The Preamble

The push toward Prohibition actually began in the nineteenth century, soon after the American Revolution. This period saw the rise of the Temperance movement, which saw the drinking of alcohol as the root of much of society’s evils; particularly various crimes and even murder. These Temperance organizations effectively used the arguments that Prohibition would stop husbands from throwing away the family’s money on alcohol and would reduce the number and severity of industrial accidents caused by hangovers and “2-martini lunches”.

The Act

By the beginning of the 20^th century, there were Temperance organizations in nearly every state and by 1916 nearly half of the states had passed laws prohibiting alcohol. In 1919 the 18^th Amendment to the Constitution was passed, which prohibited the “manufacture, transport and sale” of alcohol. The new law went into effect on January 16, 1920. Since this new Constitutional Amendment by itself did not have enough “teeth” to actually do what it was intended, the Volstead Act was passed soon after, which granted authority to government agencies to enforce the new law and set forth penalties for its violation.

Let the Good Times Roll

Like most laws, the newly christened 18^th Amendment and the Volstead Act had some pretty significant loopholes. For one thing, these new laws did NOT make it illegal to actually drink alcohol and they allowed for alcohol to be prescribed by doctors for “medical purposes”. As you can imagine, being inherently creative, these loopholes allowed your average drinker with some spare change to buy and stockpile quantities of alcoholic beverages before Prohibition went into effect and the number of alcohol prescriptions written by doctors rose dramatically. In spite of the prohibitions of the new laws, nasty characters like Al Capone and other organized crime elements saw an opportunity to turn a tidy profit. Private social/drinking clubs, sometimes called “speakeasys”, sprang up in many areas around the country which served “bootlegged” liquor of various types; rum brought in from the Caribbean (by “rum runners”), whiskey from Canada, “moonshine” and the proverbial “bathtub gin”. As you can see, Prohibition was far from the effective prevention of the consumption of alcohol that had been anticipated by supportive law makers and the Temperance folks and I think that there is a very good reason why that time period is sometimes called “The Roaring 20′s”.

The Repeal

Almost immediately after the 18^th Amendment went into effect there were several attempts to repeal it. While these were not successful, the anti-Prohibition movement continued to gain strength during the 1920′s. As the nation moved into the Great Depression and jobs disappeared, the repeal of Prohibition was viewed as a way to create many new jobs across the country and create new tax revenues for the struggling government. On December 5, 1933 the 21^st Amendment was passed, repealing the 18^th Amendment and effectively ending Prohibition. The 18^th Amendment is the only Constitutional Amendment to ever be repealed.

New Beer’s Eve and National Beer Day

Well, I guess that was a good history lesson, but we still have not answered the question of where New Beer’s Eve and National Beer Day came from. Before the 21^st Amendment was passed in 1933 and as Prohibition began to lose its support, Congress passed the Cullen-Harrison Act in March of 1933, which allowed the sale of 3.2% (4% ABV) beer in those states that did not have their own laws prohibiting it. This first shot across the Prohibition bow went into effect at midnight on April 7, 1933. On the evening of April 6^th that year, people lined up in front of breweries and taverns waiting for midnight, when they would be able to legally purchase beer for the first time in over 13 years. Henceforth, April 6^th is traditionally celebrated as “New Beer’s Eve” and April 7^th is celebrated as “National Beer Day” in remembrance of this event.

Enough with the science lesson as the real question to be answered here today is whether or not full moons, not to mention the unusual full moon this month, can contribute to better beer? There is much folk lore about the supposed benefit and detriment of full moons; such as the benefit of planting or harvesting of crops or the supposed rise in crime or mental illness (lunacy?) that may occur during these events. Why not suppose that this lunar cycle can affect the beer as it is being brewed?

A quick search of the Internet and Ratebeer located a number of beers being brewed by various brewers which claim that brewing under the watchful eye of “The Man” has the decided effect of producing better or “different” beer than normal. Some examples of this type of beer are:

• A Japanese brewer, GBC Ltd., produces a beer called Full Moon Beer. According to the commercial description on their Web site, this beer “uses hand-selected premium raw materials, is brewed in dawn of each full moon night and slowly matured for a whole lunar cycle, with special yeast”.
• Wychwood makes a beer called King Goblin which is produced under a full moon. I actually have one of these in my beer larder and plan to drink it tomorrow night just to see if the double effect of producing and drinking with a full moon adds anything to the experience.
• Brasserie Caulier has produced a limited-release full moon brewed Belgian Strong Ale called Paix-Dieu of which only 12,000 bottles were produced.
• For you unimaginative or lazy shopper types, there is always Blue Moon Belgian White Ale. Coors Brewing Company (MillerCoors) makes no claims about it being produced during a full moon, but it is interesting to note that a “blue moon”, of the “once in a blue moon” fame, is actually the second full moon to occur in a calendar month. The lunar cycle runs about 28 days, so it isn’t hard to see that, with nearly all months having more days than that, a “blue moon” happens pretty often.  However, if you need one, it is still a good excuse to drink beer…

A search of Ratebeer turned up 27 beers with the phrase “full moon” in their names. Try something different for a change… find one of these beers today to drink under the “supermoon” tonight. If you do, look for me out under the stars; I’ll be the one howling at the moon!

