Traditions

Reporter David Wroe of The Age, reports from Berlin.

YOU CAN get it eating bratwurst. You can get it wearing lederhosen. But German beer lovers, it seems, didn’t quite get it at all.

What was this curious brew in a funny little bottle, overchilled and underdressed in a rudimentary green label, presuming to stand alongside the big boys from Germany and the Czech Republic at Berlin’s International Beer Festival?

“It’s too cold,” said a Bavarian bus driver, Hans Horst. “If it’s too cold it has no aroma. Beer should be 10 to 12 degrees Celsius, the same as sausage.”

The humble VB was one of the beers featured for the first time this weekend along the Berlin festival’s famous “beer mile”, on Karl Marx Avenue. Despite some misgivings, the world’s most discerning beer drinkers gave Victor Bravo a modest, if not effusive, thumbs up.

The bad news at the end of the first day, was that VB was being comprehensively outsold by New Zealand’s Steinlager at the international beer stalls.

The good news was, at least VB was outselling Castlemaine XXXX, which was struggling to get off the mark.

[From theage.com.au]

Book review

Here’s Cheers: a pictorial history of hotels, taverns and inns in Hobart.
by C J Dennison
272pp large format paperback. Illustrated, colour and black & white
Published by Hobart City Council
ISBN 978-0-9750909-6-1

Hobart was once one of the toughest towns on earth. In the high days of whaling and sealing, you took your life in your hands if you strayed into many a city or waterfront pub.

British colonists were noted for their formidable capacity for grog, both sly and legitimate, and at one time the town boasted one pub for every 16 houses — there was a drinking establishment on just about every corner.

Part of this can be explained by a large transitory population of sailors, whalers and adventurers in a port that, despite its remotest, was one of the world’s busiest for many decades. Scores of hard-headed and necessarily hard-fisted publicans were always ready to help a sailor part himself from months — and sometimes years — of wages hard-earned before the mast.

But the real reason for the proliferation of pubs was social. Housing was primitive and often overcrowded; home offered little in the way of amusement or space to relax and so the pub functioned as the people’s loungeroom, providing warmth, cheer, free entertainment and a respite from cramped living quarters, noisy children and nagging spouses.

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Part 1 of an occasional series about the historic importance of beer

It was the accepted practice 4000 years ago in ancient Babylonia (modern Iraq) that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink.

Mead is a honey-based beer, and because the Babylonian calendar followed the moon, this period was called the honey month, which eventually became our word honeymoon.

All prospective fathers-in-law please take note — Shippies is standing by to keep your new son-in-law supplied.

The old advertising slogan ‘Guinness is Good for You’ may be true after all, according to researchers.

A pint of the black stuff a day may work as well as an aspirin to prevent heart clots that raise the risk of heart attacks.

Drinking lager does not yield the same benefits, experts from University of Wisconsin told a conference in the US.

Guinness were told to stop using the slogan decades ago — and the firm still makes no health claims for the drink.

The Wisconsin team tested the health-giving properties of stout against lager by giving it to dogs who had narrowed arteries similar to those in heart disease.

They found that those given the Guinness had reduced clotting activity in their blood, but not those given lager.

When Shippies’ first opened in 1846, Battery Point was a very different place.

It was a bustling centre for the busy shipbuilding industry; the waterfront was lined with shipyards and jetties for fishing boats and the atmosphere was decidedly working class.

The nobs built their mansions well away from the waterfront in places like New Town and rarely ventured into tough areas like Battery Point.

Shippies’ was one of many pubs catering to thirsty workers and fishermen and there are many still living who can remember the days when it had an earth floor with sawdust renewed weekly.

Much extended since this photograph from some time early in the 20th century showing workers removing shingles ready for a modern tin roof, Shippies’ still has that welcoming common touch, whether you’re a nob or just an ordinary Joe.

Two Hobart traditions come together at Shippies’ every New Year’s Day: the Quiet Little Drink and The Kravats, Hobart’s favourite band.

The Quiet Little Drink attracts crews from the Sydney-Hobart yacht race looking for a chance to rinse down the salt water with a cool drink or three to the music of maestro Barry Woodruff and the mighty Kravats.

They’ve been part of Hobart life for more than 50 years — but they haven’t slowed down a bit. The Kravats can rock along with the best of them and they’ve been at it for longer than the Rolling Stones.

Specialising in favourites of the 60s and 70s, the band will be joined this year by Hobart bluesman Jimmy Roussos.

They’re the only Tasmanian band that outsold the Beatles with their hit single ‘Baby Let Me Take You Home’. Have a look and a listen and enjoy a trip back to more cheerful times.

Every New Year’s day locals and crews from the Sydney-Hobart and Melbourne-Hobart races meet for a quiet little drink at Shippies’ to tell tall tales of adventure at sea, catch up with old friends and rinse away the effects of New Year’s Eve celebrations.

There’s a barbeque and spit roast — and entertainment by Hobart’s legendary good-time band, the mighty Kravats. They’ve been rocking this usually sedate town for more than half a century and this year they’re joined by another legend, veteran bluesman Jimmy Roussos.

Join us the early afternoon on January 1 and round off your New Year celebrations with a Quiet Little Drink.