I had an opportunity to share some of my observations with a beer store owner here on Long Island. He’s new to the beer business and asked for some suggestions on how a good beer store should operate.

The beer and soda shop on Long Island is usually a place that looks more like a warehouse than a grocery store. They serve a dual function. The beer and soda shop is where people bring their empties to collect a refund on the 5 cent per bottle deposit and they sell beer and soda. Yes, you can buy these items at the grocery store too, but most grocery stores don’t have the selection of beer provided by the beer store.

A good beer store is primarily about good selection. It’s not necessarily all about how many different brands, but what kind of brands. Clearly, there should be enough of the old standards (like Chimay), but you should also be able to find brands that are less common (like Achel). A portion of the stock should be devoted to seasonals and rotating items. Beer geeks like to walk into their beer store and see something new every time.

The buying habits of the beer geek are different than your two-cases-of-bud beer shopper. The beer geek expects to be able to mix and match their six packs or cases. (I understand that this is illegal in some states, but fortunately in New York, mixing and matching is just fine.)

Organization is important. The beer should be arranged by country of origin or by style. My preference is to have a section for each country and within the national sections arrange by brewery. The majority of the stock for a beer store in the US will be American microbrews. The local beers should be in their own section and prominently placed. The other beers should be arranged by state of origin.

The savvy beer store owner should not mix in macrobrew with microbrew. Keep the Anheuser-Busch’s fake “micros” like Beach Bum Blonde and Wild Hop away from the real craftbeer. Likewise the Molson-Coors product Blue Moon and the Miller product Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat have no business in the craftbeer section of the beer store. The beer geek will notice this segregation and will reward the beer store owner with repeat business.

The easiest way to get a beer in Boston is to wear a New York Yankees cap. People will be zinging bottles of Sam Adams at you. If you are good you might even catch a few.

To escape the New Yorker bashing I ducked into the Bull and Finch, a little pub just across from the Public Garden on Beacon Street. As soon as I walked in everyone turned around, waved, and yelled, “Donavan!”

The exterior of this pub was made famous by the television show Cheers. Even though the show hasn’t been on TV for years there’s still a steady crowd lining up to get their picture taken in front of this cosy little pub.

Inside the Bull and Finch is more like a Cheers theme park with several gift shops and life sized cutouts of all your favorite Cheers regulars. If you are looking for this place on the web, just Google “Boston Tourist Traps“. (It’s the nearest thing to Bubba Gump’s that I could find in Boston.)

The Bull and Finch had a decent pub menu including a kids menu. The specialty seemed to be the bowl of New England Clam Chowder so that’s what I had with my lineup of Sam Adams beers. The Sam Adams seasonal is the Summer Ale which in some Boston pubs is served with a lemon.

I finished out my meal at the Bull and Finch with a Sam Adams Boston Ale (not the same as the Boston Lager). The Boston Ale is maltier and darker than the Lager. It’s a treat if you can find it on tap.

My beer and whiskey writing colleague Rich had already been to The Blind Tiger and written about it for Catch & Release. He described the place wonderfully, but I had pictured a drinking space that was just a little bit bigger. It was just the one room with the bar occupying the northeast quarter of the floorplan.

Right when I walked in I thought I smelled varnish or fresh paint. Then I remembered Rich had said something about this being the new location. Just how new? I wondered. The place has a history and you can read their version on their web site.

The history that’s in my head is the one recorded in Kinky Friedman’s novel Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned. In Friedman’s book the protagonist, a blocked writer named Walter Snow hooks up with the sexy and whacky Clyde Potts (and a cast of other quirky characters) to do battle with a St*rbucks that has displaced Walter’s neighborhood bar. In my world Walter Snow’s local was the original Blind Tiger on Tenth and Hudson. Writing this novel was Kinky’s way to get back at the landlord who kicked the Blind Tiger out and to exact some revenge on St*rbucks for displacing institutions which define the “soul of New York.”

All this is running through my head when I walk into the Blind Tiger and stare at the chalk board menu of beers then double checking with my list then double taking, then realizing that my printed list is woefully inaccurate. I decide to quench my thirst with a glass of Slyfox Saison and Ray goes for the cask conditioned Defiant Porter. The porter is in a gravity cask and we get a good show when the bartender starts whacking at the bung on top of the cask with a rubber mallet.

