James Bond Book Number One Casino Royale Part II December 28, 2019

Hey peeps!!!! I'm back at the Royale-les-Eaux hotel for the second part of the James Bond literary cocktail tour. When we last left off in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, Bond had met his CIA contemporary Felix Leiter and they were sitting down to enjoy a cocktail.

Where Bond had ordered a Haig-and-Haig on the rocks for Felix, he ordered his now signature cocktail. It is in this initial offering of his now immortal spy series that we are introduced to Ian Fleming's signature cocktail: The Vesper. Here is how Bond orders the cocktail on page 44:

Bond insisted on ordering Leiter's Haig-and-Haig 'on the rocks' and then looked carefully at the barman.

'A dry martini,' he said. 'One. In a deep champagne goblet.'
'Oui, Monsieur.'
'Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?'
'Certainly, monsieur.' The barman seemed pleased with the idea.
'Gosh that's certainly a drink,' said Leiter.

Bond laughed. 'When I'm...er...concentrating,' he explained, 'I never have more than one before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made. I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad. This drink's my own invention. I'm going to patent it when I can think of a good name.'

He watched carefully as the deep glass became frosted with the pale golden drink, slightly aerated by the bruising of the shaker. He reached for it and took a long sip.

'Excellent,' he said to the barman, 'but if you can get a vodka made with grain instead of potatoes, you will find it still better.'

So Bond prefers a grain vodka to a potato vodka? Some of you might say to yourselves: What's the difference. If you have a gluten allergy then you would definitely prefer the potato vodka over the wheat vodka. Before I go into the differences between the potato and grain vodkas, I wanted to define what they are.

Potato vodka is easy, its made with potatoes as the main base ingredient. Grain vodkas can be made from grains such as corn, wheat, rye, barley and others. There are vodkas such as the French vodka Ciroc that is made from grapes, the Milo Vodka from Kansas that is made from Sorghum, the Haku Japanese Vodka made with by white rice by Suntory and the Polish Żubrówka Bison Grass Vodka. I'm sure there are other things that vodka has been made from including fruits. Now on to the difference in the potato and grain vodkas.

For this I go to the VODKA 101 post from the Williams Sonoma Taste blog dated November 29, 2013. The article asks Rich Bubbico, the General Manager at Schiller’s Liquor Bar in New York for his thoughts on the differences between. Potato and grain vodkas:

There are many different varieties out there, but the most common vodka is made with grains. I think wheat is the most common, but rye and barley are frequently used as well. Wheat poses a problem for folks who have gluten allergies, so those who can’t ingest wheat should look for potato or corn vodkas. 

I have tasted a variety of vodkas in my time, and I really don’t think there is a flavor difference between potato vodka and grain vodka. Keep in mind, vodka is a neutral spirit by definition; it lacks flavor or aroma. This is why it makes great cocktails: because it does not distract from the other flavors, it’s like having a blank canvas to start from.

Some other impressions I've come across state that grain vodka, especially those made from corn tend to be the most flavorless of vodka while potato vodkas generally tend to be the most flavorful of vodkas. In the end it comes down to the distillation process. Better distillation produces a better product. This is especially so with Vodka. Now on to the naming of the cocktail.

Bond finally finds a suitable name for his cocktail upon meeting Vesper Lynd on page 52:

'Vesper,' she said. 'Vesper Lynd'

Bond gave her a look of inquiry.

'It's rather a bore always having to explain, but I was born in the evening, on a very stormy evening according to my parents. Apparently they wanted to remember it.' She smiled. 'Some people like it, others don't. I'm just used to it'

'I think it's a fine name,' said Bond. An idea struck him. 'Can I borrow it?' He explained his special Martini he had invented and his search for a perfect name for it. 'The Vesper,' he said. 'It sounds perfect and it's very appropriate to the violet hour when my cocktail will now be drunk all over the world. Can I have it?'

'So long as I can try one first,' she promised. 'It sounds a drink to be proud of.'
'Will have one together when all this is finished,' said Bond.

So did Bond and Vesper finally enjoy her namesake cocktail? Alas they were not fated to have that cocktail together. But don't let me spoil the story for you, go and read the book. As for the cocktail itself...Many thanks to Ian Fleming to introducing this very potent cocktail to the world. Watch the video below to experience how master mixologist Alessandro Palazzi of the famed Dukes Hotel Bar in London makes the Vesper.

In doing so, Palazzi not only makes the Vesper Martini but gives us the behind the scenes history on the inspiration that Ian Fleming tapped into when creating the Vesper. Dukes is known to be the place where Ian Fleming came up with the idea for the Vesper.

You better believe that Dukes Bar is on the top of the list of places to visit on my London bucket list.

For the next post, I go into some of Bond's champagne expertise in Casino Royale. 

Until Then Happy Drinking,

SiscoVanilla

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James Bond Book Number One Casino Royale Part I December 16, 2019

Hey peeps!!!! Today's post came about due to a recent conversation with my friend Melvin. We got to talking about the first cocktail that Ian Fleming's spy 007 himself James Bond had in print. For those of you who might not know, James Bond's adventures were first immortalized in print before hitting the big screen. Fleming started writing his spy novels in the 1950's with his first book Casino Royale debuting in 1953.

Casino Royale was the first of 11 novels and a number of short stories that revolved around James Bond. On a side note, due to licensing and other issues surrounding the Bond franchise, the movies were released in a different order than the books were written in. This is why the Daniel Craig debut Bond movie Casino Royale came out in 2006, almost 40 years after the Peter Niven Casino Royale movie that isn't in the Bond movie continuity. But back to the cocktails.

