How to offer help to Japan

Network for Good is a clearinghouse for contributing to NGOs involved in the rescue, emergency aid and shelter, and reconstruction in Japan, following yesterday's 8.9 magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami. The death and injury tolls are expected to exceed 10,000. The many organizations participating include OxFam, Save the Children, and Doctors Without Borders.

In this photo, evacuated brewery employees are pictured near the toppled tanks of the Kirin Brewery, in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, in northeastern Japan, the area hardest hit by the earthquake and tsunami. Photo courtesy of Reuters/Kyodo.

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• Japan’s breweries face uncertain future after disaster. Via BeerNews.org.
  
• Tipped to the photograph by Zythophile and A Good Beer Blog.

Support Flood Relief in Pakistan

From Network for Good:

Heavy monsoon rains have caused massive flooding in Pakistan, killing many people and challenging relief efforts in remote areas stranded by washed out roads and bridges. Reports estimate that nearly 14 million people have been affected by the disaster - more than the combined total of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, according to the United Nations. Critical supplies, especially clean water, are in demand.

Donations are needed to help provide emergency relief to those currently in desperate need.

Network for Good has an extensive list of charities and NGOs now providing care and relief and reconstruction in Pakistan.

Washington, D.C. beer blog banned by China

Chris O'Brien lives in the Washington, D.C. area. He blogs about beer — The Beer Activist — from an environmental point-of-view. He has also written a book, with a similar premise, called Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World.

Pictured: Chris O'Brien (l) with Washington, D.C. beer maven Bob Tupper.
And that title may be why the government of China has a problem with him.

When I arrived in China [2 August 2009], I quickly learned that my blog was being blocked by the government. Last night someone told me how to get around the censorship. It’s taken me an hour or so to finally get it working and now I’m furiously typing this post before I get logged out again. We head to Qingdao today for the International Beer Festival. Hopefully I’ll be blogging from there about beer!

Beer Activist
13 August 2009

The Beer Activist is too revolutionary for the Communists! Hmmm. Will YFGF be blocked now for mentioning this?

In Solidarity with Pub-Going, Loose and Forward Women

A sect of Hindu fundamentalists believes that India is

falling prey to "Western deviations' such as allowing women into watering holes clearly meant for men.
<...>
[Several members of the sect] barged into a pub in the south Indian city of Mangalore last month and roughed up young women clients who were enjoying a quiet drink.

'Moral Police' In India To Get Valentine's Underwear
by Philip Reeves
NPR.org
13 February 2009

In response, Indian journalist Nisha Susan formed a Facebook site called the Consortium of Pub-Going, Loose and Forward Women.

For Valentines Day —apparently a day, for this religious sect called Sri Ram Sena, resplendent of Western depravity— the women's group had asked women around India, and around the world, to send their pink panties —or as they're called in India, chaddis— to the sect's leader.

The Sri Ram Sena's leader — who is on bail after his arrest for the pub attack — has a plan to answer the onslaught of pink underwear. He says his organization will reply with gifts of pink saris, the traditional garb of Indian women.

Valentines' Day, I was at Maxs in Baltimore for its Belgian Beer Fest. I didn't have a spare pair of pink chaddis handy, so I toasted the Consortium with a glass of Hannsens Young Lambic, drawn from a cask (the US premiere for this beer).

As of Tuesday, nearly 50,000 Facebook members have joined the group, expressing solidarity. Its campaign for women's human rights continues at: The Pink Chaddis Campaign.

I was alerted to this story by a post at Jeff Alworth's Beervana.

Almost Oz, definitely Chico, and seen in Alexandria: all wet

The 2008 Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Fresh Hop Ale is a "wet-hopped" ale.

An American craft beer neologism, the term refers to a beer made with hops that are used in the brew kettle on the same day -- or close enough -- that they have been harvested. Commercial hops normally undergo a curing period, but not so-called wet hops. Beers made with them are intensely grassy and herbal, tasting as if biting into a fresh sprig of mint covered by a bale of newly mowed grass.

[Some beer lovers, in a love-hate relationship with wine, often unintentionally demean wet-hopped beers by falsely comparing them to the Beaujolais Nouveau wines of France, which are generally poor, insignificant, wines. Sierra Nevada's Harvest Ale and others of its ilk are emphatically not insignificant beers. Go here for an earlier rant on that.]

Sierra Nevada can claim most of the credit for creating the first commercial fresh harvest beers. Beginning in 1996, the brewery arranged for shipment of hops from Pacific Northwest fields on the day they were harvested. The harvest is in Autumn. The 'wet-hopped' beers are released soon after.

But this year, Sierra Nevada has traveled to the seasonal and geographic antipode, New Zealand, for the uncured 'wet' hops for its 2008 Southern Hemisphere Fresh Hop Ale. And the brewery flew them in. this is the first time any American brewer has done such.

Hops from New Zealand have historically been pesticide-free, as has been most of its produce. Over a decade ago, I was using NZ Hallertau and Pacific Gem as aroma and character hops in beers at two different breweries. Lacking the typical catty, grapefruit aromas of US varietals, these hops may not appeal to many American craft beer lovers, but I was then (and am still) a fan of their distinctive piney/berry/citrus/medicinal herbal character.

So how is 2008 Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Fresh Hop Ale? Delicious! A firm sweet malt character in balance with the basil/minty dark berry citrus character of the hops.

2008 Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Fresh Hop Ale is allocated, in short supply. But, several stores in the DC-Baltimore-Richmond area do have this wonderful beer to sell ... at least at present. So don't wait too long.

I was alerted to the coming of this delicious thing by Nick Anderson, the "beermonger" at beer/wine store Rick's in Alexandria, Virginia.

Nick has recently begun writing both a blog at beermonger.net, and a weekly on-line column at www.LocalKicks.com. The latter's inaugural piece featured a nice write-up on Clipper City Brewing, for which I'm a Territory Manager. Thank you, Nick.

[Baltimore Sun reviews Sierra's Southern Hemisphere.]

Pigs fly! Beer taxes revoked!

Hong Kong announced a record fiscal surplus in its annual budget on Wednesday, enabling Financial Secretary John Tsang to offer tax concessions and handouts <...> The Financial Secretary also abolished duty on wine and beer, aiming to make Hong Kong a wine hub.

But the pigs may be grounded again the following year ... and import beer duties reinstated:

... [Financial Secretary John Tsang] forecast a HK$7.5 billion fiscal deficit for 2008/09 as slower economic growth will curb tax income and land sales revenue

Hong Kong Posts Record Surplus, Unveils Budget
CNBC
27 February 2008

I was alerted to this story on the Brewers Forum, a service of the Brewers Association.