Category: Craft Beer
Drunk Cupcake Sunday with homebrew
Photo by Matt Callahan
Faithful readers of Bierkultur will remember last winter when I made Valley Forge Black Ration Ale. I made it again this winter, but left out the spruce to keep it from overpowering the malty sweetness I was looking for.
My good friend Alyse keeps a blog of her own, DrunkCupcakeSunday.com, in which she makes cupcakes with alcohol (everything from chocolate stout to bananas foster) and blogs about her baking every Sunday.
This Sunday, she made ginger cupcakes out of my homebrew. I couldn’t be more excited.
Read all about it here, and bookmark her blog.
Bloomington Craft Beer Week: BCBF
There’s a certain amount of strategy necessary at a massive beer festival like the Bloomington Craft Beer Festival.
There’s no way you’ll have a chance to sample every single beer offered from the more than 50 breweries in attendance.
You can pick a single style and try all the offerings of that style. You can try to just pick Indiana breweries or just go for brews you haven’t tried.
A friend of mine properly described it as “the classiest power hour you’ll ever have.”
Here are some of my favorites from Saturday’s festival at Woolery Mill.
THREE FLOYDS BREWING CO. Toxic Wasteland Russian imperial stout
APPEARANCE Dark black with a thick brown head
AROMA Chocolatey, but with decent hop aroma and slight notes of pine
TASTE Roasted chocolate tones fade into piney hop flavor and bitterness
MOUTHFEEL Very smooth but heavy with a dry finish
OVERALL There were a few of beers at the festival that blew my mind. This was one of them. This is a very special beer.
NEW ALBANIAN BREWING CO. Black & Blue Grass spiced Belgian ale
APPEARANCE I was expecting this to pour dark, but ended up being a hazy golden, like an India Pale Ale
AROMA Very floral, lots of spices like coriander
TASTE Very flavorful, blue agave fruit in the beer comes through and makes it crisp, cool and surprising from the first sip
MOUTHFEEL The blue agave really comes through and gives this an almost menthol character
OVERALL This beer literally stopped me in my tracks with a “woah.” Every sip was a surprise. Novelty outweighed drinkability, but a nice brew nonetheless.
ZWANZIGZ Rauchbier smoked lager
APPEARANCE Dark amber with a nice head
AROMA Smoky with a traditional lager aroma
TASTE Hits the traditional German style on the head perfectly, well smoked and well balanced
MOUTHFEEL Easy to drink, great style execution
OVERALL It’s not often that I see an American brewery pull off a real rauchbier, and Zwanzigz out of Columbus, Ind., does this.
UPLAND BREWING CO. Champagne Velvet pilsner
APPEARANCE Light as light can be and crystal clear
AROMA Little aroma, but clean and crisp
TASTE A decent pilsner, nothing fancy, good “easy drinking” beer
MOUTHFEEL Heavily carbonated, very easy to drink
OVERALL This pre-prohibition revival from Upland will appeal to the macro-drinking audience. It’s a good bridge to introduce non-craft drinkers to the market.
CUTTERS BREWING CO. Empire Imperial Stout aged with bourbon and vanilla
APPEARANCE Dark black with a dark brown head, thick and sticky
AROMA Immediately get the complex flavors you would expect from a bourbon/vanilla combo, oaky, malty, flavorful
TASTE Pulled off the bourbon a little early, it could stand a little more bourbon flavor, but still very nice. Smooth vanilla balances the intense malt bill and oak from the bourbon makes it sing.
MOUTHFEEL Goes down much smoother than the normal Empire stout, otherwise uncarbonated
OVERALL Served on a five-gallon pin, so it was uncarbonated and unchilled, but very satisfying and complex.
BLOOMINGTON BREWING CO. Ruby Bloom amber ale aged in a Chambourcin wine barrel
APPEARANCE Dark red and amber, thin head
AROMA The aroma from the Chambourcin grapes comes through right away, makes it sweet and smooth
TASTE Amber ale characteristics with the grape flavors from the wine barrel and slight oak notes
MOUTHFEEL The wine flavors make BBC’s standard amber smoother than what you’d normally find around town
OVERALL A nice change of pace, smooth while still keeping a little bite from the Ruby Bloom base.
Bloomington Craft Beer Week: A brief history of beer
Ed Herrmann is a German-trained brewmaster who worked as brewer at Upland Brewing Co. for six and a half years.
