I am enlightened.  I know this because I have found Nirvana, or maybe that should be Beervana at the Cascade Barrel House in Portland, Oregon.  As some of you know I’ve been unemployed for several months now, and looking for work in a bunch of different places.  A friend of mine and I went to […]

If you will recall waaayyy back in the early days of the blog I said I wanted to find the worlds best oatmeal stout.  Said that here.  All the way back in December of 2009.  Well my search is over.  I’ve had some awesome oatmeal stouts in the mean time, with the best being (until […]

It’s rare that a beer will catch me off guard these days – I guess it’s part of being a beer geek in the information age.  I usually know a little something about most beers before I try them for the first time, at least the good ones. I guess there’s also a legion of […]

Well, truth is “most” of you can’t get this delightful nutty sweetish brown ale from Bitterroot Brewing in Hamilton, Montana.  So why bother doing a review?  Well first of all it is a fine example of what a Nut Brown Ale should be, and secondly, like the old russian saying goes “men (or women) are […]

. . Here’s a quick look at Noble Rot, Dogfish Head’s beer/wine hybrid that was brewed with grapes infected with the botrytis fungus.  While it sounds gross, the result is actually a wonderfully sophisticated beer that your wine snob friends (if you have any, traitor!) are sure to love. For more about Noble Rot from […]

This weekend was a pretty good one where beer was concerned, but when you drink as many new beers as I do, you learn to enjoy the really good beers, and let the bad beers just kind of roll off you.  Chalk it up to part of the craft beer lifestyle, you have to “kiss […]

A flight of beers typically consists of four to six different beers served in sample-sized glasses that are tasted in a single session.  Most times you start with the lightest of the beers and work your way through to the darker samples, with the flavors intensifying along the way.  This is a great way to […]

So this is what I feel like after the first round of the Great Whiskey Challenge of 2012.  See I got almost everything wrong based upon price, but based on flavor I still contend I’m spot on.  Here is how it broke down. Remember I said: All in all for those that are keeping score […]

This challenge was given to me from our friends up at Selkirk Abbey, the new all Belgian brewery in Post Falls, Idaho.  Remember Ron Wallace and Jeff Whitman sent this box along with a challenge for me.  Four whiskeys, 1 top Shelf, 2 mid shelf, and 1 decidedly pedestrian whiskey from the nether reaches of […]

I am so glad that New Belgium made this beer.  Why, you might ask?  Because this beer, more than any other that is available commercially from them, has restored my faith in the brewing chops at New Belgium.  This beer is an ale that is brewed with cocoa and spices and comes in at 9% […]

Under the right circumstances, the flavor of a beer you consider ordinary will strike you as extraordinary.  Most recently, this happened to me with Hitachino Nest White Ale, a 5% ABV ale brewed by Kiuchi Brewery in Ibaraki-ken Naka-gun, Japan. This beer is a subtle beast, with mild flavors of orange peel, coriander and white pepper […]

Ok, go ahead, call me a liar.  Not two days ago I said how I don’t drink beers out of season and here I am about to wax poetic about an absolutely beautiful IPA.  But here goes.  About two weeks ago I went to a dinner pairing event at Brewforia.  This event featured several stellar […]

It is something of a quandary I find myself in, having to agree with my brother, but Jim is right about one thing.  It is hard to find beer that is both flavorful and lower in alcohol.  Living rural like I do, I often find myself a good distance from home when the mood strikes […]

Well, this has taken me far longer than I anticipated, but at last I have found the winner of our first ever Single Barrel Showdown.  I left off in the middle of round two, with one challenge left.  That was the upstart new single barrel bourbon from Beam, Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve vs. Evan […]

The Abyss is a strange and wonderful world.  It is full of magical and mystical creatures and all sorts of wonder and amazement.  Ask any Marine Biologist and they will tell you that we know almost nothing about the wonders this briny deep has hidden in the blackness.  So too was my first impression of Deschutes Brewing […]