Brown ales have been around for hundreds of years. Actually, 300 years ago, most ales were dark brown, cloudy, questionable beverages. (Still better than the shit and water cocktail passing as drinking water back then.) This dark color was due mainly to the almost singular prevalence of roasted malts that were often heated over wood fires. Not only did this darken the final product, but it often lead to smoky flavors in the beer (this is a good thing in rauchbier, but that’s for another column). Brown ales, also known as the workingman’s beer, are smooth, easy drinking, and typically low in alcohol content.

Times have changed for the meek, unassuming brown ale. Ingredients have become more readily available and brewing practices more exacting. Most modern brown ales owe their distinct mahogany color to specialty malts like caramel and chocolate and are brewed with pale English malt rather than the more unpredictable roasted malts of old. The pale and caramel malts lend the distinctive caramel and nutty flavors most often associated with the style and Newcastle is no different. Brown ales are quite rare in the US, and imported versions are even rarer still. Craft brewers are slowly reintroducing the masses to this underappreciated beer, but to truly experience the style as original, you need to get your hands on one from across the pond.

Newcastle Brown Ale is one of the few truly English brown ales available in the States. It's brewed from a recipe created back in 1927 by one Colonel J. Porter, and is currently marketed by the Scottish & Newcastle division of Heineken International. It's the most popular bottled beer (by volume) in England, and the US tosses back over 50% of their production every year. The bottom line: this is the perfect beer for those that want to taste traditional brown ale.

[Serving Note: Brown ales should be chilled to about 40F (4C) before serving in a traditional pint glass. As most refrigerators are set to about 38F (3C), just take it out about 10 minutes before you intend to drink it and wait. That should do the trick.]

Newcastle Brown Ale pours a crystal clear brown-amber that produces a transient tan head. As is expected, ...There's more

American patriot Sam Adams may be famous for his love of beer, but rum has its own place in American history.

Below are 5 true stories of rum's place in the building of our country, collected by iconic American rum, Tommy Bahama. And strangely left out of my 8th grade History class...

So while you're celebrating the Country's birth next weekend, mix up one of the red, white and blue Tommy cocktails you'll find at the end, and, like our forefathers did, raise a glass of the golden spirit.

Paul Revere's Ride
It is said, Paul Revere had a swallow of the stuff to stiffen his resolve partway through his famous midnight ride. He stopped at Captain Isaac Hall’s home and downed a dram or two of rum to fortify him on his mission to Lexington. Turns out his visit was an accident as he never intended to pass through Medford. He was one of two messengers that was dispatched from Boston to Lexington.

Ben Franklin's Ode
Benjamin Franklin, who periodicly fretted about the overly exuberant drinking habits of his countrymen, penned a short ode to the pleasant ritual of punch drinking:

Boy, bring a bowl of china here,
Fill it with water cool and clear:
Decanter with Jamaica right
And spoon of silever, clean and bright
Sugar twice-fin’d in piece cut
Knife, sieve and glass in order put
Bring forth the fragrant fruit and then
We’re happy till the clock strikes ten

(Yeah, I don't get it either, but you gotta figure he'd been half a bottle in when he wrote that...)

Ernest Hemingway's Books
Big Poppa may have been a man's man, but he was also a lover of the Daquiri. He worked it into his fiction, most notably his posthumously published Islands in the Stream.

“The Floridita was now open,” he wrote... and protagonist Thomas Hudson “entered and ordered a double frozen daiquiri with no sugar.”

FYI: El Floridita was a popular establishment in Cuba, just a few minutes from his hotel. It is said he spent a third of his life in Cuba -- most of it at that bar. In fact, the bar still exists today and has a sign that declares the bar to be “el cuna del daiquiri”: The Cradle of the Daiquiri.

JFK's Election Results
On election night in 1960, John F. Kennedy sipped it over dinner at his house in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts before watching the election returns. He sat sipping daiquiris (oh, come on... him too?), in the dining room of his house. When dinner was over he rose and checked the results on a small TV with bad reception, to learn that he would be the next President of the United States.

George Washington's 4th of July
General George Washington loved rum. In 1778, he marked July 4th with a double ration of rum for his soldiers and an artillery salute. In fact, when celebrating his inauguration in 1789, he not only demanded that barrels of rum be present to celebrate, but that at least one of those barrels be from Barbados. He was in agreement with the common belief that Barbados rum was richer and more complex than all other rums. (Not surprisingly, ...There's more

I don’t necessarily need a reason to enjoy beer. To me, it’s one of the greatest human inventions and it rates right up there with the wheel and the discovery of fire. The former I’m pretty sure, being invented after a few too many.

For those of you that have fielded the oft-slung queries about the health benefits of beer, the great people at the American Brewers Association have compiled a useful list of reasons why beer does the body (and soul) good.

While I get my doctor to give me a prescription for a keg, check out some of the highlights:

Lower rates of heart disease.
Consuming alcohol in moderation (defined by the U.S. government as no more than two drinks per day for men or one drink per day for women) may lower coronary heart disease risk for some people by 30 to 60 percent, even those at high risk because of diabetes, hypertension or a previous heart attack.

