The Beer Column
Ryan 'No B' Reames
Issue date: 2/19/09 Section: Entertainment
Welcome Back Beer Lovers,
First off I would like to make a large correction: IPA stands for India Pale Ale, not as the article read 'Irish Pale Ale'. This was a gross editing mistake, and I encourage all of you who noticed this to buy my editor, Kyle Klavetter, a beer and educate him a bit for me. Also if you did notice, give yourself a pat on the back and stop giving me a hard time.
Down to business; This week is all about how I have acquired what you have not. That's right, envy me because my generous friends volunteered their cargo space to bring back beers that cannot be found in Oklahoma. We'll get to the reviews, but I would like to rant for just a bit about our oppressive state government.
For those of you who didn't know, the general rules for beer in Oklahoma are as follows: beer sold in grocery stores or convenience stores cannot exceed 3.2% alcohol by weight (4% alcohol by volume) - 3.2% beers can be sold cold at these locations, beer higher than 3.2% can only be sold in restaurants and liquor stores - liquor stores cannot refrigerate their beer. I'm not even going to bother going into the restrictions regarding hours of operation here. Neither will we discuss the byzantine distribution regulations for beer in OK. In order to sort out this whole mess of rules and regulations the answer for the time being is to boycott buying 3.2% beer altogether and lobby for less stringent regulations for liquor stores. For more information on this I encourage you to google "Oklahoma beer laws" and learn more. [comment about Oklahomans for modern laws]
Now for the good stuff. First, a little bit of heresy; New Belgium Brewery's Fat Tire is NOT all that good and I will not be reviewing it here. This state seems to have an unhealthy fascination with Fat Tire. Just because you can't get it here does not make it better than a lot of beers you can obtain in Oklahoma (feel free to argue with me by commenting at sixthirtyone.org). That said, I will be reviewing New Belgium Abbey which I find quite delightful and have had on occasion gotten by the case, as well as Delirium Nocturnum and Dogfish Head Raison D'Etre. Again, you cannot get any of these beers at a liquor store in Oklahoma, so don't bother looking. Aside from being rather uncommon here, these beers all have a Belgian aleness too them (lots of malt and a higher than average alcohol content). One last side note here; I really enjoy Belgian style ales, which happen to be high in alcohol content, so beware: the best way to ruin these beers is to have more than two in one sitting.
First off I would like to make a large correction: IPA stands for India Pale Ale, not as the article read 'Irish Pale Ale'. This was a gross editing mistake, and I encourage all of you who noticed this to buy my editor, Kyle Klavetter, a beer and educate him a bit for me. Also if you did notice, give yourself a pat on the back and stop giving me a hard time.
Down to business; This week is all about how I have acquired what you have not. That's right, envy me because my generous friends volunteered their cargo space to bring back beers that cannot be found in Oklahoma. We'll get to the reviews, but I would like to rant for just a bit about our oppressive state government.
For those of you who didn't know, the general rules for beer in Oklahoma are as follows: beer sold in grocery stores or convenience stores cannot exceed 3.2% alcohol by weight (4% alcohol by volume) - 3.2% beers can be sold cold at these locations, beer higher than 3.2% can only be sold in restaurants and liquor stores - liquor stores cannot refrigerate their beer. I'm not even going to bother going into the restrictions regarding hours of operation here. Neither will we discuss the byzantine distribution regulations for beer in OK. In order to sort out this whole mess of rules and regulations the answer for the time being is to boycott buying 3.2% beer altogether and lobby for less stringent regulations for liquor stores. For more information on this I encourage you to google "Oklahoma beer laws" and learn more. [comment about Oklahomans for modern laws]
Now for the good stuff. First, a little bit of heresy; New Belgium Brewery's Fat Tire is NOT all that good and I will not be reviewing it here. This state seems to have an unhealthy fascination with Fat Tire. Just because you can't get it here does not make it better than a lot of beers you can obtain in Oklahoma (feel free to argue with me by commenting at sixthirtyone.org). That said, I will be reviewing New Belgium Abbey which I find quite delightful and have had on occasion gotten by the case, as well as Delirium Nocturnum and Dogfish Head Raison D'Etre. Again, you cannot get any of these beers at a liquor store in Oklahoma, so don't bother looking. Aside from being rather uncommon here, these beers all have a Belgian aleness too them (lots of malt and a higher than average alcohol content). One last side note here; I really enjoy Belgian style ales, which happen to be high in alcohol content, so beware: the best way to ruin these beers is to have more than two in one sitting.
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