Thinking about hosting your own vertical tasting? Here are 25 beers to consider collecting. Readily Available Rodenbach’s Grand Cru: Sweet and fruity initially, but dries out and becomes winelike with time. Stone Brewing Co.’s Double Bastard Ale: The annual malt-bomb offering is a steal at $8/bomber. While it may not get super complex, it transforms... View Article
At a small restaurant and brewery in Minneapolis, a line of taps behind the bar keeps patrons’ glasses filled with a variety of freshly fermented beverages, each named and described on the ever-evolving menu. The food here at Moto-I is Japanese, and the accompanying decor is rather typical of a sushi restaurant. It’s an unusually... View Article
While drinking beer is supposed to be about pleasure, tasting beer sometimes involves a certain element of pain. Beer is not always perfect. Not every beery flavor is delicious, and as tasters our job is to make note of every sensation we find, not just the happy ones. Beer is a fragile product, vulnerable to... View Article
There are certain parts of the country where a proper sandwich is worshipped with the reverence it deserves. It is more than just meat and cheese between two slices of bread. Ingredients matter. Construction matters. In order to get a proper sandwich you must go to a deli, not an impersonal shop with pre-sliced meats... View Article
I had my first tastes of beer as a child early on Saturday mornings. My grandfather—whom we all called Poopsie for some reason—was a prodigious beer drinker. And when I say prodigious, I mean he started drinking beer on Saturday mornings at around 7 o’clock. He’d wake up at 6, eat a big pile of... View Article
When a group of young adults from Congregation Rodeph Shalom gathered at Rabbi Eli Freedman’s home for a “sha-barbecue” one summer evening, he did not say kiddush over wine. Instead, he recited the traditional Sabbath blessing over beer. No one was shocked. In fact, the swap made total sense, since many of those at the... View Article
Traditional beer styles are often closely identified by cities, regions, strength or particular moment of invention. Doppelbock (double bock) can claim all of those. Its roots lie in the North German city of Einbeck, but is now synonymous with Bavaria. More specifically, the prototype is a monastic creation, designed for sustenance during Lenten deprivation. The... View Article
With all the hubbub these days surrounding hyper-hoppy beers, it’s easy enough to forget about the humble kernel of malt, even though it’s been the foundation of beer for more than 10,000 years. Sure, hops have the luster of über coolness, but it’s important to keep in mind that without malt, there would be no... View Article
Imagine a hot day in mid-August, high noon. You stand in a sun-baked lot gazing up at your destination: a thickly wooded hill 20 minutes drive south of Bamberg, in Bavaria’s Franconia region. That hill is the Kellerwald, and—symbolically, at least—it may represent the cradle of modern beer civilization. Two key moments here tell the... View Article
