It was a healthy autumn day in Vermont.Curving through the Green Mountains with the top down on our RV, beautiful leaves, views, and danger at every turn.Are we in Heaven or is this the drive to Harpoon’s yearly Beer event in the hills?When the Oktoberfest began over 10 years ago in Vermont, not many people were concerned about Bears at a beer fest, and today its not a big deal either, but the thought of Bears is more reason to offer free beer.The only people worried about bears within one hundred miles this day would be the people at the wine foliage fest in upstate New York.Beer was on everyone’s mind here.I have never seen a more gracious group of beer runners before and after a race.Free beer, a glass mug and a quick run near the woods meant a full day for everyone with a number tag and sneakers.White socks didn’t matter.I met my good buddy Rodwel on line at the race.Could it be, I asked Rodwel, if he had a plan with black socks, Munich Dark Beer, and a Medical Doctor’s degree from just up the road at Dartmouth?Rodwel was the leading medical student doctor on exchange from Zimbabwe, Africa with a focus on bringing babies into the world.Rodwel was with Joanne from southern Brazil and both represent two of the most unlikely regions to find common ground in Vermont through Harpoon providing the “love of beer” to everybody.
Next, the whole placed found an Oktoberfest mood and great autumn weather.Hundreds attended the event, listening to old German musik and wondering if their grandmothers were playing a joke on them.The chicken dance was like a bad hit of a deja vous dream, but the kids and their buzzed mom’s and dads loved it.Next year, my suggestion is to get a real rock and roll group from Germany for a modern Oktoberfest and see how the other half lives and loves beer.
The beer choices were interesting.A choice of IPA, Filtered / Unfiltered, Munich Dark, and Wheat beer was great.The lines were great unless you wanted food.I enjoy the IPA from Harpoon best and had a taste of a few extra specials in the brewery.They were giving tours and helped qualify them for free beer on a Sunday, the day of rest.I recommend Harpoon as one of the best buddies to hang out with when you come to Boston or go to the hills of Vermont.They really know how to bring people together.
They traveled from The New York Times food section, with publication, books and Blogs on their minds. A train ride to Upstate Berkshires on Saturday was met by a sellout crowd to glean frpm these very successful food writers of America. Writers, not of food as many suspected, but rather, places to see, have seen or not been scene. Judith Jones, of Julia Childs fame and now home cooking, Christine Mulke, field reporter, Oliver Strand, creator of yelp and kill to eat documentaries, Amanda Kludt, food blog leader, Kim Severson, Times Newspaper extraordinare, and Amanda Hesser, food diary and secret admirer of Koennigsberger Kloppse. The food moment was tense as could be for such an event. Finally, Gord Travers, the man with leppard shoes, and chairman of The Mount, was called upon by the moderator. Would he question the streets of NY or would he try to stop our embarassment of living here in the hills? His question, direct and to the point was, yes, about locally grown Beef. A quick flurry and we realized that the only organically grown beef is in Vermont. After that, we never did get a chance to discuss the definition of free range Chickens, never mind, the fact that most of us eat vegetarian cows anyway. Now they were shifting into our territory, mentioning Home cooking and where it comes from. Judith Jones was leader of the pack. She worked with Julia Childs and knows her stuff. At her experience level, she's seen it all and her new book proves it. As the rock of the panel, Judith re-introduced home cooking, but also stopped short of embarassing the blog community. She opened the door for Kim Severson to have some fun with newspaper writing and to sell enough subscriptions to the NYTim es during the book signing to collect the change needed to take a next train back. Our Moderator, chosing to sit during the entire panel discussion, pumped the panel about their favorite places. To this, it was clear that almost everyone in the audience needed a car to get from place to place, which was different than the lives of famous food panelists, who by God never need one anyway. Suddenly, the audience was in awe when they heard the 50,000 hit time-bomb that lands each day for Amanda Kludt on her www.eater.com website, At this point, I stood up to comment on a few things. Besides, I contribute on health issues to a well known food magazine and to the website www.freebeerbuddy.com regarding the technical issues of drinking healthy with