Reinheitsgebot be Damned

As far as I am concerned, the Reinheitsgebot, or the "German Beer Purity Law", can go take a hike.

The law, first presented in the late 1400’s, but actually becoming Bavarian law in 1516, states that beer can only contain three ingredients: Water, Barley, and Hops.  Keep in mind, that at that time, no one knew anything about yeast. Until Louis Pasteur (yes, that Louis Pasteur) discovered that yeast made beer. Then of course, they added that and made it four ingredients: Water, Barley, and Hops, and yeast.  Don’t you get the feeling that Louis Pasteur would have been cool to know back then?  Maybe sit down and have a beer with him.

The law was an early example government making laws that said one thing, but REALY only wanted a completely other thing.  This is similar to laws in states that say they just want to enforce the existing law, but they REALY means, “GO WAY! Your different to me and that scares me!”.  Sorry, I digress.  Twitter shortens my attention span.

The law came about, to a large degree, because bakers complained that the brewers were coming in and using their primary ingredients, wheat and rye, and that this was raising the prices of those ingredients. So, in order to keep the costs low, they convinced the Bavarian Government pass a law this law, effectively making it illegal for brewers to use those ingredients.

Fortunately, that law was regional, is no longer in place and many brewers have not limited themselves to the Reinheitsgebot.

Case in point, I just had a wonderful Chocolate Stout that would not have been within Reinheitsgebot guidelines.  I mean, chocolate in beer?  Really?

But this example was a vey good tasting beer.  Not overpowering  with its chocolate, just enough to give a cocoa hint on the finish.  I can’t tell you what brand of beer that it was, because it was a home brewed beer, made by an friend . But, it stood up to comparison with most commercial beers.  There are a few commercial Chocolate Stouts on the market.  But, it can be confusing.  Traditionally, Chocolate Stout just referred to the color of the beer and a chocolaty flavor that it gets from the dark roasted barley.  But, there are some, like this one, which are very good and actually add a few chocolate nibs to the brew too.  Rogue Ales Brewery in Ashland, Oregon has a very tasty one.  I recommend it.

Sometimes legal constraints on ingredients or process are there for good reasons, like safety or tradition.  Sometimes, they force the brewer to work within a framework and push them to use their skill to use what they have and still have a great result.  Like a Haiku for Beer.  But, it is always refreshing to try a good beer that makes judicious use of selective adjuncts.  Like that hint of paprika on an excellent Benedict, or the suggestion of saffron to a rice and shrimp, a touch of a nice complimentary ingredient takes it to the next level.  Specialty components of a non-Reinheitsgebot mix it up a little bit

Go out and find some non-Reinheitsgebot beers.  Maybe a Coffee Stout, or an Apricot Ale, or a Cherry Lambic ale.  Go wild, share with a friend.  Share with me?  Or, at least comment back on what you tried and what you think of it.

Cheers.

Spring Morning Visitors

Drinking my coffee on the porch this morning, watching the red tails hawks glide in the spring sun.  Suddenly, a humming bird became extremely interested in my face.  He darted back and forth, about 12 inches away from my eyes for maybe 30 seconds.  I was afraid he was going to check for nectar.  After he flew off, I retrieved my camera and returned.  So did he.

Old World Spirits, New World business plans

This ain't your fathers gin.

Close your eyes and picture a successful distillery and maker of fine spirits. If you see, in your minds eye, a huge distillery/factory that churns out gallons and gallons of well drinks, you missed the part where I said "Fine" spirits.   If you are picturing a large copper still, nestled in a stone and brick building, surrounded by fields of grain the for mash or rolling vineyards for the brandy, well, your still not picturing the new breed of distillery.

In the 80’s, the beer brewing industry started a mini-revolution.  And, I do mean “Mini”.  It seemed that there was a microbrewery popping up in warehouses and industrial parts all over California.  Then, in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, the wine industry saw that model working, and we started seeing little urban wineries appearing in metropolitan areas and small industrial rental complexes.  Places like the “Wine Ghetto” in Lompoc showed that you could, quietly, simply and on a small scale, without all of the traditional trappings of appearance, turn out world class wines.

