I whined a bit lately about getting my first taste of Pliny the Elder and being a bit disappointed because it didn’t live up to all the hype. While Pliny has benefited from all the attention, I wouldn’t call it the most overrated beer in the world, because it’s a really solid Double IPA.  It’s […]

So as you may know, Don and I are going to be attending next month’s Great American Beer Fest for the first time.  We’ve been putting our game plan together, trying to cram in as many meet-ups, schmoozes and (of course) great beers into the 48 hours we’ll be in Denver. Part of the plan […]

Apparently yesterday was the 200th anniversary of the invention of the can.  Who knew?  Well the Huffington Post did, and to mark the occasion they turned their attention to the best thing to ever be put in a can: Colorado craft beer! Hit this link to check out their poll of the best Colorado canned […]

You know when you’re just sure that something is gonna be great and then it turns out more awful than you could have imagined?  I’ve experienced this a few times in life.  There was that gorgeous redhead that was great in small doses but just horrible after 10 minutes of conversation.  Then there was the […]

Oh boy, this is gonna peeve Don to no end an potentially spark an internal BLOG WAR right here on our site.  You can imagine my excitement! 🙂 I’ve written here before about the potential health benefits of craft beer, which offers proteins, flavonoids and other nutrients that can do a body good when consumed […]

Well it turns out Don and I are manly men, because in true guy tradition we both forgot an important birthday Saturday before last. It’s now been just over a year since Don texted me out of the blue and said we should start a blog where he reviews whiskey, I review beer, and we […]

It nice to have friends with some pull.  After waiting too long to get our own damn tickets, Don and I got the great news yesterday that we have scored Brewers Passes to the Great American Beer Fest, courtesy of Boise beer gurus Rick Boyd and Chris Oates at Brewforia.  A million thanks guys! Don […]

I have benefited from the generosity of beer nerds on number of occasions, and I am thankful.  Folks have shared tastes of Sam Adam’s Utopias, lunatic beers from Brew Dog, and, most recently, Pliny the Elder.  These are all beers I wouldn’t have tasted without a little help from my friends.  Thanks guys. As Don […]

I was thinking about our latest podcast – the one we posted on Friday – and by far the best part is “Fun Facts with Don and Jim,” where we tell embarrassing stories about each other.  It was recorded with Don at his house and me visiting our folks’ place in Milwaukee.  Our two sisters […]

I’ve been flying around America a lot for the past couple of weeks, first visiting our folks in Milwaukee, then escorting our mom out to Don’s house in Idaho.  In my travels, I’ve encountered some great beers that I want to share with friends and family.  But sharing means carrying, and carrying means putting bottles […]

Hype can be a fickle mistress.  It can draw attention to something that’s marveluous and help it gain in popularity (like Seinfeld), but it can also create high expectations that, if not met, can drive people like me away quicker than you can say Battlestar Galactica. I don’t go in much for hype.  Just because […]

On this episode we talk about a great summer tradition – drinking away from home! Don shares his impressions of a couple of Idaho brewers; Wallace Brewing and Laughing Dog, as well as reviewing Four Roses small batch bourbon. Jim talks about the beer scene in Wisconsin and reviews a couple of goodies from New […]

Well it’s Friday the 13th, and if that’s not ominious enough, there’s another bad omen for humanity – The Beer and Whiskey Brothers are together in the same place!  It’s a sign of the Apocolypse – everybody panic!! Actually, we’re together for a very happy reason – Don’s boy Brian is getting married tomorrow and […]

Don recently carpet-bombed New Belgium on our podcast, where he said that he disliked everything they brewed. Having been down that road myself in the past (I dissed Flying Dog in its entirety), I knew that the “common” beers a brewery makes don’t always tell the whole story. Many breweries brew on two levels, making a selection of […]

I admire New Holland for swinging for the fences with their High Gravity series of big beers.  Some are excellent, like the oak aged Dragon’s Milk and some are very good like their Night Tripper Imperial Stout. But when you go big, you can fail big, and that’s the case with Charkoota Rye, a smoked […]