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.
Imagine a fruit-heavy, lightly sour beer, lightened up to be a bit even less funky and fully stripped of alcohol, and you’ve got the basics of General Admission, a new non-alcoholic fruit brew that is a bit like a fruity seltzer water with just a little more oomph to it. Available in four flavors, General…
Firestone Walker’s beer club, the Brewmaster’s Collective, continued to churn out a slew of creative, barrel-aged beers in 2024. We received a whopping six different boozy brews for consideration from last year’s release, but so far, we’ve only gotten to three. As I said when reviewing the latest Anniversary Ale, these aren’t Miller Lites, people.…
San Diego’s Athletic Brewing has made a huge name for itself in the non-alcoholic beer space, proving handily that very high-quality brews can be made, even with their alcohol stripped out. Lately Athletic has expanded into less common NA beer styles and even the kind of collaborations you’d normally only see from larger and more…
Once again, Beer Santa was generous to Drinkhacker HQ in 2024, delivering the latest Firestone Walker Anniversary Ale and a new lineup from the brewery’s Brewmaster’s Collective which we’re slowly making our way through. This ain’t Miller Light, folks. Thoughtful beer drinking takes time! We’re kicking off our somewhat belated Firestone Walker coverage with a…
San Diego-based Mate Maker is a hard kombucha producer built around all the good stuff: 100% organic fruit, sustainable packaging, no plastic, and ethically sourced green tea that helps liven up the finish. I’ve not been able to figure out what “Mate Maker” means, but I’m sure someone will enlighten me in the comments. Kombucha…
Easily the juiciest, forciest IPA I’ve encountered from New Belgium’s Voodoo Ranger series, made with Mosaic, Chinook, Phato, Galaxy, Strata, Lotus, and Sabro hops. Immersive notes of tangerine, apricot, mango, and pineapple dominate up front, while the finish eventually unfolds to reveal some hoppy bitterness that gives the beer a little backbone. The fruity sweetness…
Harpoon is known for making beers themed or in collaboration with sports teams, donut shops, and more, but this is our first encounter with Harpoon and its decision to collaborate with an outdoor-oriented retailer. With Harvest Lager, Harpoon joins forces with L.L.Bean, an over-100-year-old brand from Maine that, if you learn nothing else from this…
First off: Yes, Patagonia is a clothing company. And yes, it is partnering (via Patagonia Provisions, its food & beverage division) with Deschutes Brewery to produce two organic beers — Kernza Lager and Non-Alcoholic Kernza Golden Brew, the latter being the first certified organic non-alcoholic craft beer brewed in the U.S. And in another first,…
Stratford, Connecticut’s Two Roads Brewing Co. takes one of its flagship brews into the NA universe with the launch of Road 2 Ruin Zero, a non-alcoholic IPA. As NA beers go, this one really nails the body. It’s bold and aggressive, almost chewy with a rounded texture that evokes lots of malt. What I didn’t…
Italy’s Peroni is the latest brewer to enter the non-alcoholic fray, and the approach here is decidedly unsurprising: Peroni 0.0% is meant to recreate classic Peroni Nastro Azzurro, just without the alcohol. Now Peroni is exactly no one’s idea of a flavor-forward beer, so it’s worth asking yourself if a zero-alc version of Peroni even…