Thursday evening, he gave a lecture at The Bishop Bar about the history of beer.
“What is beer?” Herrmann said. “And where’s my beer?”
He found his Bell’s Brewery Two Hearted Ale and explained beer’s backbone. All you need, he said, is crushed grain, yeast and water.
Additives like hops, fruits, spices, berries, herbs and more flavor the beer and give different, complex profiles.
One of his favorite additives, Herrmann said, was a medieval tradition that made beer clearer as glass drinking vessels became more popular. Bird feathers, early brewers found, helped collect particulate to clarify beer.
“They thought a great way was to throw in some feathers,” he said. “It kind of worked and they got to the point where they’d throw in a whole chicken.”
The most popular additive in today’s beer is hops. Hops, Herrmann explained, are flowers with glands full of acids that have bittering properties that manipulate flavor to balance the natural grains’ natural sweetnesses.
The earliest known fermented beverage was a rice-based beer product from the Henan Province in China, as old as 8500 B.C. In Sumer, “consuming beer was the custom of the land.”
That early influence on the importance of fermented beverage has continued through human history.
In 1516, the Bavarian Purity Law, or Reinheitsgebot, stated that beer can only contain hops, grain and water.
When the pilgrims of Plymouth came to the New World, they stopped in what is now Massachusetts because they ran out of ale, an important purifying agent for their water.
And today, beer drinkers celebrate the craft in a growing market that extols the old styles while still exploring new ways to create new brews. It all goes back to the rise of early civilizations and their development of fermented beverage.
“This took place right as people were settling down from mobile hunter gatherers,” Herrmann said. “They were living pretty good.”
BEER OF THE DAY Three Floyds Brewing Co. Robert the Bruce Scottish Ale
APPEARANCE Very dark brown with a slight ruby characteristic, not for the faint of heart
AROMA Malty sweet with slight notes of dark fruit
TASTE Caramel tones with low notes of chocolate, dark bitterness
MOUTHFEEL Bitter and biting, heavy and syrupy
OVERALL Tasty, the caramel notes on this one make it sing, one of the best Scottish Ales in Indiana
Bloomington Craft Beer Week: Craft beer takes Kirkwood
The Cutters have taken Kirkwood Avenue.
Along with Upland, Bloomington Brewing Company and other craft breweries from Indiana, Cutters Brewing Company has taken over taps at Bloomington’s most popular bars for the collegiate crowd.
At Kilroy’s on Kirkwood, the three Bloomington breweries (Upland, BBC and Cutters) have launched a Battle of Bloomington Beers. It’s a friendly battle between the brewers to see whose beer can run out first.
The Cutters spent $2 Tuesday at KOK, promoting beer and munching on KOK’s finest pub fare. At Scenic View Restaurant, the Cutters gave out a pint glass for every two pints bought, going through just about a whole case.
Wednesday night, they went to Nick’s English Hut for a tap takeover. Along with the usual slate of macros like Guinness and Pabst Blue Ribbon, Cutters served Floyd’s Folly Scottish Ale, Monon Wheat Ale, Lost River Summer Ale and their new Belgian Pale Ale.
Co-owner Monte Speicher tells me that KOK has a keg of their brand new Sour Brown Ale. I’ve heard good things, so keep an eye out for it.
At Nick’s Hoosier Room, the Cutters, otherwise known as Speicher, his wife Amanda, Ian Hunt and Hayes Cooper, sat with Pete Mikolaitis, a manager at Nick’s, eating stroms and sipping on Belgian Pales and Monon Wheats.
They talked about what’s next for the nanobrewery, the youngest and smallest Bloomington brewery that recently relocated production to a larger space in Avon, Ind.
There’s a double IPA in the works, Monte said, which will be named Full Court to match their Half Court IPA.
Right now they are putting special pin tappings all over town, from The Atlas Ballroom to Yogi’s Grill & Bar. These five-gallon containers are not carbonated but allow the brewers to craft special blends and be creative in flavor blending.
When Mikolaitis pointed out that a large table down the bar had already ordered four pitchers of Cutters — two Belgian pale ales, one summer ale and one Scottish ale — Hunt and Cooper jumped up and headed toward the table.
“We heard you are drinking Cutters,” Hunt said. “Well I’m one of the brewers for Cutters, and we brought you a pint glass and a shirt.”
