Tag Archives: Craft Beer

Craft Beer for the Super Bowl

Posted on January 26, 2012 | Leave a comment


Following Sunday evening’s missed field goals, dropped touchdown catches and muffed punts, the slottings are set for a Super Bowl rematch between the New England Patriots and New York Giants — a.k.a., the Super Bowl where no one outside the Northeast will give a damn.

But no matter! Though Eli vs. Tom, Take II may lack the history-setting precedent of the first meeting, wherein David Tyree’s once-in-a-lifetime helmet catch helped take down the undefeated GQ QB, the Super Bowl remains an excellent opportunity to get blotto on a Sunday night and gorge on nachos and wings. Instead of relying on the standby suds on February 5, why not cram your coolers with beers that represent each team’s region? Here are six beers you’ll happily glug between the commercial breaks.

Following Sunday evening’s missed field goals, dropped touchdown catches and muffed punts, the slottings are set for a Super Bowl rematch between the New England Patriots and New York Giants — a.k.a., the Super Bowl where no one outside the Northeast will give a damn.

But no matter! Though Eli vs. Tom, Take II may lack the history-setting precedent of the first meeting, wherein David Tyree’s once-in-a-lifetime helmet catch helped take down the undefeated GQ QB, the Super Bowl remains an excellent opportunity to get blotto on a Sunday night and gorge on nachos and wings. Instead of relying on the standby suds on February 5, why not cram your coolers with beers that represent each team’s region? Here are six beers you’ll happily glug between the commercial breaks. Continue reading →

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I’m on the Happy Hour Guys’ Book Club!

Posted on January 20, 2012 | Leave a comment

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Recent Radio Appearances

Posted on January 17, 2012 | Leave a comment


Well! Now that life is slowing down a smidgen after the whirlwind that was my book launch and my honeymoon (two weeks in Vietnam and Thailand—huzzah!), I can finally get kind of caught up on all my recent sonic appearances. If you feel like listening to me talk, talk and talk (sometimes quite drunkenly, mind you), here are a few of my latest blabbings:

Beer O’Clock (11/12//11) I jaw with Beer Goddess Lisa Morrison on her weekly Pacific Northwest radio show.

Brewing Network (12/4/11)  While I was in California for my December tour swing, I stopped by the Brewing Network headquarters on dropped some science on craft beer trends and blowing a shofar. For serious.

Aleheads (1/13)Half in my cups off of Mission Street Pale Ale and a few fat fingers of Rittenhouse Rye, I spoke at length on the future of craft beer. Listen to the future!

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Suds in the City: Chelsea Brewing Company

Posted on January 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

Chelsea brewmaster brewmaster Mark Szmaida. Photo: Scott Gordon Bleicher

* Note: This story was originally published in the January/February issue of Edible Manhattan.

If you liked mediocre craft beer, the mid ’90s were a marvelous time in Manhattan. Caught up in the brewpub craze then sweeping the country, there was SoHo’s Nacho Mama’s Brewery, the British-inspired Commonwealth Brewing Company in Rockefeller Plaza and, in Midtown, the pseudo-Asian Typhoon, to name just a few—all serving New Yorkers so-so housemade suds.

Like many fads of the time—Riot Grrrls, pagers—brewpubs quickly passed. Due to poor-quality ales, poor ownership and outlandish rents—or a combination of all three—tap lines went dry, one by one. Admittedly, these early pints poured the foundation for our current craft coming-of-age—back then most city drinkers still preferred Miller, Coors or Bud—but no self-respecting contemporary brew hound would be caught dead with one of those amber ales in hand. When the foam finally subsided at the end of the decade, only a single brewery still made beer on the Island. “We’ve survived it all,” says Mark Szmaida, 57, the head brewer at Chelsea Brewing Company, which opened on the Hudson River-hugging Chelsea Piers at 18th Street in 1996. Szmaida is referring not just to the movement’s demise, but also to his own brand’s expensive misstep into bottling beers (more on that later); the post–9/11 days when the piers were used as a staging ground by the city; and Arctic winter weeks on the waterfront when both the temperature and customers slip into the single digits. Perhaps the place still exists because, unlike most other brewpubs, at Chelsea the focus was always on the beer: quality Manhattan-made craft ales like the thirst-quenching, easy-drinking Checker Cab Blonde—now seen on draft menus citywide—or the caramel-licked Sunset Red, a brew so good it won a gold medal in 1997 at Denver’s prestigious Great American Beer Festival. Continue reading →

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As American as IPA

Posted on January 8, 2012 | Leave a comment


In the January/February issue of Imbibe magazine, I took a deep look at how American brewers are inspiring a new breed of international beer makers. Breweries in Denmark and Norway are shrugging off their lager-filled pasts, in turn toying around with hops, barrel-aging and wild styles that echo America’s no-barriers brewing ingenuity but are distinctly singular. Curious? The editors have posted a version of the article online for you to gander. Take a read and let me know what you think. Cheers!

