Projo Beer Blog

A free beer is welcome at almost any time, but perhaps never more than in these tough times.

In St. Louis, a bar owner recently offered customers a free beer with advice on revising their resumes, according to a story on the Web site digtriad.com.

Steven Fitzpatrick Smith, owner of The Royale, said the idea came to him shortly after InBev bought St. Louis original Anheuser-Busch, according to the Web site.

Earlier this month, Anheuser-Busch announced it was laying off 1,400 workers, 75 percent of them in the St. Louis area.

"There's a lot of potential here," said Smith. "I think we too easily dismiss that. And we need to remember who we are. Our city was built as a brewery city. People came here from all over the world, especially the Germans; they came here to build breweries. And that's what built this town."

He added, "This is important to have people down here, because we're a public meeting place where people talk together. That's why people come here, to talk with their neighbors," Smith said. "It's communication; it's so we can better understand each other. And it's a very important human need that we have, to help."

Read the full story.

NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) -- The brewer of Newport Storm beer hopes to relocate at its namesake city and ramp up its production of porters and lagers.

Coastal Extreme Brewing Inc. now operates in three bays at the Middletown Tradesman Center where its brewing equipment was first set up. Will Rafferty, a partner in the firm, tells The Newport Daily News that his company needs more room and wants to move to a parcel owned by Newport's city government.

The City Council will consider a lease during a meeting Wednesday.

As part of its expansion plans, the brewery hopes to hire at least three more employees.

The Newport Storm brand of beers includes Hurricane Amber, Blizzard Porter, Thunderhead Irish Red and Maelstrom IPA.

This story moved on the Associated Press's Strange wire. I guess the this guy deserves some credit for deciding not to get behind the wheel but...

CAPE CORAL, Fla. (AP) -- Authorities in southwest Florida say an intoxicated man had his 9-year-old son take him on a beer run. Cape Coral police arrested the 27-year-old man last week, after seeing a pickup truck drive onto a median.

When officers stopped the truck, the man told them he was teaching his son to drive. Officers say the father's speech was slurred, his breath smelled of alcohol and he unable to stand without swaying. Police said an open case of Budweiser beer was in the backseat.

The man was charged with cruelty toward a child and allowing an unlicensed minor to drive. He was released from jail on $2,000 bond. The man did not return a phone call seeking comment.

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Information from: The News-Press, http://www.news-press.com

Of course, Thanksgiving doesn't end with dessert or a digestif. It ends days later with the last turkey sandwich.

In case you missed it on Thursday, food editor Gail Ciampa offered a recipe for a leftover sandwich paired with a Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic.

Sounds good to me.

After doing a little research, I've decided to wash down my turkey leg with a Newcastle Brown Ale or two.

Relying partly on advice published at beerutopia.com and The Dallas Morning News, I completed my Thanksgiving beer-food strategy with a stop at the liquor store on my way home from work yesterday.

The blog at beerutopia.com and the article published by The Dallas Morning News were thorough, offering pairing suggestions all the way from aperitif, which is a fancy way of saying a drink taken as an appetizer before a meal, to digestif, which is a fancy way of referring to that beer or beers you drink after you've stuffed yourself with appetizers, turkey, squash, mashed potatoes, stuffing and pumpkin pie.

("Honey, I am not passing out on the couch. I'm enjoying my digestif.")

I'm not being as daring as these writers, who suggested some beers I've never heard of, or carrying this quite as far as they suggest (at least not this year), with a different beer for each of five stages, but it should be fun for me and any guests who want to come along for the tour.

For a warmup with appetizers, I'll try a Beck's, in part because beerutopia.com recommends pilsners early in the eating game, and I got a good deal on a case last week.

I picked Newcastle for the meal in part because the beerutopia guys say brown ales work well with Thanksgiving dinner. I've also enjoyed Newcastle's smooth, nutty taste in the past. Besides, it was on sale for $11.99 per 12-pack.

Even though my father swore by beer and brownies, I'm not crazy about beer with dessert -- especially since our experts suggest that the beer should be sweeter than the dessert -- but I did pick up a 12-pack of Samuel Adam's Winter Lager, which could serve as a dessert in itself or a digestif, you know, that beer or two you have after you've stuffed yourself like a turkey.

Are you wondering which beer to serve or drink with your turkey or pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving?

Pairing beverages with food isn't just for wine drinkers anymore.

A couple of stories online offer plenty of ideas.

A blog in beerutopia.com offers a few suggestions of its own, but also links to a wire story picked up by The Dallas Morning News.

These stories will take you all the way from the appetizers to dessert and beyond.

But don't let too much thinking spoil your meal.

The story in beerutopia.com concludes with this piece of advice: "If you're feeling lost, don't fret. Good beer always goes with good food so you really can't go wrong."

The Guardian reports on how the increasing thirst for beer in China is affecting the market:

The self-styled king of beers has been toppled by a drink that most Budweiser lovers have never heard of: Snow.

The ascension of Snow, which is expected to outsell world leader Bud Light this year, is due to the growing thirst of Chinese drinkers for beer.

While beer consumption is on the wane in developed markets such as the UK, the Chinese have been developing a taste for home-grown lagers and there is plenty of scope for growth in a country with more than 1.3 billion inhabitants.

Read the whole story.