“I became unhappy with the traditional glasses for Samuel Adams Boston Lager,” said Jim Koch of The Boston Beer Co. “These glasses weren’t presenting the beer at its best to the drinker and not properly enhancing the ingredients and the brewer’s intent.”
The most common glass used in American bars is the 16-ounce shaker pint, also called the sleeve pint glass. It’s inexpensive, sturdy and easy to stack. It’s also, according to many brewers and importers of special beers, a terrible glass for beer. “The shaker pint is a glass tongue depressor, the worst glass in the... View Article
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?
We’re accustomed to pouring fine wines and champagnes from sleekly tapered green bottles with foil and corks. On the other hand, everyday food items—tomato paste, evaporated milk, chili—we scoop out of metal cylinders.
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
