Features
A Cornucopia of Beer
For a brief but unfortunate time in the history of beer, “fruit beer” was synonymous with “bad beer.” This was the time when brewers were adding fruit to beers to make them sweet and syrupy and marketed them to people who didn’t much like beer. In truth, fruit has been used in beer for a […]
Award-winning Fruit Beers
This sidebar on award-winning fruit beers accompanied an article entitled “A Cornucopia of Beer” in our May 2015 issue. There are a lot of fruit beers on the market today, using all manner of fruits. Look for these which have been judged as some of the best: 2014 Great American Beer Festival American-Style Fruit Beer Gold: […]
Beer Treasures
by Eric J. WallaceDrinking beer is very much an in-the-moment experience. Bottles are opened, pints are poured, glasses are emptied, and the whole process repeats countless times a day. For many drinkers and brewers, beer is at the forefront of their minds as they continually look toward the next round and style. However, for all the forward momentum […]
Members Only
Beer is big business in Bend, OR. Its behemoth, Deschutes Brewery, is where Paul Arney worked his way up to assistant brewmaster before quitting in 2011 to launch his passion project, dubbed the Ale Apothecary. Compared with Deschutes’ 335,000 barrels produced in 2014, Ale Apothecary sold just 75 barrels’ worth of beer last year. However small […]
Bitterballen: The Ultimate Bar Snack?
Visit almost any Dutch bar and you will find on the menu a snack called bitterballen. Savory and meaty, if eaten too hot they can lay waste to your mouth like a small explosion of napalm, while if too cool they can become a gummy mess. When made from scratch in-house, they can be a […]
Bitterballen: The Ultimate Bar Snack?
Visit almost any Dutch bar and you will find on the menu a snack called bitterballen. Savory and meaty, if eaten too hot they can lay waste to your mouth like a small explosion of napalm, while if too cool they can become a gummy mess. When made from scratch in-house, they can be a […]
Dutch Modern
A decade ago, in the hall of the Bokbierfestival, the premier beer event in the Netherlands, held annually in Amsterdam, I was standing with one of the most prominent authorities on beer in the country. He bluntly remarked that when it came to beer, Holland was no longer worth a visit. Although largely unimpressed by […]
Columns
I Don’t Miss the Good Old Days
On a warm February night 20 years ago, I found myself at an establishment in west Houston drinking beers with my boss and several top executives from Heineken. I was a wide-eyed 25-year-old greenhorn—a middling sales guy at a large beer distributorship—and I remember just being honored that I was invited to tag along with such […]
Getting Closer to Beer
by Christopher ShepardRecent TV ads and other marketing for a couple of the biggest beer brands in the United States—Miller Lite and Budweiser—refocus viewers’ attention to the beer. Extreme close-ups taken inside tanks, hands rubbing hops, barley fields, liquid pouring and more. With these new spots, the companies that operate the country’s largest breweries seem to be […]
The Best in Beer Experiences
More than 43,000 new and re-released beers were produced and imported professionally last year in the United States. OK, I made that up, but think it’s within range of the actual number. With more than 3,200 breweries operating across the country and more than double that number interested in exporting here (and with each releasing […]
Honest Pricing
by John HollLast month, I took my first trip to Nebraska and visited breweries and bars, and met with local folks who are intensely proud of their heritage and the future of their beer culture. I spent a few days and nights at the Nebraska Brewing Co., where founders Kim and Paul Kavulak proudly showed off their […]
Departments
Creating a ‘Beer From Here’
by Bryan RothThere’s a 50-pound bag of two-row pale malt sitting on the concrete floor of Regulator Brewing’s brewery space. A small amount of text on its front states its contents, but it also may read like something of a map and business plan in one. Grown, malted and packaged about 30 miles to the south of […]
