BEER AT KUHNHENN'S AND IN CHINA, TOO!

Kuhnhenn' Brewery, Warren. 

A delightful surprise is Kuhnhenn's Brewery, Warren, located on... yet off the-beaten-path. My kind of place. Plenty of windows. Lots of space. And, respectful servers. 

As those close to me know, I'm relatively married to Labatt Blue, a marvelous Canadian brew. So, when I told the server that I would like something similar to my precious and familiar, he totally understood, didn't snicker and gave me a full-bodied blonde beer with all the gusto oozing down the side of the cold pilsner.  

Because of my love for strong beer, I've visited a lot of local micro breweries. Some are better than others. All are wonderful. Those that stick to the brewery business only are the winners, which most are. The purpose though is producing tasty beer. 

At Kuhnhenn's, the high-tops are clean, the bar is delightful and it's easy to grab a growler to go. They have many different beers to offer us customers.  They told me how they experiment with new styles and flavors all the time. They've got Cores, Drafts, Seasonals, Occasionals and Reserves. And, a non-alcoholic root beer, which I didn't taste on this visit. 

My intro to Kuhnhenn's was through Marilyn and Margaret, two wonderful women who are going to China with me and who suggested Kuhnhenn's as our meeting spot. The place, a former hardware store of the same name, is new. Clean. Blonde wood. Great beer and looking forward to inviting my beer-loving niece and her beer buying beau to catch up on life at Rutgers. 

As we were talking, I gave each lady a packet of the trip, which we went through page-by-page in a fun and jovial manner. 

When I got to China last year, I was bitten by the China traveling bug and have been passing it along to my tidy group of travelers. The ordinary Joe Chung (equivalent to John Doe) loves us I tell folks. They adore taking selfies with us "big noses" as they affectionately call us Americans. Neither of us an speak the other's language, but we all understand laughter. And beer.

China has some pretty decent beer, which helps conversations flow even easier when you can't speak the language.  

Here's the skinny on the Chinese pale lagers.   Production and consumption of beer in China has occurred for around nine thousand years, with recent archaeological findings showing that Chinese villagers were brewing beer-type alcoholic drinks as far back as 7000 BC on small and individual scales. No government or church said it was wrong, so they ran with it and really experimented.  Made with rice, honey,  grape and hawthorn fruits, this early beer seems to have been produced similarly to that of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Ancient Chinese beer was important in ancestral worship, funeral and other rituals (while wine is used in Christian ceremonies).

Unlike our hops beers, Chinese beers often contain rice, sorghum and sometimes rye in addition to the occasional barley. Interestingly, some beer is produced that uses bitter melon instead of hops as the bittering agent. 

In summer, beer is a popular drink for the Chinese locals as well as my tourists. Everyone knows the universal language of beer. You'll find people chatting and enjoying different kinds of beers at barbecue stands, bars or restaurants (the street food is amazingly delicious). 

If you travel to China, you should have some and live like a local. So let's go to Beijing and say "cheers."