The holidays are upon us, the pilsners and margarita mix are put away and the search is on for something truly festive. Holiday ales are nice, and so is a nip of something spirituous, like a well-aged rum. But nice as these are, they don’t have the drama of something rich and creamy, topped with... View Article
There’s a section of the craft beer business that flies beneath the radar. Well, almost beneath. In their home markets, these breweries are well known and selling a great deal of beer—good beer. Despite that, they are still “lurking in the shadows; almost invisible,” as described by Gary Bogoff of Berkshire Brewing (South Deerfield, MA),... View Article
St. Terese’s Pale Ale (5.3%) Highland Brewing 42 Biltmore Ave., Asheville, NC (828) 255-8240 www,highlandbrewing.com A golden ale with a powerful, fresh citric hop aroma. The citric (grapefruit) hops are magnificently assertive in the flavor and bitterness, backed up by full malt sweetness. This medium-bodied Saint finishes dry from hops. It’s a classic American-style pale... View Article
It all began with a beer and a question. It was late Friday afternoon and the AAB crew was winding down around the conference table. The brew was flowing, and it was soon time for Round Two. One of us raised the eternal question: which beer to sample next?
Fresh barley undergoes a process called malting, in which the kernel is steeped in water and allowed to partially germinate. This softens the kernel and develops the natural enzymes that will break down the raw starch in the grain into sugar. This process is stopped by heating the barley malt in a kiln.
I was talking to one of our newer brew club members a few weeks ago. He and his pals have been brewing like crazy fools (in the good sense), and they’ve really been trying to upgrade their beers in terms of recipes and techniques. For the most part, they’re making headway. But a taste of... View Article
If yeast didn’t exist, Douglas Adams would have had to invent it. Among a host of imaginary species, the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy created the babelfish, a creature that feeds on the soundwaves of one language and excretes the soundwaves of a different language. The interplanetary traveler slips a tiny babelfish... View Article