That’s what the Cutters are up to now. They’re going table to table, bar to bar, introducing new folks to their “Hard Working Beer.” As they expand — Speicher said they hope to be in the Chicago and Cincinnati markets soon — they’ll keep these roots close to heart.
What’s next? “Anything and everything,” Amanda said.
BEER OF THE DAY Cutters Brewing Comapny Belgian Pale Ale
APPEARANCE Dark golden with a nice thick head
AROMA Slightly dry, but citrusy with slightsour aroma
TASTE Light, refreshing with a little bite, very drinkable
MOUTHFEEL Wellcarbonated at Nick’s, very drinkable
OVERALL It’s a very solid, drinkable spring beer, perfect for a Saturday afternoon on the porch.
Follow me on Twitter today for a chance to win a free ticket to the Bloomington Craft Beer Festival in a craft beer trivia contest.
Bloomington Craft Beer Week: Day 1
This week, I’m writing daily columns for the IDS from Bloomington Craft Beer Week. Check them out here and on stands this week.
Three years ago, the Brewers of Indiana Guild decided to expand its bill of beer festivals.
The standard bearer of Indiana beer festivals was already Winterfest in Indianapolis, which brings thousands of hopheads to the state fairgrounds every January. There’s also Dark Lord Day in Munster, Ind., hosted by Three Floyds, Hoosier Hops & Harvest in Brown County and a gaggle of others.
To hit a new, growing market of southern Indiana brewers and the college community of Bloomington, the Guild brought a beer festival to the historic Woolery Mill on the southwest side of town.
Today, the Bloomington Craft Beer Festival brings in brewers and craft beer drinkers from all across the state to talk about the craft and sample some damn fine brews.
The Guild has extended the events beyond the Saturday festival to a week-long celebration of hops, yeast and grain. The inaugural Bloomington Craft Beer Week offers a variety of events for the casual drinker and the full-out beer nerd.
ALL WEEK
- 15 percent off all Bloomington beers at Sahara Mart on East Third Street.
- Battle of Bloomington Beers at Kilroy’s on Kirkwood. A friendly competition between Upland, Bloomington Brewing Company and Cutters. The first brewery to blow a keg wins.
TUESDAY
- Cutters Brewing Co. at Scenic View Restaurant, pint glass giveaways and sample tastings. 6 to 8 p.m.
- Brewers Workshop at The Tap, meet brewers from Sun King, Brugge, Black Acre and Flat 12 . 630 p.m.
- Yogi’s Beer School with Indiana beers. Free samples and beer talk at 7 p.m..
WEDNESDAY
- Girls Pint Out at The Tap, hang out with the women of GPO Indianapolis chapter, hosted by Cutters.
- Restaurant Tallent pairing with Bloomington Brewing Company. Call Restaurant Tallent for reservations.
- Triton Brewery Tap Takeover at Max’s Place, 6 to 9 p.m.
- Cutters Brewing Tap Takeover at Nick’s English Hut with new Sour Brown Ale and Belgian Pale Ale, 7 to 10 p.m.
- Cheap Pint Night at The Bishop, all Indiana breweries have $3 pints.
THURSDAY
- Lecture at The Bishop, free lecture from Ed Herrmann of the IU Department of Anthropology on the history and production of beer, 6 p.m.
- Upland release party of Champagne Velvet at The Tap, taste the historic “beer with the million dollar taste,” back on the market for the first time in decades.
- Tap Takeovers: Fountain Square at The Owlery, Flat 12 at Max’s Place, BBC at Nick’s.
FRIDAY
- Special tapping of Cutters blend of Empire Stout and Floyd’s Folly Scottish Ale at Yogi’s, 7 p.m.
- Bloomington brewers (Upland, BBC, Cutters) will be at The Video Saloon for beer tastings, 11 p.m.
- New Albanian and BBC tap takeover at The Tap, 7 p.m.
SATURDAY
- Bloomington Craft Beer Festival at Woolery Mill, tickets available at brewersofindianaguild.com, 4-7 p.m.
- After-parties at Historic Fell Building at 415 W. Fourth St., The Tap, Nick’s and the Atlas Ballroom.
STAY CONNECTED
Follow my findings (@cscudder) and Bloomington Craft Beer Week (@BtownBeerWeek) on Twitter and use #BCBW. Keep reading the IDS this week and checking Bierkultur for reviews and columns from the hottest spots for Bloomington hopheads.