Let’s start with just a few of the beers I found that have what I consider to be unusual names. At the top of this particular list would have to be Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Breakfast Pooh Coffee Cask Festival Edition. Now don’t get me wrong, Mikkeller (as many of you will attest) makes great beer. This one just happens to be made with the most expensive and unique coffee in the world; from kopi luwak beans. Why is that unusual, you might ask? For those of you that do not drink exotic coffee, kopi luwak coffee is unique because the beans have passed through the digestive tract of the luwak (Asian Palm Civet). Closely related to the mongoose and about the size of a house cat, this animal feasts on coffee cherries from the trees and leaves behind the indigestible coffee beans in its scat (pooh). These beans are happily collected by the Sumatran owners of the plantation and sent off to be produced into coffee (sans scat, hopefully). I found no fewer than 11 beers on RateBeer that claim to be made with this coffee and many of those come from top shelf brewers. I am sure that this person is long gone, but wouldn’t it be interesting to talk with whomever was the first person to make “scat coffee”… what were they thinking?

Next on the list of unusual beer names has to be Big Sky Moose Drool Brown Ale. For you city folk and for those of you that live in areas where moose are not found, this is one big, majestic, but ugly animal. This beer is not, of course, made from moose drool (fortunately) and I am sure that those that enjoy it… it is one of the most popular beers in Montana… would agree that it is a good beer. I have only been up close to one moose that had been shot by a hunter (about 1,000 lbs with a 40+” antler rack), but the idea of beer being made from something that smelled that bad sort of turns my stomach. Male moose have the disgusting habit of rolling in their urine to make themselves attractive to the females of their species. Moose hunting season and mating seasons are close together and I have to tell you that I would gladly drink gallons of “skunked” beer to keep from having to drink one tiny glass of beer that smelled like that moose!

Let’s move onto beer with unusual ingredients. The classic here has to be beer made with chili peppers. Sadly, most of these beers, both from the few that I have tried and from looking at the RateBeer ratings are not very good beer. Cave Creek Chili Beer was (perhaps) the first of these to be sold commercially in any quantity. I have tried a small amount of this beer and I was not a very big fan. Novelty aside, the pale lager base beer, the little amount of heat and the small amount of chili flavor just did not mix well together. Something that would be more to my liking would be a darker beer, an Imperial Stout, made with chili. There is a long acknowledged affinity between chocolate and chili pepper flavors. Sierra Nevada makes one called Sierra Nevada Hellraiser Chocolate Chili Imperial Stout that sounds interesting to me because of the chocolate connection. I found 75 beers on RateBeer that have “chili” in their name. If you find one that you like, let me know.

There are also other types of pepper used to make beer and, being the pepper lover that I am, I really enjoy some of these as well. Two of my favorites are Dieu du Ciel Route des Épices, made with black and green peppercorns, and Vermont’s- own Bobcat Café Unrepentant Stout, made with Pippali (Piper longum). The pepper influence makes both of these beers a perfect pairing for a hearty steak dinner or a Montreal smoked meat sandwich (Yum!).

We could not pass by unusual beer ingredients without mentioning watermelon. At last year’s American Craft Beer Festival held in Boston, there were a number of brewers offering beer samples with this ingredient. After having tried quite a few of these, I have to admit that, at least in my mind, there should be room in the beer world for watermelon beer, if it is done right. My favorite watermelon beer, to date, has to be Thomas Hooker Watermelon Ale. Its excellent watermelon aroma does not follow exactly to its taste, but a small slice of red, ripe watermelon plunked into the beer makes for a nice garnish and completes the experience for me.

Lastly, and to the beers that actually got me thinking on this topic, we come to beers that are being target marketed to a select group of people. The ones that caught my eye this week are brewed by Minerva, a small Mexican brewer. These “artisan honey ales”, called Salamandra and Purple Hand, are being produced and marketed toward the LGBT community. The name “Purple Hand” draws reference from the historic 1969 San Francisco protest by the Gay Liberation Front and the Society for Individual Rights at the San Francisco Examiner. These are supposedly the first beers targeted at this group of people and, if the reaction of the Internet media is any indication, this small brewer has hit upon something that other brewers may pay attention to. The initial 500 cases of this bottled beer that Minerva produced sold out quickly and they are, of course, making more. There is also talk of the brewery opening a “Purple Hand” bar in Mexico City and producing other alcoholic drinks targeted at this particular group of people. Being a businessman at heart, I say “bravo” for establishing a new niche market for their products.

