Since BeerAdvocate magazine launched, we’ve been inundated with requests to offer a digital version of it. Perhaps it’s time to let go a bit and give in.
Chicago’s Baderbräu Pilsner resurrected after 10 years; Wyoming breweries collaborate on official state beer; Molson Coors purchase of StarBev approved by EEC; and new legislation in Alabama, New York and Virginia.
An effervescent drink inspired by a dish at The Catbird Seat in Nashville that needed a pairing: a raw abalone course that involved sour beer as part of the sauce.
A concert-going mishap inspired the invention of the Stack-Cup, a durable, injection-molded, food-grade polypropylene beer container that’s commercial dishwasher and freezer safe.
The mythological art on Pipeworks’ Glaucus Belgian-style IPA can be traced back to a cartography exhibit at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
Highland Brewing Co. now encompasses 70,000 square-feet on the eastern edge of Asheville, N.C., quite a step up from the 3,500 square-feet in the downtown basement under Barley’s Pizzeria & Taproom, where the brewery started in 1994.
Often aloof, superior and snobbish, new-era craft beer bars exude a growing sense of entitlement, celebrating a self-reverential state of being. They are more about fronting a sort of better-than-you, punk-rock attitude than actually providing a place where customers can feel welcome to sit down and have a few pints.
In 1852, Samuel Allsopp brewed a strong beer for Captain Belcher’s expedition to the Arctic. A beer that wouldn’t freeze easily was pretty handy. With all that alcohol, it must have warmed the sailors up, too. Who needs a fire when you’ve an 11-percent ABV beer?
Sometimes you must snatch greatness from the jaws of “whoops.” Last summer, while teaching a brewing class, I lost focus and the mash got lightly scorched. To save the day, I turned to my “brewer’s pantry.”
What’s better than an ice-cold beer on a hot summer day? A frozen beersicle. Start with an IPA, a Sour, a Porter or a Stout, add ripe fruit or cocoa nibs, maybe some coconut milk, cream, and a touch of sweetener, and you have Paletas.
Fireworks, flags, barbecue and beer. If there’s one time to party, it’s the Fourth of July. Show off a little patriotic spirit by focusing on all-American craft ales, celebrating the country’s colorful brewing heritage. Red Ales, blueberry beers, and Wits, perhaps?
Houston’s quickly growing craft scene requires that new establishments find ways to stand out amidst increasingly stiff competition. Hay Merchant’s superlative is an exotic, quickly rotating cask program.
Phil Wymore has made the most of his experience, parlaying stints at Goose Island and Half Acre into his own St. Louis startup, Perennial Artisan Ales.
Once upon a time, in a distant land known as Northern Colorado, two homebrewers decided that 5-gallon batches weren’t enough. So, with a little knowledge and a lot of courage, the duo set out on an adventure destined to change their lives.
The Portsmouth Brewery and it sister brewery Smuttynose just a few miles away already made Portsmouth, N.H. a craft beer destination, but the scene has improved even more in the past few years. More adventurous tap lists also lie just across the river in Kittery, Maine.
For many breweries, a regional, cultural identity fosters the brand’s wider appeal. Paradoxically, that popularity might dilute the brand by requiring a large-scale production model that precludes ties to its regional roots—something expanding breweries keep in mind.
Tasting panels are trained by smelling the chemical aroma standards responsible for each flavor—as beer geeks know, banana flavor is isoamyl acetate and butter is diacetyl—in decreasing dilutions. They taste the isolated chemicals added to polyethylene glycol until small amounts can be detected.
Hugh Sisson has a lot on his mind: the growler bill he just passed through the Maryland Legislature, the 550 firkins sitting in his brewery and his robust (and expensive) barrel-aging program—not to mention his recent brand makeover.
