Freshly Brewed
Its Beer:30 on a Friday, Whatcha Drinkin’?
Double Nerdgasm: Rubik’s-Cube-Solving LEGO Robot
The Beer Aisle is Like a Junior High School Dance
Sierra Nevada Hoptimum: Its a Big Boy Beer
VIDEO: Creative Ways to Open a Beer Bottle
Sierra Nevada May Have Torpedoed Dale’s Pale Ale as My Go-To Summer Beer
From the Cellar
How Having a Beer with Entourage’s Adrian Grenier Made Me Appreciate Hipsters
It’s been well-documented in this space that I have a problem with hipsters. There’s something about those people and their “fixie” bikes and their trucker hats and their ironic facial hair and their koi fish tattoo sleeves and they’re lumberjack shirts and their love of Pabst Blue Ribbon that makes me want to expose them [...]
VIDEO: Opening a Beer with a Chainsaw
. Here’s something you don’t see every day, and probably with good reason. This older gentleman seems very fond of chainsaw, using for the somewhat (in chainsaw terms) delicate task of removing the cap off a bottle of beer. Well at least he’ll never be frustrated by those silly Churchkey Can Co. cans Don wrote [...]
New Holland Beer Barrel Bourbon
Here it is. Jim referred to it as Double Dragon, but its name is simple and elegant and tells a new story. May I introduce to you Beer Barrel Bourbon. This is the latest creation from New Holland Artisan Spirits, and I’d like to emphasize the “Artisan”. Jim already described the bourbon in his post, and I [...]
Homebrew Question: What’s the Most Important Batch You’ve Ever Brewed?
Homebrewing for special occasions is more common than I thought. I realized this as I started doing research (which should be a four letter word) for this week’s Today Show article, which is all about guys who homebrewed for their own weddings (you can find it here). I stayed on the topic of brewing for [...]
Brewers Association American Craft Beer Week Event Locator (A.K.A. Why NJ Sucks!)
If you live under a rock, then I have some news for you: American Craft Beer Week started on Monday! It’s week full of special craft beer events across the nation, unless you live in New Jersey, perhaps the lamest craft beer state in America. Sure, we get some pretty awesome beers here, but the [...]
Heretic Brewing: Evil Cousin Ale
What can be harder than going from Home Brewing to starting your own brewery? Doing it in San Francisco! But that is exactly what Jamil Zainasheff has done as the founder of Heretic Brewing in Pittsburg, CA, which is actually about 25 miles east of San Francisco, but still within the greater San Francisco Metro [...]
The Strongest Beer Brand in America is…
If I were to ask you what beer has the strongest brand equity in America, you’d probably grimace a bit and reply with a dejected “Budweiser.” And I say, “nope.” “Coors Light, then,” you might say. “They have those stupid frozen train ads during football, where they blast through neighborhoods, probably running down pets and [...]
Charlie Papazian Q&A; Why is “Big Beer” Invited to the World Beer Cup?
My post this week for the Today Show Online is about how I went a little nuts when I saw that out of 39 entries, Coors Light won gold at the World Beer Cup for “American-Style Lager or Light Lager.” I know the big boys have been winning this category for years, but it still [...]
Call Scotland Yard! BrewDog in the Center of Another Scandal…How Can This Be?
I know it is HARD to believe, but BrewDog is in the middle of a Media Kerfuffle. I know…what are the odds…right? Well to set it up properly, BrewDog has been doing some pretty wonderful things to change the beer culture in their native Scotland. They have introduced the Brew Pub in a totally unique and [...]
New Holland Artisan Spirits: Who’s Ready for Some Double Dragon?
If science has taught us anything, it’s that everything is better when it’s wrapped in bacon. I won’t support this assertion with examples, because we all know it’s true. The folks over at New Holland Artisan Spirits have been fooling around with whiskey for a while now, and the results have been very good. But [...]
Why Churchkey Can Co. Makes Me Mad
What is old is new again. Truer words were never spoken where Churchkey Can Co. brewing is concerned. The other night I went to Brewforia and my buddy Rick had picked these up on a recent trip through Washington. The concept is simple and as old as metal packaging itself. Put a liquid in a [...]
The Hardest Beer Habit to Break
I’m in full-on get-in-shape mode right now. I’m waking up at the crack of dawn to work out, I’m watching what I eat like a hawk, and I even got one of those Nike+ Fuelband gizmos to remind me to get off my ass and move around. On the beer front, I’ve gotten very rigid [...]
The Three Best Vacation Beers I’ve Ever Had
My most recent post for TODAY.com is about the Big River Brewing Company at the Boardwalk Hotel in Disney World. I was down there last week with the family, and Big River was a life saver – a lush desert island of craft beer in an otherwise barren sea of industrial light lagers. While I [...]
Mississippi Updates Beer Laws, Joins the 21st Century (sort of) – How Does Your State Stack Up?
Good news for beer nerds trapped in the Magnolia State – starting July 1st, you’ll be able purchase beers with up to 8% alcohol by weight (roughly 10% ABV) without playing Smokey and the Bandit and making a run to Alabama or Louisiana (or eBay). The previous limit was 5% alcohol by weight (about 6.25% [...]
Finally, a Beer That Lives Up to the Hype
Hype can ruin a beer, because few brews can live up to the expectations heaped upon them by mad beer geek love. Hype ruined Pliny the Elder for me, and it screwed up my approach to sour beers – had I know they tasted like week-old laundry left in the washer, I would’ve expected less. [...]