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The South Is Rising—at the Bar

Posted on November 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

Meet the crew from Louisiana’s Bayou Teche, who are rewriting the Southern template for beer.

As a city, New Orleans excels in the culinary arena. It makes the marvelously meaty, olive-strewn muffaletta sandwich. Crusty po’boys packed with fried oysters and shrimp are tasty to the last crumb. The absinthe-haunted Sazerac cocktail exemplifies potent balance. But beer, well, that’s barely an afterthought.

In New Orleans, beer has long been consumed by the Big Gulp, with quantity mattering more than quality. Miller High Life and its watery ilk are as omnipresent as beads come Mardi Gras. Down in the Crescent City, it seems like nary a shot has been fired in the craft beer revolution.

At least that’s what I thought until I arrived at the Avenue Pub last week. Ostensibly, I was in town for a family reunion (it’s a long story how three dozen New York–bred Jews ended up in the Big Easy). While there, I thought, I might as well add a stop to my Brewed Awakening book tour. But where to go? I doubted anyone on Bourbon Street, home to three-for-one Buds and Hurricanes as sweet as Halloween candy, gave a damn about a book on craft beer.

“Go to Avenue Pub,” offered my friend Joel, a longtime NOLA resident. In the last couple years, I learned, Avenue Pub seriously upgraded its tap lines, offering dozens of drafts focused on of-the-moment American and European ales and lagers. Sure, it’s terrific to carry Sierra Nevada and Stone. But upon arriving at the Avenue (located off the St. Charles Avenue street-car line), I was more struck by the breadth and scope of novel locally brewed beer. From Mississippi, Lazy Magnolia made a marvelous stout hewn with sweet potatoes, as well as an ale dosed with pecans. Louisiana’s Bayou Teche turned out beers suited to the Southern palate. And right in town, NOLA Brewing crafted the pungent Hopitoulas IPA, which could stand toe-to-toe with anything from the West Coast.

I spent the evening sampling brews from below the Mason-Dixon Line, finding a delightfully idiosyncratic craft beer culture on the rise. Curious about which Southern beers are worth seeking out next time you make it down to New Orleans? Check out the rest of my story at Food Republic.

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Brewed Awakening: The Video!

Posted on November 8, 2011 | Leave a comment

I will let the video do all the talking. And yes, I did drink a beer mixed with an egg.

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Great American Beer Festival Recap

Posted on October 4, 2011 | Leave a comment

Sadly, my hat will never get me drunk. Photo: Jason E. Kaplan

Not since that misguided night in college when I decided to double-fist 40-ouncers of Phat Boy, a thankfully discontinued malt liquor made with ginseng, has my liver felt so swollen and abused.

I’ve just returned from four days at Denver’s 30th annual Great American Beer Festival, a massive celebration of fermentation that attracts brew fans as fervid as religious devotees flocking to Mecca. And for good reason. Each year, hundreds of breweries from all corners of the country descend upon the Mile High City en masse, toting thousands of different beers. Some are good. Some are bad. But with each brew served by the one-ounce pour, you have ample opportunity to try any and every beer.

Consider it drunkenness by a thousand tiny cups.

Of course, sampling every beer is foolhardy, especially this year. Scattered across the floor of the sprawling Colorado Convention Center were more than 460 breweries, which doled out some 2,400 dark stouts, sour ales, bitter IPAs and carbonated oddities so curious, so strange, I wasn’t sure whether to dump them out or greedily ask for another glass. Freetail Brewing, I’m looking at you and your green and cloudy Spirulina Wit.

As far as trends to spot, brewers are still riding high on IPAs, with a swell of black-tinted takes on the style — I particularly liked the Blacktop IPA, from New Glarus Brewing, as well as Bear Republic’s Black Racer. Barrel aging continues to sweep the industry (I swooned over Foothills Brewing’s Bourbon Barrel Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout and the wood-flavored treats from Florida’s Cigar City), but what’s got me most excited is the surge of sour ales.