Aids in bone formation.
Beer contains silicon, a mineral that helps build bone mass. Dietary silicon has been shown in one study to improve bone density in the hips of men and premenopausal women.

Prevents cell damage that can lead to cancer and heart disease.
Hops and malt used to make beer are rich sources of disease-fighting antioxidants. Beer also contains polyphenols, the same antioxidants found in wine, fruits, vegetables, and green and black tea. Ales and lagers generally contain more antioxidants than light and nonalcoholic beers.

Protect against ischemic stroke.
Responsible for 80 percent of all strokes, Alzheimer’s disease and ...There's more

Way back when, booze was actually outlawed in America. Crazy right? And still dumb things managed to happen, which totally kills the argument that alcohol causes stupidity. But that’s a discussion for another day.

Out of the quagmire that was Prohibition rose an underground drinking institution that still exists today (if you know where to look) - the speakeasy.

What is a Speakeasy? Then and Now
Between 1920 and 1932 (give or take), selling, making and distributing booze was illegal. However, that didn’t stop us from drinking. No way, no how. Instead, getting sloshed went underground.

You’ve probably seen speakeasies in the movies. You know the scene. A trench coat-clad detective knocks on a back alley door and an eye-level panel slides open. The detective is surveyed, asked for a password, and then the door opens. Inside, another world appears full of server girls and well-dressed men with cigars and glasses of scotch. Under the dreary darkness of night, booze flowed freely, the entertainment kept on coming, and the party roared on (quietly, hence the name "speak easy"), much to the chagrin of law enforcement officials.

Fast forward to today, and modern speakeasies have taken all that was cool about their old school counterparts and removed what sucked (like bathtub alcohol that could kill you).

The Modern Speakeasy
Today, relatively secret, non-descript bars exist all over the country. While the ...There's more

[Note: You may have noticed a lot of Sam Adams posts this week... that's what happens when you do a bunch of interviews and get "all access". And a lot of free beer. I'm just sayin']

I discovered beer with my first sip of Samuel Adams Boston Lager. I’m not saying it was my very first, but that it set me off in the right direction. It was different and it challenged me. Still the favorite of its creator and The Boston Beer Company President, Jim Koch, it made me realize that beer was not a simple beverage and that it could truly push the limits of expectations. True to form, Sam Adams is ruffling feathers again.

The Sam Adams Imperial Series of craft beers doesn’t mess around. These are big beers. They will kick your ass with flavor and intensity, and offer no apologies. They are perfect examples of what can happen when someone skilled in the art wants to take a beer style to the edge and threaten to throw it over. This trio of brews consists of Samuel Adams Imperial Stout, Samuel Adams Imperial White, and Samuel Adams Double Bock.

Sam Adams Imperial Stout
To put it simply, stouts are black ales that owe most of their character to the highly roasted barley malt used in their creation. They are often mildly hopped and balanced with flavors of chocolate and coffee. The imperial version of the stout is the highly hopped high-alcohol big brother to the base style. And pours into the glass like liquid midnight.

You can see and hear the thickness of this beer and the mocha-colored head gently floats atop awaiting your first taste. Putting your nose into the glass you inhale. Your wanton wafting draws in huge coffee and chocolate aromas with a hint of dried fruit.

This is not an intro-level beer. The first taste coats your mouth in a bitter wash of chocolate and anise that finishes with a barista inspired bite. As you swallow, you’ll feel the gentle warming of this 9.2% ABV beast, continuing its esophageal edging. After tasting this beer, you’ll see why it was at one time reserved for royalty.

Samuel Adams Imperial White
White style ales, or witbiers, hail from Belgium. This style is ...There's more

Slap on that Speedo and smear on that sunscreen. OK, scratch the Speedo. You can’t pull it off anyway. What I’m trying to say is that summer is almost here and we're running out of time to prepare. And when it comes to beer, there is definitely a right way and a wrong way to sip your suds.

After all, why spend all that money on good beer if you aren’t going to make sure that it’s in peak physical condition when it hits your lips?

Jim Koch, founder and head hops honcho at the Boston Beer Company – makers of all things Sam Adams – has a few tips that are sure to get you headed in the right direction:

1 - If you’re going to hit the beach, go for a beer packaged in brown bottles. (As opposed to green or clear.) Too much light (especially direct sunlight) can skunk beer. Brown bottles keep out sunlight better than green or clear, protecting your beer from those harmful rays. Which is why Koch will only use brown for Samuel Adams.

2 - Store beer upright in your cooler or on the door of refrigerator, never on its side. Storing beer on its side can expose more of the beer to oxygen and sunlight, causing it to go bad more quickly.

3 - Don’t be afraid to re-chill your beer. The cold-to-warm-to-cold again temperature thing is a myth. The colder you keep your beer (35 to 40 degrees F is good), the longer it will ...There's more

As a card-carrying member of the American Homebrewers Association and an avid homebrewer, I believe that life is way too short to drink ordinary beer. Why wallow in complacency with your pale, tasteless beer when you have so many choices?