Pull Up A Stool with Ben Love
by John HollLook! Behind the bar! In the glass! Going down smoothly! It’s GIGANTIC BREWING! Easily recognizable by its cartoonish logo: an oversized G that would look at home on the chest of some over-the-top cartoon superhero. Ben Love, a native Oregonian, earned his stripes with stints at several breweries, including Pelican and Hopworks Urban Brewery, before […]
Belgium’s Hof ten Dormaal Brewery Victim to Fire
by Heather VandenengelHof ten Dormaal, a small family-owned brewery in Tildonk, Belgium, was partially destroyed by a fire in early January. No people were hurt, but the bottling line and a significant stock of the beer was destroyed. The brewery ships beer to the States via Twelve Percent Imports and is collaborating on a beer for this […]
Green Flash Introduces Local Pricing in Virgina
by Heather VandenengelSan Diego’s Green Flash Brewing Co. won’t open the doors to its new Virginia Beach brewery until 2016, but Virginia drinkers won’t have to wait until then to get “San Diego prices” on their beer. Starting this February, the brewery began selling its entire lineup at San Diego prices, about 20 percent less than what […]
Prime-Time Bottled Beer
Count me among those birds who like bottling homebrew. I enjoy the process, but especially the rewards. Having bottled beer around means that you always have something to take on the go, give away, archive and of course, drink. Few things can top a well-presented, perfectly carbonated, heady bottle of beer. To achieve this, priming—adding […]
Clearing Up Kirin Confusion
by Heather VandenengelKirin Ichiban beer has not been brewed in Japan since Anheuser-Busch InBev took over brewing in 1996, but if you thought it was, you may be entitled to up to $50. AB InBev has settled a lawsuit filed by two Miami residents who alleged that Kirin’s marketing and packaging led consumers to believe the beer […]
Urban Chestnut Opens Brewery in Bavaria
by Heather VandenengelSt. Louis’ Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. is opening a brewery in the Bavarian town of Wolnzach, Hallertau. The small brewery space was formerly occupied by the closed Bürgerbräu Wolnzach. The new venture is also a return home for co-founder and brewmaster Florian Kuplent, who was born and raised in Bavaria. “Since my apprenticeship as a […]
Hopping in the Mid-Atlantic
by Heather VandenengelFifteen acres of former pasture land at Black Hops Farm in Lucketts, VA, will be converted into Virginia’s largest hop yard and the Mid-Atlantic’s first commercial-scale hops processing facility. The facility is committing to purchase at least 3,500 pounds of Virginia hops over the next three years, an average of 61 percent of its purchases, […]
Anheuser-Busch Buys Seattle’s Elysian Brewing
by Heather VandenengelAnheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) announced in January that it would add another existing brewery to its portfolio, Seattle’s Elysian Brewing. The brewery, founded in 1995 by Dave Buhler, Joe Bisacca and Dick Cantwell, is a major player in the Northwest beer scene, with a production facility and four Seattle brewpubs. The news came about 10 […]
Whale Testicle Beer Angers Conservationists
by Heather VandenengelAn Icelandic brewery, Brewery Steji, has brewed a beer with whale testicles. The brewery made the beer, called Hvalur 2, in time for the midwinter monthlong festival of Thorri. Each batch is brewed with a whole testicle from endangered fin whales for flavoring. Last year the brewery came under fire from conservation groups for brewing […]
Snack on Guinness
by Heather VandenengelIreland’s best-known beer is now available for snack-food consumption. British company Burts Potato Chips, in collaboration with drinks producer Diageo, has rolled out Guinness-flavored potato chips in two flavors: classic Guinness and Guinness Rich Beer Chili. The chips are on sale at pubs and grocery stores across the United Kingdom.
