Features
Where No Can Has Gone Before…
The Red Derby is a homey, unpretentious hole-in-the-wall bar in Washington, DC’s Columbia Heights neighborhood. Inside you’ll find a pile of board games like Risk and Operation, a poolroom in the back, and a chalkboard listing about 30 brands of beer. A bonanza for beer connoisseurs?
Canned Beer Tasting Notes
Fat Tire Amber Ale New Belgium Brewing Co., Fort Collins, CO There are subtle but noticeable differences between the bottled and canned versions of this much-sought after brand. The bottled Fat Tire pours a brilliantly clear copper color. The canned version, which contains a small amount of live yeast, has a slight haze. Bottled Fat […]
Gotta-Have Beers
There’s a bite to the breeze coming off Lake Michigan on this unseasonably cool spring evening in Northern Indiana. The people queued outside the large, industrial-looking building—some are Chicagoland locals, while others have traveled a great distance to get here—don’t seem to notice. They’re dressed warmly enough and there is plenty of beer being passed […]
eBrew?
The sale of limited edition beer on online auction sites like eBay is a prickly topic among craft brewers. Though there are obvious questions regarding the legality of individuals selling alcohol without following the same regulations that retailers and breweries are subject to, these are skirted by the below eBay-approved disclaimers that rationalize the sale […]
Lagunitas Freaks Out Over Zappa Beers
Limited edition releases are nothing new to the rock world. Seattle label Sub Pop Records launched its limited edition, monthly Singles Club in 1988 by releasing 1,000 copies of Nirvana’s debut seven-inch “Love Buzz” to club subscribers. Today that rarity sells on eBay for more than $1,000.
Brewed Too Soon
You’ve probably heard of the ‘inventions’ of Leonardo da Vinci. The archetypal Renaissance Man designed a submarine, a tank, a steam cannon, a bridge to span the Bosporus, an airplane, a helicopter, a hang glider and—quite practically—a parachute. Genius indeed, for one man to envision and sketch things that no one had ever dreamed before. […]
Talking Out of Turn
Beers weren’t the only things ahead of their times. There were beer writers and beer books, too, like Michael Jackson and Fred Eckhardt, who toiled for years in relative obscurity. Then we discovered the online world, and beer took to it with gusto.
Birra Paradiso
Italy is wine country. Vino is available everywhere. Shops labeled ‘Enoteca’ specialize in offering customers a wide selection of wines. So visitors to Italy might be surprised, while perusing the bottles at a local enoteca, to stumble upon a few elegant and distinctive 750ml bottle labeled birra (beer). In fact, over the past five years, […]
A Certified Success
I have to confess to not being much of a Boy Scout. Actually, I went directly from being a dutiful Cub to the shabbiest excuse for an Explorer that you ever saw, blithely skipping the whole merit badge thing in between. So when I graduated up to homebrewing, I was highly skeptical of the Beer […]
Columns
What This Country Needs Is A Good Five-Cent Beer!
Oh, wait. Not five-cent beer. What we need is five percent beer, although I actually drank what may have been the last five-cent beer ever offered. That was in about 1955, when a local Seattle tavern offered beer in a schooner-shaped jigger for a nickel! Great fun at the time, and one such beer was […]
A Beer Epiphany
Many people have a defining moment when life takes an unexpected step forward or when something happens that changes the future in a significant way. Can you have a defining moment with beer? I say yes, because I’ve had one.
Departments
Belgian Farmhouse Ale: Saison
Seasonal brews are in no short supply these days, but often we forget that seasonal brewing was once done out of necessity, framed by a limited period of agreeable conditions, and future consideration of sustenance. The style we know today as saison is a reminder of these bygone practices. French for “season,” saison was brewed […]
Beervana, Part II
Not long ago we spent a long, lazy weekend in Portland, OR. It soon became clear that it would take two articles to do this beer-blessed city justice. In the last issue we visited the Pearl District, a short streetcar ride from downtown. This issue, we’ll venture to other parts of town. So, come on. […]
with Teri Fahrendorf
How long have you been a professional brewer? A long time. I’m not actually brewing now, but I was a professional brewer for 19 years, and I’ve been in the beer industry for the last two.
