Our ongoing series on the essential craft beers that everyone ought to know.    There’s been a trend afoot in the last few years of craft breweries producing session IPAs. Although the style is an old one (original English IPAs brewed in the 19th century were basically today’s session IPAs), the style has definitely made a... Read more →

More is more. Wait. Isn’t less more? More drum ‘n’ bass and less bass and drum solos, more or less? Oh. The topic is barrel-aged imperial stouts, not double live albums from prog-rock dinosaurs in the mid-70s, doofus. Fine. What happens when barrel-aged imperial stouts, by definition “more is more” already, have extra... Read more →

More is more. Wait. Isn’t less more? More drum ‘n’ bass and less bass and drum solos, more or less? Oh. The topic is barrel-aged imperial stouts, not double live albums from prog-rock dinosaurs in the mid-70s, doofus. Fine. What happens when barrel-aged imperial stouts, by definition “more is more” already, have extra... Read more →

Our ongoing series on the essential craft beers that everyone ought to know.    There was once a time when you could only get a Belgian-style ale by actually going to Belgium. Sure, one might be able to find a Hoegaarden or Duvel on occasion, but we in the U.S. were missing out on so many of the Belgian ales we now take for... Read more →

Oak smells good. Bourbon smells good. Fermented sugar water extracted from deeply roasted barley smells good. Certain Cannibaceae family members smell good. Combine them in judicious yet balanced measures, and—behold!—the greatest aroma known to any human.  Although putting beer into oak barrels is not a radical idea (see John’s... Read more →