So last year, my friend Katie bought for my birthday a book, Beers of the World: Over 350 Classic Beers, Lagers, Ales, and Porters, by David Kenning. As books go on one of my favorite subjects, it's a pretty good read. It gives brewery history, regional information, taste review, even pairing suggestions. It's not comprehensive, and one of the biggest sections is devoted to American beers, but it's a good introduction to beers worldwide and brewing traditions. And it's got purty pictures. But it's not a review I'm writing here.
Lots of bars and ale houses have a beer flight, a checklist of their beers where completing the flight will earn you a prize, like a t-shirt. Restaurant chains like "Old Chicago" have them, and smaller establishments like my local pub "George and Dragon" have them. That's a lot of beers, and they can only be redeemed at the restaurant or pub that originates the list, and more and more they come with mobile phone apps that let you track your beers. That's not gonna work for me. Y'see, my phone isn't compatible with those apps, and besides, it's too easy!
So here's the plan. I'm using this book as my own personal beer flight. I'm going to taste every beer listed in this book, domestic and foreign! The easy part is comparing beer menus and store inventories to the index in the back of the book for sampling. The hard part will be those beers that require a passport. AWESOME!!!
To start, I've gone through the beer menu at Lost Leaf, this local pub in downtown Phoenix with a diverse menu that's always changing. There's several Belgian, Czech, and German beers in the fridge, not to mention a huge list of national beers. Oh, there's also British, Canadian and even a Lithuanian brew but they weren't in the book. More to come on the Lost Leaf menu, later.
But next, will be sampling the German brews at Oktoberfest this month! Let's see how many of them are in the book, and how they taste.
That's it for now, I'm your Beer Blogger, and it's beer o'clock somewhere.
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