Unlike the movies where Bond is forever known for his Martini, shaken not stirred shtick, the Bond of the books consumes a variety of spirits and cocktails during his missions. Heck, his signature cocktail which would be christened the Vesper Martini in this book isn't even the first drink that Bond has. That distinction belongs to the Americano. Bond is at the Hermitage Bar awaiting the arrival of Mathis and Vesper Lynd when he orders the Milanese cocktail that was known as the Milano-Torino and now the more commonly referred to as the Americano,

I profiled the Americano Cocktail way back in 2012 with my post entitled surprisingly enough Americano (🤣🤣🤣.) Now the Americano can be had in two different ways with its base spirits being the same. Campari and Vermouth Rosso make up the cocktail with the only difference is the addition of club soda. Here is how the Campari website describes the Americano:

A cocktail you'll love at first sip thanks to its special texture and striking mixture of flavors. There are many legends and stories about how this cocktails got its name, for sure the Americano is one of James Bond's favourite cocktails (he ordered one in 007 Casino Royale). The Americano is part of the official cocktail list of the IBA (international bartending association) and IBA cocktails are prepared all over the world according to this original recipe.

 Well since they mention the recipe for the Americano, here is is:

Americano
- 1 part (1oz, 3cl) Campari
- 1 part (1oz, 3cl) Red Vermouth
- Splash of Soda

Make it
1) Pour the ingredients directly in a old-fashioned glass
2) Fill with ice cubes
3) Add a splash of soda water
4) Garnish with orange slice or lemon peel

Or if you prefer, you can have it without the club soda with the same ratio of Campari and Sweet Vermouth over ice. The choice is yours. Moving on.

After Bond meets CIA Agent Felix Leiter at the casino, they go to the casino bar and Bond orders Felix a Haig-and-Haig on the rocks. Bond orders himself a dry martini which I'll go into a bit later. On to the Haig-and-Haig.

Known for the slogan "Don't Be Vague, Ask For Haig" the John Haig and Company Limited aka Haig-and-Haig has the distinction of being one of the oldest known established Scotch distillers in the world. Apparently there was an incident in 1655 where Robert Haig was taken to task over distilling Scotch over the Sabbath and the records were kept to prove it. Back then this was definitely a No-No on the day of rest. It is believed that the distilling of what is now the Haig line of Scotches goes back to 1627. Haig-and-Haig's line of Scotch whiskies were some of the most popular spirits around the world up to the 1970s and it's no surprise that they would be featured in Ian Fleming's works. Their two most widely found and most popular blended Scotches are virtually the two sides of the same coin.

The Pinch and the Dimple are known for their distinctive three sided bottle with a dimple in the middle of each side. Why do I say virtually the two sides of the same coin? Well Haig-and-Haig would sell the Pinch for the United States market at 86.8 proof (43.4 ALC) while the Dimple was sold in Europe at 80 proof (40 ALC.) Both carry an age statement of 15-years. The age statement would change to 12-yers for more recent versions of the Pinch and Dimple. So when Bond orders Felix a "Haig-and-Haig on the rocks" while in France, we can make an educated guess that he's being poured the 80 proof Dimple and not the 86.8 proof Pinch. So why not just order a Dimple instead of a Haig-and-Haig? Let me try and make another educated guess on that based on some research.

I decide to hit up my trusty The Schweppes Guide to Scotch by Philip Morrice for the answer. According to the book:

Some whiskies are known by different name in different countries. Haig's De Luxe whisky, Dimple, is known as Pinch in the United States, whilst Haig is known there as Haig & Haig after the family offshoot which established itself in the United States many years ago to market Scotch whisky. Similarly, North Americans may be surprised to find that their Dewar's (pronounced Doo-ers, as their advertisements say) is better known in its native land as White Label.

After some issues with rights and ownership in the U.S., the Haig and Haig line became part of the John Haig umbrella in 1925. Even with Prohibition coming and going in the U.S., the Pinch brand was commonly known as Haig-and-Haig. So for Bond ordering a Haig-and-Haig for Felix would lend to the familiarity of having a Pinch on the rocks though in reality he would be having a Dimple on the rocks. Get it? Got it? Good!

And this isn't a one off for Bond and Felix enjoying some Haig-and-Haig. No sir, the Haig-and-Haig Scotch is enjoyed by both gentlemen in later Bond stories that I will get to in later posts. But let's stay at the Hotel Royale-les-Eaux for the next part of the post where I highlight the appearance of Bond's signature drink and the preferred vodka type that Bond likes for said cocktail. Keep your eyes peeled for it!!!

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla

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Happy 104th Birthday to Frank Sinatra December 12, 2019

Happy 104th Birthday to the Chairman of the Board: The Legendary Francis Albert Sinatra !!!!

Never one to be called boring, Sinatra (December 12, 1915 - May 14, 1998) used to love his drinks and the good times that accompanied them. His favorite was the spirit that he called "The Nectar of the Gods" good Old Number 7 Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey.

So if you are out and about tonight or just kicking back at home, raise one up to good old Blue Eyes in the way that he liked to drink his Jack Daniel's.

Happy Birthday Frank!!!

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla

#SiscoVanilla
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#SiscoVanillaBeerChronicles

For Further Reading:

• The Love Song of Frank and Jack: How Sinatra Put Jack Daniel’s on the Map by Sarah Feldberg from the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation website dated December 12, 2015
• How Frank Sinatra Made Jack Daniel's Into A Rock Star Brand by Steve Baltin from Forbes Magazine dated January 18, 2017
• Frank Sinatra & Jack Daniel’s: The Dynamic Duo by Shadia K from the Curious Creature website

The Town of Plzeň aka Pilsen December 11, 2019

I recently watched an episode of Underground Marvels on Science Channel that profiled the city of Plzeň aka Pilsen. Plzeň is located in the area once known as Bohemia, later Czechoslovakia now known as the Czech Republic. If the name Pilsen rings a bell, it's because the popular beer style Pilsner Lager takes its name from the town of Plzeň where it was perfected. I want to take a quick look at the history of Plzeň and how its earliest citizens laid the foundation for the brewing of Pilsner beer drunk the world over.

