April 2012

Fraoch

Heather Ale

Who were the ancient Picts? Did they come from Atlantis or from UFOs? Were they tiny like Hobbits, or massive barbarian He-Men? Were they druids or feminists? Nobody knows, but one thing we do know is that they drank heather ale, because people have been drinking heather ale in Scotland since 2000 BC, and they drank it right up until the English made them stop. Now you can drink it again if you can find a bottle of Fraoch, which is actually the Gaelic word for “heather,” which means it's not what the Picts called it because they spoke Pictish, not Gaelic.

El Mole Ocho

New Holland Brewery

 

Mole sauce is one of the most interesting flavors in all of Mexican cooking. It's unsweetened chocolate with a little hint of spiciness, recalling the ancient Mexican use of chocolate as a hot spiced beverage. Next time you're at a Mexican restaurant, check out chicken mole or mole poblano. Then pick up a bottle of El Mole Ocho by New Holland Brewery, because this is a beer designed to taste like mole sauce and it really does.

Negra Modelo

Dark, but light

 

Guinness Stout is a thick, rich beer and the climate of Ireland is cool and wet. Corona, on the other hand, is light and thin, and the climate of Mexico is hot and dry. This is not a coincidence. Drinking Guinness in Mexico would seem peculiar and masochistic, because that thick creamy stout would sit in your belly like a stack of bricks in the sun and the heat. Even in a northern climate like Minnesota, Guinness is something you would drink in the fall or winter, not the dog days of summer.