We start out at one of the tall tables near the door because the bar is packed. It’s only five o’clock, but then again, the place isn’t that large. My Slyfox Saison disappears quickly while I study the chalk board menu for what is going to be my next beer.

On a recent trip out to New Suffolk I discovered this place called Legends that had a very nice selection of beer on tap and in the bottle. I noticed they had a few German style beers and so we had a German beer tasting that day.

May and October are the two months that I get thirsty for German beers. Of course there’s the Marzens that come out in March, but for some reason I’m still in my Belgian mode in March. But when May comes I think May Bock or Maibock as the Germans would say.

There’s one unusual style of German beer that you might want to keep a eye open for as you work your way through the German beer list; it’s something called steinbrau or stein beer. “Stein” means stone. So, literally this is called stone beer.

I had a Rauchenfelser Steinbrau at Legends for “dessert”. This beer is one of those classic styles defined by it’s method of production. Back in the old days before metal pots were available for direct heating, the mixture of water, malt-sugars, and hops (called wort) was placed in wooden vats. To heat the wort, heated stones were placed into the vat. The stones were heated in fired ovens and thus would be covered with soot. Flavors from the fire, smokiness, would be imparted to the beer.

The Rauchenfels stone beer is a light bodied lager that is a dark, caramel color. It’s actually a very refreshing beer that is easy drinking. But what you’ll notice in the flavor is hints of smoked bacon or sausage. So if you do a lot of grilling and like the flavor of the grill, a stone beer would be an ideal pairing.

Downtown Houston wasn’t completely devoid of beer. I did manage to find a couple of decent beer bars. I even found one place using Beermapping.com that advertised that they had the best Michelada’s in Texas. It was a bit of a walk from my hotel, but I’ll do anything for this column (well, almost).

When I arrived at my destination, a place called Little Woodrow’s, I sat down at the bar and when the bartender asked what I wanted, I said, “I like a Michelada.” The bartender knew what I was talking about at least, but informed me that it couldn’t be made since “we’re out of Bloody Mary mix.” I then asked the bartender if she was aware that the corporate web site advertised that Little Woodrow’s was famous for their Micheladas. “That’s weird. Maybe they serve them at another location.” There are several, after all. (Note: Don’t go to Little Woodrow’s if you are looking for good beer. Yes, they have a decent selection, but they abuse their beer by serving it in frosty glasses that stink of bleach.)

Anyway, all this banter with the bartender didn’t get me a Michelada. So when I got back to Long Island I thought I would whip up something that was related, a Chavela or Red Eye.

The Red Eye doesn’t have to be made with Mexican beer, but for the purposes of this series grab yourself a cerveza. The simplest form of the Chavela is to mix beer with Clamato juice. Mix to taste or in a one to one ratio, like a tomato/clam juice shandy.

If you want to get fancy, you can mix in a little hot sauce or salsa. I garnished my glass with a cocktail shrimp and a carrot. Since I didn’t have Clamato juice, I went with a mix of V8 with a dose of clam juice. The clam juice really makes the drink interesting and brings out the other flavors.

Even though this might sound like an esoteric drink, it’s actually something that people drink regularly in part of this country. For example, my father used to make Red Eyes all the time. His base beer of choice was Dos XX Amber.

It turns out there are several different ways to mix a Michelada. If you consult the Michelada entry in Wikipedia you find two: the international version and the one they actually drink in central Mexico.

My original recipe was this: “…beer poured over ice with juice of one lemon, add a dash of soy sauce, Tobasco, and Worcestershire, add a pinch of salt and pepper (Tequila optional). Another variation includes mixing equal parts beer and tomato juice or Clamato.” That one I got from that’s the spirit.com. Unless you like spicy hot stuff and lemon juice that Michelada isn’t for you. To improve this recipe I would use less lemon and make sure the pepper and Tobasco is mixed in better.

The recipe that Anita drew my attention to (attributed to Doña Tomás) is closer to the central Mexican Michelada listed on Wikipedia. Missing is the soy sauce and the lemon is replaced with lime. Another improvement is the use of Negra Modelo instead of Corona (the Corona just gets lost).