Well, I could go on and on about other unusual beers, but I think that I will save some of those for a follow-up article on this same topic on another day. I am a really big fan of the Travel Channel’s “Bizarre Foods” show and like the host of that show, I strongly encourage a similar approach to drinking unusual beer as he has for unusual food… if it looks or sounds good, they only way to find out is to drink it!

Some of you might be shocked to hear that not all beer that has “chocolate” in its name actually has real chocolate as an ingredient, but there are certainly some very excellent exceptions to that, as you will see. Many of these beers, in fact, get that name from the flavor imparted by the darkly roasted malt actually called chocolate malt. Not as dark (starts at about 300ºL) as the darkest malts , like black patent, chocolate malt retains some of the nutty and/or mild coffee flavors that most beer drinkers associate with porters or stouts. In the proper proportions with other ingredients and with the right care and handling during the brewing process, this malt can definitely contribute to a quite distinct chocolate flavor in the beer that I really enjoy.

Some of my favorite chocolate beers would include:

• Rogue Chocolate Stout – This is one of my favorite and most readily available chocolate beers. This beer actually does contain small amounts of real chocolate and I believe that you can tell the difference that makes in the authentic chocolate flavor that comes through when sipping this beer.
• Youngs Double Chocolate Stout – I believe that this may have been my very first chocolate beer; given to me as a gift by a friend years ago. Made with both dark chocolate and chocolate essence, this beer has a very deep and complex chocolate flavor that any chocolate beer lover is sure to enjoy.
• Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock – No list or review of chocolate beers would be complete, in my opinion, without including my all-time favorite chocolate beer. Without any question, for me this is the king of chocolate beers. I was absolutely devastated to hear that Samuel Adams was no longer making the version of this beer that used to come in the 750ml bottle with the silver labeling (see the picture at the link above). Shame on this brewer for bending to mass appeal and mediocrity by significantly changing the recipe of this beer, just so that it could be sold in 12-packs and cases. They had a real winner here and they blew it! The original recipe of this beer used to be made with a special Scharffen Berger chocolate, made especially for this beer. The beer was actually aged on a bed of this dark chocolate and then at the very end a hint of vanilla was added. From my perspective, the result was pure heaven in a glass. I mourn its loss… and pray for its future return.

Sometimes it is fun to match up the beer that you are drinking with some type of food that “pairs” well with it. Now before you get your hopes up too far, my beer/food pairing capabilities are still in their early stages and pretty undeveloped, but I am learning, so bear with me.

• What could go better with a nice chocolate beer than more chocolate! Seriously, try matching your favorite chocolate beer with flavors you might find in other types of chocolate candies. Chocolates or truffles containing coffee, caramel, mint, nuts of various types or even just very dark chocolate all fit in well with any of the beers listed above.
• I also find that cheesecake, particularly raspberry cheesecake, seems to match up well with chocolate beer, just like the raspberries and chocolate used to make fancy desserts.
• Chocolate-dipped fruits (strawberries, apples, bananas and etc.), dipped by hand, half drowned under a chocolate fountain or even poked into a chocolate fondue… finally a use for the five fondue kits you got for your wedding!

There are too many types and brands of chocolate beer to possibly go into here and more ways to pair these beers with food than can be counted. Use your imagination and don’t lose out on a great opportunity to titillate your taste buds with an awesome chocolate beer and just one of the endless variety of foods that can further enhance that decadent experience. If you can’t find a chocolate beer before Valentine’s Day arrives, don’t panic; many brewers make these beers all year and you can enjoy one whenever the time and the mood suits you.

Oh, and by the way, for all of you “male-types’ that have that special “someone” in your lives, but don’t take Valentine’s Day seriously… take the word of a man who is married nearly 29 years… you had better do something fast, as Valentine’s Day is Monday!!

First of all I’d like to call to your attention the appearance of one of Vermont’s own brewers, the Hill Farmstead Brewery, on these these lists. Hill Farmstead is listed twice on Ratebeer’s Best; as the top new brewery in the world and also for his truly wonderful Edward Pale Ale. If you have followed some of my previous articles here, you know that Shaun Hill’s small brewery, located in the tiny town of Greensboro in north-central Vermont is one of several shining stars among the 21 breweries that can be currently found in this small state. The appearance of Hill Farmstead on these lists is but the latest in an already impressive accumulation of accolades and awards that this young brewer has earned over the last few years. At last year’s World Beer Cup, three of Shaun’s beers, created by Shaun when he was working for Danish brewer Nørrebro Bryghus, won medals (2 golds and a silver) at this lofty international competition. If you look through the Ratebeer ratings for Shaun’s beers you will quickly see that Vermonters are not the only ones that are in love with Shaun’s creations and I truly believe that many of his beers would stand up well against a goodly portion of the other beers on Ratebeer’s Best. For many of you, however, Hill Farmstead beers might be some of the best beers that you will have never tried, as Shaun currently only runs about a 7-barrel operation and, although I know that some of his beers have appeared in Philly and NYC, most of Shaun’s beers do not make it very far out of Vermont… and that is fine with me. Come to Vermont and find out why Hill Farmstead rightly deserves their spot among the other brewers on Ratebeer’s Best.

