Summer might be beginning to wind down, but outdoor beer gardens are still in full swing for at least a few more months. Virtually everyone loves a good beer garden.
In a recent USA Today Readers’ Choice Award article, Massachusetts’ Cisco Brewers took sixth place in the readers’ top 10 beer gardens. Considering that the newspaper is a national publication, that’s pretty impressive for the Nantucket-based brewery.
“Cisco Brewers stands out as one of the top attractions on an island permeated by perfect beaches for its nearly year-round entertainment, brewery tours, local food truck vendors, and selection of beer on tap,” the article stated.
As happy as I am to see a Bay State brewery on this list, I have to say that the list skewed heavily to East Coast breweries. Only one of the top 10 was west of the Mississippi River (in Colorado), and I found it odd that two of the top 10 were in Washington D.C and another two in North Carolina. That means there were four places in the top 10 within a 300-mile radius, and remember, the continental U.S. is more than 3 million square miles.
Then again, this was a readers’ poll, so it was at the mercy of the vagaries associated with such fickle endeavors. What criteria that various people uss to rate a beer garden is anyone’s guess. But this article made me wonder: What aspects make a beer garden attractive to you? Let me know at geolenker@yahoo.com.
In other August beer news, research out of the University of California has shown that a prescription drug can help reduce binge drinking.
UCSF Community Health Systems professor Glenn-Milo Santos, Ph.D., MPH, has shown that naltrexone, (a drug that has been employed to treat alcohol use disorder for decades) could possibly reduce binge drinking.
Binge drinking is when a woman has four or more drinks within three hours or a man has five or more drinks in the same time span. Naltrexone blocks the general buzz one gets from drinking, thereby reducing the impulse or desire to keep drinking. The drug also blocks one’s appetite for alcohol, which can assist those who crave alcohol to an unhealthy degree. The trick, of course, is being willing to take it.
Last up today is an odd, yet oddly appealing, suggestion from an article on Lifehacker: putting green olives in cheap beer to make it better.
Now, I assume most readers of this weekly missive don’t buy or drink a lot of cheap, crappy beer, but I have to admit that – to an olive lover like myself – this idea will probably be one I try at some point.
The concoction, referred to as a “beertini,” only has a few rules: The beer should be cheap (think PBR) and the olives green. Apparently, the brininess of the olives adds some savor to the drink and mitigates some of the less desirable properties of cheap brews. Also, don’t try this with beers such as stouts (the thought of that makes me cringe) or IPAs (where the brine will get lost in – or even battle with – the beer’s bitterness.
The article suggests Castelvetrano olives, which I love. Have you ever tried this? If not, will you? Let me know at the email address above.
