Unibroue Trois Pistoles

Having a beer with Sachin is a whole new experience for anyone who loves beer. If you are like me, you meet a friend for a beer, catch up on what’s new and the beer is only there for the camaraderie. As a matter of fact, my beer of choice always the same or at least one of the same. But with Sachin, it’s a whole new ballgame. First, you take a minute to look at the beer, to admire it’s color or the perfect head of foam. Then you get to smell it; aroma, perfume, bouquet – it’s all there to fully appreciate. Still, before you take a sip, there’s a story, always a story behind the name.

Today, we met at Aroma’s, the perfect place for specialty wine, beer and liquor. On tap is right now is Unibroue Trois Pistoles ( trwa-pee-stole) or "Three Coins", a uniquely savory craftsman brew with a dark brown color and a rich foam mousse. Close your eyes as you gently swirl the glass and the cocoa and fruity aroma takes you to a hot day on the beach covered in the coconut scents of Hawaiian Tropic – back when your body glistened with suntan oil – not that creamy Sport SPF 50 used today.

Visit the Unibroue website and you’ll discover that the beers at Unibroue are entirely natural, contain no chemical additives or preservatives, and are made with first quality ingredients. But that’s not the story. Unibroue changed the way beer is brewed in Canada. Traditionally, Canadian breweries were state-owned, but the founders of Unibroue were successful in bringing Belgian yeast brewing to Canada while maintaining sole ownership.

Unibroue beers also can seem strange to the untrained eye; there is a small amount of sediment at the bottom of each bottle. This is normal, it is the yeast, an essential component of brewing beer. When the yeast ferments a beer during the brewing process, most brewers filter the yeast out of the beer for bottling. Unibroue, however, does not filter their beers and leaves the yeast in the beer. This is a process called "méthode Champenoise" in Belgium and "beer on lees" by Unibroue. The yeast remaining in the bottle gives the beer a secondary fermentation, increasing the alcohol strength but heightening the complexity of the brew. The yeast is harmless. It is meant to be drunk and not discarded, and, as a matter of fact, provides a great source of vitamin B complex.

Malty chocolate with aftertaste of port, enjoy this beer on it’s own like I did, or have a yummy chocolate dessert with it and you’ll be basking in smooth delight. 9% abv.

Alcohol Calories Add Up

It's tempting during the hot summer months to come home, kick back and cool off with a beer or glass of wine. But all those extra calories can start to add up quick.

A bottle of beer, a glass of wine or a shot of liquor, if you're watching your weight, which one of these alcoholic drinks offers the least amount of calories per serving?

A 12 ounce bottle of light beer has an estimated 100 calories, versus 150 for the same size regular brew. A glass of red wine has about 100 calories, but is measured in a much smaller four ounce serving. Experts argue mixed drinks are the biggest diet busters. A mixed drink like a daiquiri can pack in more than 400 calories in an 8 ounce glass.

Alcohol will typically make you gain weight in the fact that it's calories taken in that most people don't account for.

Registered dietitian Molly Paulson says alcohol is loaded with carbohydrates and sugar. She suggests a better way to hold down the calories while drinking is to alternate beverages, making every other drink a glass of calorie-free water.
CNN/ Pathfire

Get the full story.

Wine Ice Cream!

Move over Cherry Garcia, here comes pinot noir ice cream! Well, assuming you’re over 21.

Yes, the New York legislature passed a law preventing minors from getting their hands on the stuff since two gallons of the ice cream contains as much alcohol as one glass of wine according to one producer.

Can’t be too careful, New York!

Read the more from Dr. Vino

What's the difference between lager, ale, and stout?

This is the kind of question which should, by law, be posted in several languages, in every maternity ward in the Union and Protectorates, so that the medical staff can engage in the discussion within earshot of newborns, to the benefit of the nation for the long term.

There's so much snobbish talk about ales and stouts and beers of all description, thanks to an explosive micro-brew industry, the unfortunate effect of which has been to stigmatize the askers of such basic questions. So first I must thank Mrs. Harriet T. Crumley of Bent Fork, South Dakota for writing in (not her real name or town).

