06 Feb 10 From the Hop Press: Super Bowl: Perfect for Beer/Food Match-ups
My latest featured article for RateBeer’s The Hop Press… posted on Saturday, February 6th.
Like many, I plan to take in pro football’s finale, which is on tap for later this weekend. Neither of the teams involved this year fall into the list of favorite teams that I follow regularly (those would be the Patriots and the Steelers), but I do plan to watch anyway and it should be a good game. If I had my druthers, I guess, the Saints would win their first Super Bowl, but I really don’t have a strong preference. My cousins in Indy aren’t going to like that assessment very much.
Tags: Beer/Food Pairings, Featured Article, Hop Press, HopPress
30 Jan 10 From the Hop Press: The Great Drinking Age Debate
My latest featured article for RateBeer’s The Hop Press… posted on Saturday, January 3oth.
I guess that I was not surprised to read this week that the Vermont Legislature had, again, taken up the volatile question of whether the legal drinking age should be changed from the current 21 years back to 18. The reason that I was not that surprised was that this highly polarizing issue has simmered (raged?) in the background of society, occasionally flaring up into the spotlight of the media, for many years.
Tags: drinking age, Featured Article, Hop Press, HopPress, Opinion
23 Jan 10 From the Hop Press: Book Review – The Great Beer Trek
My latest featured article for RateBeer’s The Hop Press… posted on Saturday, January 23rd.
I read this book by Stephen Morris a while back, but pulled it back off the shelf again this week. With our long Vermont winter nearly reaching it’s mid-point, my wife and I have begun our annual discussion about vacations for the coming year. Along with inherent appeal to me of the story told by the author in this book, there are a number of things this year which are causing us to rethink our typical vacation patterns of years past. The idea of constructing a vacation around beer for some reason seems perfectly normal to me (my wife has gotten used to beer being the basis of many things in my life).
Tags: Book Review, Hop Press, HopPress
16 Jan 10 From the Hop Press: The Denmark Connection
My latest featured article for RateBeer’s The Hop Press… posted on Saturday, January 16th.
Recently I was fortunate enough to be involved in a rather unique beer tasting event held at the Three Penny Taproom in downtown Montpelier, Vermont. Shaun Hill, an acclaimed local brewer, was there to introduce a small group of beer aficionados to six very limited-run, barrel-aged beers from Denmark. Due to their limited production, these beers will probably never be distributed or sold here in the US.
06 Jan 10 Nørrebro Bryghus/Shaun Hill Barrel Aged Beer Tasting
On Sunday, January 10th, the Three Penny Taproom is presenting six beers brewed by Shaun Hill during his time working at Nørrebro Bryghus in Copenhagen, Denmark. All of these beers are part of the Nørrebro Limited Release/Barrel Aged series. This is a very special event, and is limited to 25 people. Here is the list of the beers on the menu:
Saison Lambic Pinot Noir
Viking Oud Bruin
SEVEN Bordeaux Barrel
SEVEN Port Barrel
Little Korkny Port Barrel
Little Korkny Cognac Barrel
The cost for the event is $40, and will go from 6pm to 8pm, with some special drafts lined up for afterwards! To sign up, e-mail scott@threepennytaproom.com
Cheers!
Scott
http://www.threepennytaproom.com/
RateBeer.com Event Details
Tags: Event, Three Penny Taproom
02 Jan 10 From The Hop Press: 2010 Resolutions and Beer
My latest featured article for RateBeer’s The Hop Press… first one of 2010… posted on Saturday, January 2nd.
We are at that time of the year when nearly everyone makes some sort of a resolution, pledge or promise for the New Year. These typically are changes that we want or need to make going into the New Year. If you are like me, then some of these resolutions tend to repeat from year to year and, generally, I am not all that successful at keeping these sometimes hastily made affirmations. In this article, I will not be bearing my soul to share all of the resolutions that I have made for 2010, but instead will take a brief look at the history of resolutions and the New Year celebration and then talk more about how your choice of beer can significantly affect one of the more commonly held resolutions.
Tags: 2010, Featured Article, Hop Press, HopPress
26 Dec 09 From The Hop Press: Hangovers 101
My latest featured article for RateBeer’s Hop Press… posted on Saturday, December 26th.
With Thanksgiving over and now Christmas past, everyone’s attention turns to planning for their New Year’s celebration. I don’t really have a regular plan for the New Year’s Eve. Some years it is out with friends to party it up and other years it is a quiet affair at home. This year is probably going to be the latter. Regardless of what the plan for the evening might be, something that has played a part in a few too many of my New Year Day’s rituals has been dealing with a hangover. As stated succinctly on the MayoClinic.com Web site, “Hangovers are caused by drinking too much alcohol”. Yep, I got it… the root cause of the problem has never really been in doubt, but let’s look a little closer at this “dreaded” phenomenon.
Tags: Featured Article, Hangovers, Hop Press, HopPress
19 Dec 09 From The Hop Press: Beer Style: India Pale Ales and Double IPAs
My latest featured article for RateBeer’s Hop Press… posted on Saturday, December 19th.
For someone that calls themselves “The Vermont Hop Head”, you had to figure that it would only be a matter of time before I waxed poetically about some hoppy beer and I have managed to contain myself long enough. While I would willingly tell you that I enjoy many types of beer, it is the hoppy ones that have my keen interest. Sitting near the top of the highly hopped beer world are the beers of the beer style called “India Pale Ale” as well as its more potent derivative, the Double or Imperial IPA.
Tags: Featured Article, Hop Press, HopPress
13 Dec 09 Changes to VTHopHead.com
Maybe its is my work in technology, but I seem to get tired of some things quickly. My marriage has lasted nearly 28 years, but that has been easy compared to other, more technical, challenges in my life. Starting today when you visit the site, you will notice a few changes:
- A new theme – the old beer-oriented theme had quite few problems that irritated me enough over time for me to give up on it. The new theme imitates Google’s new Chrome browser interface, which I happen to like… a lot. It is a lean and mean interface that is well designed and eliminates some of the problems that I was having with the previous “beer” theme. Feedback about this new theme would be appreciated, of course.
- Google Ads in the sidebar – I can hear it now… I sold out. Truth is, this site costs me some bucks to host and the ads are not intrusive and might just produce something to offset the production costs. No pressure, of course… clicking on one of these is entirely optional… but any clicks would be appreciated.
- Expanded Pages – I have put in place some additional pages for the site (Ratings, Links, Gallery and Events). These are mostly empty at the point, but I expect to fill the rest of them with worthwhile information soon. All of this positions me to make this a more full-featured site than it is currently… hopefully providing some additional benefit for site visitors.
Thank you for your support… 
Tags: Site Updates
09 Jan 10 From the Hop Press: Back to the Future of Organic Beer
My latest featured article for RateBeer’s The Hop Press… posted on Saturday, January 9th.
Read more…
Tags: Hop Press, Long Trail, organic, Otter Creek