Now, here we are in the bold new world of the micro urban distillery. A good idea can not be kept down. Hold on I have seen the future, and it is good.

While visiting a favorite urban brewery last nigh, I found a steel roll-up door open on one of the units.  A sign outside said there was a tasting going on, and once inside, there was a tasting counter next to a small, beautiful, copper and steel still.  Welcome to the future, it is here. iPods and Laptops aren’t the only thinks that are getting smaller and better.

Old World Spirits in Belmont, has an ambitious selection of brandies, gin, a couple of absinthes, and a delicious black walnut liquor.  The owner/master distiller Davorin Kuchan comes from a family of distillers and he is doing a great job in continuing the family trade and trade.

All of his spirits are made with local products.  The base ethanol for his brandies are all distilled from northern California Zinfandel.  His peaches are from central valley heirloom peaches.

His gin, only available at a local shop, is fine, botanical, herbal and citrusy with a little hint of cilantro.

His two absinthes are both superb, and both very different from each other.  One, is more traditional, anise and wormwood, citrus, and a natural sweetness of aroma.  The other, with similar flavors, just kicked up a couple clicks.  A 1:4 louche brings out the color and texture and makes and puts a bloom on a fantastic drink.

If you want to treat yourself to some of these fine spirits and see what expertise and passion can create, visit their website and find where you can try some for yourself.  http://www.oldworldspirits.com

I will be adding more to our home cabinet.

My Day with the Tea Partiers

Today I stopped by a Tax Day Tea Party rally. That may surprise people who know me. But it won't surprise people who know me well.

The whole Tea Party movement has been interesting to me. I can see where they are coming from. The economy has been bad. People in position of economic power have have been taking advantage of their position and politicians have been complicit, probably to an ethically questionable degree, enabling it. But, probably most significantly, we hear constantly how the government is screwing the public. This isn't new, but it has gone from a rumble to a roar.









The public is being taken advantage of here, but it isn't the government who is perpetuating the con. The phrase "Follow the Money" was tossed around a lot at the rally. Ironic, since that was the phrase that led to the domino chain of events and ultimate downfall of a Republican president. But, who is benefiting financially from this current outrage? Who benefits from the bubbling discontent and conspiracy innuendo? When it seems to be waning, who comes in to rabble rouse it back up? Stir the Pot? Raise awareness? Well, here is a clue.

How did you hear about these rallies? These "Grass Roots" rallies. I heard about them on the radio, conservative radio that I listen to. In fact, last week I heard it discussed so much on a local conservative radio station that I had to check it out. It was easy to do, all the information about the rallies were on the radio station's website. With banner ads no less. Glad I was able to help their bottom line with my click throughs. We know how hard media is struggling for advertising dollars. I hope my mouse clicks and page loads brought in a bit more advertising dollars from those tax attorney and gold sale advertisers on those pages.


How involved was this radio station in this "Grass Roots" event? Well the master of ceremony for the event was one of their radio personalities. The station's booth, handing out Tea Party signs, banners and stickers (with the stations call letters conveniently printed on them), as well as hocking and raffling off another one of their personality's Global Warming denier book was practically part of the stage. The sound crew and equipment looked like it was coordinated by, if not provided by the station. It was obvious, the purpose of the crew here, was to take advantage of an energetic public to keep them as the station of choice.



The crowd was substantial in size, probably between 400 and 600 people. It is hard to say exactly how many people are die hard Tea Party minions, and how many were any number of people with other motivations, but I would estimate that 200 people there were truly committed to the cause. Although, listening to them, only half of those would be able to tell you what the cause was beyond what their signs said. Easily half the crowd was there to just see what this was all about. And, there was a vocal group of counter protesters there, purely to disrupt.
Let me talk about the counter protesters for a bit, because I think this is representative of many counter protests on both sides. Sure, I think it is great to get your opinions out there. God bless American and Freedom of Speech. But, you may be hurting your own cause more than helping it.