The second observation that I have and I am not the first to point this out (See the 2010 article by fellow HopPress writer K.M. Weaver), no less than 34 of the top 50 beers on the list are Stouts or Imperial Stouts. There is probably nobody that likes a good Impy better than I do, but one would think from looking at this list that there are no other great styles of beer other than stouts… and that is clearly just not the case. While the other 16 beers that make up this list are of other styles, although far too few in number (my opinion), I was gratified to see some IPAs and Sour beers appear on the list; two other styles of beer that I enjoy very much. I hope that the folks that put together this list and beer raters in general are a little more open minded in the future about what constitutes a great beer. Great beers can and do include stouts, but that designation of a beer’s greatness can and should encompass much more than that (Understand? ¿entiendes lo que quiero decir? Verstehen? Vous comprenez? Dong ma?).

I was quite surprised (amazed?) to see Lost Abbey’s Framboise de Amorosa on the list. Having grown up in a house here in Vermont that had a huge patch of raspberry bushes in the back yard, I really have a soft spot in my heart for anything that has raspberries in it and that applies to beer as well. I have not had a chance to try this beer, but you can bet that it will go on my “Want” list right after I finish this article.

The last thing that I was left thinking as I looked over these lists was just how long it was going to take me to find and sample all of these great beers on the lists. The fact is that some of these beers and even some of the brewers may not even exist by the time that I have an opportunity to get to them all. I am not too stressed about this, mind you, but it does give one pause to hear Joe Tucker talk about the more than 130,000 beers and 10,000 brewers *currently* found in the Ratebeer database; and I am certain those numbers are growing. The world of craft beer is a huge one these days and growing rapidly. That is, without any question, due to the hard-working people that make up this industry and it’s good to see more than a few of them receive the praise that they truly deserve from the likes of Ratebeer and others.

I have no realistic hope of sampling all of the different beers on this year’s Ratebeer’s Best list in the near future and I will probably only sample a tiny fraction of the total number of beers listed in the Ratebeer database in my entire lifetime (the Ratebeer top rater currently has just under 20,000 ratings, which is amazing in itself), but in spite of all of that, I know in my heart that there are still a large number of beers that I will drink in the future that will end up on the VTHopHead’s Best list and I will surely take the time to enjoy and savor all of those beers I try in between those that I think are “great”. Do yourself a favor, print out these lists (or download them to your phone) before you head out to your favorite bottle-shop the next time and see if you can locate just one beer on these lists of what many believe are Ratebeer’s Best Beers…. I doubt that you’ll be sorry if you find one!

Earlier this week I received a “Friend of Harpoon” newsletter, which is distributed by the folks at Harpoon Brewery.  “Friend of Harpoon” is a fan club of sorts for people who enjoy Harpoon’s fine selection of beers; which I definitely do. As a club member, you are entitled to the newsletter, of course, which contains a listing of upcoming Harpoon events and special news about just about everything else Harpoon-related. They even issue a membership card to their “Friends”, which can be used to collect member-only discounts at events and at the Harpoon company stores… but I digress. This particular edition of the newsletter also contained an announcement of the 35^th beer to be released in Harpoon’s “100 Barrel Series” of beers; a rebrew/reformulation of a previously released beer, called Catamount Maple Wheat, which was also #26 in the series.

My interest in this beer was not so much its imminent release (early February), though I did like it the first time they produced it, but it really got me to thinking about other brewers that have their own special series of beers that they distribute only seasonally, at odd times (when the whim strikes them) or on an annual schedule. As I poked around on Ratebeer, I first discovered that there are, in fact, quite a number of brewers that do this and, secondly, some the beers in these “brewer’s best” series of beers are some of my favorite beers from those brewers.

Harpoon is an excellent example of a brewer that plays this “game”.  Not only do they have their “100 Barrel Series” of special beers, they also offer a “Leviathan” series of big or higher ABV beers. As I mentioned above, the 100 Barrel Series is up to its 35^th beer. This series has seen a diverse selection of beer types and tastes over the years. Everything from barleywines to wet hops to Belgians and Saisons to real oyster stouts… a virtual smörgåsbord of many different beers that is sure to please any beer drinker at one time of another (or fairly constantly, like me). These are quite limited release beers that have been, at times, hard to find if you are not paying attention. I am sorry to say that I have not have the pleasure to taste all 35 of these beers, but the dozen or so that I have were all quite good.

