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12 Beers of Christmas 5: Magic Hat Feast of Fools
It’s the season of giving, so I give Magic Hat two thumbs up for its Feast of Fools Holiday Raspberry Stout. Not so much because of the beer, but because before it was even out the brewery door in...
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12 Beers of Christmas 6: Page 24 Bière de Noël
Two plus four equals six, so I figured the Page 24 Bière de Noël would take us to our halfway point nicely. And it does. This is the best beer of the bunch so far, an impressive introduction to the...
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12 Beers of Christmas 7: AleSmith Double Red India Pale Ale
The king is dead, long live the king! I dubbed our last selection in the series as the best of the bunch to that point, and so it was. Meet the new champ, the beer formerly known as Winter YuleSmith....
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12 Beers of Christmas 8: Smuttynose Smistletoe
If you hung a bottle of Smistletoe from the ceiling and stood under it, would any kissing ensue? The beer only debuted last year, so it may not be part of anyone’s holiday osculation traditions yet....
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12 Beers of Christmas 9: Wychwood Bah Humbug Christmas Ale
“I’m in a ‘Bah, Humbug!’ mood this year,” my wife grumbled recently. I should have immediately passed her a bottle of Wychwood Brewery’s Bah Humbug Christmas Ale but I didn’t have another. It was only...
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12 Beers of Christmas 10: Ridgeway Lump of Coal
There are a few segues from our last beer to this one. Most obvious is that both Wychwood’s Bah Humbug and Ridgeway’s Lump of Coal are English ales. And on first appearance, both seem to tend to the...
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12 Beers of Christmas 11: De Ranke Père Nöel
Well, it’s been a busy Christmas Day, unfolding in a traditional and perhaps even necessary state of sleep-deprivation. But it did make it tough to pay close attention as we cracked open the De Ranke...
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12 Beers of Christmas 12: The Bruery 8 Maids-a-Milking
Good luck figuring out when the twelve days of Christmas actually begin and end. Thanks to an abundance of sects in the world, it’s all a moving target, and no one seems able to say with accuracy when...
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12 Beers of Christmas 2015 Reprise
Happy New Year! A year of new and old drinking adventures awaits us, and in the immediate rear-view mirror my fourth go round with 12 Beers of Christmas is in the books. The 12 Beers of Christmas 2015...
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Tap Beer(s) of the Week: 3 Monts Grande Reserve Amber and Gavroche
[March 7, 2016]–La Brasserie de St-Sylvestre in French Flanders makes a Biére de Noel I’ll have to try one holiday season, should I again descend into 12 Beers of Christmas madness and try to crank out...
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Tap Beer(s) of the Week: Guinness Dublin Porter, West Indies Porter
[March 14, 2016]–Suggesting the ubiquitous Guinness Stout for St. Patrick’s Day is the beery equivalent of coals to Newcastle. But how about a pair of Guinness Porters? Guinness won’t mind; its new/old...
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Tap Beer of the Week: Orval
“When you pray, bring together the whole world in the depth of your love.” —Aelred, 12th Century Cistercian Abbaye de Notre Dame d’Orval (Photo courtesy of Orval) It’s doubtful if beer is currently...
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Tap Beer of the Week: Waredaca Beecher IPA
[March 28, 2016]–I was given an assignment about a month ago to do a little piece on a new farm brewery in Laytonsville, Maryland, the Waredaca Brewing Company. I had to do it via phone interview, a...
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Tap Beer of the Week: Smuttynose Rhye IPA
[April 5, 2016]–Having polished off my sole bottle of the Rhye IPA, I’m looking forward to trying a full pint on Thursday at the first Tap Takeover of 2016 at Wildwood Barbeque in Hadley, MA. Eight...
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BBQ and the Masters, Too
Vinegar based, ketchup based, or no sauce at all? These and other pressing questions are thrown onto the grill for consideration in ‘Smokin’, a piece I did for the 2016 Masters Edition of The Grain....
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Alternate Versions
GolfBoards in use at Westin Kierland in Scottsdale, Arizona The future arrived toward the end of last season at the Brattleboro County Club in Vermont. Wandering over to the modest pro shop I...