Increasing ranks of brewers are deploying wild yeasts and bacteria with a dedication that would impress a microbiologist. Breweries to keep an eye on include Captain Lawrence, Cambridge Brewing, Upland, Brugge Brasserie and Illinois’ Desthil brewpub, which wowed the crowd with its wild creations.

Though it’s impossible to highlight all my favorite ales and lagers—and my many, many skull-blasting hangovers—a few ales and lagers stood out from the sudsy, crowded field.

Which ones did I like best? Check out my full story at Food Republic.

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A Few Tickets Left for NYC Homebrew Tours

Posted on September 15, 2011 | Leave a comment

For New York Craft Beer Week, I’m running a trio of homebrew tours this weekend and next. There are about 10 two tickets left for next Saturday (9/24), in which we’ll visit Chris O’Leary, of Brew York, New York fame, plus Jason Knight (expect a saison, a Patersbier, an English bitter and two watermelon wheat brews, including one dosed with wild yeast!). Lastly, we’ll meet the good men behind Brooklyn’s Billingsgate Brewery, who are crafting top-secret beers for the tour. Nab your tickets here.

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Rise Up Brewing

Posted on September 13, 2011 | Leave a comment

As a child growing up in southwestern Ohio, I spent many a day in Chicago. It was my family’s favorite spring break destination (strange, I know), where we’d scarf down dim sum and deep-dish pizza with equal fervor. But after I graduated from college and moved to New York, Chicago receded into the rear-view mirror. A decade passed before I ventured back to town in May to do a feature on the city’s burgeoning brewing scene.

While Goose Island may be synonymous with the city, there’s a swell of upstarts such as Revolution Brewing, Haymarket and Half Acre — and a half dozen other breweries and counting — that are filling local tap lines and making the city’s craft beer scene a winner. Even if the Cubs are not. Curious? You can check out the article (complete with pretty pictures!) in Imbibe, or you can check out the article online. Curious? Drink it up!

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Get to Know Your Hops: Simcoe

Posted on August 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

Simcoe hops make Weyerbacher's double IPA taste goooood.

During my early years in New York City, when I was young, drunk and prone to staying up ’til sunrise, I often found myself at a Greek diner with a phonebook-long menu — well, a phonebook circa 1982.

At that ungodly hour of the morning, focusing my eyes was impossible. All my reptilian brain craved was greasy, meaty grub to insulate my stomach and sop up the excesses of the night. But flipping through the thick, picture-filled menu, I was struck with indecision: Pancakes? Eggs? A gyro? Fried calamari? Endless choices were endlessly overwhelming. “Gimme a burger,” I’d mumble, retreating into my comfort zone.

These days, many beer drinkers feel the same way at supermarkets and liquor stores. There are more, and better, suds than at any time in America’s drunken history. But which brew should you choose? Why does one IPA taste like pine, but the other recalls white wine? Luckily, Food Republic is here to help clear up the bitter confusion. In our “Get to Know” series, we’ll rundown some of the hops, grains and yeasts giving beers their appealingly offbeat, unique flavors and aromas.

Today’s lesson centers on the Simcoe hop. Released in 2000 by Washington State’s Select Botanicals Group, the proprietary hop variety (yup, hops can be trademarked) is used to impart both bitterness and aroma into beer. It’s identified by a piney, woodsy profile blended with a bit of citrus. Since Simcoe isn’t as pungently piney as Northern Brewer or Chinook hops (more on those later, don’t you worry), it’s often used to add a clean, singular profile to pale ales and India pale ales. Want to know which five to try? Check out the full article at Food Republic. Drink it up!

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Five Great Places to Get Pie-Eyed in PDX

Posted on July 18, 2011 | Leave a comment

Upright Brewing. Photo: Annalou Vincent

For craft beer consumers, Portland, Oregon, might just be mecca. Dozens of breweries and brewpubs dot the city, serving up suds as inventive as they’re flavorful. Picking a favorite place to drink is as tough as my parents picking their favorite kid. (Hey, Mom and Dad, it’s me, right?) But for Food Republic, I penned a piece highlighting my five favorite spots from a recent trip to the Rose City. I loved the sour beers at Cascade Barrel House, the hoppy ales from Hopworks, the farmhouse-style brews from Upright and the, uh, offerings at Mary’s Club. Curious? Check out the full article at Food Republic. Drink it up!

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