Thanks to a ticket hookup from my friend Ally over at WhereMaineEats.com (under construction), I was able to attend the Maine Bartenders Bash this past Monday night (a helluva way to end a day which began with a 4am trip to Kate Day…). I’m not usually one for vodka but I must admit that nearly all of the cocktails served at the “bash” (more of a cocktail tasting than a bash, I have to admit. Still a very good time but “bash” implies flair, and there wasn’t any) were mighty tasty. One particular drink though really hit home for me, probably needless to say.

Photo by Michael Barriault of PortlandTown

“The Native” from Vignola was created by Scott Doherty and features the White and Black ales of Allagash Brewing Co, blended with a number of spices, boiled and mixed with Maine’s own Cold River Vodka. If you’re feeling adventurous enough to try making it yourself, the recipe is below. I told Scott at the time that I think “The Native” would be fantastic served hot on a cold New England evening. While it didn’t win the overall best cocktail of the evening, it was the best drink at The Bartenders Bash in my book.

The Native:

~1 1/2 oz Cold River Vodka
~6 oz Four Spice Black & White Agave syrup:

Agave Syrup:

1 pint Allagash White
1pint Allagash Black
8 oz water
8 oz Agave Nectar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp whole white peppercorns
1 star anise pod
1/2 tsp whole clove
1/4 piece of ginger

Bring water, cinnamon stick, whole white peppercorns, star anise pod, whole clove, and ginger to a boil. Then add agave nectar and return to a boil. Remove from heat and cool. Cover and refrigerate over night, strain and cover. Bring 1 pint of Allagash White and 1 pint of Allagash Black to a boil. Add 3 tablespoons of agave syrup and 1/2 cup sugar. Return to a boil and reduce liquid by half. Pour agave syrup and vodka into a shaker, add ice, and shake vigorously. Strain into pilsner glass. Enjoy!

This is a guest post by a good friend of mine, Josh Christie. Josh is the author of brewsandbooks.com and a fellow member of the Maine Beer Writers Guild. You can also follow Josh on Twitter @jchristie.

My name is Josh, and I have a problem.

I’ve become addicted to beer trading.

To be fair, I’m not making a serious effort towards recovery. I don’t even think I genuinely have a problem. I can certainly quit any time I want to. I’ll stop as soon as the weather gets cold and I have to worry about the brews freezing in transit.

Seriously, I can stop if I want. Right now, however, I’m having a hell of a lot of fun.

Being in Portland has a lot of benefits, especially for a beer-lover. Along with a couple fantastic beer bars in Novare Res and the Great Lost Bear, Portland is home to many great breweries. Add to that the fact that beer from Atlantic and Bar Harbor Brewing is readily available, and you have access to beer that people in the other part of the country are dying to get their hands on. Cadillac Mountain Stout and a number of Allagash brews are the stuff of legend on sites like RateBeer.com and BeerAdvocate. Call it the charitable, Maine-loving bastard in me, but I want as many beer lovers in the US to try these concoctions as possible.

Hey, and if I can get some awesome stuff in return, win-win.

As much as I’ve waxed poetic about the “Beer Nirvana” (all credit for the term goes to Luke at this fantastic site, by the way), there are so many brews that just aren’t distributed here in Maine. Lots of things from Rogue and Stone, along with whole breweries like New Belgium, Alesmith, Terrapin, Schmaltz … the list goes on and on. The addiction arose via the Want/Got lists on Beer Advocate, where you can match beers you have with the wants of others around the country, and vice-versa. From there, it just comes down to making contact with your “partner” and setting up a trade. The process doesn’t come without risks, as the legality of shipping with private carriers is sketchy, to put things lightly. However, the community that exists at BeerAdvocate is helpful and accommodating, and anyone that wants should be trading in no time.

Unfortunately, trading can be an expensive hobby. On top of the beer you’re paying for, you have to pay shipping fees, which can almost double the cost of your trade. In the end, I think that the costs and risks are worth it. I’ve already gotten a number of my favorite brews from my time on the west coast, some incredibly inventive beers I’ve tried at the Extreme Beer Fests in Boston, and even the “holy grail” of Belgians, a Westvleteren 12.

While not for everyone, trading beer has proven to be a great experience for me, and a windfall in terms of beer. If you stumble across this and want to try some of the libations of Portland, ME, feel free to drop me a line – I’m on Beer Advocate as umfskibum. Oh, and let me know if you can get Foothills’ Sexual Chocolate – I’ll totally make it worth your while.

Editor’s Note: If you would like to write a guest post for BlogAboutBeer.com, I’d love to have you! Please drop me a line with your idea and a little background info. Thanks!

If you are a resident of Central Maine, be sure and pick up today’s Lewiston Sun Journal for an article in the Our Town supplement written by yours truly on the state of beer in the state of Maine.

If you aren’t a resident of Central Maine but still want to check out my handy work, you can read the article online here (I didn’t choose the headline, so just excuse that. And know I had nothing to do with it). There are plenty of quotes from Shipyard brewmaster Alan Pugsley, Gritty McDuff’s brewer Ben Low and Allagash kingpin Rob Tod.

And lastly — if you read the article, found this address in the byline and are visiting BlogAboutBeer.com for the first time: Welcome! Please subscribe to the RSS Feed and follow me on Twitter.

As any longtime readers will know, I’ve long sung the praises of canned craft beer here at BlogAboutBeer.com and wished for an equally long time that one of the craft breweries currently canning their beers elsewhere across the USofA would expand their distribution a tad to include the state of Maine (as of now, no one distributes canned Better Beer here). When it comes down to it, canned beer is superior to bottled beer in almost every way. Despite the fact that the myth lingers on in some uneducated pockets of the beer drinking community, long gone are the days of any sort of “metal taste” associated with canned beer. And the difference in taste between canned and bottled beer is actually really indistinguishable. Anyone who tells you that “bottled beer tastes better than canned” has merely tricked their mind into thinking there’s a difference. But what does canned beer have to do with Earth Day?

Canned Beer is Better for the Environment:

While the electricity and energy required to produce aluminum is greater than the energy needed to produce glass bottles, they require fewer resources to manufacture. Cans are much lighter to carry around, which means less gas used during shipping. And possibly most importantly, cans are more commonly recycled (the Container Recycling Institute claims that the can recycling rate is almost twice that of glass).

Other Benefits to Canned Beer:

In addition to the benefits canned beer has on the environment, cans block nearly 100% of light and oxygen, leaving your beer fresher longer. Glass, no matter the color, cannot come close to the skunk provention power of cans.

Cans can also go plenty of places that bottles cannot. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been sitting on a Maine beach wishing I had a can of beer worth drinking. Anyone who spends any time in the outdoors can appreciate the Case for Cans — you can take them to the beach, to the park, you can take cans camping, you can take them disc golfing (another HUGE pasttime around here); all places where bottles are either frowned upon or flat out not allowed. Cans simply make more sense.

So this Earth Day, as you’re celebrating the simple gifts and bounty of Mother Nature, crack open a can of your favorite craft beer (if you’re lucky enough to live in a corner of the country where you can get such a thing, that is), drink it down (and recycle afterward) and be thankful for what you’ve got. Anyone in Maine want to help me start a canning brewery?

Please excuse the appearance as I mess with the theme again.

Thanks!
Luke