Brown ale may never command the attention of IPA or Imperial stout, but neither is it in any danger of fading away. American brewers have ensured a steady number among their more celebrated brews. In Britain, where brown ale is an uncommon find, quite the opposite is true, having declined severely since the 1960s after... View Article
Sorting through the evolution and chronology of beer styles can be an interesting, if somewhat muddled, trip. Seldom do things travel along an uncluttered, linear path. Instead, the interwoven events tend to resemble a Venn diagram. Politics, agriculture, tradition and even serendipity figure into the equation. Many styles are fairly recent designations for brews hundreds... View Article
Once again, the fall seasonals have come and gone. Pumpkin and fresh hop ales, both of which fit the bill of “harvest” beers, have recently become eagerly anticipated offerings for many. But it is the venerable Märzen/Oktoberfest genre that has served autumnal revelers for centuries. Märzen, the historical designation, was made in the waning cool... View Article
The familiar tale of IPA is simple enough: Pale, hoppy beer is ingeniously invented by the Brits specifically to weather the voyage east to sate the troops and expatriates in India. In truth, IPA was neither novel nor necessary, but opportunistic marketing of existing 18th-century ale, refined further through good fortune, then widely popularized back... View Article
Porter in all its forms may be one of the more misunderstood and underappreciated of all beer styles. Common porter was the dominant brew on the planet during the cusp of the 18th and 19th centuries, bringing rock-star fortunes to the beer barons of London and great beer to a global clientele. Porter was sent... View Article
Our perception of extreme beers has changed immensely over the recent period of enlightenment. To many, the extreme has become the status quo, given the availability of sour, wild, strong and über-hopped brews. But the original extreme beer among revivalists in America was barley wine, a reformulated interpretation of English strong ales, tailored to emerging... View Article
Those of us “experienced” enough to remember the beer wasteland before the brewing Renaissance cut our teeth on rather pedestrian European imports. Mostly, they were English or German in origin, with the odd Belgian bauble. There was no special release hoopla or festival hysteria, nor discussion of wild fermentation, new cultivar ale or barrel-aging. We... View Article
We, as beer lovers, are constantly being introduced to the next great infatuation, permutation or trend as the brewing industry rapidly rambles on.
In recent years, there has been a particular fondness for brews with “extreme” qualities. Intense hoppiness, rugged roasted flavors, wild funkiness and alcoholic potency all fit this bill. Sour flavors have most recently become a desired affection. Berliner weisse features a reserved lactic sourness as its keynote, the supplementary fermentation resulting in an effervescent, bone-dry... View Article