The town of Plzeň was established in 1295 by King Wencelaus II of Bohemia. The city was built on the confluence of four rivers: the Uhlava, Uslava, Radbuza and Mze. Plzeň would directly benefit from its proximity to the capital city of Prague (96km/60miles) and its location on major trade routes. 

It wouldn't take long for the area to become populated. A populated area needs entertainment and refreshment. Here is where the beer comes in.

Like many European cities of the Medieval era, alcoholic beverages in Plzeň were initially produced by the local religious orders. Soon thereafter, private citizens would brew their own beers and utilized the growing network of underground caverns, cellars, wells and storage rooms to store and mature their barreled beer. Beer wasn't solely used for entertainment purposes. As with other European areas during the Medieval period, plague was a constant and many of the germs that caused the disease could be found in the drinking water. Beer was encouraged for consumption by everyone (children included) since the fermentation process killed the germs that caused plague.

Brewers guilds would be formed in Plzeň by the townsfolk in order to protect the interest of the town's trade in beer and create a lineage for the production of beer. By the mid 19th century, the city elders wanted to have a unified beer standard for the city. Up to that point, individual brewers made their own beers to their desired tastes and specifications. It is at this point where beer history was made.

Joseph Groll (8/21/1813-11/22/1887)

The city elders created a centralized brewery in Plzeň in 1839 and brought in Joseph Groll to become its first brewmaster. Hailing from Bavaria (today's Germany) Groll was able to take advantage of the low alkalinity of the local water which is filtered naturally through the sandstone that is native to the area, to create the first golden lager. Today as it was then, the recipe called for the water to be combined with two other ingredients: Barley and Hops (as established by the German Beer Purity Law of 1516 knows as the Reinheitsgebot.) The recipe was perfected in 1842 and the Pilsner Urquell was born.

The beer would be stored in the natural underground caverns, the carved out cellars and storerooms that were located underneath the city. To further take advantage of these cellars, a system for cooling the rooms was created by building channels in the floor that would allow the melted ice water (from the many blocks of ice that were used for refrigeration) to flow into the adjoining rooms and cooling the granite floors, keeping those caverns cold. The desired temperature for the maturation of the beer was between 5° and 7° Celsius (41° to 47° Fahrenheit.) 

The beer proved to be so popular throughout Europe, that the term “Pilsener Beer” would become a registered trademark in 1859. The beer would be exported throughout the world helping to spawn many imitators but the Pilsner Urquell brand is unique.

Now I've only had Pilsner Urquell in cans and bottles but to really appreciate the beer as the city elders, townsfolk of Plzeň and Joseph Groll intended, the beer should be enjoyed in one of three ways.

Add these to the list of beers that I need to try at a beer hall. Any recommendations on where to go in the NYC area? Hit me up.

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla

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#SiscoVanillaBeerChronicles

The Birds 1963 Part II and the Hamm's Brewing Company December 9, 2019

Hey Peeps!!! Welcome back to another (and long overdue) SiscoVanilla at the Movies post. For today's post, I'm continuing my look at Alfred Hitchcock's classic film The Birds which is loosely based on the story of the same name by British author Daphne Du Maurier.

In my last post The Birds 1963 Part I, I left you all with main protagonists Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor)and Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) enjoying a small glass jar of what seems to be a pre-made cocktail along the dunes of the town of Bodega Bay. For this post we shift gears to the Tides restaurant, now known as the Inn at the Tides, where the townsfolk have gathered after the birds have wreaked havoc. In the background there are a plethora of spirits relevant to the early 1960's. I'll touch upon those at a later time. For today's SiscoVanilla Beer Chronicles post, I wanted to focus on the beer tap, bottles and cans that can see seen behind the counter: Hamm's Brewing Company aka Hamm's.

Hamm's, officially known as the Theodore Hamm's Brewing Company, was an American brewing company established in 1865 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Theodore Hamm (October 14, 1825 - July 31, 1903) was one of the many German immigrants that made their way to the Midwestern United States during the 1850's. Hamm arrived in 1856 and by 1864, he grew to be rather successful financially. As per the post Hamm's Brewery History & Olde Tyme Photographs from the Action Squad.org website:

In 1864, entrepreneur Andrew F. Keller, the owner of a small brewery called the Excelsior Brewery (then producing 500 barrels a year) needed money for expansion. Theodore lent the money with the brewery as collateral. When Keller defaulted on the loan, Theodore Hamm was the owner of a brewery.

Hamm's Brewery would grow from 5 employees that brewed 500 barrels a year to 75 employees brewing 40,000 barrels a year in 1885. Modernization in the form of bottling and refrigeration would follow suit.

Prohibition would affect Hamm's like every other brewery in the United States but the company was able to stay afloat by producing soft drinks and other consumables until Prohibition was repealed. The brewery wasted no time in making beer once again and expanding even further. By the time Hamm's would be seen on tap and behind the counter in the Birds, the company would have breweries in St. Paul, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Baltimore (which I will profile in a later post in relation to the Gunther Brewing Company) and Houston. 

Hamm's called itself the Classic American Beer that was Born in the Land of Sky Blue Waters and its mascot was a jolly animated bear simply known as "The Hamm's Bear."