REVIEW: Shiner Wild Hare Pale Ale
About a year ago, I visited the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas. Just after my visit, the German-style makers of Shiner Bock (one of my go-tos for cookout six-packs) released their newest creation, Shiner Wild Hare Pale Ale.
Indiana has limited Shiner distribution, so when I came home to Illinois for the holidays and saw it on the shelf, I knew I had to finally get my hands on a Wild Hare.
The impetus behind Wild Hare is simple; American craft beer drinkers love their hops. The malt-kings of Shiner needed something to keep up with the growing pale ale crowd.
That tradition rings through in Wild Hare. Munich and cara malts create a really strong malty backbone that ultimately outweighs the only 28 IBUs coming from Bravo and US Golding hops.
I love me a pale ale with a meaty malt backbone, but this just didn’t do it for me. I would have liked to see more bittering hops to crank it up a few more notches to balance the caramel notes. It’s a very solid brew, but nothing special in my book.
APPEARANCE: Out of the bottle, Wild Hare pours a deep golden with a quick-to-recede bubbly head with continuous carbonation bubbles streaming from the bottom of the glass.
AROMA: Malty with slight hop aroma. Lightly floral with caramel notes that aren’t expected on an American pale ale.
TASTE: Strong caramel and Munich malt backbone with Goldings flavor and bitterness. The German-inspired malt character really comes through strong past the hop flavor.
MOUTHFEEL: Much like Shiner Bock out of the bottle, it’s very bubbly and highly carbonated. Goes down smooth, however.
OVERALL: Interesting interpretation of an APA. Not traditionally over-hopped. The Munich backbone comes through, tipping the balance toward the malt and away from hoppiness.
Upland to start brewing Champagne Velvet
Upland Brewing Co. announced yesterday they would start brewing Terre Haute’s storied pre-Prohibition beer, Champagne Velvet, this April. I’ll be writing more for Monday’s IDS. From Upland’s blog:
The brewers of Upland Brewing Co. are paying homage to Indiana’s most beloved beer of all time, Champagne Velvet, in order to celebrate their 15th anniversary and the bright future for craft beer in Indiana. And you can help decide the look and the taste of this heritage beer.
The growth of local beer in Indiana in recent years is a great cause for celebration, but local beer is not something new; in fact, it is our heritage. Though most of us are not old enough to remember the last time that the beer in someone’s hand was brewed just down the street, beer was once the sole province of local breweries. Though the craft beer movement might seem new, it is actually as much about looking to our past as it is moving into the future.
“We’re heading into our 15th year of operation on the heels of a massive brewery expansion, and the next few years are going to be very exciting,” says Upland’s President, Doug Dayhoff. “But we think the best way to celebrate the success that local breweries like us are having is by paying tribute to Indiana’s most successful local beer in history.”
Champagne Velvet is a German-inspired lager that was the flagship of the Terre Haute Brewing Company during its heyday, from the turn of the 20th century until the late 1950s. If you were living in Indiana during this time, it was the beer you and your friends would raise to celebrate the end of the work week, that you’d take with you on a weekend fishing trip, and that you’d serve at holiday get-togethers. Champagne Velvet defined beer in Indiana for over fifty years before the Terre Haute Brewing Company fell victim to the rampant practice of consolidation that characterized the brewing industry in the latter half of the 20th century. CV lost its home and identity, and eventually fell out of production altogether.
But that was not the end for Champagne Velvet. Inspired by the hand written brewing notes of the Terre Haute Brewery’s assistant brewer, Walter Braun, dated to 1901, the brewers at Upland are resurrecting Champagne Velvet, much as it might have been in its early pre-prohibition years. The men and women of Indiana will once again taste the smooth and flavorful lager that is their heritage in bottles and on draught beginning in April 2013.
And Upland wants you to be a part of the revival. “The Champagne Velvet Heritage belongs to everyone,” says Dayhoff, “so we want to let everyone be a part of this process.”
The branding of Champagne Velvet changed during its 50+ years as Indiana’s favorite beer, and Braun’s recipe notes are intriguingly incomplete, giving Upland’s brewers the opportunity to get a little creative. They want your help in deciding exactly what the beer should look and taste like.
The first step is deciding on the look. To help with that, go to the CV Art Survey between December 5th and December 8th and have a look at several CV labels from different periods in its history. Rank them in order of preference, and Upland use the winning label as the foundation for the new CV artwork.
CV also featured a number of slogans during its first life, and the Upland team has come up with a few new ones we like as well. Help them choose which one to use during the week of December 17th (details coming soon).
