Continuing from yesterday, you and I will not determine if one or all three of the beers in the Miller Lite Brewers Collection survives testing and ultimately thrives or not. Light beer drinkers, or consumers not currently drinking beer, will. Presumably it will be on flavor, but certainly marketing will be a factor. The other [...]

“Brew” Blog reports that Costco has received label application approval to sell three beers under the Kirkland brand name. This has all kind of implications. In brief: – Costco is a poster child for “trading up.” You go there to buy products you are brand agnostic about in bulk (often the dependable Kirkland brand), leaving [...]

Gee, I wish I’d received the press release before we were in Las Vegas and I went looking for a doppelbock to try for The Session rather than a few days ago. For the second straight year, the Hofbräuhaus Las Vegas is pouring a draft beer that is truly special – even by the standards [...]

Lots of catching up to do after a wonderful time in balmy St. Paul, Minn. Great beers, not so good beers. More important, great conversations and stories, not all of them about beer. So just one bit of musing, then off to all that e-mail. First stop Thursday was The Muddy Pig in St. Paul, [...]

If you don’t want to drink this beer then I will: “It poured a rich, deep copper colour, slightly hazy. It reminded me of American IPAs – you could almost see the weighty alcohol content. The nose was an absolute delight – an initial sharp citrus tang, followed by a deeper range of tropical fruit [...]

Welcome to The Session #10, hosted this month by Ted at Barley Vine. The theme “Let it snow, let it snow, Winter Seasonal Beers” does not leave us wanting for choices. Lest there be any doubt: Don Russell offered a combined history lesson/shopping list last week, a Baltimore Sun panel tasted a whopping 52 winter [...]

This is just a great idea from Ølfabrikken, or maybe from Shelton Brothers, which imports the Danish beer. I want to see similar information on the label of every beer in the store. What else do you need to know? OK, if 100 gram IPA is any good (yes) and if it is worth $8.99 [...]

I’ve already ragged on Firestone Walker for the Plane Jane names attached to spectacular anniversary beers. So to be constructive I should suggest a sexy alternative to “Firestone 11,” the beer they’ll be lining up to buy today at the Firestone Walker taproom in Paso Robles, Calif. With apologies to Dickens let’s call it a [...]

The easiest way to understand how malt and barley proved over several millennia that they are the best grains for brewing is to drink a gluten-free beer (no barley, wheat or rye). That sounds harsh, but it’s hard to imagine choosing to drink a beer brewed for the gluten intolerant, most often celiacs, unless you [...]

It’s time to bid a fond farewell to Great American Beer Festival coverage, so a few notes from the tattered pieces of paper I found in the pockets of my jeans after their official post-GABF washing: No, it won’t be GABF East: Ten years after the Great American Beer Festival on the road didn’t play [...]