I have two windows in my office at The University of Toledo, one of which overlooks the university’s Centennial Mall. From that window I can watch students and faculty crisis-cross the mall as they move from one building to another. I can also see University Hall, perhaps the most striking building on campus. Completed in 1931 at a cost of $2 million it is regarded as one of the finest examples of the collegiate brand of Tudor Gothic Revival anywhere in the United States. When I arrived as a young faculty member in 1991 my office was on the fourth floor of University Hall. I moved to my current office in 2011 when the Department of Geography and Planning relocated to Snyder Memorial Building.

The window that looks onto the mall has a sill that is about seven inches deep. I keep a number of objects on the sill including a golf cart pen holder, a small plaque from my Alma mater the University of Glasgow, and a small Christian cross made by my youngest daughter. To the far right end of the sill sit eight beer bottles, not the small twelve ounce beer bottles but the larger 750 ml ones – or 1 pint 9.4 fluid ounces if you prefer the imperial system of measurement.  I placed these bottles there for the  purely decorative purpose of brightening  up my window sill. I have discovered however  that they have become conversation starters. Visitors to my office will often comment on them and this affords me the opportunity to talk about my scholarly interests in the beer industry.

One of the bottles is from Dogfish Head’s Ancient Ales series – Birra Etrusca Bronze. Since 1999 the Milton, DE craft brewer has been working with Dr. Patrick McGovern to recreate beers from the ancient past. Dr. McGovern is Scientific Director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Project for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia, PA . He is one of the world’s leading experts on ancient beverages. For the Etrusca Bronze Dr. McGovern analyzed drinking vessels from 2,800 year old Etruscan tombs in the hills along the coast of Tuscany in Italy. The resulting beer includes a number of unique ingredients including Italian heirloom wheat, hazelnut flour, pomegranates, Italian chestnut honey, and Delaware wildflower honey. The Etrusca Bronze is one of two Dogfish Head beers on my window sill. The other is Noble Rot. Noble Rot is brewed in the Saison/Farmhouse Ale style. The fermentable sugars in the brew come from the unfermented juice (must) of two wine grapes – Viognier and Pinot Gris. Both of these beers were an impulse purchase. I was at a local retailer in Maumee, OH, walking towards the beer section, and there were the Etrusca Bronze and Noble Rot on sale at a really good price. I had tried neither before so this was the perfect opportunity to purchase both.

Another Farmhouse Ale bottle that sits on my window sill is Avril from Brasserie DuPont in Tourpes, Belgium. Avril is what is known in Belgium as a tafelbier (translated as Table Beer in Flemish). Tafelbiers have a low ABV – Avril is 3.5%. In Belgium Tafelbiers are commonly served at family meals. They are typically light-bodied and flavorful. Until the 1970s tafelbier was regularly served to Belgian school children in lieu of milk. In the early 2000s there was an initiative to reintroduce tafelbier into Belgian schools, using the logic that it is healthier than soft drinks (which it is of course). The idea was piloted in one school. Despite its apparent success, other schools, were unwilling to make the transition from soft drinks to beer and so the initiative failed. I had read a lot about tafelbier and so picked up this particular bottle. I drank it on a hot summer afternoon sitting on my back deck. It was, as I anticipated, cool and refreshing and I could certainly see how a beer like this could be shared around the dinner table.

Another Belgian beer bottle is BeauJardin Rougeberries. As the name suggests it is a fruit beer. It is brewed by Brouwerij Huyghe which is located in the town of Melle in eastern Flanders. One of the interesting things about this particular beer is that there is no mention on the bottle of who brews it. I had to go to RateBeer.com to discover the name of the brewery. Equally interesting is that when I went to the brewery’s website there was no mention of this beer there, although the brewery’s history timeline does note that they started brewing fruit beers in 1993. According to the bottle the BeauJardin is brewed with mixed berry juices, coriander, and orange peels. Another great summer beer.

There are a couple of bottles that were given to me as gifts from my friend and graduate student Mike Moore. Those of you have been reading this blog since its inception are probably familiar with Mike’s story. His untimely death at the age of 34 is one that still haunts me – I was with Mike the evening that he died. Anyway, Mike and I regularly exchanged gifts of beer. One of the bottles that he gave me was Serendipity Fruited Sour Ale from Wisconsin’s New Glarus Brewing Company. New Glarus is the twentieth largest craft brewery in the United States, a rank it has achieved despite not distributing its beer beyond its home state. This means, of course, that the only way to get  New Glarus is to go to Wisconsin or get the beer from someone who lives or travels there. Mike had a friend who went to Wisconsin on a regular basis and who would bring him some New Glarus brews. Mike shared this particular one with me and, again, it was enjoyed on my back deck one hot summer afternoon. Another bottle that Mike gave me was Monk’s Cafe Flemish Sour Ale. Mike knew this was one of my favorite sours. We had once whiled away an afternoon at a local bar (Swig in Perrysburg) drinking this brew. Monk’s Cafe is a ‘Belgian Beer Emporium and Restaurant” in Philadelphia, PA. The Flemish Sour Ale that bears its name is brewed for Monk’s by Brouwerij Van Steenberge in Ertvelde, which is in eastern Flanders in Belgium. Mike gave me that bottle as a Christmas gift, so it was enjoyed one cold January evening.

A bottle of Voodoo Doughnut Pretzel, Raspberry, and Chocolate Ale from Oregon’s Rogue Ales also adorns my window sill. This is the bottle that catches the eye of visitors to my office. The bright pink bottle would stand out in any beer line-up. I bought this particular beer because I had read a lot about it on social media. Rogue like a lot of craft breweries have a rebellious streak – on their website they state that “Rogue is a small revolution” that tries to “get out of the comfort zone” and  their beers certainly support these statements.  Their line-up of Voodoo Doughnut beers (yes there is more than one) is inspired by Portland’s famous Voodoo Doughnut shop.

The final bottle is Rillo Rye by Shoreline Brewery in Michigan City, IN. This was a gift from my fellow geographers Mark Paterson and Nancy Hoalst-Pullen who were visiting Toledo as part of a National Geographic project to compile a world beer atlas. Rillo Rye is part of Shoreline’s barrel aged series and so spent a year in rye aged whiskey barrels before seeing the light of day. Rillo Rye comes in at an impressive 15% ABV, not a beer that you want to consume all by yourself in one sitting (at least I don’t) – so just as Mark and Nancy had shared the beer with me I shared the bottle with my oldest daughter and her boyfriend.

One of the things that I like about 750ml bottles is that they are ideal for sharing. In fact, anytime I have one I rarely drink it by myself. I usually wait until I have company to share it with. There is something I enjoy about pouring a beer for a friend and then, from the same bottle, pouring one for myself, raising my glass, and saying cheers.