Well it had to happen.  I knew what I was going to do last December when my Brother sent them.  Around Christmas time last year my Brother and I began trading beer.  I had sent him some brews that he couldn’t get, and vice versa.  It started out as a Christmas gifty kind of thing, […]

I stopped in this morning to get my hair cut by my buddy Jill. She’s super-talented with scissors and it’s always a long wait to get in her chair, but not if you slide in first thing on a Wednesday morning, which is exactly what I did.  While I was there, we started talking about […]

My brother Jim has been enamored for some time now with barrel aged beers.  Mostly that has been stouts, because this is a beer that has the structure and flavor profile that can really hold up to wood aging, and can easily integrate the flavors of the wood and whiskey into its flavor profile.  But the […]

While Don and I were at Victory, we had a chance to chat with them about their collaboration brew with Stone and Dogfish Head called Saison du BUFF.  I cannot wait to get a taste of this beer.  It’ll feature traditional Belgian esters along with sage, rosemary, thyme and a few other herbs that are […]

Eight weeks ago I brewed my first beer from extract, an oak and bourbon aged porter.  It was an ambitious choice for a first brew, but the brewing was actually the easy part – it’s the waiting that has been difficult.  It had to ferment for six weeks, first alone and then with oak chips […]

The Sockeye Grill and Brewery is a brew pub in Boise that has expanded to the point that they are begining to bottle some of their beers.  Is a matter of fact I think I sent Jim some of their Winterfest brew late last year.  Well their White Pine Pilsner is not avaialable in bottles, […]

We’re teaming up again with the guys over at Thank Heaven for Beer for another round of Sip With Us Saturday.  The idea is that everyone drinks the same type of beer on Saturday, then we all report back on our experiences and somehow world peace is achieved.  Actually, I’m not sure about that last […]

The trick to being a good spy is keeping under deep cover.  That is why the classic Spy vs Spy is so funny, and has lasted the last forty years.  Not because they are good spies, but because they are such bad spies.  They were constantly blowing themselves up, or getting the better of the other in […]

So I’m a quirky guy sometimes, and I’m occasionally motivated by strange things.  Take beer labels for example.  If a label is too cartoony or the name of a beer is a pun, I’ll usually avoid it like the plague.  Something inside my head tells me that if they’re trying so hard on the label, […]

When was the last time you went to buy a used car? How was the experience?  Was it fun and interesting, or was it full of pressure and some guy named Vinnie trying to sell you his grandmother’s 87 Taurus with the low miles and crush velvet interior?  Well buying a used car can be […]

I imagine the gruit brewers having a wall of potions (Photo by TW Collins) Hops? We don’t need no stinkin’ hops! That’s the idea behind gruit ale, an ancient unhopped style of beer that is making a bit of a comeback. In fact, I happen to be holding one in my hands right now. A […]

Don Galligan…C’mon Down!  You’re the next sucker to buy this beer!  At least that is what I felt like after I opened the Boulevard Collaboration #1 Imperial Pilsner.  You know I had heard it from others saying they wouldn’t pay that much for a Pilsner, but I thought I knew so much more than them! […]

Don and I recently visited the Victory Brewing Company in Downingtown, PA and had a beer-soaked blast.  I was thinking about our trip over the weekend while enjoying a growler full of Victory Storm King I picked up at the brewery, and came to the conclusion that every beer nerd in America needs to visit […]

I was thinking about this just this morning as I’m sitting on the couch in the livingroom wanting to crack into my bottle of Fighting Cock Bourbon at 103 proof and I looked and it is 7:30 in the morning.  Probably not the right time to be hitting the hard stuff, but man would it […]

Stonehenge is full of mystery.  Massive stacked rocks that are clearly rough cut, and stacked to form a circle of precision.  Each of the boulders used to make the pillars and caps weigh between five and ten tons, and were placed here long before cranes and pulleys were invented, and since they don’t know the […]