Last evening, as the sun’s rays turned long and golden, I poured out a bottle of the hottest beer on the market right now. It didn’t seem especially promising as it bubbled out, the head fizzing and popping like a soda’s—and disappearing just as quickly. There was an aroma of vanilla in the air as... View Article
In doing research for The Beer Bible, I had to make some very tough decisions about how to use my time and money. There are probably a good dozen countries that deserve to be visited and documented, but I couldn’t visit them all. Ireland, out. (An Irish blogger finally convinced me to skip his home... View Article
A tall, seductively curvy vase of weissbier, preferably served in the dappled light of a Bavarian biergarten on a summer day, is such a fixture of German beer culture that we sometimes overlook how weird it is. The standard German beer—enforced by national decree—is a lager of precise description, with no funny business allowed. Weizens,... View Article
Not too long ago, the English writer Mark Dredge wrote to me to look over a list of the regional variations in IPAs. It included the classics, like West Coast IPA (super hoppy and bitter, brightly citrusy), East Coast (maltier, more European hop character), Northwest IPA (hop aromas and flavors dominate), Midwest IPA (balance, soft... View Article
Alistair Reece is a peripatetic Scot currently living in Virginia, and a bit of a contrarian. “My dad used to tell me as a kid that ‘if it’s easy, it’s not worth it,’ and anyone can advocate for super hoppy strong ales when they are 10 a penny.” So of course he’s championing mild ale,... View Article
I think it’s human nature to believe that the olden times were boring and monochromatic. The people were more innocent, their interests less racy, their choices few and limited by what would grow on the back forty. That may be true of most things, but not beer. Beam back 300 years, and you’d find an... View Article
Tuesday was one of those days of convergence when the universe seemed to be telling us something. In Baltimore, anger bubbled over from protest to riot following the death of yet another black man at the hands of police. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court listened to a case that could potentially legalize gay marriage across the U.S. For those of... View Article
It was odd having a media credential recently at the Craft Brewers Conference—the one place on the planet no actual beer news was getting made. Like any conference, the focus was inward; it’s a place to trade business cards and share info, maybe gather some information about a piece of equipment you’d like to add... View Article
The Oregon Brewers Guild reports that there were over 200 brands of IPA sold in Portland last year—just IPAs. There are five dozen breweries, give or take, two dozen good-beer bars, and thousands of places to buy craft beer in the city. (Even the dive bars have amazing tap lists.) For the thousands of visitors... View Article
