Get out of Denver

Which is what I did today. I wish I'd left a day earlier before it got so effing cold.

I'm really not used to the cold any more after our non-winter in Amsterdam.  A crazy drop in temperature - from 15 C to -5 C in a few hours - was supposedly the fault of an arctic vortex. Wasn't that a 70's rock band?

I had a great time in Denver - who wouldn't if they spent much of it in a pub (Hogshead Brewery) with not just six or seven cask beers, but good ones in great condition?

Well, maybe not some craft keg dogmatists. But they're just twats.

At Hogshead - where I was doing a beer launch/book tarting event - cask proved its best characteristic again. Drinkability. Several times I was amazed at how empty my glass was. It just threw itself down my throat.

I had the same at Maritime Pacific Brewing in Seattle.  I suspected my glass must have a hole in it, the Double IPA disappeared so quickly.

I'm off to Deschutes Portland tap in a half hour or so. Life is good.

USA here I come yet again again

I got back to Europe yesterday morning. But tomorrow I'll be jumping back over the Atlantic again for my next vain exercise in book tarting.

This is what I have planned:

Narrows Brewing Company
9007 S 19th St,
Tacoma, WA 98466.
Saturday 8th November at 3pm. Short, informal talk on Stock Ale.


Hogshead brewery
4460 W 29th Ave,
Denver, CO 80212.
Sunday 9th November at 6pm Chat about beer and tap the "Beer from the Wood" version of 1845 Lovibond XX. Also a cask conditioned Stout based on Barclay Perkins 1928 OMS.


Hair of the Dog
61 SE Yamhill Street,
Portland OR 97214
Wednesday 12th November 4 pm. Tasting of the beers brewed from recipes in the Home Brewer's Guide to Vintage Beer at the brewery.


The Cobalt
917 Main St,
Vancouver,
BC, Canada
Thursday 13th November 7pm. Talk: the Home Brewer's Guide to Vintage Beer, plus beers brewed from the book.
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/ron-pattinson-historical-beers-presentation-tickets-13721293759?aff=eiosmyevshreclip&ref=eiosmyevshreclip


Foggy Noggin Brewing
22329 53rd Ave SE
Bothell, WA 98021
15th November 4pm. 13:00 – 16:00 book signing
Release of 8 collaboration brews
18:00 vintage beer tasting event

Come along if you can. Buy my book, listen to me talk bollocks, buy me some beer.

Wet and dry in the States

Here's another result of my traawl for the word "pilsener" in the newspaper archive.

It's an article about the creeping prohibition in the US in the years leading up to WW I. I've been as guilty as everyone alse of thing that prohibition was introduced at a stroke in 1919. In reality, it had been happening county by country for some time.

Temperance campaigners in Britain took note and that's why they were so keen on getting "local option" legislation introduced. That would allow district to vote to close all alcohol outlets. After WW I, such legislation was introduced in Scotland and a few areas did become "dry". But in the 1920's the temperance campaign was running out of steam and they were unable to persuade voters to ban alcohol in most of the country.

"WAGES AND THE COST OF LIVING IN AMERICA.
A COMPARISON.
"WET" AND "DRY" IN THE STATES.
[By Special Western Gazette Correspondent.]
As in England, the liquor traffic question is very much to the front at this time the United States. The promoters of the trade and the townships and counties which permit the sale of drink are known "wet", and the prohibitionist party and districts "dry." A wave of temperance and "dryness" appears be spreading over the land. The raising of the cost of licenses from 350 dollars to 1,000 dollars of course caused the weeding out of many the small saloons, but the pace was not fast enough for the prohibitionists, and now the people are generally voting "dry." Racial feeling has, no doubt, something to do with the vigorous prosecution of the campaign against the saloons in the .Southern States, the ostensible object being remove one of the chief causes of crime among the coloured population. In the North the moralists receive great support from the moderate drinkers, who see in the war against the liquor interests a just retribution for the unjustifiable uses they have made of their vast monopolies. In this State of Ohio 66 out 88 counties have gone "dry," and in the adjoining State of Indiana 78 out of 92.


A WAY OUT.

New York City is declared "dry" on Sundays, a surprising fact when one sees the amount of business and pleasure going on there during that day. But it doesn't need even bold imitator of the "bona-fide traveller" in England get "wet" in New York. In justice to the hotels of that city, it is only fair to say that the drinking bars are not prominent features of the establishments. Still, you can find the buffets when needed. On the Sunday I was there I saw two men who had not registered at the hotel call for glasses of Pilsener. The smiling waiter hinted that the order must include food, and brought a couple of sandwiches with the beer. The sandwiches remained untasted, and would probably do duty again and again for the same purpose, much as that noted contract beast, "Old Jerusalem," was tendered and rejected at the British camps in South Africa during the Boer War."
Western Gazette - Friday 09 July 1909, page 5.

Of course, even when total prohibition came in, getting a drink wasn't much of a problem

I've seen something similar to the untouched sandwiches. I was drinking in a bar in Krakow in the meid 1980's. You had to have food to get an alcoholic drink. There were several blokes with a boiled egg an two 100 ml glasses of vodka.

Saturday 1st November

Or coming Saturday.

Just discovered that there is a rail service of some sort out in the sticks of New Jersey where I'll be this week. Which means I'll be able to get to NYC on Saturday.

If anyone fancies meeeting up for a beer, I'll be in Blind Tiger about 13:00. I'll probably wander off later to DBA, Jimmy's No. 43 and Hop Devil.