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Meet the Milkshake IPA
Every year a few new beer styles get added to the Brewers Association’s guidebook. These are usually just minor offshoots of long-held, already-existing styles. The black IPA was added in 2010; wild...
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An Intro to Craft Beer’s Most Wine-Like Brews
A pedantic specificity is something that excites beer geeks. Was this dry-hopped with Galaxy or Citra? Are these malts two-row or crystal? And I can tell there’s Brett in this beer, but are there any...
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When Did Rarity Start to Equal Greatness in Beer?
My first year out of college, in 2001, I was a clueless 22-year-old living in Hoboken, New Jersey. On Saturday nights my roommate, Kevin, and I would take the PATH train to 14th Street to “pre-game” at...
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Why It’s Time to Reconsider the Pilsner
New York’s Suarez Family Brewery might be America’s best brewery you don’t know about just yet. And why would you? They aren’t bottling or canning anything that’s blowing up the online trade forums and...
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How the Infinity Bottle Became a Whiskey Nerd Obsession
When you get married, you register for a lot of stupid shit. That’s why I currently own a cast iron tortilla press, a stainless steel turkey lifter, some five-blade herb shears and a silicone honey...
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Is There Such a Thing As Too Much Coffee Beer?
Every February for the last three years, Chicago has played host to the beer world’s most niche festival. A partnership between World Barista Champion Stephen Morrissey and beer industry impresario...
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The Story Behind the World’s Worst Beer
With the right search terms, you can find the video on YouTube. Standing in a small bathroom, some jackass in a skuzzy white undershirt takes a clear bottle of piss-yellow beer and decants it into a...
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The Year European Beer Lost Its Hold on America
I still have the email from late 2008 in my archives: “A friend that now lives in Germany is coming back for the holidays, and told me he has an empty suitcase he is planning to fill with beer for me....
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The Ultimate Flagship Beer Showdown
It used to be breweries would bet everything on a single flagship beer. You said you wanted a Sam Adams, and you meant a Boston Lager. Order a Sierra Nevada, and you expected their Pale Ale. Some...
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The Imperial Stouts That Time Forgot
Derek called before 7 a.m., waking me up. He was in New Hampshire where it was snowy and freezing. He’d been standing outside, on Market Street in Portsmouth, overnight. He told me they were still a...
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How a Homemade Blend Became One of America’s Most Coveted Bourbons
To acquire the hottest bottle of bourbon at the moment, you don’t go to a store. You don’t head to a distillery either. You don’t even put your name on some secret list or enter some special lottery....
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The Year the IPA Came to Rule Craft Beer
I’d taken the first Acela of the day down to Philadelphia and made my way into a line that was winding down South 16th Street, four blocks from the entrance of Monk’s Cafe. By just past noon, three...
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Meet the Who’s Who of Beer Cool
I remember the exact day I realized my favorite beer was no longer cool. I’d carelessly let my wife’s friend choose the bar for the evening. She’d picked one of those mediocre “plastic paddy” Irish...
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The Year Sour Beer Became a Sensation
The town was called Pleasantville, but I was having a pretty unpleasant time. Hungover on a Saturday morning, I wandered through neighborhoods full of McMansions, early morning power-walkers observing...
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The Ice Bar Cometh, But Why?
I spend about 30 minutes flipping through the gallery on my phone. A couple on a date, clad in faux-fur coats, snuggling as they lift clunky glasses made of ice. Two middle-aged women posing in front...
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Navigating Today’s New England-Style IPA Boom
The Bruery had long declared themselves IPA-free. “I love IPAs,” founder Patrick Rue told OC Weekly in 2011. “They’re successful for a reason, but we don’t make one, and we promised never to make one.”...
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How the East Coast Won the Battle for the IPA
In February of 2013, I finally got to visit what had long been the epicenter of the American IPA: San Diego. I pounded fresh pints of Ballast Point Sculpin alongside numerous fish tacos; held up the...
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The Surprising History of the Swim-Up Bar
The swim-up bar is pretty much clickbait incarnate. Just ask your browser: “Coolest Swim-Up Bars in the World” (Travel + Leisure) “18 Resorts and Hotels With the Most Amazing Swim-Up Bars” (Trips to...
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How Wild Turkey “Funk” Became a Whiskey Geek Obsession
They go by nicknames like Donut, Split Label, Pewter Top and, most amusingly, Cheesy Gold Foil. They’re oily in mouthfeel, with a floral perfume on the nose and a taste that has been described as...
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Navigating the Evolution of American Saison
No modern beer style is as far removed from its historical basis than the saison. While India Pale Ales were never over-hopped simply to withstand the long voyage to India—that’s pure apocrypha—saisons...
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