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Tap Beer of the Week: von Trapp Weissbier
For a brewery owned by members of the von Trapp family, of “The Sound of Music” fame, there’s a lot of “Jersey Boys” going into the production of the beer. Brewmaster J.P. Williams is from...
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The Session #111: Surviving a Beer Midlife Crisis
[May 10, 2016]–Oliver Gray, who writes engagingly about beer over at Literature & Libation, has stumbled into a beer midlife crisis and has turned to hosting The Session as a potential way out. The...
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My Vermont Beer Vision Quest
If my TAP Beer of the Week posts have become anything but hebdomadal, it’s not because I’ve been idle. I’ve been chalking up frequent driver miles zooming all over Vermont, delving into the literal...
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TAP Beer of the Week: Troëg’s Gose (Scratch Series #235)
[June 7, 2016]–My grandfather used to put salt in his beer, a behavior I thought weird, although it was fun to watch the suds foam up. I don’t know why he did it; there are myriad guesses as to the...
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Tap Beer of the Week: Samuel Adams Summer Ale
Original Sam Adams Summer Ale label For the Boston Beer Co., summer begins in March. That’s when the brewery’s Samuel Adams Summer Ale starts showing up on taps or appearing on retail shelves. This...
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Put Me In, Coach
The master of sports participatory journalism, the late George Plimpton no doubt remains best known for Paper Lion, his 1966 account of strapping on football gear and hanging out with the Detroit...
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TAP Beer of the Week: Lefty’s Mystery Box Double IPA
Lefty’s Mystery Box Double IPA [Sept. 6, 2016]–It’s not standard operating procedure around here to be drinking double IPAs in mid-afternoon, but I made an exception today because 1) I stopped by...
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Tap Beer of the Day: Green Flash Ochre Frumento
[Sept. 16, 2016]– When I heard that Green Flash was going to release a second beer in its Barrelmaster’s Reserve Series on September 17, my wife’s birthday, I had the temerity to request a sample from...
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Tap Beer of the Week: New Belgium + Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough...
[Oct. 26, 2016]–Why, when I was out at the general store today, did I not think to pick up some Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream, the best-selling flavor of Vermont’s ubiquitous...
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Tap Beer of the Week: Ommegang Rosetta Kriek
[Nov. 1, 2016]–The last Tap Takeover of the year is tomorrow night at Wildwood Barbeque (beginning at 5 p.m.) and it promises to be a humdinger. It would be a doozy if the Rosetta Kriek was the only...
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The Session #117: Small Is Beautiful
[November 4, 2016]–I was driving around Vermont recently, as is my wont these days, and dropped in to the Drop-In Brewing Company in Middlebury. Why purveyor Steve Parkes didn’t go all the way and call...
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California Sweet: Pints and Pars in San Diego
I tend not to drink and drive, but when the beverage cart rolled around at the Maderas Golf Club I went a little google-eyed and changed my plans. Right on the side of the cart a menu listed three...
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12 Beers of Christmas 2016 – 1: Anchor Our Special Ale 2016
“Oh. Ooh. That’s a good one,” was the first thing out of my mouth moments after I had put some of this year’s Anchor Christmas Ale into it. Well, nothing like getting the 12 Beers of Christmas off to a...
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12 Beers of Christmas 2016 – 2: Great Lakes Christmas Ale
The Great Lakes Brewing Co. has been a midwest mainstay for 30 years now, and a beer fan would have to have been in a long winter’s nap not to know of beers like Dortmunder Gold, Eliot Ness Amber...
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12 Beers of Christmas 2016 – 3: New Belgium Spiced Imperial Dark Ale
Okay, this isn’t a Christmas beer per se, or even marketed as a winter warmer. But it is a winter seasonal, it’s strong, it’s spiced, it’s made in collaboration with the brewmaster at the Orval...
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12 Beers of Christmas 2016 – 4: Spencer Trappist Holiday Ale
A monk at work at the Spencer Trappist Brewery We were waltzing around with a not-quite-a-Trappist ale yesterday. Today we have the genuine article. I confess (even though not Catholic, and certainly...
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12 Beers of Christmas 2016 – 5: Le Trou Du Diable La Grivoise De Noël
After our last, devout, Trappist brew, the heavens delivered an overnight coating of snow that kept me off the roads most of the day, and the cupboard empty of a suitable brew. The devil you say? Well,...
