More new stuff this week, including the pretty Belgians of Brouwerij Sterkens.

STERKENS St. Sebastiaan Dark
STERKENS St. Sebastiaan Blonde
STERKENS Hoogstraten Pooter
STERKENS Boksrijks Kruikenbier
CAMERONS Longleg Fuggles Hop
KULMBACHER Eisbock
MONCHSHOF Kellerbrau

Image: Brouwerij Sterkens

We wrote a while back about the beer-fed Kobe beef cows in Cornwall. Courtesy of the funny folks at Fark.com:

The Vancouver Sun has an awesome story about mathematicians at the science journal Nature who developed a formula for why beer foam doesn’t last. They take Brevity Gold by calling it ”the von Neumann relation generalized to coarsening of three-dimensional microstructures.” 

From the article: 

The new formula for three dimensions, Srolovitz says, “gives you an exact result for how every individual bubble in the whole array of bubbles will evolve in time.” Beer, meanwhile, behaves like molten metal in the steel mill, going through a transition from tiny bubbles to larger ones under the influence of surface tension. 

Srolovitz says a field trip to the pub can help with basic concepts. “You have to get an idea of the basic geometry. Imagine three bubbles meeting. Generally what you would find is that those three faces of the bubbles all come in at 120 degrees. Four bubbles meet at a point, at 109.5 degrees, and those things are pretty robust. 

“I would say it’s the kind of thing anybody could just sort of stare at, if you’ve had four or five beers and you’re more likely to be in staring mode. It’s really fascinating to watch.” 

Source: The Vancouver Sun / Nature

Chances are you know someone going to the World Beer Festival in Raleigh on Saturday. And here’s your big list o’ reasons to be jealous. Beervana! We’re surprised that Southampton Publick House isn’t there, as they’ve committed to distributing in North Carolina recently, nor Weyerbacher, since NC is the only Southern state they’re available. But, nonetheless, that’s a ton of good beer circumventing the globe. We wonder if Hildegaard from Urthel will be there.

If you’re going, be sure to check the Ommegang tent and see if they’re sampling Ommegeddon, which is to be permanently added to their 5-beer line-up in 2007. BeerAdvocate says Ommegeddom is an American wild ale (meaning wild yeasts or bacteria), but the brewery describes it as a farmhouse-style “funkhouse ale.” 

Image: World Beer Festival

Tony Kiss writes in today’s Citizen-Times about the WNC winners in the second annual Carolinas Championship of Beer held at Hickory Hops last weekend. We’ve been looking online all week, but no word yet on the complete breakdown of awards. We expect (hope?) someone will post on Beerinator soon.

Highland Brewing cleaned up, earning six medals, winning for Gaelic, Oatmeal Porter, St. Teresa’s Pale Ale, Kashmir IPA, Black Mocha Stout and Tasgall Scottish ale. Pisgah Brewing from Black Mountain won for its Pale Ale, Baptista winter brew, Solstice triple ale and porter. Asheville Pizza and Brewing won a medal for Roland’s extra special bitter.

After the initial medals were given, all the gold winners were judged again for best of show honors. Topping the list was the Peg Leg Pale Ale by Ham’s Brewhouse in Greenville, N.C., taking second place was the Jack’d Up Stout from Mash House Brewery in Fayetteville, and Terrapin Brewing of Athens, Ga., finished third with its Rye Pale Ale.

Source: Asheville Citizen-Times