Some of the counter protesters were encouraged by anti-Tea Party websites, to make fake signs, pose as Tea Party caricatures, and try to get their pictures in the media to exaggerate the fringe elements that make up this or any group. Well guys, you attempts are backfiring. Eventually you are diluting the fringe that you are trying to expose. Now, when you see a sign with something as stupid as saying that Obama is a Muslim, or a Marxist, or that he is a brother of Osama Bin Laden, you have to wonder if it is a real idiot, or someone just posing as one. And, you can pretty much guarantee that the only people with misspelling on their signs are the ones making signs to pretend that they are real ones.

Sure, there was some unsettling or even disturbing things I saw today. Like the college student speaker who was wearing what looked like a 8mm riffle round on a chain around his neck like a rosary. I am not saying he was clinging to it, just wearing it like a religious symbol.

I think the most bizarre behavior I saw came whenever (and I do mean whenever) anyone on stage mentioned the name Reagan, which happened a lot. Whenever a speaker would invoke the name Reagan, the crowd would clap, some one stand up, I heard a couple of "Amen"s and one time, I swear, it seemed like the entire park was going to break into a baseball game crowd WAVE.

If you were to take away the counter protesters, take away the opportunistic publicity seekers and rabble rousers, the curious observers, the large number of police officers on foot, bike and horseback, the people running for office with their vote-for-me buttons and fliers, the people just hanging out, and the many many children dragged there en-tow by their parents as props, and the media (who I am sure we will hear ignored the whole event, even though there were satellite trucks and camera people). If we take away all those people, we would be left with the essence of the Tea Partiers.

This core group, seemed to me to best be described as scared. And maybe for good reason. They seemed to be scared for a number of reasons. One, they have been lied to. Lied to by politicization who they elected into office to do something for them, and instead, just did things for themselves. Two, they have seen the America they thought they understood, one with a dream for everyone, dissolve into a pile of unemployment, financial corruption and government assisted or complacent bubbles and collapse fiascoes. And, they have been lied to by media clowns, feeding them phrases which wind up on banners and signs, like Osama Bin Lying and Progressive = Socialism.

I can't completely discount their cause here. I feel it too. But, the show I saw today, other than the small group that really cares about what happens. The group that probably represents the core of what the Tea Parties originally stood for. I saw these people being used to get an audience for an agenda that I find disturbing and predatory.

Thanks Tea Partiers for the Rally today. I got a lot out of it. Keep up the pressure for a responsive government, but be sure to make sure you are furthering your cause, and not that of a group who just wants to keep their audience calling in to the talk shows.



Oh, and by the way. Just because someone in the crowd grabs a sign that has KSFO and Taxed Enough Already on it from the HUGE pile next to the stage, that doesn't mean you should let him just wander up on stage with the scheduled speakers.

Remember. The media will use you, and it isn't always the particular media you think is doing it.

Apparently, I wasn't ready for 2010

My last blog entry was all about being done with 2009, ready for 2010, and not feeling the need to set any New Years resolutions. I felt that I was ready to tackle 2010 head on and be so completely productive that the World would be my oyster .

Well, judging by the fact that it has been 35 days since that post, and my first entry since then is this one, describing how I have not posted anything, I would have to say that 2010 might need a reboot f0r me.

It has not been a complete loss. A few things have happened that have expanded my horizons, challenged by beliefs, taught me new things, or just tickled my fancy. I have just about finished my first significant application for a new phone platform (and, I have to say, Android ROCKS!) I have found that having a new, 16 year old driver in the house shakes things up quite a bit, and I do mean shake. I finally got those olive trees I have been wanting to try. We will see if I follow though with experiments in curing and/or olive oil over the next couple harvests. And, of course, the new composting experiment we have started. I think a 120 gallon compost digester might prove to be a little small, but we will see.

In any case, I am officially calling a "DO OVER" on the whole New Years thing. Maybe I will even make it official, pick up a bottle of a nice California sparkling wine, and toast the new year, albeit 5 weeks in.

Who's with me? HAPPY NEW YEAR(ish)!!!

2009 was a full year. Now I am ready for 2010

I was looking back over my end of year post last year. (blog post) It listed things that I accomplished, things I failed to accomplish, and a bunch of things that didn’t really fit into either category.  After looking over last year and comparing it to this year, I realize that they could almost me the same year!

