Having once accidentally driven a car into a large pedestrian-only square in Brugge I can assure you this is a city best enjoyed on foot. You can just stop and stare at the architecture. That the streets are narrow and winding becomes charming instead of exasperating. And there are the chocolate shops. We are partial [...]

For The Session #59, host Mario Rubio provides these marching orders: “Let’s talk about what we drink when not drinking beer.” Alan doesn’t approve, and — to be honest — I’m feeling challenged. We do drink other stuff in our house. We had Tom & Jerry’s when we decorated our tree, enjoyed homemade eggnog on [...]

Alaskan Brewing co-founder Geoff Larson tells a good story. One you want to listen sitting next to a roaring fire on a Juneau beach. Like the one about what he learned not long after Alaskan brewed its Smoked Porter for the first time in 1988; a beer that recently won its twentieth medal at the [...]

Rather than languishing as the 22nd comment on the previous post this question from Tom seems worth making a new post. There seems to be a conflation between intentionality and fault running through a good portion of the comments here. My question: if AB continually produces a beer with a particular flavor profile, with components [...]

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 [...]

“. . . 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 [...]

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 [...]

That Olde English 800 3.2 tops the list of the world’s worst beers at Rate Beer got a little press this past week, but that Olde English 800 sucks hardly ranks as news. Even if it does have its own Facebook page. Back in 1978 James Robertson gave Old English (note the difference in spelling) [...]

Drinking note of the day (not really a new feature, so don’t expect one tomorrow): From The Gourmet Guide to Beer by Howard Hillman (1983). Hamm’s (U.S.A.) 2 mugs (out of five) “Born in the land of sky blues waters,” says the motto. Pale yellow color. Innocent nose and palate. How’s that for concise?

As my wife and daughter know I’m a sucker for a quick wink or even a half smile (from them — this doesn’t work for every one). Hold that thought. Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City recently began selling a new beer, Amber Ale. You can buy it in draught in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska, or [...]