I’m going to make a confession that may seem to some like a heresy. I don’t care about the Ratebeer Top 100 lists. In fact, although I have been writing for the Hoppress blog on Ratebeer for over a year, I really never look at the Ratebeer ratings pages. Nor do I look at Beer [...]
A year ago on New Year’s Day I began listing all of the beers I drank each day. It would have been a fascinating list to look at today, but by mid February it became clear to me that the task was too herculean for me to keep up with. Even looking back to the [...]
Everyone needs a local. What’s a local? A “local” is that drinking establishment where you feel at home; great beer, great atmosphere, and perhaps most importantly, within walking distance of your actual home (hence the name “local”). Think Cheers, only suited to your personal tastes. Everyone’s local will be different. A local has to fit [...]
I’m nursing a ten dollar beer in a bar called Beers of the World at St. Louis Lambert International Airport. My flight home to Minneapolis is delayed at least half an hour as storms move in from the southwest. I’ve already had one ten dollar beer, but what else is there to do? The knowledge [...]
I have been doing a lot of cellar clearing lately. A while back I realized that the cellaring situation had gotten out of hand. Surveying the eight cases of homebrew, four cases of big bottle commercials, case and a half of “beer for aging”, and miscellaneous sixpacks of stuff that I didn’t even know anymore [...]
With the Fourth of July freshly behind us, I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the role that beer played in the formation of the nation. It is a largely overlooked but nonetheless important part of our history. Beer was the reason many colonists first came ashore. The first buildings erected in [...]
Beer geeks and craft beer drinkers (yes, there is a difference) are quick to disparage the macros. The yellow lagers brewed by these behemoths have been variously described as flavorless, watery, boring, bland, soulless, swill, and crap, along with a host of other even less flattering descriptors. We easily discount the argument that whether or [...]
Okay, call me lazy. Things have been a bit hectic, I have a lot of writing to get done before leaving on a trip, and here it is Monday all of a sudden and I have a post to put up. So I am doing what every good blogger does from time to time…I’m recycling [...]
When I’m teaching beer appreciation classes, one question I am frequently asked is, “What do you look for in a great beer?” What makes a beer great? What separates the “best of the best” from the “also very goods.” It’s a good question, one worth pondering. The first things that I look for are balance [...]
Look out for the bull. The Schlitz Malt Liquor bull. Nobody makes malt liquor like Schlitz. Look out for the bull. I woke up with this dusty old commercial jingle looping in my head this morning. I don’t know why. But it got me thinking about malt liquor. Not something I do very often. Recently, [...]
