Culture, Society, & Health

The Beer Fox   |   Monday, February 20 2012
Moderate drinkers :  The association between beer and obesity, if it exists, is probably weak.

Winter has been relatively mild in the northeastern part of the U.S. With such moderate temperatures, our minds quickly slide into summer mode, dreaming of sexy sandals, bare midriffs, and how the latest swimwear collections will frame our sumptuous figures. Although they would never admit it, men check out their own abs, too. As this Beer Fox runs from beer-festival to beer-competition to beer-dinner, she is constantly encountering people who say, “I need to lose 20 pounds, so this is the last beer I’m going to have in a long time.” Is this truth or fallacy?

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Culture, Society, & Health

The Beer Fox   |   Monday, February 13 2012
Geeks get it done :  As in love, success is governed solely by passion.

Her lean legs, firm as steel and deeply bronzed, glistened in the shadows just as readily as they did in the afternoon sunshine. She had traveled to over 1,000 brewpubs across the globe, always with Phil Farrell who snapped her photograph with every beer aficionado he met, including Beer Hunter Michael Jackson, Charlie Papazian, Don Younger, and Pierre Celis. He was proud of her. She never drank, although her companion certainly offered her a taste of his many libations. Their relationship may have been as hot as the affair between Yuri Zhivago and Lara Antipova, had she been human.

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Culture, Society, & Health

The Beer Fox   |   Monday, February 06 2012
Humulus Lupulus :  For a thousand years they were viewed as a big, bad ingredient throughout many parts of Europe.

When I first began imbibing in craft beer, I felt like a woman cheating on her lover. For many years, I had been drenched in the mysteries of méthode champenoise, being a fan of the Champagnes of France and the Cavas of Catalonia. Foggy memory cloaks my affair with these sparkling liquids, muted by gulps of laughter that intensified sensory effervescence on my tongue. For me, these wines were somewhat aphrodisiacal … social lubricants that echoed earthly pleasures, approved of by Demeter, Greek goddess of the harvest and Bacchus, Roman god of feasting and frenzy. As weekend companions, they lured me along paths of libertine fantasy into places and experiences long since forgotten.

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Culture, Society, & Health

The Beer Fox   |   Monday, January 30 2012
Painting with beer :  Karen Eland of Bend, Oregon has expanded the culture of beer in ways unlike any other.

I wonder if waterzooi, moules frites, or bratwurst and sauerkraut would exist without beer. Die-hard beer drinkers protest the use of beer as an ingredient in cooking. ‘It’s Beer! Why would you do anything but drink it?’ they ask. True, perhaps; but I would not be a craft beer enthusiast had I not experienced the flavors in beer cuisine.

With the growth of the craft beer industry in America, creative artisans have found ever-increasing uses for craft beer. For those of us who relish hedonistic pleasures, beer-infused products are abundant. Although your evening may begin with Pliny the Younger, it now has the potential for a great finish with Noah’s Ale Beer soap, Bröö craft beer shampoo, Old Chub lip balm, and Manufaktura Beer Massage Oil with hop extract. Think about those warm fingers sliding across your muscles after a long day. In fact, my enthusiasm grows with the abundance of products available for personal use. But there’s more …

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Culture, Society, & Health

The Beer Fox   |   Monday, January 23 2012
Creative beard sculpting :  Does facial hair trap the aromas of well-crafted beer, allowing the partaker to enjoy the elements on a higher plane? Do beards make beer taste better?

I find it disconcerting that Garrett Oliver, in his comprehensive encyclopedia, The Oxford Companion to Beer, did not have an entry for “Brewer’s Beard.” Granted, not all brewers in the beer world have beards. Most woman brewers, for instance, do not sport burly facial hair; nor does the Brett Pack – Rob Tod, Tomme Arthur, Adam Avery, Vinnie Cirluzo, and Sam Calagione, although Sam’s legendary face often displays the “hot” look of a 5 o’clock shadow. Jim Koch of Boston Beer is clean-shaven. But Beer Fox estimates indicate that 62.7% of the craft brewing community manifests some kind of distinctive facial hair.

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Culture, Society, & Health

The Beer Fox   |   Monday, January 16 2012
Homo Imbibens :  Early man was on constant alert, struggling in a hostile world. Fermented beverages changed his perception. They allowed him to relax.

Last night lives like an ethereal dream in my head. Aromas of sizzling meats, roasted peppers, and Tarentaise permeated the air, mingling with the lush alcoholic maltiness of Winter Warmers and Barleywine. The scene was eclectic – lights dimmed down, Estefan’s Wepa swirling in my head, feet moving in Latin rhythm, thighs spinning – and all of us drinking-in those deep coppery bodies. Most were wet with an edge of mahogany and heads of creamy tan. Every swirl painted my tulip with gauze, while my tongue tingled with flavors of melting brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, and licorice. There was heat in the throat, too … every quaff, awash with spice.

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