Before casting aside the corporeal body, the ultimate and inexorable yielding to forces beyond human influence, one needs to acquire a basic understanding of malting (inducing and then halting the germination of a grain), which makes available complex sugars and starches for fermentation (using yeast to convert those sugars and starches into alcohol in an air-starved environment).

And that—you may thank me now, dear reader, for the brevity and clarity you have just enjoyed despite insidious feelings of dread and mounting anger—is it.

Almost.

The differences between lager, ale and stout are largely determined by the kind of yeast used in fermentation, as well as the various grains. Yeasts ferment at different speeds, temperatures, and, due to the density of the living, seething, stinking mess, even at different depths in the fermenting container. "Top fermented," for example, describes the process for many ales.

Of course, there are nuances and specifics which take us well beyond the scope of this modest yet enjoyable little column, so you, O wingéd reader, and Mrs. Fork of South Harriet, Dakota, now empowered with correct and succinct knowledge, are enjoined to pursue further research, as needed, elsewhere. On your own time.

Thank you all very, very much.

Will drinking absinthe make me kill my family while they sleep?

Chances are against it, but both absinthe and murder are currently illegal in the U.S.

There's quite a lot else to say for absinthe: it is a liquor, made from herbs, not a liqueur (no sugar added to the bottle), it comes originally from Switzerland, and though for more than a century it has been bad-mouthed as a psychosis-inducing drink, somehow unique in evilness compared to other alcoholic beverages, the controversy has long been debunked.... But then again, it's still illegal in the U.S.

Absinthe's popularity returned (or began) in the 1990s. Since regaining legal status throughout most of Europe (awaiting clear details on the New Hebrides), there's an abundance of rather overwrought mystique, as well as outright nonsense surrounding absinthe and its properties.

Purportedly the Bohemian Bad Boys' drink (Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Van Gogh, Crowley, Wilde, among some others, all unconfirmed), its "evils" seem to capture only the imaginations of those with no imagination at all, in cases both for and against. (Tip: Avoid sellers who stress "thujone levels" in absinthe, a purely puerile conceit. Look for French and Swiss brands, read reviews, be a grown-up.)

For unique taste and enjoyment, and a certain ritual in preparation, absinthe solidly provides, if that is one's "thing." For more on its pleasant properties, The Wormwood Society seems to have a less than crack-potted approach to absinthe and its legal situation in the U.S.

The End Must Really Be Nigh: Roughly 50 percent of young people in France never drink wine

How can it be?

What next, no accordions?

And what does "nigh" mean?

Joyless, jackbooted and totalment un-French researchers at the U. of Montpelier, appearing 7 feet (0.00213km) tall and genderless in their starched white lab coats, made headlines in WineSpectator:

Young France Isn't Drinking Wine
The "French Paradox" is becoming a thing of the past

French citizens remain the world's leading consumers of wine, drinking about 55 liters annually, according to a recent study carried out by the University of Montpellier. That's almost six cases a person. But that number has declined more than 50 percent since 1980, when the French drank an average of 120 liters. Why is the nation most associated with wine drinking less of it?

Read the whole sorry tale.

What glass is this?

The only stupid question is the one you fail to ask... but let us not mince hairs.

Brandy is usually served in a snifter, this familiar stemmed, low-slung, bell-shaped glass thingum. One effect of the design is pointing the aromas directly into one's nose, and should never be filled beyond the widest part—the snifter, not the nose... though a word to the wise should be sufficient.


That's why a little brandy (relatively speaking) is often served in a large snifter (also relatively speaking). Small snifters (aka brandy glasses) are for pubs, cafés, discount shops, farm supply store holiday fêtes, where the focus is necessarily some other kind of beverage and/or aroma—or the avoidance of aroma, in the case of the farm supply store. Of course, an overly large snifter is also a cause for much embarrassment, unless inhabited by well cared for fish.

The possession of a nice snifter—one which is 5 or so inches at its widest diameter—will hopefully induce one to occasionally languish with a jigger of decent Cognac or Armagnac, without audience, pretext or pretense. In these solitary moments, one's senses open to something very old, very complex, yet unmediated by the maws, the haws and guffaws of our noisy world.

Easy, as they say, does it.