The Spirit World

Last week, I gave a list of the classic barleywine beer blends that Judy Ashworth served at her pub in Dublin, California. Looking over that list got me thinking about two things: the principles of beer blending art and the joy of making up names.
One of the beautiful things about being on the bleeding edge […]

Today, all the really cool beer bloggers are writing about Belgian dubbels as part of The Session. So if you don’t have any clue what a dubbel is, today is your lucky day.
My first experience of Belgian beer was sharing a Chimay Premiere (Red label) with one of my best friends (my beer mentor, actually, […]

You all are familiar with “Mixology Monday” and some of you have probably heard about “Wine Blogging Wednesday“, well, the beer bloggers of the world decided that if the liquor and grape people had their coordinated blogging events that we malty types should have one two: enter The Session.
The Session is the brain child of […]

I love being a beer writer (and beer podcaster). Not only do I have an excuse (who needs one?) to drink all kinds of different beer, but I find out the most interesting things while doing the research for these articles.
This week’s subject is mixing or blending lighter (alcohol, not necessarily colored) beers with barley […]

After making a Broadway (aka Diesel, or to coin a new term, Shandicola), I recalled just how much I like Shandies. I have peculiar way of mixing Shandies and I write a whole series of articles this coming summer on the subject, but when I’m in a hurry for a refreshing, low alcohol drink, I’ll […]

If you’ve been following along, you’ll already know that I wasn’t that impressed with my first Black Bart. So I thought that I would move right along and try something that I felt would have a little more promise of producing a beverage that I would actually enjoy drinking.
Following the same principle I used to […]

Last Brewsday, I told you about a couple of beer/cola mixes: Black Bart and Diesel/Broadway. I struggled with what exact beers to mix with what cola. My gut told me to start with ingredients I would actually drink and combine those to make a drink that I could appreciate on more than just a gustatory […]

Last weekend Long Island had a serious ice storm. I didn’t know it was serious until Saturday morning when I went to step out into what I thought was about four inches of snow only to find myself slipping and skating around on top of a four inch thick layer of ice!
We live on […]

On Long Island St Patrick’s Day is not just a day, it’s a season. Starting the weekend before and sometimes running until the week after March 17th are the community parades commemorating… what? St Patrick? The Irish? One would almost think it was the time of year for people to stand around Main Street and […]

As you know, I just got back from a week in Denver, drinking Denver brewed beer and sipping (not so wee) drams of single malt scotch. On my last day in Denver I walked over to Flying Dog for their weekday afternoon tour (4 pm). I wish that I had found the Flying Dog tasting […]