Sure the 200-plus beers that will win medals today at the Great American Beer Festival are “country class” (and maybe world class), but that doesn’t guarantee you’ll wax romantic after settling in with a pint or two of one of them.
No, nothing’s wrong with the judging process - I agree with Michael Jackson’s assertion that […]

Snowing on Raton, come morning I’ll be through the hills and gone.
Mother thinks the road is long lonely, little brother thinks the road is straight and fine, will little darlin’ thinks the road is soft and lovely,
I’m thankful that old road is a friend of mine.
- From Snowing on Raton, by Townes Van Zandt

I was […]

What do these breweries have in common?
* Chama River Brewing Co.
* Green Flash Brewing Co.
* Hollister Brewing Company
* Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant - Media
* Left Hand Brewing Co.
* Pelican Pub and Brewery
* Southampton Publick House
* Utah Brewers Cooperative
These are the breweries on my team in the Great American Beer Festival Fantasy League. They do […]

Tomorrow I’m off to Denver for the Great American Beer Festival. No complaints — or this wouldn’t be 15 years in a row (a streak that ends after this year — but I am aware that: a) it won’t be the biggest thing in Denver during the next week, and b) most beer drinkers around […]

Captain Hops wraps up Session #8 with a haiku of course:
Another Session
Connects, satisfies, and builds
Beer community
He reports: “By my (non-scientific) count there were 28 participants, 16 recipes, descriptions of 4 formal beer dinners, and at least 60 beer and food pairing recommendations. In addition, I counted 7 first time Session participants.”
Session #9 will be hosted […]

Despite concerns it might by too windy several hundred balloons lifted off this morning as the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta kicked off.
A picture with hundreds of balloon mostly shows a bunch of little dots. So here are a few of them (view from our back patio - known as a portal in these parts of […]

What happens when you use about twice the malt and as many as five times the hops of a mass-market brew, like Budweiser or Miller High Life and commodity prices go up?
The Wall Street Journal joins the conversation about looming higher prices for craft beer that’s been going on in multiple beer blogs the past […]

Since the theme for Session #8 (What’s the Session? Start here) is Beer and Food in that order let’s get right to the beer, an Oktober beer. A Fest bier. Now what about the food?
Eleven years ago my wife (the first beer writer in our family and still everybody’s favorite) assembled the Brewpub Cookbook for […]

InventorSpot has posted what Seth Plattner calls the 10 Best Beers with Balls of 2007. The premise is that the “beers on this list push the limits of conventional brewing.” So you get Midas Touch Golden Elixir- The King’s Beer and BILK - The Weird Guy’s Beer (since it is made with milk).
Also Westvleteren 12 […]

Apparently the judges for the Beers of the World World’s Best Beers competition didn’t get the memo from Men’s Journal that Lagunitas Pils is the best lager in the world.
They seem to think it is Budweiser Budvar Dark.
They did almost agree with Men’s Journal on the World’s Best Stout, picking Deschutes Obsidian Stout. The MJ […]