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 second release in Stone’s Fan Favorites series is this expression, first brewed in 2011. Baird / Ishii / Stone Japanese Green Tea IPA is a collaboration between Stone and Bryan Baird of Japan’s Baird’s Brewing and Toshi Ishii of Ishii Brewing in Guam. It’s a fairly simple recipe, made with Warrior, Crystal, Helga, Aramis, and…
Read MoreThe brewing brainiacs at Firestone Walker have gotten increasingly creative with their barrel-aged Proprietor’s Vintage Series in recent years. In addition to the tried-and-true classics like Parabola and Stickee Monkee, the brewery has launched several limited edition, cocktail-inspired brews. We covered one of the first of these, Old Man Hattan, back in 2019, as well…
Read MoreTwo new brews from 10 Barrel Brewing, including our first look at the “It” beer of 2022, a Cold IPA. 10 Barrel Brewing Club Tread Mandarin IPA – IPA and orange are natural bedfellows, and here they work together fitfully, imbuing the fairly low-abv beer with a bright orange quality. It’s not particularly identifiable as…
Read MoreDevils Backbone, based in Roseland, Virginia, has relaunched its family of four IPAs, “with both re-released classics and new favorites with a new face.” That face includes DB’s new IPA mascot: “Buck Tradition,” which is a cartoon deer that wears sunglasses and a visor. Let’s dig in to the full lineup, which is also available…
Read MoreTwo new brews — neither of which spent a second in a bourbon barrel, for once — from California’s Firestone Walker, plus the introduction of Cali Squeeze, which doesn’t carry Firestone branding and which is confusingly a new line of both beers (all hefeweizens) and seltzers, all made with California fruit. We only received the…
Read MoreOne of my favorite beers ever is Elysian Brewing’s Space Dust — and I’m clearly not alone on that opinion of the Seattle-based operation’s flagship beer. Well, here comes a Space Dust spinoff: Dank Dust. It uses the same hops — Chinook, Citra, and Amarillo — has the same abv, and the same IBU level.…
Read MoreIt’s a bold move for Deschutes to send us its non-alcoholic Black Butte Porter and its standard, pro-alcoholic expression side by side. Can an NA version of this beer really hold up to its big brother? Let’s find out! Deschutes Brewery Black Butte Porter – This is the year-round version of the Deschutes expression which…
Read MoreCalifornia’s Firestone Walker Brewing Co. celebrated a quarter century of beer-making last fall with the release of this brew, dubbed XXV. It’s the 16th release in what has become an annual autumn rite in which the brewery and their local winemaker friends gather for a friendly blending competition and what must be one helluva party.…
Read MoreReady for a beer that’s as straightforward as it gets? Houston’s Karbach has cranked out a new lager in collaboration with the Houston Rockets basketball team. At all of 4% abv, the lager is best served while watching hoops on TV — and, for most drinkers, probably by the six-pack. Also worth noting: “A portion…
Read MoreParabola, the flagship in Firestone Walker’s Proprietor’s Vintage Series, is changing things up once again for 2022. While last year’s release saw aging, for the first time ever, in a mix of bourbon, rye, and wheat whiskey barrels, the latest edition is a much simpler, all ex-bourbon-aged creation with one catch; the barrels used were…
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