Harpoon’s other “series” is called Leviathan and for good reason; these beers are all at least 9% ABV (topping out at about 12%) and all quite good. There are currently 8 beers in this series and I am happy to say that I have tried (and liked) all of them. Beer types in this series have ranged from barleywine to Belgian to wheat (Triticus)… not nearly as big a variety as the 100 Barrel Series, but every bit as good and worth seeking out when they are available.

I can’t possibly list all the brewers that I found that have these series of beer releases and, after my brief survey on Ratebeer, I am fairly certain that I only found a small fraction of the ones that do. Attempting to list even the ones that I found wouldn’t possibly do each of them justice in terms of the qualities and benefits that each of their beers bring to the craft beer marketplace. However, I have decided to list below a very small selection of some, just to give you a flavor of the variety of ways which brewers are participating in these “series”.

• Long Trail Brewery – Long Trail offers their “Brewmaster” series of beers. Currently there are five beers in this series of various types and styles.  Their site does not list a particular schedule for their release, so one could assume that they are released on a “whim”.
• Otter Creek Brewing – Otter Creek offers an “Imperial” series of beers; I believe that there are about five so far (a bit hard to identify from their names) and all quite enjoyable. Otter Creek also produces Wolavers Organic beers, which could (I guess) be called another “series” and there are 14 different types of this brand offered as well.
• Dogfish Head Brewery – Dogfish Head does not refer to their special beers as a “series”, but they do maintain a definite production schedule (as known as “Thee Schedule”) of when these beers are due to become available. These beers fall into categories… “Seasonals” (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter), “Strong Fruit”, “Agables” (barleywines, stouts and IPAs) and “Ancients”. Known for their big beers as well as for their use of unusual ingredients and recipes, I can’t imagine this long distribution list not containing something that would appeal to most beer drinkers.
• The Lost Abbey – This fine brewer runs two separate series of beers throughout the year; their “Seasonals” and their “Non-Denominationals”. Both series contain a variety of different beer either timed to release relative to a particular time of year or holiday (Seasonals) or on a loose schedule throughout the year (Non-Denominationals). I am truly hoping that beer from this brewer becomes available in Vermont soon!

That is just a very small sampling of the brewers that offer one or more special series of beers or schedule times for their releases during the year. I do have to admit that this type of an approach appeals to me. I follow a number of these scheduled beer releases from quite a few brewers and I definitely look forward to particular times of the year when some of my favorite beers are due to become available. I am sure that some (most?) of you must follow at least one brewer that produces a “series” and I think that you would be well-served to seek out more of them. In many cases these brewers are offering you a bit more than something different and special at a particular time of the year; they are very often offering you their brewer’s best.

This year’s day will be just a little different than past years as we will have our grown children (Cindy and Jamie) with us for the entire day. For most of our married lives (coming up on 29 years) we have shared them on Christmas day with their father and his family. For us Christmas is all about family and it was always important to both Candy and I for them to share the day with all of their family that was around and available. This year they shared that time with their father on Christmas Eve, so we will get to spend the whole day together for the first time in many years.

That means of course that my son and l will be sharing some special beers throughout the day. The longer “session” available to me has prompted a longer list of beers than in year’s past. It is certainly the “cold and flu” season and all of us have had “something” to deal with over the last couple of weeks. The current state of Jamie’s health may alter our beer drinking plans for the day… or at least the “sharing” part of that… I feel fine and plan to enjoy some of the beer currently awaiting its fate in the fridge as we speak. I hope that does not sound too selfish on my part. I am hoping that he feels better later, so that he can enjoy the beers that I have planned for the day.

Last year we began what I hope is a tradition that we keep; enjoying one of Sean Lawson’s Finest Liquids beers on Christmas day. Last year we savored two of them… Fayston Maple Imperial Stout (Fayston is a small Vermont town) and Sean’s Maple Tripple. While both were excellent beers, the Maple Tripple, for me, was over the top. Sean won a Bronze Medal at the 2010 World Beer Cup for this beer in the “Specialty” category. Strictly as a “trippel” it has a few weaknesses, but simply as a beer to drink and enjoy it is one of my absolute favorites. Sean uses a variety of maple industry products (Vermont is the largest producer of maple syrup in the US) to produce this beer and for those of us that were raised with maple in our blood, this beer really resonates with this Vermont heritage.

