In Ireland, history catches you by the coattails at every turn. Towns, cities and countryside reflect centuries of invasion, foreign domination and massacre, the unbearable horror of the Great Hunger of the 19th century, and the long and bloody struggle for Home Rule in the 20th.
Looking at the shelves this season, it occurs to me that Christmas beer must’ve been invented by atheists. Only non-believers completely lacking in dogma could embrace this anything-goes style of beer, a style that not only irreligiously rejects the confines of formal classification but whose original purpose was nothing less than the blasphemous inebriation of... View Article
All About Beer: When was DuClaw founded? Jim Wagner: DuClaw was founded in 1996 by Dave Benfield, who is still the owner.
When I had just graduated from college, most of my mornings would begin with me stumbling over tossed clothes and sneakers to the refrigerator. My mouth typically felt as barren as the Sahara, and only one thing could cure this—water. I never thought I would ever drink anything else in the morning. Least of all,... 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.
Rum is a tropical spirit that conjures up white sand beaches, salty ocean breezes and cocktails with names that sound as if they were created by Isaac, the bartender on the Love Boat. It’s not surprising that rum’s development is linked to the sea. While making alcohol from sugar cane goes back hundreds of years... View Article
There are over 2,100 breweries in the U.S., according to the Brewers Association, an uptick of more than 350 in the last year alone. Apparently, more than half as many are in the works, as the association reports that nearly 1,300 are in the planning stages. Thirty-four hundred breweries and brewpubs? Where are we going... View Article
I have always had a particular fondness for the emphatic malt character, smoothness and underlying elegance of noble hops in ordinary German biers. I was especially enamored with bocks and that pure expression of malt. Bocks are beers of extraordinary finesse in spite of their fortitude. Brewing them at home can be something of a... View Article
I am writing this in the lobby bar of the Warwick Hotel in Denver, where I am waiting for my colleague, wine editor Emily Pennington, to join me shortly so that we may catch a cab down to watch the first presidential debate between Obama and Romney. Emily is 25 years old, and as I’ve... View Article
