Features
Wiping the Scrape Clean
by Dave GausepohlFoam has been marketed as a bad pour in most taverns. In this country we have the idea that the barkeep is trying to rip us off by pouring a beer with too much head, the equivalent of the butcher with his thumb on the scale. Truth be told, it is good for beer to... View Article
Special Danish Beer Places
by Gregg GlaserYou’ll Never Walk Alone. One of the best beer bars/cafés in Denmark is in the small, quiet provincial city of Kolding in mid-Jutland. Owned and operated by Torben Matthews, the bar, named after the slogan from the Liverpool Football Club, is a perfect English pub set in the middle of Denmark. Matthews has perfectly captured... View Article
Land of Lager
by Gregg GlaserDenmark may be a land of lager, but paradoxically it’s also the land from which the word “ale” made its way into the English language. The route was explained by Niels Buchwald, the head brewer for Ceres, a brewery located in Denmark’s second largest city, Århus.
Tasting Mead
by Greg KitsockEnglish Mead, Lurgashall Winery, Petworth, West Sussex, England (12.5% ABV) Intense honey aroma; sweet, candyish taste is balanced somewhat by an alcohol bite A smooth, pleasant, straightforward example of the beverage. My drinking companion, Martin Morse Wooster, remarked that it’s not a far leap from a sherry or other sweet, fortified wine. The 375-ml clear... View Article
Honey Wine and Woody Hops
by Greg KitsockAlthough beer and wine have replaced it in the West, mead remains the national drink of one African nation. “Ethiopia is the largest producer of honey in Africa,” asserts Araya Selassie, a native of Addis Ababa who has been a United States resident for the past 20 years. “We have 5 to 6 million wild... View Article
Making a Beeline from Hive to Glass
by Greg KitsockJon Hallberg, who runs the Smokehouse Winery in Sperryville, VA, has upwards of a million coworkers. Fortunately, they don’t demand health insurance, paid vacations or stock options. They live in two or three hives at the meadery and several dozen hives off premises. They’re honey bees.
Let Me Call You Honey
by Greg KitsockNo one knows when and where primitive man took his first sip of alcohol. But most likely, it was a mead—a fermented honey beverage—that provided that first sensation of warmth and sense of euphoria.
An English Ale Tragedy
by Roger ProtzAnger and disbelief have greeted the news that W. H. Brakspear, one of England’s finest pale ale brewers, is to close by the end of the year. Brakspear, based in an idyllic location by the River Thames in Henley, Oxfordshire, is thought by many to be more concerned with realizing the inflated value of its... View Article
Columns
Departments
Behemoth Brews: Barley Wine
by K. Florian KlempWhile few things deserve legendary status, in the beer world, that description is easily claimed by the most colossal of beers, barley wine. Massive in strength, chameleon-like and wide-ranging in profile, barley wines represent the biggest and often the best of the brewer’s art. They can be comforting or naughty, friendly or adversarial, inviting or... View Article
Bumper Sticker Beer Spots
by Stan HieronymusIt was the spring of 1996, the sun was shining, and the car was on cruise control as we rolled west on Interstate 84 from Massachusetts into Connecticut.
Beer Talk
Love Stout
by - -Yards Brewing Co. Philadelphia, PA Available: PA, NJ, MD All Yards beers are either bottle or keg-conditioned. Love Stout was first brewed in 1996 as “Oyster Stout.” In each batch, 150 whole oysters are introduced to the kettle boil (then eaten by the staff for lunch!). Rumors of its aphrodisiac qualities spread, and the beer... View Article
Old Tom Strong Ale
by - -Frederick Robinson Ltd., Unicorn Brewery Stockport Cheshire, UK Imported by: Capital Brewing Co. Middleton, WI Available: IA, IL, MN, OH, WI The Unicorn Brewery was established in 1865 by the Robinson family near Manchester, in England’s Northwest region. The company is operated today by the fifth generation of family owners. Old Tom, a strong ale/barley... View Article
Mongoose IPA
by - -Hale’s Ales Brewery Seattle, WA Available: WA, OR, AK, CA As originally developed by the English, India pale ales were high alcohol beers, heavily hopped to help preserve them on the long sea voyage to India. Hale’s version of this strong ale, the Mongoose IPA, is hopped at four different points in the brewing process,... View Article
Locktender Lager
by - -Great Lakes Brewing Co. Cleveland, OH Available: OH, PA, NY, WV, KY, MI, IL The name of this Munich-style beer, Locktender Lager, pays tribute to the 19th century “lock-tenders,” the men and women who operated the locks and along the Ohio and Erie Canal, between Akron and Cleveland. Part of the proceeds of the sale... View Article
Winter Solstice
by - -Anderson Valley Brewing Co. Boonville, CA Available: CA, DO, DC, ID, IL, IN, KY, OH, NC, NJ, NV, NM, NY, MA, MD, MI, MN, OR, PA, UT, VA, WA, WI Founded in 1987, Anderson Valley Brewing Co. is located in a secluded area of California’s Mendocino County. The family -owned brewery releases its winter seasonal... View Article
Lancaster Milk Stout
by - -Lancaster Brewing Co. Lancaster, PA Available: PA, MD Lancaster Milk Stout is one of the few surviving examples of traditional English sweet stout style, with a significant roasted barley dryness mellowed by an addition of non-fermentable lactose sugar. Alcohol by weight: 4.2 Color: n/a Bitterness: 22 Gravity: 1060
Double Barrel Ale
by - -Firestone Walker Brewing Co. Paso Robles, CA Available: n/a In producing the Double Barrel Ale, the patented Firestone Union oak barrel brewing system links together 60-gallon oak barrels in rows (a “union”) of pairs. Inspired by the Burton Union system, once a staple of British beermaking in mid-19th century, the Firestone Walker brothers-in-law resurrected a... View Article
Olde Buzzard Lager
by - -Buzzard Bay Brewing Co. Westport, MA Available: MA, NH, RI, CT, MD Olde Buzzard Lager is brewed at the Buzzard Bay Brewery on a 200-acre farm in rural SE Massachusetts. Owned by the Russell family, the farm-brewery and farm winery land are part of the family’s commitment to preserving rural farmland. Olde Buzzard Lager is... View Article