That Portland, OR, has more breweries than any other city on Earth is such a well-known fact that it has garnered the nickname Beervana. But if there’s one thing good beer lovers agree on, it’s that locals love quality, not quantity. So, few should have a problem with this statement: Portland has some of the... View Article
Ask a beer traveler where the oldest continuously operating beer festivals are held and the response will probably include London (Great British Beer Festival), Denver (Great American Beer Festival) and perhaps somewhere in Belgium (24 Hours of Beer/Zythos). Ask that same person about a beer style called “bock” and they will no doubt tell you... View Article
Visit almost any Dutch bar and you will find on the menu a snack called bitterballen. Savory and meaty, if eaten too hot they can lay waste to your mouth like a small explosion of napalm, while if too cool they can become a gummy mess. When made from scratch in-house, they can be a... View Article
A decade ago, in the hall of the Bokbierfestival, the premier beer event in the Netherlands, held annually in Amsterdam, I was standing with one of the most prominent authorities on beer in the country. He bluntly remarked that when it came to beer, Holland was no longer worth a visit. Although largely unimpressed by... View Article
WELLINGTON, NZ—As you step from the gate of the main terminal into the waiting area of the airport here, Gandalf soars overhead on a great eagle, his right arm outstretched, staff in hand. This is, after all, Middle Earth, and the direction the wizard points is squarely toward an adventure. In a very short time,... View Article
To the uninitiated, Duluth, MN, may seem like an unlikely beer destination. Mayor Don Ness boldly snagged the title “Craft Beer Capital of Minnesota” for Duluth in 2013. Many would argue that a bigger city with more breweries, like Minneapolis, should get the honor. But Duluth has some brilliant brewers, a burgeoning beer scene and... View Article
The beer being sampled would by almost any definition be deemed unusual. That it was brewed from a mix of grains that included four different types of wheat—malted, unmalted, flaked and smoked—comprising over half the grain bill, and boasted an impressive 12% alcohol by volume, was alone an element of distinction. That its ingredients also... View Article
More than 43,000 new and re-released beers were produced and imported professionally last year in the United States. OK, I made that up, but think it’s within range of the actual number. With more than 3,200 breweries operating across the country and more than double that number interested in exporting here (and with each releasing... View Article
Twenty-two years ago, I tasted the Karl Strauss amber lager for the first time while sitting at the brewery. It was the first American example of the great German style I had ever tried, and it was where a good friend and I wondered: Can we do this in North Carolina? We launched Carolina Brewery... View Article