Porter, stout, Trappist ale, pale ale, hefeweizen, bock, marzen; it’s enough to give you a beer boner. And with a growing number of small, independent breweries entering the market every day, your reasons for exploring this genre of the drink even further have just expanded.

Immerse yourself in the world of small craft brews in one of the country’s greatest cities at the 2009 American Craft Beer Fest. Home to one of the most innovative craft brewers on the scene today (think American patriot and brewer, Samuel Adams) Boston is playing host to the 2009 Fest and you can check it out June 19th & 20th at the Seaport World Trade Center.

With over 75 craft brewers flaunting 300 different craft brews at this year’s event, your liver will give out before your choices do as you wander the halls looking for the country’s next breakout brewmaster. You might even be lucky enough to get your mits on a barleywine sample. When your taste buds need a break, you can also scope out a viewing of Beer Wars, a documentary film exposing all you ever wanted to know, but were afraid to ask, about the US beer industry. Combine some brutal bloodletting competition with a dash of highly guarded trade secrets and you get the picture.

So, if you’re ready to expand your hop horizons and dive headfirst into the world of the malt manipulators, head over to the 2009 Great American Beer Fest. Included with your $40 admission is your very own 2oz sample cup. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but do the math – 2oz and 300 beers – if there was ever a strong case for a DD this might be it.

For more info and to purchase your tickets head over to www.beeradvocate.com. Prost!

Yesterday I posted on summer blended drinks. (Read it here) And then this hits my email box: "Forget blended drinks... what about alcoholic sno-cones?"

Oh, I'm with ya. They're cool. They're refreshing. And they're mood altering. Besides courtside tickets to women's beach volleyball, there's nothing better on a hot summer day to get you feeling right.

The recipes below are courtesy of Midori melon liqueur. Poured straight, or mixed with vodka, tequila and fruit juices, these sno-cones will take both the heat, and the edge, off.

To make 'em, pick up a sno-cone maker at any big retailer (they run under $50, and trust me, you'll use it all summer long), shave a bunch of ice into the cones, and pour the mixture over the top. They're like icy green snow balls sent from heaven.

Midori Sno-Cone
Pour 1 1/2 oz Midori Melon Liqueur over a ball of ice

Midori Melon Ball
1 oz Midori Melon Liqueur
1/2 oz of SKYY Infusions Pineapple
Splash of OJ
Pour over one ball of ice

Midori Margarita Sno-Ball
1 oz Midori Melon Liqueur
1/2 oz tequila
Splash of sweet and sour
Pour over one ball of ice

Love 'em or hate 'em, summer means blended drinks. Coladas, rum runners, and yeah, even daiquiris. Not that you drink any of these, (maybe a rum runner, but only at a tiki bar, on a Caribbean beach, surrounded by bikinis and steel drums), but they're a good idea to have on hand if your party includes ladies. And anyone else who wants to be refreshed and inebriated at the same time.

To pack a little more punch in your frozen summer punch is in some Alizé.
An explosive blend of premium French cognac, passion fruit, and some vodka for good measure, it mixes beautifully with other liquors and juices to produce powerful adult poolside smoothies, that hit you like a tidal wave.

Here are three to get your beach bash started. Just keep out the umbrellas so no one confuses them for daiquiris.

Mercury Rising
3 parts Alizé Red Passion
1 part premium tequila
1/2 part triple sec
Splash fresh lime juice ...There's more

I truly believe that what Plato said was true: “He was a wise man who invented beer.” It is and will always be my drink of choice and with the thousands of microbreweries out there today, I doubt I will ever run out of beer to try. That being said, when I was given the opportunity to sample a new “gourmet” beer from the Spanish brewery Estrella Damm, I could barely hold back my tears of joy.

The brewers at Estrella Damm have decided that it is time the market had a real alternative to wine when it comes to fine dining. Never again should you feel emasculated when ordering beer with your bone-in filet. No longer do you have to hang your head in shame as the owner of the lone longneck among a sea of fancy crystal stemware. Estrella Damm INEDIT is the product of nearly 18 months of trial and error (18 months of beer testing? Sign me up!) and is marketed as a beer “specifically created to accompany food.” Among those that had a hand in the creation of this high-end brand of suds are world-renowned chef Ferran Adrià and the sommeliers of elBulli in Catalonia, Spain.

After 400 attempts at reaching the summit, INEDIT was finally born this May. Showing in at a respectable 750-mL (about 1.5 pints), it is meant to be shared. Cloaked in an enigmatic black bottle adorned with a singular gold star, this beer fits right in with the bubbly and vino. According to the proud parents of this bouncing baby brew, this is a beer that should be served in a white wine glass filled no more than halfway, as to allow one to “appreciate all its virtues.” After all that, I’m not sure I’m worthy.

I was lucky enough to sample some and I have to ...There's more