 
This mischievous rascal would find himself in a number of different outdoor adventures with other wildlife creatures. Check out one of those commercials:

 
As with many beer brands throughout the United States, beer and Baseball would go hand-in-hand. Hamm's was no different. Aside from supporting the local Minnesota Twins after moving from Washington, D.C. in 1961:

Hamm's also sponsored the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox and even as far south as the Kansas City A's:

Plus they had an awesome ad in 1949 with The Man himself Stan Musial:

But as with many things, the good times don't last forever. For Hamm's, the good times wouldn't last past their 100th anniversary in 1964. Once again referring to the post Hamm's Brewery History & Olde Tyme Photographs from the Action Squad.org website:

In 1965, with Hamm's celebrating its 100th year as a family-owned business, the brewery was now the 8th largest in the nation, selling 3,800,000 barrels in 1964. Family members were ready to diversify their investments, and a buyer for the brewery was sought. Heublein, Inc. bought the brewery for 65 million. After two consecutive years of losses, the brewery again was sold. A group of Hamm's distributors bought the brewery for $10.4 million in October 1973. This operation was under-capitalized and was forced to sell. A family-owned West Coast brewery, Olympia Brewing Company, bought the brewery for $13.7 million. They operated the plant from 1975-1983. The final buyer was Pabst Brewing Company, who bought the brewery in 1983. In 1983 Pabst traded the plant to Stroh's for a Stroh's plant in Tampa, Florida. In the fall of 1997, the brewery closed down for good, never to produce beer again. 

The Hamm's brand would be bought by Miller in 1999 and is now brewed under the MillerCoors company umbrella. Found mainly in the Midwest, Hamm's Brewing makes a Hamm's Classic Lager and a Hamm's Special Light beer.

Hamm's Classic has a 4.6% ABV while the Hamm's Special Light has a lower ABV of 3.8%. Both of their beers are brewed in the Chicago area.

I guess I need to see if I can score some Hamm's here in the NYC area. Their website shows that their beer can be found in a couple of locations in Jersey City, NJ. I might have to hop on the PATH train one of these days off and see what I can find. Keep your eyes posted for that adventure. What do you gals and guys think about the Hamm's line of beers. Let me know what you think!!!!

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla

#SiscoVanilla
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SiscoVanilla on Flipboard December 6, 2019

What's up peeps!!!! Can anyone tell me if there is anything more annoying that sifting through old emails? I'm sure a root canal ranks up there with it. I should know, I've spent the last six or seven (I've lost count) off day Thursday at the dentist. The wait time between being seen and having the local anesthesia kick in has given me ample time to go through my emails. I hate to say that I have had a number of emails going back to June of 2019. Ugh. But never let it be said that good old SiscoVanilla can't turn a batch of lemons into lemonade. What I've done is go though all of those emails and cherry picked the best info from them and made my own magazine. "A magazine? How did you do that?" you might ask yourself. Well, it's not your traditional print magazine. I've used the app Flipboard to do so. No idea what Flipboard is? Well, keep on reading to find out.

According to the article What Is Flipboard? by Elsie Moreau from Lifewire.com dated July 1, 2019:

Flipboard is the social news app people have been raving about for years. Staying informed about the topics that matter most to you has never been easier.

People can use Flipboard to create their own digital magazines to share with other users; as you read through the stories shown on Flipboard, you can easily add them to a new or existing magazine under your profile. Flipboard also lets you curate magazines based on a passion of yours, for specific sources, for sharing with a group or simply for creating a collection.

Stories appear in your home feed with an image, a headline, the source name, and how recently it was published. All you have to do is tap a story to expand it to read it in full.

I started using Flipboard when I stopped eating meat in order to collect recipes and articles for archiving. With the many articles and cocktail recipes that I have found in my emails, I decided to create a number of magazines through Flipboard in order to share them with all of you and anyone else who is interesting in checking them out. And you can "flip" any of them into any existing magazines that you already have made in your Flipboard account.

So without wasting another moment, here are my five FH aka SiscoVanilla cocktail, spirits and beer themed magazines courtesy of Flipboard: 

View my Flipboard Magazine.View my Flipboard Magazine.View my Flipboard Magazine.

View my Flipboard Magazine.View my Flipboard Magazine.View my Flipboard Magazine.
Feel free to read any and all of the articles and flip them all to your heart's content. Any suggestions for future magazines? Feel free and drop me a line.

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla

#SiscoVanilla
#SiscoVanillaHasABrewski
#SiscoVanillaBeerChronicles

Vintage Beer Shirt Club November 14, 2019

Hey peeps!!!! For those of you who don't know (and shame on you for not knowing 😝) I often like to wear shirts with graphics while behind the bar at Finn's Corner (660 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn NY). Those shirts more times than not become a conversation piece at the bar. I recently signed up with the amazing folks of the Vintage Beer Shirt Club.

 Never heard of them? Shame on you!!!! Here is what they do:

Authentic Beer Shirts From The Original Vintage Craft Breweries.

Join Today and receive a Vintage Beer T-shirt or Tank top featuring Great American breweries of years gone by.

• Starting at just $24.00 a month!
• The highest quality premium fitted t-shirts and Womens Tanks Tops delivered each month
• These vintage beer shirts come with a story. A custom postcard explaining the historical value of your new shirt and the vintage brewery featured.
• Sizes range from S-4XL – Shirt size can be changed monthly (depending on the amount of beer consumed)
• FREE shipping in the U.S.A.
• Cancel anytime!

You just sign up for a membership, pick your size and shirt style and off you go. Here I am rocking the first shirt that I received from them: Tru-Blu Pilsener by the Northampton Brewing Company in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania.

In addition to the shirt, you get an information card that gives a brief description of the beer and brewery profiled on the shirt. I've done some research on the Northhampton Brewing Company and will profile them in a later post.