So I mixed up a new Michelada this way: First, I salted the rim of my glass, then added ice. I fresh squeezed a lime over the ice, added the hot sauce (habanero Tobasco), a dash of Worcestershire sauce, and sprinkled a pinch of coarse Kosher salt on top. Then I poured in the Negra Modelo, stirred, and garnished with a lime slice.

The beer foamed up quite a bit when I poured it in. According to Wikipedia the foaming is due to the salt.

This version of the Michelada is drinkable. If you like Negra Modelo, and you like shandies, this will work for you. It’s basically just a shandy with some salt and spice added. The worcestershire sauce didn’t mix well and the bottom of the glass started tasting more and more like sauce and less like Negra Modelo.

So this shandified version of the Michelada might be easier to drink than the one with lemon and pepper, but it’s less interesting. What I’ve learned from comparing the two is that the preparation method is important. Hot sauce mixes better when it goes in before the beer. If you put it on top, the hot sauce will float and you’ll get the burned lips effect.

Next week, I’m going to revisit the Michelada. There are some recipes that call for tomato additions and blending with clamato juice (a blend of tomato juice with clam juice).

When I got to the beer store I wasn’t surprised to see the Corona representative at the store giving away swag for Cinco de Mayo. (For some reason, the people of Mexico refuse to admit that the 5th of May is really their Independence Day. Cinco de Mayo just sounds so much better than Dieciséis de Septiembre.) But we have it right here in the US and we celebrate Mexican Independence on the Fifth of May even if the people of Mexico don’t. What better way to commemorate this occasion than by picking up a six pack of Mexican beer? Try this: mix tomato sauce, salsa, and lime juice with your Mexican beer and garnish it with a celery stalk. Think spicy tomato shandy. It’s not that bad. Trust me. Jury duty isn’t that bad either.

The Corona representative was a little disappointed that I only bought a single bottle. I wanted to try some of the other Mexican, Central, and South American beers as well, so I picked up an assorted six pack. My plan was to make cerveza preparada or prepared beer or Mexican beer cocktails.

Since I’ll be doing a series on Mexican beer cocktails this month, I spent most of the afternoon last Sunday mixing up several different Mexican beer cocktails: a Mexican Iced Tea, a Chevala, and a Michelada (the last two I made both with and without tomato juice).

My plan was to pick one of these and tell you all about how wonderful these drinks are, but I’m afraid that it’s too soon to inflict these concoctions on anyone at this point. The Michelada ended up with so much hot sauce in it that my lips went numb. The Mexican Iced Tea was blah until I doctored it with Margarita mix. And the Chevala wasn’t all that interesting until I gave it a dose of clam juice and started dunking cocktail shrimp in it.

I’m going to keep experimenting with various recipes this week and hopefully next week I’ll be able to tell you how to make the best Michelada.

Since I’ve been thinking about beer cocktails this year, I wondered what would happen if I substituted a beer for the sparkling water.

My earlier experience of mixing a tasteless beer with a soft drink didn’t satisfy me, so I thought I should go for a beer that started off with a taste I liked. Living on Long Island and preferring to drink local if possible, I naturally reached for a bottle of Blue Point Toasted Lager.

Blue Point Brewing Company is in Patchogue, New York and is responsible for the Toasted Lager along with a host of other beers: my favorites being the Oatmeal Stout and their ESB (Extra Special Bitter). The Toasted Lager is an amber colored, roasty lager with a crisp hoppiness. It’s also the recipient of the silver medal in the American-Style Amber Lager category at last year’s Great American Beer Festival, behind Steam Engine Lager from Steamworks Brewing Co., Durango/Bayfield, Colorado, and ahead of Oktoberfist from Bluegrass Brewing Co., Louisville, Kentucky and thirty-two other entries.

I mixed my Long Island Sunrise the same way I do the Virgin Sunrise. One quarter to a third glass of pineapple to start; top with orange juice until the glass is half-full at least. Fill the glass with Blue Point Toasted Lager and finish with the splash of Grenadine.

