News, Nuggets & Longreads 07/03/2015

What’s the best thing about Saturday? “Cartoons!” What’s the next best thing? “Going to the pub!” Sigh. OK, but what about the next best thing? “Er… a load of links to beer stuff on the internet?” Correct.

→ The Beer Nut reported on goings-on at Guinness:

Smithwick’s Blonde I learned about via my ancillary hobby of peering in pub windows at what they have on tap…. Compare it, then, with its almost-twin Hop House 13. This was launched with a thumping audiovisual fanfare at a media event in St James Gate last month.

→ Chris at Crema’s Beer Odyssey took the opportunity of a trip to the US to consider the fundamental differences between US IPAs and supposedly US-style IPAs in the UK: ‘[After] sinking my first half pint of Beavertown’s uber-fresh Bloody ‘Ell on its launch day, something crystallised in my mind immediately. US IPAs are very sweet.’

→ For The Awl, Emmet Stackelberg considered the role of the 1855 Chicago beer riot in the birth of American law and order. (Via @lisagrimm.)

→ Two bits of funny which aren’t about beer, but almost could be: a tongue-in-cheek guide to launching your own artisanal gin by Andy Seach at Barfly UK; and this new food magazine:

Here's your new favorite food magazine: GOUT http://t.co/aOALfakKMZ pic.twitter.com/SA6HKu4ZNV

— Eater (@Eater) March 5, 2015

→ For Serious Eats, Mike Reis revisits classic food and beer pairings to see if they really work. (He is right to be cautious about curry and IPA.)

→ Joe Stange, author of noted beer guides to Belgium, returned to a favourite but nonetheless important topic:

Part of researching Belgian breweries is trying to sort out which ones are actual breweries and which are pretenders. That way we can tell you about them. There are all sorts of pretenders, many shades of gray. I try to stick to this: A “brewer” is someone who actually brews beer, while a “brewery” is a building with a functioning brewhouse inside.

→ Lars Marius Garshol provided a brief guide to beer in Vilnius, Lithuania which will be perfect for weekend-breakers: ‘As a very rough rule: the worse the label design, the more interesting the beer.’

→ Jennifer Bishop’s review of Mark Hailwood’s recently-published Alehouses and Good Fellowship in Early Modern England amounts to a summary of the book for the TL;DR crowd.