Features
Alphabet Soup: BAA, AOB Merge Into BA
The Brewers’ Association of America—which was founded during World War II to lobby for small brewers—will be history by the time you read this. The group’s board of directors voted to merge with the much larger Association of Brewers (AOB), which was chartered in 1979 to promote the fledgling craft brewing movement. The new organization […]
Michael Jackson Drank Here: 25 Historic Beer Sites
The anniversaries have started to come fast and furious. It’s been 40 years since Fritz Maytag tasted Anchor Steam for the first time. The Cartwright Brewery began its short life 25 years ago in Portland, OR, and it will be 20 years come April since the considerably more successful Widmer Brothers sold their first keg […]
Anniversary Special: All About Beer Magazine in our 25th Year
A silver anniversary is a great excuse for a big, blow-out celebration. Pour your favorite beer, cut yourself a slice of cake, and join us admiring the presents: a collection of amusements from some of our favorite beer scribes. Have fun, and Happy Birthday!
25 Events, Inventions and Advertising Tools that Influenced Breweriana
1. 4000 BC: the Sumerians brew the first beer. The clay tablets with the recipe, or the crude tools used to stir this live changing brew have to be the oldest pieces of breweriana.
25 Delicious Years of Homebrew
In 1980, a homebrew shop, if you could find one, was an unkempt corner of a wine-making shop or Italian hardware store, a few dusty cans of English malt extract crowned by wrinkly packets of dying yeast. On the shelf were boxes or bags optimistically marked “fresh hops,” displaying an autumnal brown glow. Bags of […]
Columns
No. 117: The Beer Enthusiast—25 Years
My congratulations and blessings to Daniel and Julie Bradford for making this magazine the great success that it has become in its 25th year. The brewing community owes them a great debt for what they have done to make this the greatest beer magazine on the planet. I remember the low point years ago, when […]
Departments
Imperial Stout
Near the end of the 18th century, British brewers began exporting pale ales to India to nourish its troops, and dark ales like stouts and porters to Baltic regions for more entrepreneurial reasons. Stronger, and with a more aggressive hop prescription, these beers could survive the long, arduous sojourn without spoilage. Naturally, these beers were […]
Time in a Bottle: Beer Traveling in 1979
In 1979, the year All About Beer Magazine debuted, I was working as a researcher at the University of Michigan. For a budding beer traveler, it was the perfect job: It offered plenty of vacation time; and my assignments took me to out-of-the-way towns like Altoona, Beloit and Sauk Centre, where the evening’s entertainment consisted […]
Beer Talk
Doppel Bock 2005
Sudwerk Brewing Co. Davis, CA This doppelbock is brewed with a double mash process where only the first worts of each mask are collected in the 60 barrel kettle for boil. (The second worts are sent to a smaller kettle and are boiled separately to produce a dunkel.) The grain bill requires two mashes, with […]
Ekstra
Svyturys Place: Lithuania Imported by: B&I Overseas Trading, Inc. Available: AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, IL, MD, MA, MI, NV, NJ, NY, OH, TX, DC, W The Svyturys (“Lighthouse”) Brewery is the oldest in Lithuania, tracing its history to 1784. The most popular beer in Lithuania, Svyturys Extra is brewed in the Dortmunder style. […]
Winter Ale
Summit Brewing Co. St. Paul, MN Available: throughout the Midwest Winter Ale is made with two row malt, caramel, and dark malts; and hopped with Willamette and Tettnanger hops. Alcohol (wt.): 4.8 Alcohol (vol.): 6.0 Color: 48 Bitterness: 36 Gravity: 1059
Frambozen
New Belgium Brewing Co. Ft. Collins, CO Available: CO, WY, NM, AZ, KS, NB, TX, OR, WA, CA, AR, MO, MT, ID, NV Frambozen is a brown ale fermented with Northwest red raspberries. Alcohol (wt.): 5.6 Alcohol (vol.): 7.0 Color: 61 Bitterness: 16 Gravity: 1064
Messiah Bold
He’brew Beer, Shmaltz Brewing Co. San Francisco, CA Available: AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MD, DC, DE, MA, MI, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, PA, RI, SC, TN, VA, WI Messiah Bold (“It’s the beer you’ve been waiting for!”) is brewed with two-row, carapils, dark crystal, dark chocolate, and victory […]
Uerige Sticke
Brauerei Zum Uerige Düsseldorf, Germany Imported by: B. United International Redding, CT The Uerige Sticke (or “secret”) is a stronger, hoppier version of the regular altbier, a copper-colored ale brewed by this famous Düsseldorf brewpub. Sticke is brewed only twice a year, on the third Thursday in January and October. Alcohol (wt.): 4.8 Alcohol (vol.): […]
Fat Dog Stout
Stoudt’s Brewing Co. Adamstown, PA Available: PA, NY, NJ, DE, VA, DC, OH, MA This bottle-conditioned stout fuses two British stout traditions: oatmeal stout and Imperial stout. Stoudt’s Brewing Co. was established in 1987, Pennsylvania’s first microbrewery since Prohibition. Alcohol (wt.): 7.2 Alcohol (vol.): 9.0 Color: 32 Bitterness: 55 Gravity: 1090
Monkey Face Porter
Cascade Lakes Brewing Co. Redmond, OR This robust porter is named for Monkey Face, a rock formation popular with rock climbers in Smith Rock State Park in the Oregon Cascades. It is brewed with two-row, crystal, black Patent, and chocolate malts; and Willamette hops. Alcohol (wt.): 4.0 Alcohol (vol.): 5.0 Color: n/a Bitterness: 40 Gravity: […]