Beer Talk
Avril
Brasserie Dupont Tourpes, Belgium Imported by: VanBerg & DeWulf Cooperstown, NY Available: AL, AK, AZ, CA, CT, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TX, VT, VA, WA, WI Brasserie Dupont is one of Belgium’s best-known saison producers. […]
Fireman’s #4 Blonde Ale
Real Ale Brewing Co. Blanco, TX Available: TX Real Ale is located in the Texas Hill Country, just minutes from the Blanco town square and the Blanco River. ABV: 5.1 ABW: 4.1 Color: n/a Bitterness: 22 Original gravity: 1048
Session
Full Sail Brewing Co. Hood River, OR Founded in 1987, for ten years Full Sail has been owned entirely by its 47 employees. This new year-round beer evokes the American lagers of the pre-Prohibition era. ABV: 5.1 ABW: 4.1 Color: 4.65 Bitterness: 18 Original gravity: 1046
Pikeland Pils
Sly Fox Brewing Co. Royersford, PA Available: NY, NJ, PA Sly Fox founder Pete Giannopoulos opened his brewery in 1995, thanks to the help of his father, mother and three siblings—another example of a family-run craft brewery. ABV: 4.9 ABW: 3.9 Color: pale gold Bitterness: 44 Original gravity: 1047
Petrus Gouden Triple Ale
Brewery Bavik Bavikhove, Belgium Imported by: Global Beer Network Middleton, MA Available: AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, NV, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, RI, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, DC, WA, WI In 1894, the De Brabandere […]
Phin and Matt’s Extraordinary Ale
Southern Tier Brewing Co. Lakewood, NY Available: AK, CT, ID, IL, IN, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SC, VA, WA, WI, VT Southern Tier Brewing Co. has been in operation since 2004, and currently produces over 12,000 barrels annually. ABV: 5.6 ABW: 4.5 Color: 6.9 Bitterness: 34 Original gravity: 1050
Kellerweiss
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Chico, CA Available: nationwide This Bavarian-style hefeweizen, Sierra Nevada’s second addition to their year-round portfolio this year, is brewed with a hefeweizen yeast strain unknown in this country. ABV: 4.8 ABW: 3.8 Color: golden Bitterness: 15 Original gravity: 1051
Ashland Amber
Caldera Brewing Ashland, OR Available: OR, WA, CA, VA, MD, DC Caldera Brewing Co. is the first craft brewery in the state of Oregon to brew and can its own beer. ABV: 5.5 ABW: 4.4 Color: amber Bitterness: n/a Original gravity: 1054
Kidd Lager
Ft. Collins, CO Available: CO, CT, FL, GA, IL, IA, KS, MA, MN, MO, NE, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, PA, RI, TN, WI, WY Kidd Lager is an unusual American example of a schwarzbier, a German black lager. ABV: 4.9 ABW: 3.9 Color: 29 Bitterness: 23 Original gravity: 1047
Star Island Single
Smuttynose Brewing Co. Portsmouth, NH Available: NH, MA, ME, CT, RI, VT, NY, NJ, PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL, WI The Belgian beer style known as a single is less well known than the stronger dubbels and tripels from the abbey tradition. Singles are lower alcohol table beers, traditionally consumed at […]
The Bellaire Brown
Shorts Brewing Co. Bellaire, MI Available: MI On May 1, Shorts Brewing Co. sponsored the first Short’s to Short’s Paddle from the original brewery in Bellaire to a new, second facility. The 26-mile trip on a chain of lakes took most of the 30-50 participants 12-16 hours on the water. ABV: 6.3 ABW: 5 Color: […]
Modus Hoperandi IPA
Ska Brewing Co. Durango, CO Available: CO, AZ, TX, NM, IL, NC, NE This Colorado brewery takes its name from ska, the post-war Jamaican music style that predated reggae, and became popular as 2-Tone in England in the 1970s. ABV: 6.8 ABW: 5.4 Color: 11 Bitterness: 69 Original gravity: 1066
Unfiltered Wheat Beer
Boulevard Brewing Co. Kansas City, MO Available: AL, AR, CA, CO, IL, IA, KS, MN, MS, NE, ND, OK, SD, TN, TX, UT, WA, WI, WY Founded in 1989, Boulevard Brewing Co. has grown to become the largest specialty brewer in the Midwest. This American-style wheat beer is bottle-conditioned. ABV: 4.4 ABW: 3.5 Color: 7.5 […]
Local 2
Brooklyn Brewery Brooklyn, NY Available: CT, DE, GA, MD, NC, NJ, NY, PA, RI, SC, VA, DC This Belgian-inspired dark ale, brewed with Belgian dark sugar and raw wildflower honey, is the second in Brooklyn’s “Local” series. ABV: 9.0 ABW: 7.2 Color: deep brown Bitterness: n/a Original gravity: n/a
Wild Devil
Victory Brewing Co. Downington, PA Available: PA, NJ, NY, CT, MA, RI, NH, ME, OH, IL, IN, MI, MN, WA, OR, CA, TX, CO, TN, GA, SC, NC, VA, MD, DE This beer begins as Victory’s Hop Devil Ale—itself a marriage of British tradition, German malt and American hops—then the base beer is fermented entirely […]
Mama’s Little Yella Pils
Oskar Blues Brewing Co. Lyons, CO Available: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, MD, MA, NJ, NM, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, WI Oskar Blues was the first American brewery to put craft beer in a can, beginning with Dale’s Pale Ale. ABV: 5.3 ABW: 4.2 Color: yella Bitterness: […]