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12 Beers of Christmas 2016 – 6: Blaugies La Moneuse Special Winter Ale
I took the halfway point of the 12 Beers of Christmas festival to the festivities at Wildwood Barbeque, the annual holiday party my son-in-law and daughter throw before they close the place up for a...
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12 Beers of Christmas 2016 – 7: Ægir Bryggeri Julebrygg
If yesterday’s brew was a bit of a misstep, today’s is a great leap forward. One reason I delve into 12 Beers of Christmas madness is to learn about new beers and breweries. It’s a double payoff when...
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12 Beers of Christmas 2016 – 8: Dieu du Ciel Solstice d’hiver
There was little doubt today about which beer I was going to choose from my current lot. On the winter solstice, what better for the longest night of the year than a dark, strong brew capable of...
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12 Beers of Christmas 2016 – 9: Haandbryggeriet Nissefar
The selection process for the 12 Beers of Christmas is, to my mind, ingeniously haphazard, and largely dependent on what’s on the shelves of whatever beer store I wander into. I did request two beers...
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12 Beers of Christmas 2016 – 10: Allagash Hibernal Fluxus
Fluxus the condition is what the house is going to be in real soon when the grandkids arrive this evening. So Fluxus the beer is going to get in my belly pretty quickly and then it will be on to pizza...
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12 Beers of Christmas 2016 – 11: Kerstmutske Christmas Nightcap
“Slaapmutske” is Flemish for “Sleeping Cap” or, in our vernacular, nightcap, and Dany de Smet and his wife, Marleen Vercaigne came up with the name for their brewing company because a touch of one of...
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12 Beers of Christmas 2016 – 12: Scaldis Noël Premium
I had Scaldis Noël on my “likely” list before the Paste Magazine article appeared online on Dec. 14, with its results and rankings from a blind tasting of 104 Christmas beers and winter warmers. And I...
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12 Beers of Christmas 2016 Reprise
[Jan. 6, 2017]–For those not up on their religion, the actual 12 Days of Christmas begin on Christmas Day and run to January 5, making today Epiphany, or Twelfth Night, or Three Kings’ Day. So it seems...
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Beery Odes to Autumn
[Sept. 20, 2016]–Oktoberfest 2016 officially began in Munich on Saturday, September 17. It always begins two weeks prior to its bleary-eyed close on the first Sunday in October, meaning the festival...
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A Wednesday Walk in America
[Nov. 30, 2016]–I took a walk on Upper Dummerston Road this morning while JB Auto was putting the snow tires on the car. “It’ll take about 45 minutes,” I was told and that sounded about right for a...
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Tap Beer of the Week: Allagash Hoppy Table Beer
[Feb. 9, 2017]–Granted, with close to eight inches of fresh snow dumped on us today in southern Vermont, it might have been nice to revisit the robust Allagash Hibernal Fluxus recently featured in the...
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Wodehouse on Golf and Other Tales
It may be a function of growing older, or simply wading into the wrong streams of literature, that I find myself these days rarely refreshed by one of life’s great pleasures: reading a book that makes...
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Tap Beer of the Week: Mankato Brewery Mad Butcher IPA
[March 27, 2017]–Now here was a good beer to prove—if I needed any proof—that life is indeed a long, strange trip. The only reason I was drinking it in the first place is because I met Joe Oberle in...
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The Session #122: Green Bottle Memories
[Apr. 7, 2017]–The Session is a monthly effort where beer writers around the interwebs respond to a topic question each first Friday. This is the 122nd installment, so it’s been going on for quite a...
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TAP Beer(s) of the Week: Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin vs. Rock Art...
[May 4, 2017]–They scratched the Tart Peach Kolsch, but added the Sea Rose Tart Cherry Wheat Ale for last night’s Tap Takeover at Wildwood Barbeque in Hadley, Massachusetts. A fair trade. The Mocha...
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The Session #123: CyberBrew – Is the Internet Helping or Hurting Craft Beer?
[May 5, 2017]–The Session is a monthly effort where beer writers around the interwebs respond to a topic question each first Friday. This is the 123rd installment, so it’s been going on for quite a...
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