Beerly Writing - The Final Round for 2008

From the latest issue of the Free Radical, here is my column on Lagers:

Michael Jackson, reminded even hardened ale drinkers that they should not be blinded to the qualities of good, traditional beer made by bottom fermentation. This is because bottom-fermenting yeasts produce a cleaner tasting, rounded beer. He asks (rhetorically) “which is better: a winey-tasting Lambic - a fruity, complex ale - or a clean, rounded lager? Assuming that the beer is good, my choice might depend upon the moment, my mood, and the place or time at which I was drinking the beer.”

This article was written in April but not published until December.

Much more recently, the Malthouse blog has the latest post on beers from Asia:

Beer in China can be incredibly cheap. We worked out that for one crate of beer bought from the corner mini-mart it was literally 28 cents for a 500ml bottle. You can forgive a few flaws at that price. The Malthouse stocks two fine Asian lagers though the price is somewhat higher than the Beijing markets. Of course, you can trying bargaining with the staff but I doubt the price will come down. It may even go up.