Brewers Blog: Recognizing Some Off Flavors

There are hundreds of flavors and aromas in beer. When those flavors and aromas combine, there can be thousands of additional aromas and flavors created. But are all desirable?

Brewers Blog: Filtered vs. Unfiltered

You wouldn’t think that something as seemingly mundane as filtration could elicit such strong emotions among brewers and beer drinkers, but it does…

Brewer’s Blog: Gender Roles in Beer Advertising

Do women like beer? More would, if beer liked them.

If you look at beer advertising over the past few decades and knew nothing about the drink, you might conclude that beer is a drink for fraternity boys with a penchant for misogyny, marketed by athletes, rappers and girls on “bikini teams.”

Brewer’s Blog : “Session Beers”

I’m a big believer in the “reset” button.   I’m not very technically savvy, so when things go a little haywire, like an iPhone or my son’s Xbox, it’s nice to push reset and start …

Brewer’s Blog: Cask Conditioned or “Real” Ales

When I was in college I spent a semester at the University of London. More accurately, I spent a semester at the Marlborough Arms, which was a pub between my train stop and the school. …

Brewer’s Blog: What’s Up With Barrel-Aged Beers?

The hot topic that keeps coming up in my conversations with people is barrel-aging. That is, storing beer in wooden barrels to get some unique flavors from the wood. It’s actually not a new concept …

Beer is healthy for you. Really.

We’re almost through January, have your resolutions held up? A lot of people (OK, me) were resolute in trying to live healthier lives. That includes exercising more, eating right and cutting back on beer. Since …

Cans vs. Bottles

I’ve always insisted that bottling beer is a major feat of technology and engineering. That is, if it’s 1908. Actually, bottling is a fine way to get beer into the hands of those who want …

Winter Wobbler 2010 – Baltic Porter

We caught ourselves the other day. We caught ourselves trying to find the Next Big Thing; the next great beer; the hot new beer style.

What a joke…

Gastropubs

Across the Valley and state, I’m noticing more craft brew taps and more menus welcoming the pairing of food and beer.

There’s actually a name for these upstart restaurants and cafes: gastropubs.

What The Hell Am I Tasting? – 8th Street Ale

The first thing people think they need to do when tasting a beer is to sniff, or nose, the beer. But wait a minute, we hear chefs saying all the time that we eat with our eyes first…

What Beer To Serve With Thanksgiving Turkey

In many ways, beer goes much better than wine with Thanksgiving dinner. Beer simply has more flavors and aromas to choose from. It’s made from four ingredients, not two. And it has a secret weapon

What The Hell Am I Tasting? – Kilt Lifter

Kilt Lifter is technically a Scottish-Style Ale and specifically a Scottish-style Export Ale. The style is marked by a distinct malty sweetness with some burnt or smoky flavors with…

What The Hell Am I Tasting? – Sunbru

On the surface Sunbru is a very simple beer with a simple recipe, basically just two-row malt and a little wheat malt with a small, balancing addition of German hops. The truth is that Sunbru has a lot of complexities…

What The Hell Am I Tasting? – Arizona Peach Ale

Let’s get a couple of things out of the way. First, why do we still make a fruit beer, hasn’t that fad passed? Apparently not.  Although it’s nowhere near being our best seller it causes …

What The Hell Am I Tasting? – Raj IPA

The Raj was our first IPA and although it has gone through many changes and revisions the basic beer is much the same as 12 years ago.  That’s because English IPA’s tend to have a …

What The Hell Am I Tasting? – Oatmeal Stout

Ahh, “The Stout”, as it is affectionately abbreviated; it is, though, an Oatmeal Stout and if it could slap your face for not showing it the respect it deserves it would.  You see, most Stout …

What The Hell Am I Tasting? – Hefeweizen

Our Hefe is a traditional, Bavarian-style Hefe-weizen, meaning that it is unfiltered (hefe means yeast) and it is made with 51% wheat malt (weizen means wheat).  The yeast is the special part, though.  It imparts …

What The Hell Am I Tasting? – Hop Knot IPA

We’ve prattled on for a while now about balance in beer, but we’re not sure we’ve explained ourselves too well on this one. Should all beers be balanced? Unequivocally, yes. Should they all be balanced in the same way, that is, in the same malt to hop proportions? Well, no.

The Evolution of a Beer – Portero Chingón

(originally published in 2009) A lot of people ask us how we come up with our beer recipes.  Do we have a pilot system?  Do we research ancient brewing manuals?  Divine inspiration? Not exactly. We’ve …