Do you think you know where in the beer world these photos were taken? Please leave your answer at a comment. Hint: The photo on the right. Yes, you can figure they don’t sell New Belgium’s Fat Tire Amber Ale because it’s not available to them. Not because they don’t want to. Bonus hint (since [...]

First the answers, then the questions.   Poppycock. Was IPA brewed strong so it could survive the journey to India?   No. Michelob: The New Hipster Beer?   Not in my liftetime. Do we need two new beer styles and a total of 141 (one hundred and forty-one)?   Let’s have one more beer. What’s [...]

Yesterday morning Glenn Payne, a man who wears several beer coats, sent a quick question from his UK home to many beer types. He asked, “Who’s the soul, who’s the cutting edge of beer; who’s taking it to the street?” He explained it will be the topic for his presentation at Mondial de la Bière [...]

Jay Brooks lists his “Top 10 Least Favorite Defects” (part of an ongoing series he posts each Tuesday) and diacetyl isn’t in there. A bit of a surprise, until Jay explains he has a high tolerance for that buttery, butterscotch flavor. In this case he means diacetyl must be there at a pretty high level [...]

Last week during The Symposium for Professional Wine Writers New York Times chief wine critic Eric Asimov called for an end to tasting notes. At least if I read blogger Alder Yarrow (Vinography) correctly. Yarrow, who is one of my favorite wine writers, nicely recaps Asimov’s presentation called “The Tyranny of the Tasting Note,” mostly [...]

As long as you are picking up the current issue of All About Beer magazine to read Lew Bryson’s article on session beers you might flip to the back page where they let me chat a bit about “The Importance of Drinking Local.” Considering it was filed from Bamberg the little essay should have been [...]

Do you know where in the beer world this photo was taken? If you think you do please leave your answer as a comment. Don’t have a clue? Come up with a great caption and leave that as a comment. A hint? I shot the picture during our current trip. It reminds me of what [...]

I have nothing wise to write about the random accident that stole Bill Brand from us. Instead I’m leaning on Robert Earl Keen. I go out on a party To look for a little fun But I find a darkened corner ‘Cause I still miss someone And with apologies for Steve Earle, I’ll add . [...]

History should not be a moving target, but sometimes it seems awfully hard to pin down. I was already thinking about this before we visited the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi, yesterday. I’ve been sifting through a bunch of stories about Belgian White beers pre-Pierre Celis and many contain altogether different facts. So two [...]

I’ve mentioned more than once that I’m working on another book for Brewers Publications. We’re calling it “Brewing with Wheat.” The sub title hasn’t been finalized, the challenge being to convey that I’ll be writing about Belgian White/Wit beers, German Weiss/Weizen biers, American Wheat beers and a host of other beers that simply won’t die [...]