#DR12 Beer Texas

Houston Chronicle

Divine Reserve No. 12 is the first of the limited-batch Saint Arnold releases to be packaged in a bomber. MSRP will be $7.99. (Ronnie Crocker / Beer, TX)

A Divine day approaches. Let us all be prepared.

Divine Reserve No. 12, which begins hitting the market Tuesday morning, is a delicious and smooth, deceptively sweet Old Ale that weighs in at 10 percent ABV. When I say it’s sweet, I mean that in the best possible regard — not the least bit cloying, with no perfumy aftertaste.

It really is a good beer to drink now and, as Brock Wagner suggests, it should age well if properly stored.

Divine Reserve 12

Veterans know what a treasure hunt it can be to track down a Divine-release beer. Saint Arnold has made that a little easier by increasing production, now that it has capacity to do so. The brewery also is making the beer available for the first time in 22-ounce bomber bottles, which should stretch the beer in the market further and alleviate some of the disappointment people have experienced in the past.

Still, the hunt can be challenging. (Fun, too, to most; frustrating for some, I realize.)

 Beer Belgium

Belgian beer exports rose to 11 million hectolitres last year. Belgian beer is in increasing demand abroad and its special ales in particular that are doing well.

The Federation of Belgian Brewers reports that Belgian beer exports surged by 4.7% last year. In money terms the increase was even more impressive, but exact figures are not yet available.

78% of Belgian beer exports go to other EU countries, especially neighbouring countries. Exports beyond the EU have risen by 17%. It's especially the Japanese - up a thumping 73.5% - and the Americans - plus 16.7% - that have fallen for Belgian beer.

The lion's share of Belgian beer exports consists of lager, but the increase is most pronounced among special beers. Grimbergen, Affligem and the Trappist beers Westvleteren, Orval and Chimay posted impressive increases in their export figures.

Leuven-based AB InBev is responsible for half of all Belgium's beer exports. AB InBev markets popular brands including the Stella Artois lager, the Hoegaarden white beer and abbey beer Leffe.

Expatica

 Beer Hurricane

7beerphil

40oz.

I did not pour this into any glass. However, i give it an average rating for appearance, due to the typical ML label design and the color of the brew.

Smell is also average, for the style, very faint corn notes. No hop presence here.

Taste is rather smooth and malty. Not at all harsh and it is rather pleasing.

Mouthfeel is kind of thick, but not offensive. Goes down easy.

This is an entry level malt, but a good one at that. I've you've only ever had Magnum, then you are in for a treat with this. Otherwise, it's basic. But good basic.

Serving type: nitro-bottle

Beer Advocate

 Beer Copenhagen essential

Beer really is an “essential service”

Ray Weaver

Lithuanian court reaffirms something many of us already knew

Probably the most essential service in the world (Photo: Carlsberg)

In a ruling designed to prevent brewery workers from striking over pay and working conditions, lawyers representing the Carlsberg brewery in Lithuania have managed to convince a court in that country to classify beer as an “essential service”. Workers classified as essential are banned by law from striking.

Employees of the Danish beer giant’s brewery in Lithuania had voted to strike but were prevented from doing so after the court ruled that beer is an essential service in the same category as medical supplies and water.

The decision rendered the strike vote invalid and made the work stoppage illegal.

 China Communism Beer phony

If you've ever doubted whether the Bud you bought in China was indeed a genuine draft, this post is for you.

Emily Lodish

A bartender waters plants at a summer-time beer garden in downtown Beijing. (Stephen Shaver/AFP/Getty Images)

When you say Budweiser, you've said it all.

Or wait, just one more thing.

Is that a Bud? A question worth asking.

Especially since four people have been detained in Beijing's Chaoyang district for filling international beer bottles with local brews.

It's easy enough to do, one would think. Just empty the bottle and fill it with a much cheaper beer but keep the label. It is, after all, the label that sells.

One Chinese night club worker told the Chinese publication Global Times that a 500 mL bottle of Beijing Beer can be sold for under 50 cents, while a 330 mL bottle of Bud sells for up to $7.75.

 Beer drinking guides Books

 There Just Aren't Enough

Clay Risen

For newcomers to wine, it's easy to find a guide to follow, but good luck finding their equivalents when it comes to navigating the world of beer

America is a beer-drinking country -- we consume about 10 times as much per capita as wine -- but you'd never know it from the state of beer-related journalism. Most newspapers have a wine columnist, but few have a part-timer for beer; the New York Times turns to its wine writer, Eric Asimov, for the occasional write-up. That's not to say there aren't great beer writers, or great beer magazines, books, and blogs. But compared with wine, they're few and far between -- and, to put it as kindly as possible, not exactly aimed at the mainstream, non-beer-obsessed public.

This is a problem, especially during the current craft-beer renaissance. Newcomers to wine can follow a reliable guide like Asimov or the Wall Street Journal's Lettie Teague; good luck finding their equivalents (i.e., deeply knowledgeable but layman-accessible) in the world of beer. And while it's possible to find entire shelves of authoritative books on the Napa wine scene or the history of cabernet sauvignon, anyone looking for a comparable resource on brown ales or wet-hopping will find, at best, an ever-changing Wikipedia page.

    The book is precisely what a companion should be: an engaging, subjective, erudite guide to the interested novice and a quick reference for the initiated.