Electric Football inventor Norman Sas, with Pete Rozelle

If you are in the same demographic range as Hooch & Hops then you might have grown up with Electric Football.  Not to brag, but I was nasty from downtown on the FG’s.  The Buffalo Bills ‘Electric Company,’ featuring O.J. Simpson was one of the earl teams.  It is then with a heavy heart that we note the passing of Norman Sas, inventor of Electric football.  The reason were featuring it on a beer blog is the games vital role in the creation in one of the best IPA’s in the country.  Sam Calagione and Dogfish Head Beer used the playing field from the game to shake the hops into the test batches of what turned out to be 90 Minute IPA.  Continual dry hopping reached a whole new level.  So, the next time you drink a 90 take a minute to remember the man who created one of the all time great games.

The result of 90 minutes of continual hopping thanks to Electric Football

Bust out your Sombrero

Put away your Coronas folks.  Hooch and Hops is here to tell you what you should be drinking to commemorate Cinco de Mayo.  Here are a few adult beverages to help you celebrate.

Start with the basics.  A Hooch and Hops regular reader suggested Azul Tequila on the rocks or in a margarita.  Azul Tequila is a great combination of quality and value.  Azul is double distilled and has been described as light and fruity, perfect for a fresh fruit margarita.  Here is a link for for a whole boatload of margaritas recipes from Allrecipes.com.

Azul Tequila

Our next selection(s) for Cinco de Mayo are two fine craft beers.  The first of these is Central Waters Peruvian Morning, a beer whose flavor is “as deep as the Peruvian Andes.”  This bourbon barrel aged stout brings flavors of coffee, vanilla, and  tannins to your palate.  As a side note, Central Waters is Wisconsin’s first green powered brewery.  Kudos to you Central Waters.

This will wake you up in the morning.

Our second craft beer selections is from one of Hooch and Hops’ favorite new breweries, Clown Shoes Beer.  Chocolate Sombrero from Clown Shoes is a Mexican inspired stout.  Clown Shoes wanted to put there own touch on a stout so they decided to spice things up a bit.  They achieved this spiciness by adding extra chocolate malt, ancho chiles, cinnamon, and vanilla.  Plus they have a crazy looking, multi-limbed Mexican wrestler on the label.  Even though I am terrified of clowns I like this beer.  Enjoy yourselves this Cinco de Mayo and remember, always look for ways to Drink Better.

Pat

Clown Shoes' Chocolate Sombrero

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Lining up for the Guinness Believer Event in Philly

It was a grand old time at Trust in Philly for the Guinness Believer event last Wednesday night.  A bunch of the boys from Hooch and Hops East coast made the trip down to the City of Brotherly Love in order learn some of the history of Arthur Guinness’ historic brewery and sample the fine beers that are produced today.

Good Size Crowd, Great Atmosphere...

Guinness Host Dan Judges the Perfect Pour Contest

Dan, our Guinness host, was polished and full of energy as he walked the crowd through a series of tastings and events like the Perfect Pour contest.   -Side note-  A perfect Guinness pour should take 119.5 seconds.  This is a double pour that allows the beer to “surge and settle” and then be topped off.

St. Jame's Gate Brewery, Dublin

Guinness had Plenty of Multimedia Displays set up Around the Room.

Guinness offered up three samples at the Guinness Believer event.  The first sample was the traditional Guinness Stout.  It is kind of hard to miss the mark with the traditional Guinness Stout, remembering consistency is not a bad thing.  Next up was Guinness Foreign Extra Stout.  A pleasant surprise, Foreign Extra has been brewed for over two hundred years and has a higher level of both alcohol and hops, making it suitable for exportation.  The final sample was the new Guinness Black Lager.  I was not a huge fan of the Black Lager but I appreciate the fact that Guinness is trying to stretch their wings a little bit.

Slainte

Hooch and Hops will be keeping an eye out for other beer and distilled spirits events around the country so let us know of things going on in your hometown.  Remember to follow Hooch and Hops on twitter @HoochandHops and on Facebook.

Drink Better,

Pat

Pat

Go Forth and Drink Session Beer on April 7th.

Untappd will have a special Nat’l Session Beer Day Badge so make sure you log in and tally your brews.  Remember, session beers tend to run south of 5% ABV so you can last throughout the day without tipping over.  Not a bad strategy for a holiday weekend.

Follow the Session Beer Project here.  Lew Bryson, the Godfather of all things fermented runs this puppy.

Tomorrow is also National Beer Day.  God bless America… 

American Whiskey Trail

I found this gem of a website while I was looking for possible Hooch & Hops road trips.  We have our very own American Whiskey Trails that run through Kentucky and Tennessee (for operating distilleries).  This trail consists of the following distilleries:  Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark, Jack Daniels, Barton Brands, Woodford Reserve, and George Dickel.

A second trail consists of historical distilleries starting at the Fraunces Tavern Museum in New York, going through the George Washington Distillery Museum at Mount Vernon, VA, and ending at the Oscar Getz Museum in Bardstown, KY.

The gateway to the American Whiskey Trail is the newly reconstructed George Washington Distillery.  This is the only site in the US where you can see 18th century distilling demonstrated from the seed to the bottle.  As if we needed another reason to think that George Washington was an awesome President.

Cheers,

Pat

George Washington Distillery