The Toasted Lager being amber-colored gave the cocktail a deeper warmer hue than the virgin prototype. I remarked to Denise that perhaps I should call it a Stormy Sunrise.

This is an excellent beverage to have with breakfast on the weekend. Wake up, scramble yourself some eggs and start the day right with a Long Island Sunrise.

A few weeks ago when the temperature first soared up into the 60s I picked up a couple of bottles of wheat beer in preparation for these warm spring afternoons in the yard, but before I could drink them, the weather turned wintery again. The wheat beers were Hop Sun from Southern Tier and Summer Weizen from Smuttynose.

Southern Tier is in Lakewood, New York and has a whole line-up of beers. The Hop Sun is an American Wheat Beer dry hopped with Centennial hops which give the beer a slight grapefruity twang.

Smuttynose, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, brewer some very fine beers. I was particularly impressed with the Farmhouse Ale, a seasonal offering that comes out in the Summer. Look for that one again at the beginning of July.

The Smuttynose Summer Weizen Ale is closer to a Belgian wheat beer even though its brewed in American and has the German word for wheat on its label. The ale is fermented with a Belgian Wit yeast, but my taster didn’t pick up much of the orange peel and coriander that is typically added to Belgian Wits.

Since last week I promised to write about beer blends made with Lindeman’s Framboise (Raspberry) Lambic, I opened a bottle of that and topped a glass of each of the wheat beers with a generous splash.

Denise liked the Hop Sun/Framboise combo. She said it was more interesting since it had a hoppy edge to it to contrast with the sweetness of the Framboise. I liked the Smuttynose Summer Wiezen/Framboise combo better because it was smoother and lighter, but perhaps that’s what I really needed on a beautifully warm spring day on Long Island.

As I’ve said before, my beer geek friends are skeptical of this whole beer cocktail business, but it seems to be catching on in the real world outside of beer-geekdom. A friend of mine called me to the other day. He was all excited because he had seen some beer cocktails on the menu at a pub he had just visited. He knows I’m writing this series on beer cocktails, so he says, “Do you have something to write with?” I grab my pen and he dictates.

The first is called a Tiger Tail and it’s right on the theme of the last two weeks: blending with barleywines. A Tiger Tail is equal parts barleywine, stout, and lager. Perhaps, the bartender pours the beer so that you end up with three layers? I presume that the barleywine (being the highest end specific gravity) would be on the bottom.

Later, I tried this experiment myself, but the beers I chose didn’t give a three layered effect, but the result was an interesting blend. I choose three beers from the Weyerbacher Brewing Company in Easton, PA and blended them: Blithering Idiot Barelywine, Old Heathen Imperial Stout, and Merry Monks Belgain-style Golden Ale. The Blithering Idiot by itself is a strongly flavored mix of sweetness and hop bitterness. The Imperial Stout is milky and roasty. The Merry Monks is light bodied and provides a hint of banana in the aroma. Blended together they result in a not unpleasant concoction. I blended the beers in equal parts and none of them dominated. All three combined to produce a complex, but potent brew.

Back to what my friend was telling me on the phone: The next blend he told me about is likely a regional concoction named after a local body of water, Commencement Bay (Tacoma, Washington’s harbor). A Commencement Bay is three-quarters hefeweizen and one quarter-stout. The resulting color is probably a good match for the harbor. You can make up your own using a locally brewed hefe and stout and name it after a harbor, lake, or river near you.

The last beer cocktail my friend described speaks for itself — the Mother-in-Law is a blend of what? You guessed it, bitter and stout. Not that I approve of such stereotyping. My own Mother-in-Law is neither bitter nor stout. She’s sweet and sophisticated, so I suppose that Donavan’s recipe for a Mother-in-Law would be Chambord Raspberry liqueur blended with Bière de Champagne (more about this later, the beer, not my mother-in-law).

After getting off the phone with my friend, I decide to run to the beer store to pick up a few bottles of beer and I noticed the owner had put up signs over in the premium beer section for several beer blends involving Lindemans Framboise (Raspberry) Lambic. So I picked up the necessary ingredients to make a Chocolate Truffle, an Oatmeal Cookie, and a Raspberry Cream. Those beer blends will be the subject of my next Brewsday installment.