This year I was fortunate enough to score a special, unique and very “Vermontesque” version of the Sean’s Fayston Maple Imperial Stout… this one aged in Maple barrels! Sold only at Montpelier’s indoor winter Farmers Market a couple of weeks ago, the single batch of this “wonder beer” sold out in about a half hour to those of us fortunate to plan to get there early enough and make it through the line before it was gone. I plan to sample a bottle of this brew sometime during the day today. The rest of the bottles of this beer I got will be hidden away (from me) to age an appropriate amount of time before seeing the light of day again. I also was able to get a bottle of his Hopzilla Double IPA; another of Sean’s beers that I have not tried yet.  As only a one-barrel brewery, Sean’s beers are produced in such small quantities that it is hard to easily gain access to the entire variety of what he is producing. Luck plays a large part in obtaining any quantity or large variety of his beers over time. The Hopzilla, a beer of my favorite style, will likely take center stage during “football Sunday” this weekend.

The other beers that I have planned for today are from brewers that I have sampled and enjoyed other beers from previously. I have a bottle of Ommegang Adoration; their classic winter beer, which should fit into the day nicely. I have enjoyed other beers from Brouwerij Huyghe… Delirium Nocturnum, Delirium Tremens and etc… but I have a bottle of Delirium Noël, which I have been saving for nearly a year, that I hope to break into later today. The last beer I have planned is Dubuisson’s Bush de Noël (Scaldis Noel). We’ll plan on treading lightly with this one, if we get to it, due to its 13% ABV potency. This one could definitely/easily prompt a nap or early bedtime if not sipped and savored over some longer period of time.

For those of you looking for other holiday beer suggestions for today (if you already have bought it, obviously, since few stores will be open today) or for later as the holiday season progresses, I suggest that you check out the personal Web site of my fellow HopPress writer Jon Abernathy. His site, called the “The Brew Site” has an excellent Beer Advent Calendar, in which Jon highlights 24 holiday beers for 2010. This topic is an annual one for Jon, so bookmark it for next year!

The sound level upstairs is increasing and I am sure that breakfast is almost ready. I plan to grab another cup of coffee and settle into a day-long revelry of family time, perhaps my favorite pastime. We’ll open some presents, eat some great food and enjoy each other’s company throughout the day. We are generally a pretty “merry” group anyway, but the holiday festivities and fun are sure to make it a(nother) day for us to remember having spent together as a family. I hope that all of you are spending time with someone or a group of people special in your lives and that the day is a happy one for you.

From all of the Koenemann family to each of you… Have A Very Merry Christmas!!

My fellow HopPress writer, Steph Weber, wrote an article (Wassail! Wassail!), which appeared on Christmas Day last year, about how to make a traditional wassail. I have found that there are a variety of ingredients that can be added to a wassail. The one that Steph chose (from Alton Brown at the Food Network) looks like a very good one and I may give hers a try sometime. Like most recipes, you could easily take Steph’s/Alton’s and alter it significantly to suit your own needs and tastes. If you desire something different all together, simply searching the Internet for “wassail recipes” will bring you dozens of possibilities to explore on your own.

Wassailing History and Customs

From a historical perspective, the term “wassail” is quite old; its usage perhaps dating back about a thousand years to Denmark and England. The earliest usage of the term “wassail” that I could find in literature was in the old English poem, Beowulf, written in the 8^th century. The word seems to be derived from the Old Norse ves heil or the Old English was hál and meaning “be in good health” or “be fortunate.” The term apparently evolved over time to a common greeting sequence where a guest would sound out “Was Hail” (“Good Health”) and the host would return “Drink Hail” (“Drink Health”). This tradition has survived to the present day and can still be heard at the beginning of banquets in some locations. As a ritual, there are many references to the the actual tradition of “wassail” as being a pagan gathering in the orchards on “twelfth night” to drink, sing and dance around bonfires in hopes of ensuring a good crop yield in the coming year. If my research is accurate, this tradition is still practiced in some areas of the UK; no longer as a pagan rite, necessarily, but more along the lines of a harvest celebration

Interestingly enough, I found several references to wassailing as being responsible for our tradition of “toasting” with drink at an event such as a wedding. This seems to date back to the practice of floating pieces of toasted bread on top of a bowl filled with wassail or dipping toast into wassail as it was being consumed or as an offering to the apple trees in the ritual described above.

Wassailing Song

Along with the drinking of wassail (or perhaps because of it) singing or “wassailing” has also become an important part of this holiday tradition. The practice of “wassailing”, or traveling as a group from door-to-door singing to the inhabitants is certainly responsible for the modern holiday tradition of carolling. These songs would also be sung as the bowl of wassail was brought into a room. Most would be familiar with the common wassailing tune, “Here We Come A-Wassailing”, now replaced by the modern song, “Here We Come A-Carolling” of the similar words and tune:

“Here we come a wassailing among the leaves so green

Here we come a wandering so fair to be seen

Love and joy come to you and to your wassail too

And God bless you and send you a happy New Year

And God send you a happy New Year

We are not daily beggars that beg from door to door

We are your neighbor’s children whom you have seen before

God bless the master of this house, likewise the mistress, too

And all the little children that round the table go.”