Sure, there have been a few extra things accomplished over the last year, most of them go into the filler category.  This year has been sort of a holding pattern with a few, very notable exceptions.

I had my 30 year high school reunion this year.  That wasn’t a big milestone for me but it reintroduced me to many of my friends from my formative years.  I have got to say: the women of the Indio High class of 79 have aged like fine wine.  We men, well lets just say that we are lagging behind the women of our class.

2009 was the year one of my kids attained their driver’s license.  Now, that is a milestone.  All of a sudden, you as a parent realize what they as your child has known for a few years.  That you are becoming obsolete.  No longer are you required for them to conduct their daily lives and routines.  Sure, you still need to put gas into the car in order for it to have more that 1/93 of a tank, but you certainly are not expected to be seen in public with them anymore.  That tether is severed for good.

The other child, it has become obvious, is no longer a child at all, but actually a young adult.  OK, not quite a young adult yet, with all the baggage and responsibilities that  come with that.  But, over the last year, I have started to realize that the time I have with them here, under my roof, able to sit with them and chat about their daily lives whenever I want to, is approaching an end. 

Soon, they will be heading off to college, facing the larger world and making their marks on it.  This year is the year that this has become apparent to me as more than something that will eventually happen, but as something that is getting closer to happening.

Also this year, the economy completed it’s triple back-flip. Other than some significant belt tightening and sleepless evenings, we have seemed to manage weathering that storm.  I think everyone has emerged a bit wiser for the wear.

I don’t  make resolutions for the new year.  Setting goals for my future seems best done continually and not all stuck artificially at the turning of the calendar year.   But, I have a feeling that 2010 will be transitional.  I am not sure what 2010 has in store for us, but I have that feeling that we should strap in for a ride.

OK, I think I am ready.  Bring it on!

Wine and Food Pairing. You are probably here by mistake.

I need to rant a bit, so bear with me. But first, let me just let everyone know that if you came here to find out what wine goes with what food, you are probably at the wrong place.

A fantastic dish, complimented by a wine that seems to fit it like a glove is rare, but when you find it, is an experience you will not soon forget. Where things get crazy is when people start coming up with simple rules of what wines go with which food.

As modern humans, We like easy rules to follow with which to make our daily decisions easier. The light is RED, so I STOP; GREEN, so I GO. Everybody else is jumping of a cliff: I will too; nobody else jumping, I'll just stay right here. Why wouldn't there be equally easy to follow guidelines for food/wine pairings? I have heard some of them.

We've all heard them. White wine with white food, red wine with red food. White with fish, red with beef. Bubbles, then white, then red, then port to go with appetizers, first course, second course, and then desert. These work for many situations but fail miserably in others. Like a broken watch, right twice a day, these rules work when they work, but don't set you clock by them.

The trouble is that pairing wine and food isn't as simple as color or course. There is as more variation in red wine sometimes than there is between red and white wine, so basing a pairing on color can be doomed to failure.

Recently, I read a blog from a winery that was lamenting that the their wine, a sumptuous Cabernet Sauvignon, probably doesn't go well with a dish of fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. How did they knew it didn't go well together? Because conventional wisdom says that that dish goes with lighter, white wines. If you want to drink a luscious red, and have tomatoes, you better toss them in a pot and cook them down.

To that, I say, hogwash. In fact, I have had this wine, and that dish. They both, not only were great individually, they were great together.

Do you want a great, simple way to find what wines go well with what foods? Try this: Every time you eat or drink, pay attention to the foods and wines you have. I know, paying attention to what you eat is so cumbersome. But, when you taste a combination that works, take it a step farther: ask yourself why it works. What about that food and that wine makes the pair work. Make mental notes of these combinations, write them down when you get home. Then, use these as a guide.

Another system that works, but only as a guide, is similar to taking shots of tequila. Here is how it works. Get a shaker of salt and a slice of lemon or lime. Pour a glass of wine that you are looking to pair a meal with. Take a sip, savour it. Then, taste a pinch of salt. Did that add or detract from the wine? The do it again, but with the lime. How did that work? You can use this as an insight on how it might pair with something salty, like ham, or herbed dish. Or something tart, like a dish with a citrus glaze or component.