So have I whet your appetite for these awesome shirts? Good, I'm going to sweeten the pot even further. Sign up at their website Vintage Beer Shirt Club and use code FHILA75561 and you'll get $5 bucks off your first order. So whatcha waiting for. Go order yourself some vintage beer shirts. Let me know how you like them.

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla
#SiscoVanilla
#SiscoVanillaHasABrewski
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Tavour November 13, 2019

Hey folks. Sorry for the lack of posts of late. As I posted on my IG-TV channel with the post SiscoVanilla Has Gotten Sidelined 11-01-2019, I'm taking a hiatus of sorts as I deal with getting my teeth taken care of. I had an infection which led to a root canal. Sounds like fun right? While that's going on, I got my first crate of beer shipped to me by Tavour. Haven't heard of Tavour? Well peeps, you are truly missing out.

Tavour is a craft beer delivery service that will ship you a box of brew from craft breweries that are not available in your area. Here is how their website describes their service:

Turn your fridge into the best craft beer bar around. Access the hottest picks from 47 states. 

Download the app to get access to hard-to-find, 100% independent craft beer from across the US. New beers are shared every day!

Build your own custom box of the beers you love, or enroll in a subscription and we'll automatically snag the highest-rated beers that suit your taste. No minimums or commitments!

Ship any amount of your hand picked beer to your doorstep for a flat fee (yep, any amount). Or ship for free with a subscription! See, told you it was simple!

I had a code from Untappd for $10 dollars off of my first order of $20 or more. You can order as much or as little as you want for a flat shipping fee of $14.95 and there is a wide selection of beers in cans and bottles. Here are the five beers that I ordered:

 The breweries are as follows:

Slo Flo Pils by Seven Stills Brewery and Distillery, San Francisco CA
Day of the Dead Vienna Lager by Reuben's Brews, Seattle WA
Marzen Invaders by Heathen Brewing X Brothers Cascadia Brewing, Vancouver WA
After The Love Has Gone (B-Side) Mexican Mocha Lager by Woodland Empire Ale Craft, Boise ID
Pilsner by Pfriem Family Brewers Hood River OR

I'll delve further into these brews and their brewers in future posts when I get back to enjoying the brewskis. Interested in getting some beers from Tavour? You can click the following referral link: https://www.tavour.com/referral?referred_by=562390 or if you already have the app, just use my code 562390 in the Promos page of the app and we both get $10 in credit when you buy your first beer.

Let me know what you think.

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla
#SiscoVanilla
#SiscoVanillaHasABrewski
#SiscoVanillaBeerChronicles

Reinheitsgebot aka German Purity Law of 1516

Hey peeps!!! With Oktoberfest come and gone and with my talking about non-alcoholic beers in the post Non-Alcoholic Beers October 29, 2019, I wanted to give you all a historical background on the German Beer Purity Law of 1516 knows as the Reinheitsgebot. Dating back to the early 16th Century, the German Purity Law of 1516 sought to accomplish a number of things.

First, the law was introduced by Bavarian ruler Duke Wilhelm Wittelsbach IV on April 23, 1516. Secondly, the law established that only three ingredients could be used to make Bavarian Beer: water, barley and hops. Yeast would be added to list of allowed ingredients during the 19th century. With the unification of Germany under Otto von Bismark in 1871, the Reinheitsgebot applied to not only to the Duchy of Bavaria but the entire country of Germany. By 1906, the law was has effect in the whole of Germany. What were some reasons for this piece of legislation? There seem to be a number of reasons.

One reason was due to the health of the populace. According to the article The Bavarian Beer Purity Law: The Reinheitsgebot was adopted on 23 April 1516 by Paul Lay from History Today Volume 67 Issue 4 April 2017:

The passing of the Reinheitsgebot was prompted less by a concern for aesthetics and more for the health and wellbeing of the populus. In the Middle Ages and into the early modern period, beer was the staple daily drink, in variable quantities, for men, women and children. Although water was still drunk, it was often easier and safer to drink fermented beer, especially in unhygienic, overcrowded urban centres before the advent of advanced sewage systems. However, it was not beyond unscrupulous brewers to increase prices or add all kinds of unpleasant additions to their concoctions, including hallucinogenic plants. And so the Bavarian authorities insisted that only water, barley and hops could be used to brew beer.

Another reason for the law came down to simple economics. The post 500 Years of the Reinheitsgebot from the Bierhaus NYC website dated April 18, 2016:

Besides the main purpose of brewing only the best quality of beer, another purpose of The German Purity Law was to ensure that bakers would be able to buy rye and wheat for an affordable price. By restricting brewers to barley, it eliminated the competition between bakers and brewers for wheat and rye. This allowed baker's to sell their bread at an affordable price.  

The post Reinheitsgebot: The 16th Century German Beer Purity Law from the Beeriety Blog dated September 24th, 2009 further delves into the economics behind the law:

The land’s barley fields were owned by the aristocrats of the land, and making it illegal to brew with anything else meant that the wealthy land owners were basically able to guarantee themselves a virtual monopoly on the grains bought for brewing.

You might be asking yourself: How is German Hefeweizen allowed to be made in Germany? That beer style was one that was popular among the German royalty class. An exemption was made to allow wheat beers to be produced in Germany by first the Degenberger family and later to other private brewers. The article The Reinheitsgebot - One Country’s Interpretation of Quality Beer by Stephen R. Holle and Manfred Schaumberger from the More Beer website gives a much more detailed history of wheat beer in Germany.

Overall, the Reinheitsgebot set the rules for the exclusive manufacturing and sales of beer in Germany by Germans. This exclusivity would lead to conflict with West Germany and its trade partners in the European Community. The European Community claimed that the exclusivity of only German beer being sold throughout Germany (with the exception of Guinness Stout) created an impediment to free trade.