Portland: A City With Many Names and More Breweries
That Portland, OR, has more breweries than any other city on Earth is such a well-known fact that it has garnered the nickname Beervana. But if there’s one thing good beer lovers agree on, it’s that locals love quality, not quantity. So, few should have a problem with this statement: Portland has some of the […]
The Island of Beervana
by John HollWELLINGTON, NZ—As you step from the gate of the main terminal into the waiting area of the airport here, Gandalf soars overhead on a great eagle, his right arm outstretched, staff in hand. This is, after all, Middle Earth, and the direction the wizard points is squarely toward an adventure. In a very short time, […]
Beer for All Seasons: A Through-the-Year Guide to What to Drink and When to Drink It
by John HollSpring is a difficult beer season. We transition from bitter cold to warm breezes, and with wild temperature swings and sometimes unpredictable weather, finding the right ale or lager to match the weather can be difficult. This is not just for the drinkers, but also for the brewers, who, in the United States have struggled […]
Malt: A Practical Guide from Field to Brewhouse
by John HollWidely regarded as the backbone of beer, malt is too often overlooked in favor of sexy hops or hardworking yeast. John Mallett, the brewmaster of Michigan’s Bell’s Brewery, is the champion the grain has been waiting for. All the bits one would expect are here, from the harvesting, germination, kilning and brewing processes to in-depth […]
Tales of the Legion of Ska Issue 1, Volume 1
by John HollAvailable in specially marked 12-packs of Mixed-Up cans and included for free with select merchandise orders off Ska’s website. We’re at the point of modern U.S. beer history where brewers are taking pen to paper and documenting their past, in an effort to remind future generations of their contributions. There have been memoirs that range […]
Making Craft Beer at Home and Craft Beer for the Homebrewer
The idea of making beer has two different meanings, as demonstrated by these different books. The first, Making Craft Beer at Home (Shire, Paperback, $12.95, 112 pp), is, in fact, about becoming a knowledgeable and successful homebrewer, while the second, Craft Beer For the Homebrewer (Voyageur Press, Paperback, $24.99, 160 pp), shows how to make more than […]
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, 4th Edition
by John HollWith more than 1.2 million copies already in print, The Complete Joy of Homebrewing (William Morrow, Paperback, $17.99, 496 pp) is already a staple of many beer lovers’ bookshelves. In the expanded 4th edition, the country’s godfather of homebrew adds some new and needed information to the existing manuscript. From the 80 new recipes to guidelines […]
Mastering Homebrew: The Complete Guide to Brewing Delicious Beer
by John HollThere are a lot of books in the world aimed at helping homebrewers make the perfect batch of beers. Some are better than others; others are still better than those. This is one of those books. Even the battle-tested homebrewer will find new and useful information throughout the book, which is written in an informative […]
Drinking at the Crossroads of America
by Karen AspForget pork tenderloins, the Indy 500, Bobby Knight and everything else Indiana is known for. The Hoosier State is staking a new claim as a beer powerhouse, and nowhere is that more apparent than in Indianapolis. Although the state boasts almost 90 breweries, roughly 25 of them reside either downtown or on the outskirts of […]
Beer Talk
Jaipur X
Brewed to celebrate Thornbridge’s 10th anniversary, Jaipur X is a stronger version of the brewery’s flagship Jaipur IPA. ABV: 10 ABW: 7.9 COLOR: 7.6 BITTERNESS: 70 ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1087 Brewed in: BAKEWELL, DERBYSHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM Where to Find This Beer: Worldwide
