Kevin (Dark Lord of the Stout) has once again come through in a big way .  A few weeks ago, he gave me a nip of 2009 Sam Adams Utopias, and I gushed about it.  This time it was Brew Dog’s Tactical Nuclear Penguin, another ultra rare hyper-ABV beer.  Unfortunately, it was a totally different […]

Few of us are able to taste anything without the world around us creeping in. Your mood, where you are, who you’re with, what you crave at the time and other such factors all play a role in the way you process tastes and how you categorize them in your brain.  I’m sure there’s scientific research to […]

Our pal Peter over at Simply Beer was kind enough to invite me to participate in his latest beer Brawl podcast.  This time it was all about the session beers, just in time for The Big Game (I’m afraid of NFL lawyers so I didn’t use the other term for it). I’m not going to […]

There are certain things in life that make my overactive mind settle down.  Johnny Cash can do this, as can the plainly written books of John Steinbeck.  For some reason cooking on the grill falls into this category as well.  All of these things have a meditative effect on me that blocks out the chaos […]

Knowing I’m a little over-focused on (some may say obsessed with) beer, my sister Wendi sent me a link for a ginger cake made with stout.  Being the baker I am, I immediately passed the recipe on to my wife and begged her to make it.  Because she loves stout beer and because we were […]

Well, I’ve had a breakthrough of sorts when it comes to sours.  I was hanging out with some fellow beer nerds Friday night recording a Beer Brawl podcast for Simply Beer.  After we wrapped up, a few beers were popped open that weren’t part of the podcast.  Consider it an after party of sorts, without […]

I’ve had rotten luck with sour beers. First it was the Duchesse De Borgogne, which tasted like raspberry jam to me. Too sweet – into the sink it went after I realized I just was never going to finish it. More recently, it was a Nogne O Tyttebaer Wild Ale that tasted so antiseptic-like that […]

So far, I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve had from Nogne O, the Norwegian brewery that’s part of the Mikkeller family.  I’m sorry to say that streak has come to an abrupt end.  What you see above is one of their beers being poured into my sink.  It was unceremoniously returned to the sea, never to be purchased again…

Well maybe it is. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that 2009 saw the biggest decline in beer sales volume in the last five decades. But that only goes for the big awful macro-brewed crap, where sales volume is down 2.2%. Craft beer sales are up this year, with Sam Adams showing an increase of […]

Well, it was a cruddy weekend for our teams here at B&WB.  My Jets were shot down by the man-robot Peyton Manning and Don’s “Whoever-Brett-Favre-is-Playing-Fors” also met their end at the hands of…wait for it…Brett Favre.  But I had some good beers along the way, so it’s not all bad.  Besides, now the Super Bowl […]

Those of you who read these pages regularly know what I’m having.  Superstition has taken hold, and I must repeat my beverage consumption of the past few weeks that has propelled my Jets to an unlikely berth in the AFC Championship Game: Southern Tier Oat and a Dale’s Pale Ale or two. I’ll also be […]

I stopped by to visit with Kevin (Dark Lord of the Stout) at the Liquor Outlet in Boonton, NJ last night.  He’s the beer buyer there and he has a real passion for craft beer.  He’s one of the friendliest and most knowledgeable beer nerds I know. Turns out he’s one of the most generous, […]

I received a response from Brett Olson of the Beer of the Month Club about my recent Saranac rant.  I went on their site and clicked around and discovered that they’re total beer nerds, so I dropped them a line about my post so they could defend themselves.  Brett sent such a well written response,  I’ve decided to […]

My kind and lovely wife decided to do something nice for me this Christmas and signed me up for a Beer of the Month Club.  I was excited when I came home last Friday evening to discover a large box on the kitchen table.  I carefully opened it and pulled off the protective carton to […]

Now, I’m not a superstitious person, but I can tell you exactly what I’ll be drinking come 3pm on Sunday – the luckiest beer in the world, Southern Tier Oat. You see, for the past two weeks I’ve just happened to be enjoying a Southern Tier Oat (their fabulously aggressive imperial oatmeal stout) while watching […]