The final – and most important – step is the recipe. The brewers are making several pilot batches based on Braun’s recipe, and they want your help deciding which one will ultimately go in the CV bottle. By participating in either of the surveys mentioned above, you will enter yourself in a random drawing to be part of the CV Tasting Panel. If you win, you will receive email, and in January 2013, the Panel will gather at the Upland Brewery in Bloomington, IN to taste the different pilot batches and decide the future of CV.
The Upland team is looking forward to a great 15th anniversary and celebrating Indiana’s brewing heritage with local beer lovers.
For more information about Champagne Velvet, visit www.champagnevelvetbeer.com.
UPDATE: I talked to the good folks at Upland for the IDS for more details on the CV revival.
“We’re making it as authentic as we can,” said Charles Stanley, Upland’s strategic projects manager. “It was a German-inspired lager that did use flaked corn, and we will be doing that, as well. It’s really keeping with that drink local idea and paying homage to the most popular beer in Indiana history.”
But times have changed, Stanley said. New brewing techniques and equipment means the century-old recipe needs a 21st century update.
To do that, they’ll brew a few versions of the original recipe and bring in a taste test panel to pick the final brew.
“The variables will be yeast, amount of flaked corn used and the hop varieties,” Stanley said.
Bloomington’s The Tap finally open
After months of waiting, hoping, peeking in the boarded-up windows, The Tap, Bloomington’s newest beer bar opened to the public Friday.
It started with three days of soft opening events this week. I went Thursday night for Facebook friends of The Tap and again for the grand opening Friday night.
On the corner of N. College and W. Kirkwood, it really is Bloomington’s only true beer bar. There are 500 beers both in bottles and on tap. There is no kitchen, so if you want food you need to order it to be delivered to the table. The atmosphere is much more upscale than a Yogi’s or Nick’s or (God-forbid) Kilroy’s.
Open concrete and brick walls, steel tap wall, natural finish wood bar and large open spaces for standing and drinking make it classy while still keeping the beer-bar edge. There’s big screens for to watch the game and a live music stage above the bar to top it all off.
According to my Untappd account, I sampled six beers in two nights and wasn’t disappointed by any. The selection is mostly domestic, with a fair selection of bottled imports. The tap selection for the opening seemed to be concentrating on the intense, big name, hard to find in the Midwest brews like Great Divide, Stone and Rogue.
My tab included Great Divide’s Titan IPA, BBC’s Bourbon Barrel Stout, Stone’s Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale, Rogue’s Hazlenut Brown Nectar, Sierra Nevada’s Narwhal Imperial Stout and Three Floyd’s Dreadnaught.
The only complaint I had on opening night was that it was a little on the crowded side. We had to wait in a line around the block because the bar was at capacity. Based on the soft open, however, it’s going to be great when the grand opening business dies down a little bit. Probably one of my new favorite bars in town.
2nd Annual Hoosier Hops & Harvest
Photo by Theo Karatzas
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
One of my favorite beer festivals is the annual Hoosier Hops & Harvest festival in Story, Ind., deep in the heart of the Hoosier National Forest.
The really neat thing about the festival other than the great location, is the selection. It’s all small-production craft brews from Indiana and the Midwest. The biggest brewery there was probably Three Floyds out of Munster.
Last year, I shot video for the IDS, this year I went with two beer-drinking companions. Perfect location, great music, good friends, fine beers.
Here are my notes.
Crooked Tree IPA Dark Horse Brewing Company —The last few days I’ve been suffering a head cold. It’s a weird thing trying really flavorful, hoppy beers with a stuffy nose. Nonetheless, this IPA — rated at an unheard of 100 out of 100 by Beer Advocate’s Alström brothers — was clean and crisp. Not bombastically bitter, but even-handed and smooth.
Zombie Dust Three Floyds Brewing Company — One of my compadres from south of the Red River, Max McCombs, has been looking forward to trying Zombie Dust for a while. His observations:
Zombie Dust is largely what you would expect a super-charged American Pale Ale from Three Floyds to be, and that’s not a bad thing. In a lot of ways, it’s similar to the brewery’s dynamite Alpha King, but with the hoppiness upped several notches and the citrus notes even more pronounced.
