Temperatures rise. The ocean beckons. Baseball bats crack. Porch swings creak. Kids chase each other around the back yard. Fireflies dot the night darkness. Ah, must be the season of the wheat. Stop! Rewind. Did they say wheat? Yes, friends this is the season of the fabulous wheat, wheat beers in all their glory and... View Article
Holiday beers. Christmas beers. Winter beers. Whatever name they’re given by their makers, these bigger-than-usual, once-a-year ales and lagers are tasty examples of the brewer’s high art. It’s an age-old tradition for European brewers to make big, bold, special beers at the end of the year, both for the holidays themselves and the cold winter... View Article
Only in Castro’s Cuba has a state of permanent revolution lasted longer than it has in the minds of beer writers. We remember the bad old days—before the revolution—when beer variety was non-existent, when bars and stores offered us the choice between Mainstream Lager A and Mainstream Lager B (and C and D, in more... View Article
Forty years ago, the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and the British music invasion was on. Since then, many bands and performers from all rock music genres have crossed the pond and achieved success in the USA. Comparatively few groups, however, were able to achieve the widespread and enduring acceptance of the Fab... View Article
Two north German cities on opposite banks of the Rhine River are home to two distinct styles of beer: kölsch from Cologne and altbier from Düsseldorf. These are beers that predate the lager revolution of the mid-1800s. Breweries in Cologne and Düsseldorf stubbornly continue to produce top-fermented ales, while almost every other brewery in Germany... View Article
The first thing one notices when surveying the vast landscape of beer is how much it is all the same. Like a great sandy desert, vast swaths of it have a numbing sameness. Well over 90 percent of modern beer is brewed from the same handful of ingredients, to about the same strength, with more... View Article
Beer, brewed by monks? The very concept might shock some people, especially in our alcohol-phobic society. But northern Europe has a long history of monastic brewing, stretching back as early as the seventh century AD.
When it comes to spotting trends, I have a secret tool not available to big-time market forecasters. As the editor of All About Beer Magazine and its related website, I answer the random beer questions that web-surfers type into the ether. So, about four years ago, when the most common question from women correspondents switched... View Article
We have been rolling hop bombs across our tongues for about two hours now and have little humor for what the innocent Great American Beer Festival volunteer across the serving table is trying to tell us. “We’d like the Dorado Double IPA,” I say.
