Evan Rail

@evanrail.bsky.social

1677 Followers 699 Following

He / him. Author of “The Absinthe Forger.” Monthly drinks columnist at VinePair, freelance contributor to the NYT, etc. Included in Best Food Writing, The NY Times Book of Wine and elsewhere. The Prague Post food desk, 2000-2006. Jdeme na jedno.

A close-up photo of three German beer bottles: Aldersbach Urhell, Mönchshof Hell and Hacklberg Hochfürst Pilsener. The Pilsener has noble hop aroma and character that the Mönchshof Hell simply doesn’t. Remember this!
A Bavarian village as sunset approaches. There are peaks and forests of tall pines in the background. In a field of yellow grass stand a few white farmhouses with dark roofs.
Ad copy for the train with the part that says “meet new friends in the gay lounge cars” underlined.
Sitting on a bench up in front of a house with shutters, a large young man wearing shorts plays an accordion while a woman in long pants and a long coat plays the violin next to him. With his back to us, a man in a dark parka holds an umbrella over the violinist. The photograph is in black and white with dark corners and what seems to be a brighter vertical strip in the center. The mood is magical and strange. Over the entrance to the house in the background at the right of the frame is a mounted deer’s rack, and the road seems to wind around the house, leading the eye out of frame.
An old brick building behind a fence topped with barbed wire. In the background, a couple of shiny Orthodox church domes stand atop the building.
A black-and-white photo of a man with glasses in front of a curtain, with shadows obscuring half his face.
The façade of an old building that says “Pivovar” in raised letters with a shield and two crosses in plasterwork relief.
Another glass mug of 8° golden lager on an outdoor table under the trees at Pivovar Bubeneč in Prague.
A glass mug of a light, golden lager capped with loose foam on an outdoor table under the trees at Pivovar Bubeneč in Prague. In the background is the historic palace that now serves as the U.S. ambassador’s residence.
A picture of a redcurrant bun in plastic over a LOT Airlines napkin atop a folding airplane seat tray.
Four middle-aged dudes in hooded sweatshirts and baseball caps. They are Archers of Loaf, the indie-rock band from the Nineties, still rocking out, rocking out, rocking out…
A half-liter mug of golden lager — deep gold — capped with three fingers of creamy white foam on a pub table in Prague.
A bottle of Grodziskie beer with a beautiful Art Nouveau label and a cup of the same pale gold beer capped with huge clouds of pillowy white foam on a wooden picnic table.
A detail from "Ecce Homo” by Albrecht Bouts, ca. 1450-1500, that shows a pretty beat-up looking Son of Man, with blood dripping down from his crown of thorns and puffy, purple eyes like he lost a bar fight a couple of days ago. He’s not having a good day. Groeningemuseum, Bruges.
A paper-wrapped burger on the left and a bowl of Belgian frites topped with mayo on the right, both in front of a glass of beer. In the background, a Belgian dude is wearing a Knicks jersey that says “Harlem” across the back.
A bowl of Belgian frites in front of a bowl of mussels and a glass of beer.
A serving of Belgian frites in a paper cone next to a portion of mayonnaise and a bottle of golden beer, much of which has been poured into a plastic cup with a lot of foam. The beer label says “Patatje.” Yes, it is a potato beer. It tastes great.
A small load of Belgian frites with a side of “samurai” sauce in the background.
A flyer listing the next tour dates for the SF band Pink Breath of Heaven: Berlin 4.6, Utrecht 5.6, Amsterdam 6.6, Dusseldorf 7.6, Bochum 8.6, Cardiff 10.6, Todmorden 11.6, London 12.6, Newcastle 13.6, Coventry 14.6, Brighton 15.6, Rouen 17.6, Rennes 18.6, Arthez-de-Bearn 19.6, Zaragoza 20.6, Granollers 21.6. Go see them, they’re dreamy.
Pink Breath of Heaven on stage at Klubovna Dejvice in Prague, Czech Republic, on June 3, 2026.