With that song on lips and in our hearts I will leave you for today. Like wassailing there are many traditions, old and new, associated with the season of holidays that is upon us. I strongly encourage you to look beyond the crass commercialism that has come to represent some of these holidays in today’s world and relish the true basis of these traditional celebrations… friends, family and thanks for the good things we have in our lives. From my family to yours, I bid you the merriest of holidays and happy wassailing!

With so much emotion from both sides of the debate swirling the factual information surrounding this issue, it was not easy for me to jump to a quick conclusion (as some obviously have) concerning the correct/proper course of action in this case. It is a complicated issue and, after looking at it most of the week, I’ll be quite honest and tell you that I am starting to lean to the side of those that want this type of beverage more heavily regulated or banned. This from someone (me) that generally thinks that our government is far too intrusive into the lives of consenting adults.

Let’s examine some of the information surrounding this issue:

• For years many brewers have added caffeine-bearing substances (coffee, tea, chocolate, etc.) to beer in order to create diverse and interesting flavors in their brews. I, for one, appreciate (adore?) some of the beers containing these substances.
• In stark contrast to this traditional approach, focused on enhancing the flavors of the beer, the manufacturers of these alcoholic energy drinks are adding the chemical (non-naturally produced) caffeine and other substances to their beverages for the sole purpose of significantly altering how the alcohol in their drink affects the drinker.
• Most of these alcoholic energy drinks offer a very cheap path to intoxication. Here in Vermont, as in most places where they have been sold, a 4-pack of 23oz cans of Four Loko or Joose sold for about $12 ($3/can). Due to a law change a few years ago, Vermont allowed the sale of the 12% ABV version of these beverages (some states allow only their 6% ABV version). Some quick math indicates that each can of Four Loko, for example, contains approximately 2.76oz of “pure” alcohol (12% of 23oz). At about 5% ABV, a 12oz can of Budweiser contains 0.6oz of “pure” alcohol (5% of 12oz). A single can of Four Loko contains about 92% of the total “pure” alcohol found in an entire 6-pack of Budweiser.
• Most blood alcohol content (BAC) calculators compare the number of drinks (the can of Bud would be one drink, the can of Four Loko would be about 5.5 drinks) to body weight. If you are a 120lb person, you can drink two of the Budweisers in the first hour of hour drinking before you will likely cross the BAC line (0.08%) considered to be legally “drunk” in most states. It will take slightly less than half of that can of Four Loko to accomplish the same thing. If you are not 120 pounds (I’m not!)… for a 240lb person you cross that legal BAC line at about the same time that you are finishing that six-pack of Bud OR that first can of Four Loko. If that 240lb person does go on to finish the entire 4-pack of Four Loko, even over the course of an entire evening (6-hours, assuming that you are metabolizing some of the alcohol during that entire time), their BAC will be hovering around the 0.14-0.16% range, about twice the legal limit, and they would be experiencing some of the more serious effects of alcohol intoxication… loss of gross motor control, slurring of speech, decreased reflexes/reaction time and they can probably forget about getting it on with that beer-goggled “babe” they are with at that point.
• What makes drinks like Four Loko potentially so dangerous, aside from the amount of alcohol that they contain, is the effect of the caffeine and others substances (primarily guarana and taurine) have on the body while you are consuming the alcohol. Alcohol normally acts as a depressant in the body; producing relaxation and sleepiness after the consumption of even small to moderate amounts. These symptoms are “warning signs” or feedback available to the drinker potentially allowing them some control over how much alcohol they are consuming. Four Loko and the like, because they contain caffeine, mask some of alcohol’s depressant effects normally experienced. This prevents the drinker from experiencing all of the effects of the alcohol they have consumed (a sabotage of the mechanisms described above)… but only up to a point… the alcohol always wins… and by then the effects felt by the drinker may well be those of truly excessive alcohol consumption.

It seems to me that there is no real purpose in artificially boosting the amount of caffeine in these drinks other than to promote/facilitate alcohol abuse by the drinker. I am no “nanny”, I drink plenty of beer and have had more than my share of nights where I drank more than I should have. The difference for me was in my ability to (hopefully) perceive what was happening along the way and make the determination (mostly) on my own about whether to continue drinking or not. Had I been drinking one of these alcoholic energy drinks or even large amounts of coffee as I drank, I could/would potentially lose some or even most of my ability to make those same decisions. Couple that with the apparent phenomenon of underage drinkers using/abusing these drinks and you are bound to have a recipe for disaster… and you can read about plenty of those in the media.