ZwanzigZ’s taps
Triple Z IPA ZwanzigZ— In Kansas, I first tried the gimmick of adding fresh, whole hops to a beer. At the Hoosier Hops & Harvest, I tried it again. This time, the triple IPA — brewed with Centennial, Columbus and Cascade — was pushed through a tank stuffed with whole hops of those three varieties. In addition, I was able to add whole Centennial hops to my glass. The added hops only give a slight earthy character to the already strongly hopped IPA, around 60 IBUs.
Alt Bier Salt Creek Brewery — Out of Lawrence County, Salt Creek is one of the newest southern Indiana breweries. This take on the traditional altbier of Franconia is a fine interpretation. Well-lagered with a nice malty sweetness with slight caramel notes. I’ll have to stop by the brewery next time I’m headed to Bedford to see family.
Razz-Wheat Oaken Barrel Brewing Company—My other dear friend, gentleman of the colonies and former contributor to Bierkultur, Mr. Brad Sanders, enjoyed the Raspberry Wheat. It’s not exactly my cup of tea. His thoughts:
The Belgian brewers of the 19th century were always a bit more daring than the Germans and Brits when it came to experimentation, but even they would have likely been taken aback by the introduction of wheat into a classic lambic. Greenwood, Ind.’s Oaken Barrel Brewing Co. adds raspberries late in a brewing process that otherwise echoes that of an American pale wheat, and they’re allowed to retain much of their tartness, making Razz-Wheat a remarkably complex but highly drinkable beer.
Vision Wheat Bloomington Brewing Company — A nice wit with slight lemon notes. Refreshing. I’m sad I haven’t tried this one before. I’ll definitely have my eye out for it in the future at Lennie’s and around Bloomington.
BONUS: I was able to have small samples of two imperial stouts by ZwanzigZ that were in the back. One was aged on South American coca nibs and had slight vanilla notes with a nice clean finish. The other was aged on ghost chilies and was delightfully spiced with a burn that didn’t last long. I wouldn’t have a full pint, but extreme beers like that are always worth a try.
ANOTHER BONUS: I’ve also recently tried Upland Brewing Company’s newest seasonal, Oktoberfest Lager. It’s not quite a traditional Märzen, but is a nice amber lager, sort of a hybrid of the traditional German style with American fall seasonals. It will probably be my local go-to this fall.
TRIPLE BONUS: One final observation from Mr. Sanders on Three Floyds Moloko:
Maybe it’s just because it was served too cold, but the Clockwork Orange-inspired milk stout by Munster’s venerable Three Floyds Brewing disguised its lactic content so well that even this erstwhile skeptic was impressed. Like the best stouts, its smoothness belied its alcohol content, but it lacked a strong identity that might have placed it among 3F’s top tier. As it stands, it’s a good stout, if a bit ambitious with its price tag.
Politics of craft beer
via Associated Press
Last week, the WEEKEND section of the IDS published an issue all about craft beer in Bloomington.
I wrote my first column of the year about Barack Obama’s craft beer presidency. From the column:
If the old adage that the presidential candidate voters would rather share a beer with gets the most votes is true, there will be a clear winner in November.
Beyond Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s religious obligations keeping him from imbibing, President Barack Obama has solidified his role as the craft beer president.
Only two presidents have brewed beer while in office. George Washington made a “small beer” at Mount Vernon, and Obama bought homebrew supplies last year, making his administration the first to brew in the White House.
Thomas Jefferson made wine at Monticello, but that doesn’t count.
I went on to talk about the release of Obama’s homebrew recipes, seen below.
Obama’s relationship with frosty libations goes beyond just homebrew.
In the first year of his presidency, Obama was embroiled in a national controversy on race relations involving the arrest of Harvard professor Louis Gates. The POTUS invited Gates, the arresting officer and Vice President Joe Biden to the Rose Garden for a pint.
Obama had Bud Light, Officer James Crowley had a Blue Moon, Gates had Sam Adams Light and Biden drank Buckler, a non-alcoholic malt beverage.
Later in his term, Obama visited Ireland to track down his family roots. He stopped in a pub and was photographed with Michelle and a pint of Guinness.
When Obama lost a bet with British Prime Minister David Cameron during the 2010 World Cup, he traded Goose Island’s 312 Wheat Ale, from his hometown of Chicago, for Wychwood Brewery’s Hobgoblin, from Cameron’s home district of Witney.
“I advised him that in America we drink our beer cold,” Obama said at the time. “So, he has to put this in the refrigerator before he drinks it, but I think he will find it outstanding.”
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