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jimsjournal
Beer -- 06/09/09

I'm rather fond of beer.

(Although I will admit that -- except in summer -- I probably drink wine more often than I drink beer. Shhhh, don't let beer hear that.)

As Benjamin Franklin -- surely one of the wisest and greatest of our founding fathers -- once said: "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

I was about to say that we are not beer snobs in this family, but actually I think we mostly are. In fact, perhaps the "mostly" can be taken away -- Jill and I would tease Jeremy about drinking cheap beer -- actually, he liked to drink good beer, but he would buy cheap beer -- but now (at age 24) he tends to buy good beer himself. When I say we drink good beer I mean imported beers (such as Guinness) or beers from American craft breweries. We believe that the popular American factory beers are, as the saying goes, just like making love in a canoe.

Currently I seem to be buying mostly Wachusett Country Ale for home consumption, but probably in a few weeks I will wander on to some new taste.

This entire entry has been inspired by learning about the re-creation of a an old taste... a very old taste... a nine thousand year old taste...

Dogfish Head Brewery has teamed up with a scientist -- molecular archeologist Dr. Patrick McGovern -- to re-create a fermented beverage made from rice, honey, and fruit as brewed in ancient China, nine thousand years ago in the Neolithic village of Jiahu and have produced a special limited edition brew they have called Chateau Jiahu.

Dogfish Head has also produced other special limited edition brews such as Sah'Tea, a reproduction of a 9th century Finnish proto-beer, and Theobroma, a reproduction of an alcoholic drink brewed from chocolate (and honey and chilies, etc.) by Aztecs between 1200 BC and 500 BC.

Yeah, I really would like to try a glass of each one of those, just to see what they are like...

(And, by the way, Dogfish Head Brewery is one of those craft breweries that makes some pretty good non-ancient brews, especially some nice ales.)

Anyway, in conclusion, here is Homer Simpson, singing about beer...






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