The Beer Necessities
The Beer Necessities is the name of the beer appreciation course I teach during the Wellesley College wintersession. The course covers a wide range of topics, including beer tasting basics, the history of beer, the brewing process, buying good beer on a budget, seasonal brews, pairing beer with food, and great places to get good beer in the Boston area.
The class runs for four 1.5 hour sessions and we try 4 samples each day, including some of the greatest beers in the world - Chimay Grande Resesrve, Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, Smuttynose IPA, Rogue Shakespeare Stout, and Samuel Smith's Tadcaster Porter. The sixteen beers represent four continents, seven countries, and six different U.S. states. See below for the full 2009 beer menu.
The guiding principle of the class is that life is too short to drink crappy beer and that good beer will make you happy. I try to help my students open their minds and tastebuds to a wide range of beer styles and to identify beers they enjoy. It is about the artistry of brewing and realizing that beer appreciation is about quality, not quantity.
Beer Menu for the 2009 Beer Necessities
1. Anderson Valley Boont Amber Ale, Boonville, CA
2. Victory Prima Pils, Downington, PA
3. Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery Tadcaster Porter, ENGLAND
4. Smuttynose India Pale Ale, Portsmouth, NH
5. Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Rauchfetzen, Boston, Massachusetts
6. Belhaven Scottish Ale, SCOTLAND
7. Rogue Shakespeare Stout, Newport, Oregon
8. Hitachino Nest Hefeweizen, JAPAN
9. Chimay Grande Réserve, BELGIUM
10. Xingu Black Beer, BRAZIL
11. John Harvard’s Cask-Conditioned (tbd), Framingham, MA
12. Fuller’s London Pride Pale Ale, ENGLAND
13. Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest, GERMANY
14. Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale, Easton, PA
15. Anchor Our Christmas Ale 2008, San Francisco, CA
16. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout 2008-09, Brooklyn, NY
The class runs for four 1.5 hour sessions and we try 4 samples each day, including some of the greatest beers in the world - Chimay Grande Resesrve, Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, Smuttynose IPA, Rogue Shakespeare Stout, and Samuel Smith's Tadcaster Porter. The sixteen beers represent four continents, seven countries, and six different U.S. states. See below for the full 2009 beer menu.
The guiding principle of the class is that life is too short to drink crappy beer and that good beer will make you happy. I try to help my students open their minds and tastebuds to a wide range of beer styles and to identify beers they enjoy. It is about the artistry of brewing and realizing that beer appreciation is about quality, not quantity.
Beer Menu for the 2009 Beer Necessities
1. Anderson Valley Boont Amber Ale, Boonville, CA
2. Victory Prima Pils, Downington, PA
3. Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery Tadcaster Porter, ENGLAND
4. Smuttynose India Pale Ale, Portsmouth, NH
5. Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Rauchfetzen, Boston, Massachusetts
6. Belhaven Scottish Ale, SCOTLAND
7. Rogue Shakespeare Stout, Newport, Oregon
8. Hitachino Nest Hefeweizen, JAPAN
9. Chimay Grande Réserve, BELGIUM
10. Xingu Black Beer, BRAZIL
11. John Harvard’s Cask-Conditioned (tbd), Framingham, MA
12. Fuller’s London Pride Pale Ale, ENGLAND
13. Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest, GERMANY
14. Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale, Easton, PA
15. Anchor Our Christmas Ale 2008, San Francisco, CA
16. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout 2008-09, Brooklyn, NY