Again, these are just guidelines. The only way to know for sure is to have the dish and the wine. You can increase your odd for success when you are out with a group. Instead of ordering a bottle of one wine, everyone can order a glass of a different wine and then share. See what goes with what. You may have to try more wines, but that can't be all bad.

Don't be afraid of asking your waiter, or the chef. They do this for a living. But if they spout of the simplistic rules, consider doing it yourself, or order a beer..

I think I see a pattern here.

I am suddenly seeing a pattern where I didn’t before.

Food, Alcoholic Beverage, Healthcare, Energy, Environment, Education, Corrections; All of these topics have debates going on right now.  Individuals and groups are arguing about these subjects.  I didn’t say discussing, I said arguing, because that is the level of the discourse.

• Food: Organic vs “Conventional” (who decided that the term “conventional” gets to refer to the way things have been done in the last 50 years, and the term “non-conventional” get to refer to the other 99,950 years?)
• More Food: Family farmers vs. agribusiness.  No one is arguing that modern agriculture practices have not allowed us to produce food more efficiently.  A farmer with a diesel tractor can manage over 300 times the acreage as one without.  Efficiencies come with costs, and all of those costs need to be considered.  But when we compare, lets honestly look at ALL the costs.  Like the cost imposed by the risk of large, monolithic factory farms shutting down because of contamination, or reallocation of priorities from grain for food to grain for biofuel.  Do we want our primary suppliers of food to “Run the Numbers” every quarter to decide if they want to stay in the food business or not?
• Healthcare: Why is the primary goal of our health care industry oversight to keep our healthcare investors portfolios healthy instead of the citizens?  If my primary care physician told me that the reason he got into medicine was because that is where the highest profit was, I might look for a different doctor
• Energy – Look around.  Do the math.  We use more power today than we did last year. Do you honestly believe that is not the trend?  Most energy comes from a black goop that we pump out of the ground.  Do you think that that will be available forever?  Where do you see the most time and energy spending going: maintaining what we currently do or coming up with a better solution?  Am I the only one that sees a problem here?
• Education – This one really confuses me.  My parents helped me with college at first.  And there were student loans, and the rest was made up with me working though college. But it was doable and not unrealistic.  What happened to that? The cost of an education has been rising well above the cost of living  index.  The price for a college education has skyrocketed. Textbooks, tuitions, student housing and fees all all shooting up faster than the world around them.  Where is it going?  Is someone getting rich off of our desires to educate our kids?  That’s OK why?
• Beverage laws – Yea, this one doesn’t really fit in with the rest, but it’s my blog, and I will try to tie it in at the end.  Work with me here.  We have some real screwed up beverage laws.  One state can ship to people in some states, but not others.  Some states can sell in stores on some days, but not other days. Some delivery companies can transport it, others can’t. Some states won’t let you taste wines in a store if “children can observe” you tasting.
• Corrections – By this I mean our criminal justice system.  Neither of the terms are very good descriptions of the system.  Calling it “Corrections” would imply that something or someone is “Corrected” by the system.  “Criminal Justice” would imply that the system is just and fair in the application of punishment to criminals.  I don’t think an honest evaluation of the system would lead anyone to that conclusion.  Our correction system is a for profit business, run by contracted 3d parties, to house people that have been sent there by our courts for breaking laws defined by our legislature. These companies make money by having people in prison and use a lot of that money to encourage lawmakers to make laws that put people into prison and not to keep them out.

What do these systems have in common?  There is a lot of money that flows to groups in the system.  The money goes from the groups that control it, to the groups that set up the rules on how it is controlled.  These are all systems that we would like to believe have a primary goal of being for the citizens, but the incentives are to increase profits.  There is an incentive for increased efficiency.  But the efficiency is not meant to let them do more for less, it is to do less for higher profit.

Again,  I ask: Why is that OK?