food. I was also quoted once in Whole Foods Magazine this Summer. To get started, I had to mention the time a few years ago that my 92 year old mother, living at her farmhouse in the Shaker Hills was making her Roladen dish. Then, all of a sudden, the local police department sent a team of 6 trained swat officers to search the hills behind her farm for an escaped convict. She would not let them go on this mission without having a full stomach. The next time, it was the fire department who showed up after seeing smoke in those same hills. They sent their battalion and found themselves with the same home cooking dilema. Our beloved food writers make or break the restaurant scene in America's cities and around the world, but it is in our homes where healthy good food lives on. Our society lives and brea t hs by blog and twitter volumes that run wide and not so deep. It is the little old lady, never alone in the Shaker Hills, that demonstrates the core of fellowship that fills the depths of aquifers and wells of our society. The book to read that supports the strength of Home Cooking is by Judith Jones, who realizes that it is not by blogs or twits but the written word that brings substantial food news to the priviledged in America. Let's Pray for Healthy foods and drink, but know that our stomach is still the Judge, Jury and the Ruler. The Stomach takes front page in our lives and be prepared to keep the Underberg German bitters handy.
Obama was going to a have a beer — that all-American bonding gesture — with the two men he joined last week at the center of an uproar over race in America: Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley.
After Crowley investigated a potential burglary at Gates' house — and ended up arresting the protesting professor for disorderly conduct — the episode exploded into a national debate on racial profiling. Obama added fuel to the fire when he declared in a prime-time news conference that the police "acted stupidly." The charge against Gates was later dropped.
I have always said “That if people would just sit down and have a beer together it would solve most of our problems"
My cup is raised to Sgt. James Crowley for suggesting having a beer and talking about the silliness that happened Thursday evening with a black professor and the white police officer.
As every beer drinker knows. Beer has a bonding quality about it.
I think that July 30th should be "Have a Beer With Someone You Don't Like Day" maybe we could work out our differences or at least have a laugh together. So let all get together have a beer. Maybe the world would be better off
Cheers
Saturday May 9th : Free Beer Buddy Attends the Lenox Library Beer Event:
Beer as a fundraiser is one of the best themes I can imaging. So as I read about the event the same day, I was struggling with the thought of another high end fundraiser. But through the graces of the LIbrary Leadership, I was given a free pass to the event.
Boston : Spring 2009 Headlines;
Yeast, "The Living Orgasm"
The MBA (Master Brewers Association) uses PYF (Premature Yeast Flocculation) to reach out to the International Craft Brewers in Boston.
I was able to catch the summary of 2 days of technical presentations on Yeast at the MBAA symposium in Boston prior to attending the Yeast Workshop.
As I listened to a Dr. Ruth of the Yeast industry that was called up to summarize the event, she asked the intemate question, "who here has a problem with PYF?". I came to this event expecting these craft brewers to learn something from the German brewers but my opinion changed when I heard the first German ask why American brewers were storing Yeast in water rather than beer. The wisdom in the answer even impressed the European and now it was clear that it was not the American brewers that were learning from this event, but rather the Germans were learning from the Americans in Yeast technology.
I just returned from Strasbourg, France where food and beer are a part of everyday life! Strasbourg is one of the most interesting cities in the world with a history rich in middle European beer from the region of Belgium and now in its new role as the center of the European Union.
What could top this experience? My next stop is Prague in the Czech Republic, but not after a stop at the Eisenhut resort Hotel in Rottenburg ab der Taube in Germany. This beer trail is beyond comparison in a society that knows the value of beer.
In America, we have all of the energy but we lack the tradition. Many restaurants struggle with pairing beer to food but some of us are endeavoring to bring beer into focus. With hundreds of reasons to add beer to the menu, the world is finally available through local breweries that squeeze flavors out of local ingredients.
