The Spirit World

This afternoon I wanted to sit out in the warm sun and enjoy a lazy afternoon outside. Lounging in the sun is best done with beer in hand so naturally my thoughts turned to what I should grab from the cellar. I was in the mood for something refreshing — a wheat beer seemed the […]

 
In the UK the pressure group CAMRA, the Campaign For Real Ale, has just released new research showing that a shocking 26.6% of pints served in pubs are short measure by more than 5%. This is costing consumers a whopping £1.3 million every single day. 
It might not sound like much but over a busy week, stretching over […]

A few weeks ago I was out with my friends. We went to two different pubs. At both places someone came up to the bar and ordered an Irish Car Bomb. Alright, this was right after St Patrick’s Day and the bartenders seemed to be sick of people ordering Irish Car Bombs […]

The UK’s chief beer competition, the International Beer Challenge, has just opened their website. The competition bills itself as the largest packaged beer competition in the world.
Each year, the Challenge discovers and rewards the finest beers from across the globe and, in association with Off Licence News, a UK trade newspaper, publishes it’s list of […]

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 […]