It’s that time of year. How many Top 10 movie lists have I already seen? Do I care about the list of 10 best wines (since I can’t afford and/or find any of them)? Somebody else’s Top 10 CDs? (Here I’ll add that if you aren’t crying by the time you get to Charlie Miller [...]

It makes no sense to endorse a beer from a brewery whose products you’ve never tasted, but we’d sure like to try Epic Strong Ale from Roots Organic Brewing, a brewpub that opened in Portland, Oregon, earlier this year. The beer is 14% abv and calculated IBUs are 70, but it’s not those numbers that [...]

U.S. brewing companies aren’t the only one concerned about beer’s image. An article in the Los Angeles Times (free registration required) reveals that when Heineken opened a restaurant specializing in beer year on Paris’ Champs Elysees, it banned the kind of food typically found in German beer halls. From the story: Culture Biere offers cumin-flavored [...]

Pêché Mortel from Canada’s Brasserie Dieu du Ciel certainly qualifies as one of the most hyped beers of 2005. Is it that good? Roger Baylor, a.k.a. The Potable Curmudgeon, says yes: All I can say is, “wow.” Beers truly worth the hype are rare, but if – and only if “ you enjoy coffee the [...]

The mainstream press loves stories about expensive beers – maybe so they can write headlines like the one above. The Sunday Times in Britain examined beer menus in upscale restaurants yesterday, noting early on: Rupert Ponsonby, a spokesman for the Beer Naturally campaign, set up by brewers to encourage restaurants to widen their beer selection, [...]

When should you pay $3.99 for a 22-ounce bottle of beer you’ve never seen before instead of $2.99 (or $4.99) for one you know well? – Taste blind. Is it the label or what’s inside the bottle? Tasting blind removes a key bias. – Taste across styles. Tast a variety of styles to find out [...]

Talk about making mistakes you can learn from. We were two beers and one wine into a beer and wine tasting at Rio Chama Steakhouse in Santa Fe, N.M. Next up were to be La Folie beer from New Belgium Brewing Co. and a 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon from Santa Fe Vineyards. Backing up a bit: [...]