According to the article In Germany, Bier may be Beer or Biere by James M. Markham, Special To the New York Times dated March 13, 1987, the grievance would be heard by the 13-judge panel of the European Court:

In arguing the case before Lord Mackenzie Stuart, the British chief judge in Luxembourg, lawyers for the Federal Republic went so far as to argue that beer for Germans was far more than alcohol consumed for pleasure. It was, the lawyers contended, a basic source of almost a third of the nutrients ingested by the citizenry. Called Danger to Inhabitants

The average German is reckoned to put away 155 quarts of beer a year, and in Bavaria, which has a third of the nation's breweries, the figure is said to reach 264 quarts for every man, woman and child. In view of these extraordinary consumption levels, the German lawyers maintained that permitting foreign beers and, with what they considered dubious additives, into the Federal Republic could endanger the well-being of its inhabitants.

But Lord Mackenzie declined to accept this argument, saying that the rules of the European Community did not permit a member country ''to cement consumption habits in order to protect an advantage for domestic industry.''

The British judge ruled that West Germany was permitted to demand ''appropriate labeling'' on imported foreign beers but nothing that would convey a ''negative'' view. He also said West Germany could ban additives that posed a genuine health danger, based on ''the results of international research.''

With that the German market was opened to foreign beer while the Reinheitsgebot still applied to all German made beers.

On a side note, I haven't been able to find anything about the Reinheitsgebot and East Germany. East Germany was under Russian control until 1990 when Germany was once again unified after the fall of the Berlin Wall. I don't know if the Reinheitsgebot was recognized by the communist regime. I'll do a supplemental post if and when I find out more

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla
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Non Alcoholic Beer October 29, 2019

Hey peeps!!!With Heineken bombarding TV ads with their annoying commercials for their new  Heineken 0.0 Non-Alcoholic beer, I wanted to take a look at beer sans alcohol. I was flipping through the January/February 2019 issue of Men's Health Magazine when I noticed they had the results of a survey that was held on their Twitter feed. Here is the graphic for the survey.

They paired the survey with an article entitled The Five Best-Tasting Nonalcoholic Beers to Get Through Dry January by Joy Manning dated January 10, 2019. Check out the article for some recommendations. The roots of non-alcoholic beer lies in that grand moral and social experiment in American History that I keep referring back to in my historical posts on beer: Prohibition. 

The first non-alcoholic beer in the United States made its debut in 1919 which just happened to be the year that the Volstead Act aka The National Prohibition Act was enacted, going into effect at midnight on January 17, 1920. The act defined the scope of an intoxicating liquor as containing more than 0.5% alcohol by volume. Which opened the door for the creation of non-alcoholic beer at the time known as "near beer." Even after Prohibition on beer was repealed by the Cullen-Harrison Act of 1933, consumers grew to like the near beer and the brewers continued to make them. A cool article that discusses the process of making non-alcoholic beer can be found here: The Science of Non-Alcoholic Beer by Brent Rose from the Gizmodo website dated May 23, 2013.

My first experience with non alcoholic beer came through my dad and his grocery store. My dad would go through his non drinking phases and would turn to non-alcoholic beers to curb the urge to have a beer. These were two of the non alcoholic beers that I remember him having:

Kaliber beer is a non-alcoholic beer made by the brewers of Guinness. The website Origlio beverage describes it as so:

Brewed as a full strength lager with the alcohol removed at the end of the brewing process, Kaliber is made with pure Irish spring water, classic Irish barley and the finest hops. Lager yeast is used to give the beer its full-bodied flavor.  With well-balanced tones of hops and malt, Kaliber is the smart choice for the enjoyment of a great tasting beer when alcohol is not desired. This European take on a non-alcoholic beer is maltier then most American NAs.

The other non-alcoholic beer is Moussy which is made is made by Brasserie du Cardinal Fribourg S.A in Switzerland and follows the rules established by the German Purity Law of 1516. What differentiates Moussy from other non-alcoholic beer? Their website MoussyBeverages describes the process for making Moussy:

A major reason for this outstanding product quality is the unique, patented, MOUSSY brewing process that was developed as a result of many years of research and experimental trials. The ingenious fundamental concept is not to remove the alcohol from conventional beer but rather to prevent the formation of alcohol in the first place.  How that works is, of course, our brewmaster's best kept secret.

While I believe that my dad drank the original version of Moussy that debuted in the 1970s, they now brew Moussy in a variety of fruit flavors. I've noticed that a number of Muslim markets in the general area of my neighborhood sell Moussy. You can read more about Moussy on their website MoussyBeverages.

Now never let it be said that I won't engage in some research for a post. At Finn's Corner we carry the Bitburger 0.0 non-alcoholic beer. Now I've been a big fan of Bitburger's offerings. What do I think about this one?

I shared it with my friend Conal who is an amazing writer. You definitely check out his writings on his website ConalDarcy.com and his writings on the Barchiving website. Now Conal has spent a number of years in Germany and has had his experiences with German brews, especially Bitburger. So he knows what's up when it comes to these German biere.

What we both agreed on was that the beer had a burnt malt taste to it. We weren't sure if that was by design or if it was that particular bottle. So I decided to have another one, which didn't taste any better. There's just something weird about the taste of the Bitburger 0.0 that I can't place my finger on. Oh well. I gave it the old college try. 🤷‍♂

For my next post, I'm going to delve into the above mentioned German Purity Law of 1516 aka the the Reinheitsgebot. Keep your eyes peeled for that post.

