beer - i should log off

Photo: America’s Oldest Brewery

April 29, 2011 By Jillian

We’ve been known to sample a beer or two on our travels, but there will always be a special place in my heart for Yuengling (pronounced ying-ling), an eastern Pennsylvania tradition. Opened in 1829 by a German Immigrant, Yuengling is still brewed on the same location today as it was when the factory moved after a fire in 1831 giving it the distinction as America’s Oldest Brewery. Interestingly enough, it’s still owned by the same family- each subsequent generation has had to buy it off their parents.

Going to the Yuengling factory was a fun little trip, perhaps more exciting because it had been on our list of places to visit for quite some time. Like all good brewery tours, the factory tour was short, but the tasting session was long. Fans of the regional beer, which is starting to make it’s way down the East Coast, might want to visit for a special taste of their Yuengling Premium, which is only sold within a small radius of the actual plant.

President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper bet a case of Yuengling and a case of Molson over the 2010 Men’s Ice Hockey gold metal match. I wonder how Harper enjoyed his Yuengling!

To see a few of our favorite photos from around the world check out our PHOTO PAGE. Tell us your own favorites to be included in this column!

All this talk of historical beer and brewery tours have you thinking of booking bargain holiday? My suggestion: find a place with good beer!

Photo of the Day: Beer Wench

March 1, 2011 By Danny

Next time I’m at home and ask my wife to get me a beer and I accidently call her Beer Wench instead….well….now you have photographic evidence that its not my fault.

Special thanks to Flickr user OktoberBlumenau for marking this photo as a favorite.

To see a few of our favorite photos from Brazil click here.

Our PHOTO PAGE has links to all of our collections on Flickr. Be sure to mark some of your own favorites so that we can include them on this column. We’ll be highlighting a different photo every day.

Good Beer, Bad Beer & Ugly Beer

February 16, 2011 By Danny

Some beer is great, actually a lot of it is. So good in fact that we dedicated a Foodie Friday to all the different beers we tried while we were in Europe. Beer helped us to become friends with a few Iranians and we became enthralled in Tanzania where our beer options were Safari, Kilimanjaro, Uhuru and Serengeti. We tried a huge variety of beer on our trip, mostly because we wanted to collect a variety of labels, and here’s our good, bad and ugly.

The Good

This one is really difficult to put our finger on. While we were in Cologne, Germany our friends there introduced us to Kölsch and explained to us that by law it has to come from that very region. We were there during the world cup, while Germany was making a run for the championship, and on game day we went to buy some and found the warehouse of a beer aisle at the local supermarket completely cleaned out. The beer is refreshing but really, is every bit as good as those wonderful pilsners we tried while we were in Prague….namely the original Budweiser. We didn’t have any trouble finding that in a local Prague bar and the local version of the familiar ‘black and tan’ was quite frankly amazing. Given that we have friends in both cities, I think we’re going to have to call it a tie. (I’m willing to take my chances that our friend in Munich isn’t reading….she might have a slightly different opinion.)

The Bad

This one goes to Egypt. Many of us have been toasting the changes occurring there recently but the unfortunate truth is that Islamic countries, even secular ones, just don’t understand the concept very well. The local brew was actually OK but it was only memorable in that it was almost impossible to find outside of a tourist restaurant. Wanting to celebrate our completion of the overland Cape Town to Cairo route we struck out again and again. Finally we found a liquor store (we’d been told that the handful in existence were all run by Christians rather than Muslims….I’m not so sure of that) and, giving up on beer, made the switch to liquor. Have you ever heard of Jani Walker Red Lion? I imagine it is pretty similar to motor oil. Runner Up: Every time I go home and visit my parents I’m confronted with a refrigerator filled with Michelob Ultra. How Lance Armstrong, the world’s premier endurance athlete, became associated with a low-carbohydrate beverage is one mystery….how they get away with calling that yellow water beer is another.

The Ugly

The recent purchase of Anheuser Busch by InBev has had many Americans upset that our American beer is being stolen by Europeans. Company number two, behind InBev is South African Brewing Co, based in Johannesburg. (In case your curious, familiar names like Miller and Peroni are SAB labels.) While in Jo’Burg we toured the International Beer Museum (which is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon) and were surprised to learn that our tour entitled us to a taste of traditional African beer. Thankfully it was just a taste and we were later given two pints of real beer, plus a small souvenir glass filled with some more.

