You don’t need inside knowledge to know that hoppy beers are hyper-trendy these days. The demand seems inexhaustible. In the U.S., “Gimme an IPA” has replaced the more generic bar call for “a beer.” There are white, black, red, double, triple, session and Belgian variations, all slurped up eagerly. With so much hoppy liquid moving... View Article
Back in the 1970s, the United States was a vast beer desert. With little difference between brands except the color of the cans, our beer defied connoisseurship. While I do know people who were capable of distinguishing between beers made at different Pabst facilities back in the day, the big brewers had no need for... View Article
A single element might seem an odd choice as a theme for a beer article, but this one is truly special. Of all the things in the universe our noses are capable of smelling, sulfur compounds are by far the stinkiest. Because of their importance in a host of biochemical processes, quite a few volatile... View Article
From the glass on the table to the sight of the beer frothing up, to the sights and sounds of the barroom and beyond, our world usually feels solid and reliable enough. It is an illusion, however—nothing more than a projection created by our highly fallible perceptions. Ancient wisdom makes a point of it; modern... View Article
When served in optimum condition, draft beer can be utterly sublime. When draft is ripe with fresh flavors, sparkling condition and creamy foam, it’s no wonder people have sung its praises for millennia. It does, however, take some effort to get right and sometimes falls short of its promise. A great glass of draft beer... View Article
A man walks into a bar and sees unfamiliar beer on the chalkboard prompting the question: “What style is that?” It’s not much of a punch line, but it is a very reasonable question. Answering it encapsulates a lot of information about the color, intensity, body, alcohol, texture, hoppiness and history of a beer. Styles... View Article
Beer is a complicated beverage to make, a challenge at every stage of the process. If you’ve been on a brewery tour, you know the basics: Malt is made into a porridge at specific temperature that converts starches to sugar, drained, rinsed, boiled with hops, chilled and fermented. After that rapid-fire sequence, things slow down... View Article
I’m not talking about the bubbles swarming into foam on top of that IPA in front of you, but something entirely different. It’s the bubble inside which every one of us lives, traveling through the world looking out at our own personal version of reality as we drift through it. The Hindus came to this... View Article
Every beer taster can recognize the bitter snap of hops on the palate, the caramel-to-roasty spectrum of malt aromas and occasionally the spicy, fruity signatures of certain yeast strains. We love beer’s boldness, and in recent years the volume has definitely been turned up. Amid all the hubbub it’s easy to overlook one of its... View Article