A Kindle showing the cover of “Normal People — A Novel” by Sally Rooney, which depicts simple sketches of a young woman’s face and a young man’s face and includes a bunch of cover blurbs, set on a wooden tabletop.
A bunch of people in a moody cellar bar in Prague with balloons that say “20.”
An RV parked on a cobblestone street in Prague. A German license plate in the back window says “Assman.”
A Nikon D3500 camera body without a lens.
A simple German woodcutting from 1490 showing a Renaissance dude on the right who is having a lower back spasm so bad his right shoe was blown clean off. On the left is a witch (“eine Hexe") with a bow and arrow who just shot him in the back. (Otherwise, why would his back hurt? Hexenschuss!) The engraving is credited to Johann Zainer as was taken from the book “Tractatus von den bösen weibern, die man hexen nennt,” or “Treatise on evil women, who are called witches,“ by Ulrich Molitor.
A photo of the oldest known bottle of pre-ban absinthe, made by Dubied Père et Fils à Couvet, identified as from before 1848 and believed to be “probably at the start of the 19th century,” at the Maison d’Absinthe in Môtiers, Switzerland.
A beat-up Kindle e-reader showing the title page of “Uncertain Sons and Other Stories” by Thomas Ha next to a tenmoku-glazed mug containing a final gulp of black coffee on a wooden tabletop.
A mortadella and smoked provela sandwich on a portico in Bologna, Italy.
A letterpress poetry chapbook sits on a wooden table, atop a pile of brown wrapping paper and a mailing envelope which has a cancelled German postal stamp just visible in the top right corner. The book has an image on the front that’s hard to discern, like an overexposed black-and-white photograph, inside a rectangular frame. Below that, in letters that are deeply cut into the cardstock cover, are the words “Alexander Booth,” and “Carnation” in gorgeous allcaps. It’s inviting you to get a drink, find a comfortable, quiet spot, and start reading.
A beer can with Japanese writing and a glass of beer on a wooden table. You can almost smell the yuzu.
A half-empty jar of honey, deep gold in color, with sticky bits and crystals on the inside of the glass. If you were a small, silly little bear, you might get your head stuck in this jar!
An advertising banner for “In the Land of Ninkasi” by Tate Paulette, which shows the book on the right next to a tagline reading “The first book-length treatment of Mesopotamian beer to appear in English.” At the top left, it says “Oxford University Press.”
Dril’s corn cob tweet (screenshot)
Dril’s I’m not mad tweet (screenshot)
Dril’s “my family is dying” tweet (screenshot)
A disturbing image of teeth and eyes and a hand on the cover of the book “The Cipher,” a supernatural horror novel.
A building on a cobblestone street that descends from left to right. There is a lamppost on the asphalt sidewalk in front of it. Above a wide door is a sign that says “Galerie Maldoror.”
A shot from "Three Wishes for Cinderella" / "Tři oříšky pro Popelku” / "Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel," showing Libuše Šafránková as Cinderella / Popelka / Aschenbrödel and Pavel Trávníček as the Prince.
An email the subject line “Really enjoyed your book!” and the following message, which has some words cut out for the sake of the email writer’s privacy: Hello Evan, I just spent the last few days reading The Absinthe Forger and was not at all disappointed! It was awesome! I learned a lot and liked your down to earth writing style. I bought your book in ________. I am a housewife in the rural town of ______ and stopped on my way to after school mentoring to the bookstore a town over. They are a coop bookstore and had your book displayed right up front near the register. I bought your book and a gardening book. ___________ Just wanted to say THANKS for an awesome read, educating me on absinthe, and I hope you have many more books in your future. Take care and happy holidays to you and your family. Sincerely, ________.
