How much is your beer?

I was into the good stuff again over the holidays. Nearly completely depleted my latest haul from south of the border (all of the stuff that doesn't age well anyway).

One thing that always strikes me when I travel to the US is how much cheaper the beer is and how much better the selection as well.

I grew up with the perpetuated myth that Canadian beer was better than US beer, and maybe at the time, 20 years ago, it was true because it was all swill anyway. With this recent craft beer renaissance the US has very clearly taken the lead.

I wonder how the aussie's (craft) beers fare in the US and Canada ? 

I don't see many (any?), but we get a few from New Zealand.

A good beer from Oz would have to be exceptional to be widely available in the US due to the cost. Even Fosters is rarely available at pubs nowadays because there are so many good brews that are cheaper.

I arrived home from work today to find a six pack of assorted beers in the fridge from my gf. The three I tried were: Oval Blonde Beach Ale from Saugatuck, Mi; 5Rabbit from Bedford Park, Il; and Great White (which had a cool logo of a shark with a beer in one "hand", and the other fin around a surfboard) from Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka, Ca.

The Oval Blonde was the only one where I would consider buying more.

What's the other three? Is that shark got anything to do with Greg Norman ?

The other three are: Hefe, from Widmer Brothers (Portland, Or), Lakemaid from Stevens Point, Wi (has a pic of a mermaid on the label), and Old Scratch from Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick, Md. I'll try those tomorrow.

Greg is a wine guy.

That is so un-Australian of him.

Even though he's from Oz, his fame rose at such an incredible rate, he became a worldwide figure. I think it affected him. He has lived in Florida now for many years.

I just finished racking off my first batch of beer in 20 years. It's an IPA from a kit just to get my feet back under me, but I have ambitions of brewing from scratch before too long. Not counting my time, or equipment I already owned, it's going to come in just north of $0.50 per litre. I hope it turns out, it smelled pretty good tonight but not surprisingly tasted very young.

  Maybe they should make a SodaStream for beers.  

They do, it called Ginger Beer.

Not to be confused with ginger beard.

  Or maybe the Keurig machine for beers?   Oh, that's just crazy talk! 

There's potential there for mixed drinks I think. I'm pretty sure I once saw an R2D2 robotic bartender that did just that in fact.

When the Blitz brewery was up and running here in pdx those many years ago, they offerred lots of tours that ended in an orgy of free brew and pretzels.

Pretty darn good, but before that was the tour of production as well as a little movie about the brewery and the famous commericals associated with the brand.

Maybe it was the prospect of free beer and the propaganda that got me so excited but I remember being very wound up in the idea that beer making was one of the most honorable pursuits possible.

It still must be considered a very fruitful hobby.

My bro brews all the time.

Like this: http://boingboing.net/2013/03/04/kickstarter-for-a-cocktail-dis.html

All those monks can't be wrong.

 That makes me think of something like today's fancy soda machines.