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla
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New England IPA by Samuel Adams Brewing Co October 22, 2019

Hey peeps!!! A few weeks ago I had my first taste of Boston Beer Company's Samuel Adams New England IPA aka NEIPA. Now as you all know, I've been trying to work on my IPA palate. In my last post, I touch on how I didn't know that for American IPA's, region plays a big part in what kind of IPA you might come across. Going back to the book The Complete IPA: The Guide to Your Favorite Craft Beer by Joshua M. Bernstein, here is Bernstein's description for the NEIPA:

"Though balanced, malt proud IPAs are still legion here, brewers are reinventing them. New York and points northward typically favor late-addition hops of the fruity and tropical sort, grains such as oats and wheat that impart a silky mouthfeel, and light filtration, resulting in juicy beers that look like a tall glass of orange juice - the bitterness all but banished."

On to the Samuel Adams New England IPA. The beer app Untappd has the following description from Samuel Adams for the Samuel Adams NEIPA:

Born inside our nano brewery in Boston, Samuel Adams New England IPA is a medium-bodied, hazy brew featuring a big punch of citrus juiciness.

The slight sweetness is perfectly balanced by the pineapple and grapefruit hop character, without being overly bitter. Clocking in at 6.8% ABV and a low 35 IBUs, the unfiltered IPA provides a burst of fruited hop aroma and leaves drinkers wanting another sip. In comparison to West Coast style IPAs which have prominent hop bitterness and a light, dry mouthfeel, New England IPA’s are generally known for a juicy, luscious mouthfeel and opaque, hazy appearance - and are best enjoyed fresh.

Malt Varieties: Samuel Adams two-row pale malt blend, white wheat, golden naked oats

Hops: Galaxy, Simcoe, Mosaic, Citra, Cascade"

I reviewed the Samuel Adams NEIPA with my IG-TV post SiscoVanilla Had a Samuel Adams NEIPA 10-03-2019. Clocking in at 6.8% ABV and a 35 IBU I found the NEIPA to be a bit too hoppy for me though I liked the juicy feel of it on the palate. I found it to be fruity and very tasty, which nails Bernstein's description. And as you can see from the picture, Baybee was feeling himself some of the Samuel Adams NEIPA can. Maybe he likes them hoppier than I do. 😹😜😹

I look forward to trying some of the other IPA varieties in the near future. Any recommendations? Hit me up and let me know which ones I should try next.

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla
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IPA Regional Varieties October 21, 2019

Hey peeps what's up. I've been reading up on beers and came to a realization about India Pale Ales aka IPAs. What I didn't know was that for American IPAs, region of brewing plays a big part in what kind of IPA you might come across. The book The Complete IPA: The Guide to Your Favorite Craft Beer by Joshua M. Bernstein describes the seven distinct regions of IPA brewing:

☆ Northeast and Mid-Atlantic: Juicy and fruity is all the rage as a smooth, lush ride replaces the bitterness.

☆ Southeast: The heat makes southern brewers do strangely delicious things. Some create tropical fruit bombs, while others go resinous or embrace a substantial malt bill.

☆ Midwest: The heartland features many of America's foundational IPAs - balanced, not afraid to flaunt malt, but also embracing the latest and greatest hops.

☆ Rocky Mountains: If you favor IPAs that mimic marijuana in liquid form; hightail it to Colorado.

☆ Southwest: Hot days and cool nights conspire to create both drier and slightly more substantial IPAs that go gloriously overboard on aromatics rather than bitterness.

☆ West Coast: Potent bitterness and aroma fuel these lean, dry and golden IPAs, turning them into high-powered performance vehicles.

☆ Pacific Northwest: Like pine trees and a citrus grove in liquid form, the slightly darker IPAs celebrate the agriculture-rich region's hop variety.

With those descriptions in place, my next post will focus on an untried type of IPA known as a New England IPA aka NEIPA. Keep your eyes peeled for it.

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla
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Colt 45 Malt Liquor October 18, 2019

Hey Peeps, guess who is back down the internet rabbit hole. You got it, yours truly is. Like I promised in my last post Country Club Malt Liquor October 17, 2019, I'm taking a look at good old Colt 45 Malt Liquor.

Now people today think of Colt 45 and the image of Billy Dee Williams in the Colt 45 beer ads is what comes to mind. Live under a rock and don't know what I mean? Well check out this vintage Colt 45 beer ad:

If you turned 21 in the 1990's in NYC, cracking 40's of Colt 45 (along with Old E, St. Ides, Private Stock and Ballantine Ale) was common. Especially for those of us who did so at the Astoria Park Strip!!!! But Colt 45 has been around for a while and it didn't always advertise to the urban beer drinker.

The Colt 45 beer was created in 1963 by the Baltimore based National Brewing Company and unlike the common belief that the beer was named after the Colt 45 handgun, the beer was actually named after Baltimore Colts and their running back Jerry Hill who wore number 45 for Baltimore from 1961 to 1970. Yes, the Colts played in Baltimore before sneaking out in the middle of the night and moving to Indianapolis. Why after Jerry Hill and not someone like Johnny Unitas? 🤷🏽‍♂️ That I can't answer but the article Retro Baltimore Trivia: How did Baltimore beer Colt 45 get its name? from the Baltimore Sun verifies the naming of the beer.

At first, as with most beer advertising during the early 1960's, the demographic advertised to was basically white middle class. The ads touted Colt 45 as being "In the dull and commonplace occurrences of day-to-day living, one thing stands out as a completely unique experience, Colt 45 Malt Liquor." Here are a trio of Colt 45 ads from the early 1960's:

As stated in my last post, with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the neglected African American market started being advertised to by brewers though it would take Colt 45 a bit longer to go full blast on the urban market. Their initial ads had the main focus on the Waiting Man who was as his name states waiting on getting some Colt 45. As time went on the ads got a bit extreme. Check these out:

and this one:

The advertising would change with including this ad with Redd Foxx driving recklessly on a ski slope to deliver the Waiting Man his six-pack of tall boy Colt 45s.