Many of the makers of these products, including Four Loko maker Phusion Products, have already agreed to remove caffeine from their products in anticipation of an outright ban by the FDA. Time will tell if the actions by the FDA and the states as well as the colleges and universities involved in setting restrictions on these products will have the desired effect of reducing their abusive use… or will the people that want to use them find another avenue to pursue. I think that there is a good reason that these types of products have been banned by other countries, like Canada and Australia. They, too, see the fallacy of allowing them to be sold and consumed by their citizens. After taking a good hard look at lots of material on this topic this week, I am pretty sure that I see the “truth” of what these products are and what they do to those that choose to drink them. I also now wonder how their makers could “dare” to defend their sale in the face of a relative mountain of evidence that they do more damage than good. How about you… will it be truth or dare?

Growlers have, of course, been available in Vermont for a while, but a quirky twist to our laws here required that these growlers be filled “from the source”; that is they had to be filled by a brewer at the brewery where the beer was produced. They could then be sold in other places after that, but as all of you know, the shelf life of this type of beer is not conducive to wide distribution without significant loss of quality. The sale of growlers in Vermont outside of that relatively narrow definition were not legal… until recently. In an effort pioneered by two retailers (the Hunger Mountain Coop in Montpelier and the Bennington Beverage Outlet in Bennington, of course), supported heavily by many members of the Vermont Brewers Association as well as a large group of the State’s beverage retailers, the Vermont Department of Liquor Control (DLC) has begun to push forward a rule change that will eventually loosen, significantly, the rules governing the sale of growler-based beer in this state. Like many things in life, this pending rule change has a story behind it… and the story does not have an ending, yet.

Earlier this year, after some discussions with area brewers (Allen van Anda of Trapp Lagers in particular), Patrick Luce, the head beer buyer at the Hunger Mountain Coop, decided that he would start to offer freshly filled growlers of beer for sale at the Coop… a weekly “growler night” that would highlight one brewer each week. The Coop already maintains the best beer selection in the greater central Vermont region, so the opportunity to also buy nice fresh beer to take home appealed to many. These growler nights were a big hit among Coop members and the general beer community of the area (including me).  Unfortunately, as is often the case, the event’s popularity caused its notice by the DLC, the authority charged with the regulation of beer sales in Vermont. As described above, according to the strict interpretation of the laws, this weekly growler sales event was illegal and Patrick was ordered to stop them. Vermont laws, like those in other places, are quite often difficult to interpret; the DLC determined that Hunger Mountain had fallen prey to this complexity and no fines were issued.

Disappointed, but not discouraged, Patrick knew that there were other retailers, like the Bennington Beverage Outlet, that were either considering or were already developing similar growler sales programs around the state. Similar laws exist in many other states (Piggly Wiggly stores in South Carolina sell a tremendous amount of beer this way) and the DLC was already aware of quite a few other Vermont retail organizations wishing to sell beer in this manner. Knowing this, Patrick moved ahead to officially petition the DLC to consider changing the Vermont beer laws to allow the type of growler sales that he and others sought.  On September 22^nd Patrick attended a Liquor Control Board meeting to submit his request. However, bureaucracies are want to move slowly and the process to make this seemingly simple change was destined to be a long one. Once the request was formally submitted, the DLC had 120 days to consider its decision. If they initially agreed to the request, it was then passed along to a Vermont Legislative Committee for 30 days of consideration. Finally, if it got past them, the rule change had to be publicly noticed/warned in the media around the state with the public at large having 30 days to make comment on the change. If no objections are received, the rule change comes back to the DLC to be put into effect.

Some quick math shows the process that began in September could easily stretch to March next year… with no guarantees that objections would not delay it further or kill it completely. Fortunately saner heads have prevailed and, since both Bennington Beverage and Hunger Mountain had already made significant financial commitments to get their programs up and running, these two establishments have been given preliminary approval to proceed with their plans. Tonight (Thursday) I attended the second weekly event of Hunger Mountain’s resurrected Growler Night. Victory Brewing was there selling freshly filled growlers of their Prima Pils and Yakima Glory (used to be Yakima Twilight). In a totally selfless act (not), I bought one of each to help them celebrate and to support their effort.

The rule change still has a long way to go and there is no guarantee that final approval will be granted; though the preliminary authorization of Hunger Mountain and Bennington Beverage gives all of us significant hope. Other establishments are being told that they have to wait for final approval and I know that some of them are very anxious to get their own programs up and running.

My heart-felt thanks go out to Patrick (and the others involved) who had the courage and conviction to follow through on making this welcome change possible. Their hard work and dedication made a difference… to me and many other Vermonters. I am reasonably certain that scenarios like this are being played out all over the country. There are lots of bad, outdated and heavily anti-alcohol biased laws out there just waiting to be and needing to be changed. Someone (perhaps you) will need to step up to the task of fighting to change these things. Make a difference today and please support your local beer cause… you’ll be glad that you did!!

Patrick Luce (left) at Hunger Mountain Coop's Growler Night