Politics is NOT the least common denominator (I hope)

Does it seem like everything boils down to politics?  When did that start?  I am not sure if this is a new trend, or if I have just become overly sensitized to this. When I read a blog, listen to a newscast, meet someone new, read a book, anything; I immediately think of it in terms of where it falls on the political spectrum.  Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, Socialism, Marxism, Capitalism, Fascism, Progressive, WHATEVER.  I can’t help but start to put it into this or that box.  Then, after I put it in the box, I start to think of which politician or talk show host would agree or disagree with it.

I don’t know when or why that has become the way I view the world, but, I want it to stop.  Or at least I want to stop being so central it in my own set of classifications.

It wasn’t always like that.  Remember when there would be a news event discussed, and it wouldn’t include political commentary?  Doesn’t it desensitize us to the terrible actions that someone does, when it is followed by some talking head attributing it to reactions to this or that political party’s platform?  If some person attacks some other person, do we need to assume that it is rooted in political idealisms that the two sides have that are irreconcilable?

I hope that this is just a problem that we have in our reaction to the events around us.  That we are trying to look at the events around us and using personal politics as a way to try to make sense of the world. That’s what I hope.  Because the alternative is that we are actually seeing these terrible things happen because of fundamental political ideologies.  And that is scary, indeed.

Corked! (the movie)

After waiting for the arrival of the new mockumentary Corked! to show near me, and after the friendly twitter prodding from the producer to convince me that it would be worth putting off seeing Food, Inc in order to see his film first, I went to the independent film’s San Jose debut last night at the downtown Cinema 3.  I am so very glad I did.  Distribution of Corked!, limited as it is, probably meant that I might not get another chance to see the film before it comes out on DVD, while Food, Inc comes with a preset following and will be showing in the area for a while.

The movie, true to the  mockumentary genre, bounces back and forth between believable and sarcastically tongue in cheek.  The movie touches on the underlying snobbery, double standards, shattered dreams, racism, vineyard worker disrespect and fickle uninformed wine consumers.

The movie was fun to watch.  I found myself laughing out loud many times.  The scenes and shots of the over-worked solo winemaker, doing backbreaking labor, doing everything he could to keep awake after exhaustion from the long hours, seemed surprisingly realistic and sad, while at the same time true. 

But, as I was watching the movie and listening to the Q & A afterwards, I started to appreciate more than just the movie itself.  There was a bigger experience happening here.

The winery business has a reputation as being a subculture of misunderstood, overworked, passionate, committed and a somewhat crazy group of people with a dream and a desire to take a path almost no one in their right mind would ever seriously take.  That reputation is probably well deserved.

Interestingly enough, there is another industry that deserves the same characterization, that is the independent film industry.  At first glance, you imagine that film makers are making film after film, working on scripts while sipping on pernod at sidewalk cafes, hobnobbing with beautiful starlets, chain smoking cigarettes and living a pampered life as proceeds from their films roll in.  Well, other than the beautiful starlets (Sara Woo, that’s a reference to you), the rest of that imagined existence is all as much fiction as they provide in the films they produce.

The cast, crew, writers, producer and many of the people that made this film possible, know each other from growing up or going to school together.  They all have other day (or night) jobs that pay the bills.  Some work in the wine industry or come from wine making families.  Some had to drive hours back home late that night, to pour tasting room wines and give winery tours to tourists.  Much of the film’s budget, you can imagine, comes out of their own pockets or from friends and relatives.  Getting into theaters, dominated by huge Hollywood blockbusters is as hard as the small 1000 case winery trying to get shelf space along side the mega wineries. 

These filmmakers are passionate and dedicated to their craft and their dream.  I am glad I choose Corked! over Food, Inc last night.  If I hadn’t, I would have missed this gem.  Visit their website, follow the cast and people that made it happen, encourage them.  It will pay off in the future like a great, young wine, laid down as an investment for future enjoyment.

Good Job Corked!  Keep them coming.

Visit the Corked Website at http://www.corkedthemovie.com/ or follow them on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CorkedTheMovie.  Or, if you really want to make this available to more people, talk to theaters in your area.  Encourage them to carry more independent films.  You owe it to yourself and your community.  And while your at it, find some great small wines to have while you do it.  Invite an independent filmmaker to come share it with you.  They make great company.