Beer of the week July 5th 2006

Redhook Sunrye

This is my first rye beer, so I can't compare it to anything other than to say this was good to have with some brats on the 4th of July. Beeradvocate gave it a "Not Recommended" rating but I disagree though I would like to try it on its own. Also, Beer Advocate is launching a monthly magazine which you can subscribe to for $20 until August.

The Tampa Tribune ran an article on the World Beer Cup, held at Four Green Fields (a local Irish pub). They took the 12 beers and 5 others that call themselves beer. There are a couple of things about this article which make me want to write Jeff Houck some hate mail. What beer represents the US? Budweiser.

You may think, "Well they picked the most popular beer of each country."

No, the odds were stacked against the US from the beginning. Worse yet, he missed a wonderful opportunity to expose readers who think beer is Budweiser to the wonderful world of American Craft Beer; I would pit our best against anyone's. The 2nd aggravation is that they are comparing styles that are all over the map. For non-beer drinkers, this would be like saying, which soda is the best? Coke, Pepsi, Sunkist, Sprite, Welch's Grape, Diet Rite, or Yoohoo.

"But Yoohoo isn't really beer..." ... exactly.

If American Beer is Budweiser, German beer should be Beck's, St Pauli Girl, or Lowenbrau not Franziskaner. Belgium should not have Chimay, but Stella. At least they are all Lagers (and light ones at that) and the losses would be definite instead of ridiculous.

Fortunately it looks like several people agree with me. In the poll on tbo portal, for which beer should have been chosen for the USA, among Bud, Miller, Coors, Michelob and Sam Adams... Sam Adams was leading 10:1 over Budwhizzer.

--Joey