I have a confession to make.  I’ve never had a beer from the Brooklyn Brewery that made me go “wow.”  Actually, the other night at my company holiday party I had a Brooklyn Pilsner and a Brooklyn IPA, and both made me go “meh.”  I respect the heck out of Brooklyn brew master Garret Oliver […]

We all have that crazy friend, the one that talks too loud at the bar and swears too much in front of our mom.  Well, this blog has such a friend, and his name is Daniel.  To quote “A Christmas Story,” Daniel works in profanity the way other artists work in oil or clay. And […]

Like many of you, I watched the premiere of Brew Masters last night with a craft beer in hand and a big smile on my face.  And like many of you, I enjoyed the show because I’m a fan of Sam and a major beer nerd.  Even if it was a bit of an infomercial, […]

I’ve said it before and will say it again – timing and mood matter with beer. You can have a great beer when you’re not in the mood for it, and most of its charms will be lost on you.  This happened to me a few times by the tail end of GABF, when I […]

Hype can be a fickle mistress.  It can draw attention to something that’s marveluous and help it gain in popularity (like Seinfeld), but it can also create high expectations that, if not met, can drive people like me away quicker than you can say Battlestar Galactica. I don’t go in much for hype.  Just because […]

Well I’m finally ready to pass judgment on my oak-aged bourbon porter, my first-ever home brew.  I had it four weeks after bottling and thought it was a mess and needed to spend more time in the bottle.  That was a few months ago, and now it’s time to crack one open and see how […]

Sometimes the circumstances under which you first encounter something can make the difference between loving it or hating it. Pop music is a great example of this.  I can’t listen to the radio these days, because the music is all soulless corporate crap or garbled gangsta mumbling.  Of course my parents probably thought the same […]

There was this made for TV movie that fascinated me when I was a kid called The Girl, The Gold Watch & Everything.  It starred Robert Hays, the guy from Airplane!, as a fella who inherits this gold watch from a rich relative and it allows him to stop time. In the process, he wins Pam Dawber’s […]

Nate from Thank Heaven for Beer once said something that stuck with me – it’s easy to brew a big, bold dark beer because there’s plenty of flavor to hide your mistakes, but it takes skill and craftsmanship to brew a truly remarkable pilsner.  It’s a style of beer that seems pretty simple on its […]

Hannibal Lecter will mess with your mind, and so will Founders Cerise, a 6.5% ABV ale brewed with cherries. But unlike poor unfortunate Miggs in the cell next door, Cerise will reward you for letting it into your head. Quid pro quo indeed. This is a special kind of beer – one that will subvert […]

As a fan of Lost, I have to say last night’s finale was both deeply moving and very, very satisfying.  I wish I could say the same for the beer I chose to mark the occasion. I was out in the garage last night surrounded by many great beers, trying to decide what I should […]

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, […]

Olmecs, Toltecs and Aztecs, oh my! Everybody thinks that life was so hard back in ancient Mexico. There was the unforgiving jungle, murderous rituals and no cable television.  But they had beer, so how hard could it really have been? New Holland‘s El Mole Ocho isn’t a recreation of a historical brew like Dogfish Head’s […]

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 […]

Normally one would think being brought to your senses by an enormous furry beast like the sasquatch would be a rude awakening indeed, possibly involving a ripped tent and a soiled sleeping bag.  But in my case, it was a very pleasant experience.  Of course the beast I refer to was from a bottle, it […]