Two ceramic teacups in white and pale greenish blue are posed against a gray background. The text says “Sobota 13. prosince 2025, 16-20 hodin, Klimentská 2, Praha 1,” or “Saturday, December 13, 2025, 4 to 8 p.m., Klimentská 2, Praha 1,” and “Mecheche v dílně a na dvorku,” or “Shindig in the studio and in the courtyard.” At the bottom of the frame on the center right are the names of the artists who will be there and their media: Nina Rail, porcelán, keramika (porcelain,ceramics). Linda Havrlíková, textil (textiles), Lenka Sulmanová, grafika (prints), Sylvie Choisnel, plastika (sculptures).
Graffiti on a wall with various tags, mostly illegible, and a stencil of a photograph of young Rimbaud.
An engraving shows a group of powdered-wig and triangle-hat men and wannabe Marie Antoinette women holding long strips of fabric stretched between two people, which they are using to throw LIVE FOXES way up into the air. Some sadass buckled-shoe dude in the foreground has completely FALLEN ON HIS ASS (good!) while a small audience in similar 18th-Century finery laughs and gawks from a small viewing stand in the background at the back left. We can see at least three foxes. One of them up high at the top right looks like he is heading into low-Earth orbit. In the background, you can perceive what looks like a small pile of dead animals. One of the dudes is holding a whip, because of course he is.
A little brown female dog with a blue collar stands in front of an open door and a wall of exposed brick inside a Czech cafe-pub. She looks like a strange little fox with lots of long wild hair. She is looking out of the pub, toward the light, as if she expects to see a friend there.
An old e-reader showing the cover of the ebook “The Mountain in the Sea” by Ray Nayler, which includes an illustration of a large octopus. It’s a thought-provoking SF novel. If you read it, let me know!
Cans of beer on a refrigerated store shelf. The two pale lagers cost 99 czk each, equal to about $4.75.
A glass of golden lager with loads of foam and a bottle on a table at a restaurant with a panoramic view over the Elbe valley.
A newspaper clipping of a book review titled “Seeing Green” by J. D. Biersdorfer, with a hardback copy of “The Absinthe Forger” lying on top of it.
The book “Intervals of Darkness” by Ray Newman on a wooden table. There is a bookmark sticking up just a bit. You can tell the bookmark is actually a small instant photograph, but you can’t see what it’s a photo of. But I can tell you: it’s a streetlamp that is somehow inexplicably terrifying.
A round pie with a woven lattice crust on a wooden table. The pie is whole and has not yet been cut.
A 500-ml glass filled with dark lager capped with tan foam on a counter at the bar Pult in Prague.
A large, 4,000-liter tank on a heavy truck parked outside the historic Schlenkerla brewery in Bamberg, Germany. The cylindrical tank has a square metal frame around it for shipping.
A can of beer that says “Aecht Schlenkerla à la Grodziskie” in Old World lettering followed by “eine Hommage an das alte Grätzer Rauchbier” and “w hołdzie dla tradycyjnego piwa grodziskiego.”
A screenshot of an email from a PR person, which starts out with the salutation “Hi {{journalist name}}”
An old man and a younger man walk toward an ancient, falling-apart brewery building.
A glass of beer on a table in a cozy café with lots of plants.
A Kindle Paperwhite showing the cover for “I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom” by Jason Pargin, which shows a young woman with sunglasses and a trucker hat sitting atop a black crate with wheels. In the background is a beautiful beach on the Baltic coast in Poland, with welcoming sea, gently breaking waves, and people enjoying the sun and surf. A man sits facing the waves. A woman walks along the sand. You’d like to spend some time here.
A mix of ceramic mugs and cups in various colors and shapes on a wooden floor.
Well worn work gloves, matches, a porcelain teapot, porcelain mug and a black Kindle lie flat on a black table. The Kindle shows the cover of the book Your Table is Ready.
A woman and a small dog are seated on the grass in front of a small brick kiln. Flames are visible in the kiln’s firebox. The dog is a very, very good dog.
A half-liter of very pale gold Czech lager capped with a crown of thick creamy foam in a glass mug that says “Hostomické Pivo” on torn paper coaster atop a wooden table.