Cerveza Sagra Sagra Bohío
SAGRA Bohío is brewed with a local pilsner malt from de Castilla La Mancha (España) blended with a selection of German malts and hopped with Cascade hops. ABV: 10.4 ABW: 8.3 COLOR: 18 BITTERNESS: 10 ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1083 Brewed in: Numancia de la Sagra (Toledo) – Castilla-La Mancha, Spain Imported by: Iberian […]
L’anjub Cerveza L’Anjub Juliett
L’Anjub Juliett is brewed with pale, chocolate and dark roast malts and local Nugget hops. Juliett is then bottle-conditioned for at least 12 weeks. ABV: 6.3 ABW: 4.9 COLOR: 68 BITTERNESS: 92 ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1079 Brewed in: Flix (Tarragona) Spain Imported by: Iberian Beer United Where to Find This Beer: NY, Spain […]
Cerveceria Gisberga Trigo
Gisberga Trigo is a farmhouse wheat ale, brewed with more than 50 percent brewery-grown unmalted wheat. It is hopped with Hallertauer and Saaz hops. ABV: 4.8 ABW: 3.8 COLOR: 4 Bitterness: 26 ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1048 Brewed in: Belver de Cinca (Huesca), Aragón, Spain Imported by Iberian Beer United Where to Find This Beer: Germany, […]
Rahr & Sons Brewing Co. Snowmageddon
Snowmageddon is brewed with pale, chocolate and crystal malt, oats and East Kent Golding hops. ABV: 9 ABW: 7.2 COLOR: 27 BITTERNESS: 55 ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1094 Brewed in: Fort Worth, TX Where to Find This Beer: TX
Lone Tree Brewing Co. Hoptree IIPA
Hoptree IIPA is brewed with two-row, dextrin, honey and acidulated malts. It is hopped with CTZ, Nugget, Centennial, Cascade, Crystal and Amarillo hops. ABV: 8 ABW: 6.4 COLOR: 12 BITTERNESS: 80 ORIGINAL GRAVITY: na Brewed in: Lone Tree, CO Where to Find This Beer: CO
Element Brewing Co. Plasma
Plasma is a gluten-free beer brewed with brown rice, malted millet, malted buckwheat and Aramis hops. ABV: 9.3 ABW: 7.4 COLOR: 7 BITTERNESS: 64 ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1079 Brewed in: Millers Falls, MA Where to Find This Beer: MA, ME, MN
The Pike Brewing Co. Octopus Ink Black IPA
A portion of the proceeds from sales of this black IPA—which debuted in January—benefit the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, an organization that focuses on preserving and protecting the Puget Sound. ABV: 8.25 ABW: 6.47 COLOR: 60 Bitterness: 60 ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1080 Brewed in: Seattle Where to Find This Beer: AK, ID, MT, OR, WA
Bear Republic Brewing Co. Grand-Am Pale Ale
A winner of the Gold Award at the 2013 California State Fair in the American Pale Ale category, Grand-Am is hopped with Galena, Cascade, Crystal and Amarillo hops. ABV: 6.0 ABW: 4.8 COLOR: 11 BITTERNESS: 50 ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1055 Brewed in: Healdsburg, CA Where to Find This Beer: CA, NY, OR, PA, TX, […]
Caldera Brewing Co. Hopportunity Knocks
Hopportunity Knocks is an IPA brewed with two-row, Munich and Crystal malts and hopped with Centennial hops. ABV: 6.8 ABW: 5.4 COLOR: 14 BITTERNESS: 100 ORIGINAL GRAVITY: na Brewed in: Ashland, OR Where to Find This Beer: AL, AK, BRAZIL, CA, DC, ID, JAPAN, KS, MALAYSIA, MD, NETHERLANDS, NY, NC, OK, OR, PA, […]
Piney River Brewing Co. Masked Bandit India Pale Ale
Masked Bandit is brewed with rye, pale and Midnight Wheat malts and hopped with Bravo, Citra, Centennial and Amarillo hops. The beer name celebrates the North American raccoon. ABV: 7.0 ABW: 5.6 COLOR: 33 BITTERNESS: 70 ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1066 Brewed in: Bucyrus, MO Where to Find This Beer: AR, MO
Maine Beer Co. Mean Old Tom
Mean Old Tom is a stout brewed with two-row pale, chocolate, roasted barley, Midnight Wheat and Caramel 40L malts and flaked oats. It is hopped with Magnum and Centennial hops and aged on vanilla beans. ABV: 6.5 ABW: 5.2 COLOR: 105 IBU: 44 ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1068 Brewed in: Freeport, ME Where to Find […]