David Mitchell rants about Beer Advertising

Ayinger Bruä-Weisse - Aying, Germany

Ayinger Bräu-Weisse - 3.5/5

Anyone who frequents the Beer Blogga or knows me well enough will understand that I'm not the greatest fan of hefeweizen style beers and may question my rating on this wheatie treat.

I've changed my attitude recently. For my birthday my friends Virginia and Jeff hand selected a few beers for me to drink and write about.

The Ayinger Bruä-Weisse being amongst the chosen was really pleasant. I didn't want to like it but in all honesty I found it very refreshing and quite tasty. It pours golden and cloudy as any good wheat beer should. It's fruity (banana) and spicy on the nose and goes down rather smoothly. Just this last weekend I saw Ayinger Bruä-Weisse at my local European market so I think I shall be purchasing some this summer.

As a result of my new found friendship with Ayinger I am strongly considering rekindling my relationship with Hoegaarden as you can pretty much get it anywhere now. Thanks to Virginia and Jeff for getting me back on the wheat beers.

Sugar cane

Yeah I know what you're thinking. This is a beer blog, not a cocktail blog..

When a good opportunity falls in your lap you have to roll with it, hence I feel this is blogable.

One of the software engineers at work is constantly bringing in all kinds of fresh produce from his property. Last week he brought in several seven foot sticks of sugar cane. As the office is full of immature geeks like myself we used the cane sticks for ninja fights and various other geeky props (picture Gandalf on the stone bridge..'you shall not pass'). So after much pondering, myself and some colleagues felt the best use for sugar cane would be to somehow incorporate it with alcohol.

Now I'm very much a fan of the traditional mojito with raw cane sugar. One balmy summer evening found my Sarah and I at the Elephant Bar in San Marcos for pre-movie drinks where we discovered they make a rustic style mojito with a sugar cane stick as a garnish. The idea is to sip on your cocktail and then chew on the sugar cane for some sweet, sugary goodness. Not the best mojito I have had but definitely decent and loved the idea of the sugar cane.

When cocktail hour rolled around this weekend, a lack of rum and mint in the house forced me to try something new. We recently discovered sweet tea vodka which mixes really well with lemonade. Pictured above is sweet tea vodka lemonade with a sugar cane garnish. The sweetness of the sugar cane perfectly balances the acidity of the lemonade which makes for a very tasty and refreshing cocktail. I cannot recommend this enough including the sans-sugar cane version if your local Ralph's doesn't happen to stock it.....

I'm thinking this very well could me my cocktail for the summer of 2010.

I am now stocked to make mojitos and have just enough sugar cane left over for this coming weekend. I'm really looking forward to it.

Now I figured I would be subject to criticism if I failed to mention beer in this post so here it is. My suggestion to my buddy Chris who's a keen home brewer was to throw a few stick of sugar cane into the boil during hopping stage. I'm sure some of the fresh sweetness and earthy aromas would be extracted and produce a very nice home brew. I'm really hoping he gives this a shot. I might even have to volunteer with the bottling.

So ladies and gents. If you ever find yourself in possession of some sugar cane.. think drink.

Cheers,

Matt the Beer Blogga

Trailer Oz and James Drink To Britain

Oz and James Drink to Britain is about 2 classic English gentlemen in a classic English gentlemen's car driving around the UK and Ireland with one thing on their minds... to find the drink which represents Britain. A must-watch for any beer, wine, whiskey, gin or cider enthusiast.

I just finished watching this series and I must say, I got an overwhelming desire to hop on a plane and head back to the UK, rent a van and tour the British Isles. This is something I should have done while residing on the other side of the pond. My dream is to one day hit up the UK, Ireland and Belgium with my traveling and drinking partner in crime, Sarah. One can only dream.