Beer
First brewed at least 5,000 years ago, beer is one of the oldest and most universally consumed alcoholic drinks. It is usually made from cereals, most frequently malted barley, but other ingredients can be used, such as wheat, corn, or rice. In the majority of cases, hops are added to the process (originally as a preservative), although in centuries past other flavorings were used. Today, a whole host of flavored beers exist, ranging from conventional ingredients such as fruit to crazier additions including bacon, donuts, and rocky mountain oysters (aka bull testicles). The most popular beer style, however, is the easy-drinking pale lager style. It used to be thought that beer in cans was inferior quality to beer in bottles, and that there was a safety worry over the use of aluminum, but that is no longer the case. Cans are perfectly safe and sales of canned beers are growing while bottles are on the decline.
Top Beer Posts:
Lager? Ale? Beer? What’s the Difference?
6 Beers from Melvin Brewing, 2018
12 Beers from New Belgium, Early 2017 Releases
7 Beers from North Coast Brewing Co.
The “O!” in Dogfish Head’s new hazy IPA, Hazy-O!, stands for oats, of which four types are used in the brewing of this beer: malted, rolled, naked, and oat milk, the lattermost of which may raise an eyebrow or two. Big and rounded on the palate, it’s got an ample tropical note up front that…
Read More
Trying Cascade Brewing’s excellent sour in January left me thirsty for more Portland beers. This month we have line-up of IPAs from the hop savants at Hopworks Urban Brewery. Let’s see if these three can stand out in a crowded field. Hopworks Urban Brewery Juicy Bear IPA is the lightest in color of the three,…
Read More
All three of these new Harpoon releases have something in common: They’re all aged in whiskey barrels. Let’s hit it. Harpoon From Nova Scotia with Love – Brewed in collaboration with Nova Scotia’s Big Spruce Brewing “to celebrate the history of the province’s annual gifting of Boston’s official Christmas tree – provided each year as…
Read More
Four new brews (or newly available for home drinkers, anyway) from our friends at Bear Republic, just up the road here in Northern California. Bear Republic Baba Yaga – An Imperial stout brewed with cacao, caramel malts, roasted barley, black molasses, and licorice root. The chocolate is bold, pairing nicely with the toasty, almost woodsy…
Read More
Celebrating the Year of the Ox? Crack open Seattle-based Lucky Envelope’s new Metal Ox, which is brewed with Seattle Marketplace Lychee Rose Black Tea and double dry-hopped with Citra, Simcoe Cryo, and Loral hops. The beer is decidedly floral, with strong black tea notes early on in the game. From there, things settle down into…
Read More
Hi-Wire Brewing is one of the flagship breweries in the sneaky good Appalachian beer town of Asheville, North Carolina. Counting four IPAs among their seven “flagship” offerings, they clearly take their IPAs seriously. They also clearly believe in truth in advertising, as demonstrated by the most recent take on their Hazy & Juicy & Hoppy…
Read More
It’s getting harder and harder to keep up with all of the different barrel-aged beers out there, and lately, it seems, some of them are just getting downright ridiculous. For a good example of what I’m talking about, look no further than Founders’ newest spin on their venerable Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS). The KBS Maple…
Read More
805 Cerveza is Firestone Walker’s fresh spin on Mexican-style beer, a crisp lager brewed with a touch of lime — so you needn’t worry about squeezing a chunk of fruit that someone’s pawed over with their dirty fingers into your beer. Anyone worry about that? Moving on. The beer is a solid example of a…
Read More
Spoiler: This is arguably East Brother‘s best beer to date. Brewed with Admiral Maltings’ Gallagher’s Best malt, black barley, chocolate malt, and midnight wheat, plus English Kent Goldings hops and English Ale yeast, this is a complex brew from the start. It explodes pretty much immediately when it hits the palate with almost an overload…
Read More
Numerous alcohol companies are jumping headlong into the cannabis market, but here’s an example of somebody doing the reverse. Old Pal is a big name in the cannabis lifestyle space, and now it’s launching a beer. It’s a plain old beer: Old Pal Ale does not contain any THC or CBD; it’s as straightforward as…
Read More