OK, not necessarily something you want to do in public. But both a good way to learn a little more about the beer you are drinking and your own senses. I was reminded of the value of tasting without first smelling while grinding through an academic paper related to hops (I try to tackle several [...]

This is Urban Chestnut Brewing in St. Louis. I was there Friday, the brewhouse arrived today, and I expect they’ll have beer long before I get back. Founders Florian Kuplent and Dave Wolfe have a great story. Probably one of the reasons Draft magazine named UCBC one of a dozen breweries to watch in 2011 [...]

Michael Jackson’s Great American Beers: And Where to Find Them Jackson spent several months in the United States in 1995 and 1996 researching this book. He conducted “pod tastings” where brewers brought him what they considered their best beers. One described the experience: “. . . like a an audience with the Pope.” In 2002 [...]

I appreciate moving pictures as much as the next person, so for both those who like to watch and those who like to read . . . * Jack Curtin just posted something you should know about Sam Calagione. * Laura Deibler sent along the YouTube video of her husband, Dan, singing a variation on [...]

Friday I snapped a photo of the three bottles of Firestone Walker anniversary beers, posted them to posterous and promised drinking notes, an oath automatically repeated at Twitter and Facebook. A bad idea, and I can’t even blame the alcohol since we hadn’t poured any beer yet. Fact is I didn’t take any notes and [...]

“If a beer is stale make sure it is always stale.” That’s what Charlie Bamforth — a “beer professor” with too many credentials to list and author of the new Beer Is Proof God Loves Us: Reaching for the Soul of Beer and Brewing — told brewers yesterday during a conference call/online presentation for members [...]

“. . . on hot days there is no pleasanter place than the shady lanes of hops, with their bitter scent — an unutterably refreshing scent, like a wind blowing from oceans of cool beer.”                                                     — George Orwell, 1931 Orwell did not exactly give hop picking a rave review. But he allowed it was not [...]

The Yuletide Photo Contest must be one of the very best inventions beer blogging has given us. And it’s back. There are rules, so please read and follow them. Otherwise one of these years Alan will come to his senses and then where will we go for a snow and beer porn? Contest No. 2 [...]

The beer menu at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque: Corona, Miller Lite, Tecate, Dos Equis, Marble (local brewery, both the India Pale Ale and the Wildflower Honey Wheat). No local wine. Alas, at intermission of “Bless Me, Ultima” last night most people seemed to be ordering wine or coffee.  

Well, we opened the final bottle of Westvleteren beer we bought when we visited Abbey Saint Sixtus in December of 2004. It was an “8″ (or “blue cap”). It’s our wedding anniversary. Made it easy. Great beer. Make that a really great beer, because you couldn’t taste the floaties. That’s the end of the drinking [...]