Beyond TODAY is an extension of our weekly column for the TODAY Show food blog. Over there, I explore why The Simpsons features such a bad beer if the show takes place in Oregon. Over here, Don has a recommendation for Homer and his buddies – switch to Hop Valley!  Click here to check out […]

Jim and I have talked before about our early childhood experiences with our Dad.  Dad was a Pabst Blue Ribbon drinker through and through.  If he had beer it was PBR.  It wasn’t until the company started to struggle and PBR became a little more scarce on the grocery shelves that he began to branch […]

The other night my son came over and wanted to smoke a cigar, and split a beer with me.  This is not an unusual event, as Dad is an endless supply of beer and tobacco, or so they think.  But there was a difference.  Usually I have my cellar beers, and my “available” beers.  This […]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Boston Beer Company does an excellent job of providing a road map for up-and-coming craft breweries.  They got started brewing craft beer for the masses more than a decade earlier than the big names that caught the brewing bug in the late 90’s, and they’ve […]

Green Flash came to Idaho, and as quickly as they got here, they were gone… in a flash…could’a been green. Here is the story.  It starts with a new distributor in Boise.  This new distributor who shall remain nameless, wasn’t fully aware of the legal issues around his profession.  See I guess he thought he […]

Advertising Age has reported that Heineken USA and the producers of Skyfall, the next Bond movie, have struck a deal which will have James drinking a Heineken on screen.  Apparently it’s the first time Bond has appeared with a branded brew, and I’m sure Heineken spent a pretty penny to have their product integrated into […]

This was the third ungettables gathering put on by our buddy Chad of @BeerPoet fame on Twitter.  It was a great line up of beer while pedestrian for some, for us out west in the wilds of Idaho, these represent some of the hardest beers to get in our little corner of the intermountain west. […]

. I know April Fools Day has come and gone, but honestly, this Schlafly video transcends that single silly date and deserves to be seen by every beer geek in America. Not only do they razz Bud Light Platinum’s stupid name, they also mock the dickens out of the hype surrounding rare beers.  Plus anything […]

Wednesday I put together an article warning about Big Beer’s influence on craft beer.  In this particular example I used Old Dominion’s Oak Barrel Stout as a beer that may have been influenced by the Big Beer bean counters.  Turns out all that speculation, was just that…speculation.  Yesterday I received a very nicely worded letter […]

Over on my TODAY post…uh…today, I review a quartet of gluten-free beers, which are brewed without the traditional grains (no barley, no wheat, no oats allowed).  As a result, they are mostly poor substitutes for “real” beers brewed with gluten-rich grains.  It’s basically no grains, no good. That got me to thinking – what’s the […]

Yesterday I posted an article about ungettables I shared with some friends that were sent to me from Old Dominion Brewing.  In particular I liked the Oak Barrel Stout, but was confused as to why they used oak chips, but it was called oak barrel in the title.  Well yesterday I got my answer in […]

If you’re a foodie, you know the James Beard Awards are a big deal.  I know this because Padma announces any Top Chef guest judge who has won the award like it’s an important honor.  It’s right up there with that Zagnut review and whatever prize the Michelin Man gives out.  🙂 There is a […]

I love having friends that have beer!  And what’s better is I love having friends that have Whiskey!  And what’s better still is I love having friends that have beer and whiskey that I can’t get, and they are willing and eager to share.  So it went last time I went into my local bottle […]

If you’re a kid who lives in New Jersey, you know that a nirvana of finger-popping fireworks lies just across the Pennsylvania border.  But if you’re a beer nerd who lives in New Jersey, you hardly notice all of the FIREWORKS signs as you cross the Delaware, because you’re not looking for bottle rockets, you’re […]

Okay, so this might look like an SAT question, but it’s actually pretty simple, and it’s about beer (BONUS: and bacon!). Stay with me here. I’ve been thinking about how the quality of a craft beer and who owns the brewery that made it affect my purchase-making decisions.  It’s easy for me to say “no” […]