Features
An English Ale Tragedy
Anger and disbelief have greeted the news that W. H. Brakspear, one of England’s finest pale ale brewers, is to close by the end of the year. Brakspear, based in an idyllic location by the River Thames in Henley, Oxfordshire, is thought by many to be more concerned with realizing the inflated value of its […]
Let Me Call You Honey
No one knows when and where primitive man took his first sip of alcohol. But most likely, it was a mead—a fermented honey beverage—that provided that first sensation of warmth and sense of euphoria.
Making a Beeline from Hive to Glass
Jon Hallberg, who runs the Smokehouse Winery in Sperryville, VA, has upwards of a million coworkers. Fortunately, they don’t demand health insurance, paid vacations or stock options. They live in two or three hives at the meadery and several dozen hives off premises. They’re honey bees.
Honey Wine and Woody Hops
Although beer and wine have replaced it in the West, mead remains the national drink of one African nation. “Ethiopia is the largest producer of honey in Africa,” asserts Araya Selassie, a native of Addis Ababa who has been a United States resident for the past 20 years. “We have 5 to 6 million wild […]
Tasting Mead
English Mead, Lurgashall Winery, Petworth, West Sussex, England (12.5% ABV) Intense honey aroma; sweet, candyish taste is balanced somewhat by an alcohol bite A smooth, pleasant, straightforward example of the beverage. My drinking companion, Martin Morse Wooster, remarked that it’s not a far leap from a sherry or other sweet, fortified wine. The 375-ml clear […]
Land of Lager
Denmark may be a land of lager, but paradoxically it’s also the land from which the word “ale” made its way into the English language. The route was explained by Niels Buchwald, the head brewer for Ceres, a brewery located in Denmark’s second largest city, Århus.
Special Danish Beer Places
You’ll Never Walk Alone. One of the best beer bars/cafés in Denmark is in the small, quiet provincial city of Kolding in mid-Jutland. Owned and operated by Torben Matthews, the bar, named after the slogan from the Liverpool Football Club, is a perfect English pub set in the middle of Denmark. Matthews has perfectly captured […]
Wiping the Scrape Clean
Foam has been marketed as a bad pour in most taverns. In this country we have the idea that the barkeep is trying to rip us off by pouring a beer with too much head, the equivalent of the butcher with his thumb on the scale. Truth be told, it is good for beer to […]
Columns
Listen to Your Beer! Now!
Every once in a while, when the room is quiet and I have a freshly poured beer in my glass, I put my beer to my ear and listen. I’ve been doing this for a long time now (20 years or more), and the reader may well inquire about my purpose.
Departments
Behemoth Brews: Barley Wine
While few things deserve legendary status, in the beer world, that description is easily claimed by the most colossal of beers, barley wine. Massive in strength, chameleon-like and wide-ranging in profile, barley wines represent the biggest and often the best of the brewer’s art. They can be comforting or naughty, friendly or adversarial, inviting or […]
Bumper Sticker Beer Spots
It was the spring of 1996, the sun was shining, and the car was on cruise control as we rolled west on Interstate 84 from Massachusetts into Connecticut.
Beer Talk
Old Tom Strong Ale
Frederick Robinson Ltd., Unicorn Brewery Stockport Cheshire, UK Imported by: Capital Brewing Co. Middleton, WI Available: IA, IL, MN, OH, WI The Unicorn Brewery was established in 1865 by the Robinson family near Manchester, in England’s Northwest region. The company is operated today by the fifth generation of family owners. Old Tom, a strong ale/barley […]
Olde Buzzard Lager
Buzzard Bay Brewing Co. Westport, MA Available: MA, NH, RI, CT, MD Olde Buzzard Lager is brewed at the Buzzard Bay Brewery on a 200-acre farm in rural SE Massachusetts. Owned by the Russell family, the farm-brewery and farm winery land are part of the family’s commitment to preserving rural farmland. Olde Buzzard Lager is […]
Double Barrel Ale
Firestone Walker Brewing Co. Paso Robles, CA Available: n/a In producing the Double Barrel Ale, the patented Firestone Union oak barrel brewing system links together 60-gallon oak barrels in rows (a “union”) of pairs. Inspired by the Burton Union system, once a staple of British beermaking in mid-19th century, the Firestone Walker brothers-in-law resurrected a […]
Lancaster Milk Stout
Lancaster Brewing Co. Lancaster, PA Available: PA, MD Lancaster Milk Stout is one of the few surviving examples of traditional English sweet stout style, with a significant roasted barley dryness mellowed by an addition of non-fermentable lactose sugar. Alcohol by weight: 4.2 Color: n/a Bitterness: 22 Gravity: 1060
Winter Solstice
Anderson Valley Brewing Co. Boonville, CA Available: CA, DO, DC, ID, IL, IN, KY, OH, NC, NJ, NV, NM, NY, MA, MD, MI, MN, OR, PA, UT, VA, WA, WI Founded in 1987, Anderson Valley Brewing Co. is located in a secluded area of California’s Mendocino County. The family -owned brewery releases its winter seasonal […]
Locktender Lager
Great Lakes Brewing Co. Cleveland, OH Available: OH, PA, NY, WV, KY, MI, IL The name of this Munich-style beer, Locktender Lager, pays tribute to the 19th century “lock-tenders,” the men and women who operated the locks and along the Ohio and Erie Canal, between Akron and Cleveland. Part of the proceeds of the sale […]
Mongoose IPA
Hale’s Ales Brewery Seattle, WA Available: WA, OR, AK, CA As originally developed by the English, India pale ales were high alcohol beers, heavily hopped to help preserve them on the long sea voyage to India. Hale’s version of this strong ale, the Mongoose IPA, is hopped at four different points in the brewing process, […]
Love Stout
Yards Brewing Co. Philadelphia, PA Available: PA, NJ, MD All Yards beers are either bottle or keg-conditioned. Love Stout was first brewed in 1996 as “Oyster Stout.” In each batch, 150 whole oysters are introduced to the kettle boil (then eaten by the staff for lunch!). Rumors of its aphrodisiac qualities spread, and the beer […]