Tonight’s review is another Stone Brewing winner: Ruination IPA. I’ll go ahead an ruin (heh) it for you: this is one of the best India pale ales I’ve had. It’s that good. Though technically it probably qualifies as a "double" IPA since it’s 7.7% alcohol… but no matter. Go buy … Continue reading

Here’s a cool, well-done site: Portlandbeer.org. It’s still a little nascent, but here’s what they say on their front page: What we are: A group of volunteers who have taken it upon ourselves to make sure that Portland, and it’s visitors, can make the best use of our greatest natural … Continue reading

I love Stone Brewing‘s beers. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a bad one; I only wish I could get more of them around here. Even so, I get by. The thing with Stone is they make big, strong beers, and their 9th Anniversary Ale is no exception. This was … Continue reading

Last year I blogged a few Beers for Halloween; my first pick? Rogue’s Dead Guy Ale. This year, Belmont Station blogged a whole bunch more. They pick out Dead Guy too, and mention Maudite, Reaper Ale (among others, they brew Mortality Stout, Deathly Pale and Sleighor), and Bodysnatcher. Of course, … Continue reading

A big trend this year seems to be the fresh hop beers—brewing with just-picked hops that are still "wet" (as opposed to dried hops, which is the norm). I first encountered this last year with Deschutes Brewery‘s Hop Trip, which I wrote a bit about. I liked it quite a … Continue reading

Today’s Rocketboom follows people around at Brewtopia ("Great World Beer Festival") this past weekend. This was a totally random find—I don’t normally watch Rocketboom—but you have to love the humor here. Especially when Joanne reveals she doesn’t even like beer! And yes, this is pretty typical of most beer festivals … Continue reading

As can probably be guessed from its name, Reinaert Flemish Wild Ale is an unusual beer. It was recommended to me at Newport Market when I mentioned that I really liked Saison Dupont, so of course I had to try. Plus, it has a really great bottle and label design. … Continue reading

In my ramblings about pumpkin beer last month, I wrote: I think it would be fun to do a pumpkin beer tasting; gather as many pumpkin ales as you can find (homebrewed included!), draw up some rating sheets, and go to town. And a bunch of blogs have seemingly taken … Continue reading

This review is a little late for this year’s Oktoberfest, but I did drink the beer during same: Paulaner Oktoberfest Märzen. Yum! Outside of Munich, this is the Oktoberfest beer by which all others are judged. Or so some people would tell you. (I’m one of them.) That’s not to … Continue reading

Ah, Widmer Hefeweizen, the quintessential Northwest craft beer… You know, Widmer’s Hefe often gets a bad rap among beer snobs for not being a "proper" hefeweizen of the Bavarian style. Even its BeerAdvocate score isn’t very good compared to other microbrews: it only scores 78 and has a dismal 66% … Continue reading