This column of ishouldlogoff.com aims to answer those questions that we always get asked. What was your favorite this, or your worst that. Every week we aim to highlight a new topic and will do so until we run out of ideas. If you have an idea for a Good-Bad-Ugly post, feel free to tell us in the comment section below or send us an email. To read all of them, click here.

Welcome to Africa

December 22, 2009 By Jillian

Herds of animals flocked below us as we flew over Africa from Senegal to South Africa. Actually, not really. In fact we saw very little from 30,000 feet. I know, I know. Everyone thinks that Africa is just roaming with wild animals, but to be truthful we haven’t seen a single lion yet and we’ve been here almost a week. (We have seen an ostrich and baboons though!)

So what have we done? Well there’s actually more to do in Johannesburg than you think. Our plan was to skip right off to Mozambique but we ended up keeping ourselves busy for a few extra days. First up was the Apartheid museum. Full of details, photos and fascinating stories, the Apartheid museum was a must on our list of things to do in Johannesburg. We felt exhausted after going through the museum, but also very moved and interesting in learning more about the post-apartheid South Africa. Fortunately our couch surfing hosts were more than patient with us asking question after question, so expect a more in-depth post on the subject soon.

Then it was off to the World of Beer, which according to the South African Tourism Board is their number 1 attraction. The museum was great, almost like being at Disney. Besides a history of beer around the world and an introduction to the beer making process, we also sampled some traditional African beer, the name of which I have no idea how to spell, and a traditional lager from a typical “bush” bar. The attraction itself was great, but perhaps it was ranked South Africa’s #1 attraction by the tipsy tour goers- at the end of the tour we were each given two free pint vouchers! Hurray!

Africa so far has been wonderful. We’re heading to Mozambique for a little while to get in some beach time and avoid the crowds. Might be a while between posts from now on, Internet isn’t as easy to come by here as it was in South America. Have no fear, foodie friday will continue as best we can!

Foodie Friday: The Quest for Beervana

December 4, 2009 By Jillian

It should be no surprise that along with lots of ruins, whitewater and trekking, our tour of the America’s also included beer. Lots and lots of beer. From Mexico to Argentina beer seems to be the local beverage of choice, and almost always its cheaper than soda or sometimes even bottled water. It was not unusual for us to find a liter of beer for less than $3. When it’s that cheap you just have to try it. So we did.

On what is now called our quest for beervana (thanks to our friends for the name), we’ve sampled the local brew in every locale, from ice-cold Salva Vida in Honduras to an amber Beagle down in Ushuaia. There have been some good beers, some beers good for the moment, and even one green coca beer in Peru. Most beers produced in the America’s are lagers or pilsners and it seems the hotter the country the colder the beer. The coldest beer we’ve seen was in Honduras and fortunately at the time we were sweating to death. According to the thermometer on the refrigerator the beer was stored at -9 Celsius (about 15 Fahrenheit). It was perhaps the most refreshing and delicious pilsner in the world, or at least at that moment.

Our quest for beervana has turned into challenge to create a substantial beer label collection. We’ve taken the labels off all sorts of bottles, many of which have been mangled in the process. Just for the record the sticker labels are the hardest to take off. Our quest to build a collection has resulted in choosing our selections by the label not the actual beer, which in some cases has led to mistakes such as the coca beer. It has also led us to some delicious Colombian micro-brews and copious amounts of Brazilian chopp (draught beer), err… maybe not the chopp. That might be our own fault.

Our quest for beervana continues while we’re on “intermission” at home. This week we headed to the Yuengling (my home brew) in Pennsylvania for a factory tour and tasting. Danny and I have been trying to get there for years, but for one reason or another it never worked out. Fortunately the quest for beervana took precedence this time and we finally made it. It was by far the best factory tour ever and not only because it ended in a beer tasting, actually truthfully it was because it ended in beer tastings, two in fact.

Anyway, as we head to Africa have no fear, the quest for beervana will continue. Fortunately we’ve spent enough evenings at Brickskeller to know which African beers to avoid, but we’re always open to suggestions. Anything out there you think we should try or avoid? Where do you want to share a beer with us?

Salud!