from the New York Times.

Beer used to be easy: You were a Bud guy or Miller guy, maybe even a Schlitz or Ballantine guy. Not that it mattered much, since they tasted virtually the same.

But the days when American beer was all suds are long gone. In a great example of grass-roots renaissance, the American industry has been completely reborn in the last 30 years with the rise of craft beers. A trip to the deli can now offer some of the greatest beers in the world, characterized by freshness, vibrancy and depth of flavor.

Would you like an ale or lager? Brown ale? Red, golden, amber or pale? India pale? A porter …

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Here is a recent story the piqued my interest on NPR’s All Things Considered. It seems pretty crazy that some 87 years after the end of prohibition that there are such harsh laws still on the books. Then again everything is illegal in America. This is after all the land of political correctness. Anywho, listen to this great story at the link below and buy poor Dan a beer, he might even enjoy it.

Click on the link below to listen to the story.

Alabama Beer Drinkers Fight for Stronger Brews

Wilco recently played a five night stand at Chicago’s Riviera Theater. Rolling Stone recapped the career spanning shows and much to my chagrin, Wilco had Wisconsin’s own New Glarus backstage.

Pre-show, the band snacks on seafood curry and jasmine rice while roadies tap a keg of the hard-to-get Wisconsin microbrew New Glarus. (”We discovered it at a venue in Milwaukee,” says Stirratt.) Tweedy, who’s sipping sparkling water and munching chips, drives each night from his nearby home. And he’s saving his fitness routine for the road. “I’ll usually go for a hike or a run before the show,” he says. The tour, which wraps on March 9th, includes a stop at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma, one of Tweedy’s favorite venues. “It’s probably the only place that Bob Wills and the Sex Pistols both …

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As my computer seems to be in good shape now I can return to “real” life. I’m not sure if this guy has to much time on his hands or what, but who doesn’t want a beer launcher? Sir, my hat is off to you, you’re a gentleman and a scholar.

The Beer-Launching Refrigerator

I yearn for a time when we didn’t have computers or instant communication. I look back at a simpler time, while I look forward to a relaxing summer breeze. Damn Windows Vista and Final Cut Pro. I’m not sure what this has to do with beer, but I sure could use one. The past year has been full of great experiences (ie London, Summer in Minneapolis, New York, etc), but some kind of technological voodoo has been following me. First my brand new digital camera broke when I was in England, TWICE! Then I spilt tea on my six month old laptop and a few months later the culprit was my fancy dancy cell phone. It’s like I’m running on a treadmill and getting nowhere. Fix one problem and bam, there’s another.

You may be …

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Reading an article over at MinnPost a few minutes ago reminded me of a disturbing trend in the brew business in the last few years that has gained some momentum recently. MinnPost’s Mark Neuzil covered the move of large multinationals buying out smaller “green” companies. In this case it was Clorox’s (nothing says natural like the fresh scent of Clorox Bleach) move to buyout Burt’s Bees. As Mark mentions later, many of these companies “forget” to mention who owns them. In one case “Anheuser Busch created a subsidiary, the Green Valley Brewing Co., to sell two organic beers, Stone Mill Organic Pale Ale and Wild Hop Organic Lager, that don’t mention the A-B name on the label but do at the websites.” Let me say that cooption isn’t the worst thing possible, …

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Though it would be nice to drink a beer at the movies, we all know that movie theaters are for popcorn and candy. Monstrous popcorn, with imitation butter, truly beautiful stuff. Any who, for those of you who didn’t know, I see myself as a sort of a film buff. This past week my little lady and I were watching the stupendous Badlands.

Photo by Colin Tuska

I had always heard good things about Terrence Malick’s 1973 masterpiece, but who knew it was so weird. A strange and wonderful film, something amazing showed up halfway through: Grain Belt’s Premium. I actually ended up drinking a few of these this weekend and I really think its one of the better …

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So I was looking around this here interweb and I decided to search for beer videos on YouTube. I thought that I was going to find some beer commercials, which I did, but this is far better. So we all like Legos, in fact some people love Legos. Others out there love beer. So this for all of you out there.

Lego Beer Song

In other news I drank a margarita tonight, which in The Blaggers world might be sacrilegious. It was seriously huge and seriously $7. Not bad for a boat load of liquor. The girlfriend and I decided to go out for the greatest holiday of the year, Valentines Day, and we ended up at a Tacos Morelos off of Eat …

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A nice Weisse

As my cat licks his tongue across a damp window, I’m reminded of the precious things in life and a simpler time. When was this time you ask?

My answer is sweet and simple: Miller Time™. Yes I am indeed a Milwaukee native, born in the Brew City and bred just outside the city borders. Yes, my hometown, Cudahy, enjoys drinking. And who wouldn’t when you are small industrial town on Lake Michigan. In fact at one point in time, it is said that Cudahy was renowned for having the most bars per capita in the entire world, an honor that put this little city on the map and into the hollowed pages of the Guinness Book of World Records …

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