Don might be the one spending the week in New Orleans (I hope he takes lots of pictures, ’cause I don’t think he’ll remember much), but that doesn’t mean I can’t get a little taste of black magic up here in New Jersey.  In this case I’m talking about the Voodoo Brewing Company’s bodacious oak […]

It was a homebrew extravaganza for me this weekend, and I have to say I missed most of it.  Sure I drank the beers, but I’m coming off of a silly little cold, and it left me with a swell parting gift – a lingering sinus infection.  It’s hard to taste anything, I feel like […]

My poor buddy Steve’s world is crumbling around him.  He loves him some nutty session beers, and the industry is moving on without him. The first blow was the hardest for him, when Troegs announced it was stopping production of its Rugged Trail Ale, Steve’s favorite beer on the planet. Today’s news that Goose Island […]

To me, this sounds like a simple, happy life: You’re a brewery worker, spending your day helping to make a respectable assortment of lagers, pilsners and ales. Even better, there are coolers placed around the brewery, and you’re allowed to enjoy the fruits of your labor any time you like throughout the working day.  There’s […]

We’re big fans of Nate and Mike over at ThankHeavenForBeer.com, and, strangely, they like us too.  So much so that they’ve invited us to participate in their famous weekly ritual, Sip With Us Saturday.  For the unfamiliar, SWUS is a great way to spend time together while being apart. It works like this: The guys […]

Our sister Wendi recently shared a letter our dad wrote to her many years ago, and it got me to thinking about what was the best drinking experience in my life. Believe it or not, it had nothing to do with beer or whiskey.  Or wine, for that matter. 

Okay, it’s confession time.  There are some beers that I’ll drink even though they go against most everything I believe in when it comes to beer.  Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy is a great example, as it combines an uninspired wheat beer (not my favorite style) with lemonade (don’t fruit the beer!) to create a summertime treat […]

So I got my first taste of bottling my own beer this weekend, and I have to say, it’s equal parts tedium and anxiety.  First there’s all the work it takes to get the bottles ready – taking off the labels (nightmare!), cleaning the bottles, sanitizing the bottles, arranging the bottles, etc.  The only fun […]

If you guessed bathing with beer, you’d be wrong.  If you guessed taking my first shot at bottling my own beer, then *ding*ding*ding* WE HAVE A WINNER!!  What you see above are bottles soaking in the tub so I can easily remove the labels when I return home tonight. In the meantime, my four year […]

March is over and it makes me start thinking about spring – we’ve finally made it past winter!  After all, who ever heard of a snowstorm after April 1st? And as spring is the season of new and wonderful things, I’m very excited about the news coming from Santa Rosa, California. Russian River is ready […]

In some ways, Milwaukee is the spiritual home of the Beer & Whiskey Brothers. You see, our parents were born and raised there, and they love the place so much they retired there.  Don and I have scores of cousins and aunts and uncles in those parts as well, and there’s something about the place […]

Saturday night’s home brew tasting turned out to be a lot of fun.  There were like 50 people there, tons of kids running around, and each beer I tried was well-conceived and expertly crafted.  It also taught me that there’s always someone who can outdo you, no matter what you’re into. Those of you who […]

So another weekend is upon us and I say it’s about damn time.  My weekend will include a very special homebrew beer tasting. The homebrew I’ll be enjoying won’t be my own (that’s still a few weeks away), rather it’s several IPA’s brewed by some lovely people I ran into while sledding with my kids.  […]

I saw this on YouTube and thought I’d share.  This fella is absolutely wasted but still has the gumption to go for more beer.  Atta boy!  The set up is great, but it starts to drag in the middle as he shows his tenacity to get up off the floor and purchase his 12 pack.  […]

As a guy who cherishes awesome beer in cans, I’m excited and a saddened about the latest news from Oskar Blues.  To catch you up, they’ve put Ten Fidy on seasonal status (now available from October to February) and have replaced it for the warmer months with the GUBNA (pronounced with a laconic Southern drawl), […]