By 1974, print ads would include Redd Foxx and the shift to marketing to the urban areas a was on. Check out these two print ads which clearly show it is being marketed to a different demographic than earlier ads:

The big advertising coup for Colt 45 is when they were able to hire Billy Dee Williams to be their spokesperson. Williams was arguably one of the biggest and most popular African American actors at the time. Having him as the spokesperson for Colt 45 during the 1980s and 1990s made it skyrocket in demand. Check out this gem:

and this one with Fab Five Freddy:

 Billy Dee Williams' effect on the beer can still be seen in this ad from just a couple of years ago:

and even TMZ gets in on the act:

You gotta love YouTube. Ok, enough with the videos.

Colt 45 is currently owned by the Pabst Brewing Company and comes in a number of different varieties aside from the original 5.6% ABV Malt Liquor brew. Acording to Untappd, there's the Colt 45 Double Malt also with a 5.6% ABV, the Colt 45 High Gravity Lager at 8.5% ABV and what's known as the Blast Colt 45 which comes in a variety of flavors and clocking in at a whopping 12% ABV. These seem to be made in direct competition with the Four Loko brand of beverages. There's also a Colt 45 Premium Strong Beer that at 7.2% ABV is made for the overseas Asian market. The Light, Ice and Powermaster brews are no longer available. Does anyone out there remember this brief entry in the Colt 45 portfolio?

Cool Colt!!! Want to know what made it cool? It was a menthol flavored Malt Liquor. Its as if they took a pack of Newports and infused them in a bottle of Colt 45. I had it once...just once.🤢 Ugh.🤮

At some point I'll pick up some Colt 45 for a tasting review on my IG-TV channel. Maybe. So if you're in the hood, pop by your local bodega and pick up a tall boy, a double deuce or a forty of Colt 45. Tell them Billy Dee sent you.

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla
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Country Club Malt Liquor October 17, 2019

Hey Peeps!!! I know I mentioned that I would focus on the rise of Colt 45 Malt Liquor as the subject of my next post in my last post What is Malt Liquor. While I am putting the finishing touches on that post, I would be remiss in not mentioning the first real successful Malt Liquor brand in the United States: Country Club Malt Liquor.

As I mentioned in my last post, the post Prohibition and World War II eras gave rise to a beer alternative called Malt Liquor. The efforts of the Grand Valley Brewing Co. in Ionia, Michigan (1937) and the Gluek Brewing in Minneapolis, Minnesota (1942) brought Malt Liquor to the public. But it would be the Country Club brand that was made by the M. K. Goetz Brewing Co. in St. Joseph, Missouri that would bring the first successful Malt Liquor to the masses.

Goetz Brewing had a long history in St. Joseph, going back to 1859. As with many breweries nationwide, Prohibition pushed them to the brink. Goetz Brewing was no different and was able to survive. Once the The Cullen-Harrison Act amended the Volstead Act on March 21, 1933, beer was once again being brewed in St. Joseph. Country Club Malt Liquor was created in the 1951 and from the beginning the brew was marketed to a specific demographic. Check out these examples of Country Club ads:

 

As you see, Country Club is marketed as "The Party Brew!" Its being poured in a nice glass at parties, cookouts and as you can see from the demographic shown in the ad, the people have a very post World War II pre Mad Men era look and feel to them. The 60's and early 70's saw the ads change focusing more on the beer itself than the people drinking them. Here are a few examples:

 

 Then the target demographic changed as evidenced by this ad:

But why the change?

The 1960's brought massive changes in the United States in the area of civil rights with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The often neglected African American market was now seen as fair game when it came to advertising. In terms of beer this was no exception. Market research showed a certain trend in the urban market when it came to Malt Liquor. According to the article A Story Without Heroes: The Cautionary Tale of Malt Liquor by Kihm Winship from the All About Beer Magazine - Volume 26, Issue 2 dated May 1, 2005:  

They asked, “Which of our products are Black people buying already?” The word came back up the sales chain that people of color drank proportionally more malt liquor than their white counterparts. Nobody knew why; they just did.

While Black Americans comprise 12 to 14 percent of the population, they consume 30 to 33 percent of the malt liquor brewed in the United States The statistic is important for two reasons. First, it shows why brewers of malt liquor advertise more heavily to Blacks: As a group, they buy more malt liquor. The second important fact is that if a third of all malt liquor is consumed by Black Americans, two-thirds is consumed by people who are not black. Hold that thought.

With that information in hand, brewers across the board started to advertise heavily to the much neglected African American market by using African American celebrities and athletes in their print and TV ads. In terms of Malt Liquor, celebrities like Redd Foxx, Richard Roundtree, Fred Williamson, Wilt Chamberlain and Billie Dee Williams helped to advertise Malt Liquor to the newly discovered urban market. That trend would continue into the 1990's and through today. Malt Liquor goes hand-in-hand with hip hop. 

The Country Club brand itself would go through a period of change in ownership. Goetz Brewing would continue to operate in St. Joseph Missouri before merging with Pearl Brewing Co. of San Antonio, Texas in 1961. The St. Joseph brewery would eventually be closed in 1976 with all beer production being transferred to the Texas plant. Pearl Brewing would eventually fall under the Pabst Brewing Company umbrella and their beers being brewed at Miller plants.

Ok, this time my next post will go a bit more in depth on the role played by Colt 45 in the rise of Malt Liquor in the United States.

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla
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