The Brew SiteI bottled up my batch of pumpkin ale this weekend, I should be able to try one in a few weeks. I ended up with 44 bottles (43.5, more accurately). Not bad. Astute readers will recall that I measured an abnormally high original gravity for this beer—1.080. The final gravity … Continue reading
Stampede Brewing Company down in Texas has released a beer that is enhanced with vitamins. (Seems like a perfect spot to insert a "vitamin B" joke here.) The Brookston Beer Blog wastes no time in debunking it: It seems to play on the perception that most people hold, which is … Continue reading
Update! After 14 years, I have revisited this topic and present an up-to-date-for-2020 version of this article here. Now tracking 31 beers! At the risk of using an inflammatory headline, “cheap beers” seemed easier to convey than what I really mean: American macrobrewed light lagers. Yes, the Millers, the Buds, … Continue reading
No, "The Beer Hacker" doesn’t refer to a new blog or site (that I know of), but rather the name of a new "column" I’ll be writing here semi-regularly (once a week or so). They will be longer articles covering all sorts of beer-related topics, with (I’m thinking) the underlying … Continue reading
I finally got around to drinking Widmer‘s Snowplow Milk Stout and taking notes so I could write up a real review. It’s a good example of the sweet stout style of beer, though the "milk" part of it comes from milk sugar (lactose). Lactose is actually unfermentable; instead it adds … Continue reading
An offbeat post this evening. If you were stranded on a desert isle, and for some gonzo reason you could have a large supply ("large" is open to interpretation) of any three beers, which beers would you choose, and why? Here are mine: Pabst Blue Ribbon. It’s the better of … Continue reading
I thought the Trappistes Rochefort I tried last week, at 11.3% alcohol, was a big beer, but tonight I drank a bottle of North Coast Brewing‘s Old Stock Ale (2004 vintage)—slightly higher, at 11.4%. And believe me, you can taste that extra tenth of a percent; my overall impression is … Continue reading
Sorry I fell off the radar for a few days there, I was feeling a bit under the weather and just had a busy weekend catching up. But, on Saturday we went to the Deschutes Brewery and I finally got to drink a pint of their Poor Richard’s Ale. We … Continue reading
Kind of a whimsical post to commemorate Groundhog Day today. The groundhog saw his shadow, so six more weeks of winter. Bust out the barleywines and winter warmers! Or, check out Carolina Brewing Company: they brew a different seasonal Groundhog Day beer each year. From their brews page: Since our … Continue reading
Tonight’s beer was a Belgian ale—a "Quadrupel", specifically, which is like a Dubbel or a Tripel, only stronger: Trappistes Rochefort 10 (no particular site that I can find, sorry). The Quadrupel tag is well-earned: this beer is an amazing 11.3% alcohol by volume! It’s quite good, too. It’s this type … Continue reading