Before there were beer festivals, there was the beer festival. Instead of tasting 30 different shot glasses of beer, you drank ONE type of beer in a large 1-liter mug (called a Mass)... or a couple. My personal record was nine in a day. Yes, that beer festival is Munich’s famous Oktoberfest, or Wiesn, as Bavarians call it. Oktoberfest... Read more →

It’s not much of a stretch to put Sonoma, Napa, and Mendocino counties on the short list of the most beautiful places on earth. Mountains, ocean, farms, pastures, vineyards, impossibly steep potholed roads, blue skies unhurriedly flowing into gorgeous sunsets—that’s Northern California wine and beer country. The devastating fires that... Read more →

You know those old, anecdotal, paradoxical stories about how eating habanero peppers, drinking hot beverages, or taking scalding showers during warm weather cools you down? Humans living in the vicinity of the equator grow and consume coffee and hot peppers, and rumor has it it’s hot there, so “hot to battle hot” appears to be a... Read more →

Our ongoing series on the essential beers that anyone who’s interested in craft beer ought to know.  Continuing on my nostalgic trip down Beer Lane (refer to my last article on Stone IPA), let’s take a look at another iconic brew—the SIERRA NEVADA Pale Ale (SNPA). We at the Craft Beer Section of the Corkscrewer Report may come across... Read more →

This review, in Skaggsian sonnet, as inspired by Willy Shakespeare:   "Sonnet 10, Double dry-hopped IPA—thee sly beast!" Double-dry hopped IPA—thee sly beast! Praised, scorned; IKEA of yon brewer’s world. Opaque orange, hazy tendrils, brewer’s yeast; Rind of grapefruit, herbs de Provence, yon swirled— In... Read more →