BeerAdvocate magazine #41

We always answer, “What’s your favorite beer?” with, “The next one.” Because we’ll never truly know.

Labatt’s dismantlement of Lakeport brewery draws local resentment; Obama receives Maine beer package; Boston Beer founder Jim Koch petitions for national Patriots’ Day; San Francisco’s iconic Anchor Brewing sold.

What if taste, either in preferred beverage, music or art, is not subject to opinion but instead can be objectively quantified and judged?

A series of public relations blunders in their Belgian operations in recent years has led to the kind of poll ratings that make politicians choke.

With the summer’s blazing sun, you’re no doubt struggling with the burden of controlling the runaway temperatures of your ferments. Here are a couple of classic solutions to the temp problem.

Stephen Hale of the Schlafly Tap Room has been brewing for over 30 years, and he oversees a brewing portfolio that’s both strongly traditionalist, and freewheeling and experimental.

As with the “terroir” of wine-making regions, the aroma and flavor of this unusual beer is a direct result of the place in which it was brewed.

As craft brewers move beyond their core portfolios and venture into seasonals, special releases, large formats, private labels, cans and distribution beyond their local areas, is it possible to have too many beer options?

At least twice a month, Wynkoop Brewing loads kegs and cans of their small-batch, award-winning beer onto a wooden wagon, hitches up two Clydesdales and delivers beer to thirsty downtown denizens.

Let’s challenge ourselves by actually being exclusionary for one week a year.

Salads can be simple yet very tasty, complex and creative. Particularly when using flavorful beers, a salad can become a unique and satisfying meal.

In 17 years of operation, Mountain Sun has evolved into a spot where regulars and tourists alike congregate to see local bands play for free, where groups of friends can meet to catch up on the details of the week and where individuals can come burn off stress after a hard day’s work.

The internet and social media have changed the way we connect with those who sell us the beer we love. Now we can actually communicate directly with them and tell them what we do and don’t like about what’s going on with their beer.

A great, friendly city with a strange but refreshing mix of Southern attitudes and blue-collar, Northern atmosphere. It’s compact, walkable and full of stellar places to enjoy a drink.

James Watt and Martin Dickie of BrewDog are foot soldiers in the fight for craft beer awareness.