Tales of ales from the heart of Ohio to the ends of the Earth
In the 21st century a wealth of brewing tips, techniques, and recipes are accessible to anyone with access to the internet. Bohemian pilsner malts, New Zealand hops, Belgian yeast strains are available to brewers from Texas to Tokyo. Water chemistry can be bent to the brewers will. Geographic differences in beer styles that were once... Continue Reading →
Corvallis, Oregon is one of America’s quintessential college towns. It’s bounded by the Willamette River to the east and the highest peak in the Coastal Mountain range to the west. The Pacific Coast, the Cascade Mountains and Portland are all within two hours driving distance. It has the kind of natural beauty and geographic diversity... Continue Reading →
The taproom is a central focus of most craft breweries these days. The beer is fresher, the connections to the local community stronger, and perhaps most importantly the margins are higher. Ohio has nearly 300 breweries, but the number without a taproom is small enough to count on your fingers. The only two that call... Continue Reading →
These days mixed fermentation beers are all the rage, but the monks at Orval have been making a mixed fermentation Brett saison for 80+ years. In this episode Hans Gorsuch and Chris Mercerhill join Mark and I for an in-depth look at one of the world's truly iconic beers. Throw in some thoughts on home brewing... Continue Reading →
This past weekend I took my birthday as an excuse to head out to Licking County and visit a few breweries. It was great to see some old friends and share a few beers together. Here are a few thoughts on the experience. Nothing too deep but some food for thought if you are considering... Continue Reading →
A few weeks ago work took me to Colorado and Wyoming for the better part of my spring break. What follows are some notes from a Sunday exploration of the Mile High City, plus a few quick peaks at breweries further north on the Front Range. This is the third time I’ve written about Denver,... Continue Reading →
Tom Ayers, head brewer and co-owner of Ill Mannered Brewing, joins us on the podcast this month for a wide ranging discussion on the challenges and opportunities of running a neighborhood brewery. Ill Mannered opened in August 2015, starting in a tiny 1000 square foot space in a strip mall while all four owners did... Continue Reading →
A few weeks back I had a chance to attend the Columbus Winter Beer Festival downtown in the convention center. For me big beer festivals are at best a mixed bag. It’s a good chance to sample a wide variety of beers, but the flavors and memories inevitably run together into an indistinct blur. The... Continue Reading →
Long time homebrewer A.J. Zanyk knows a thing or two about Baltic Porters. He and co-host Mark Richards brewed a Baltic Porter named Motherbird that won best in show honors at the 2001 Ohio State Fair Homebrew competition. If that weren't enough A.J. took with top honors at the 2017 Barley's Homebrew competition with an... Continue Reading →
Last week I attended parts of the Ohio Craft Brewer’s conference, held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus. For me the most interesting aspect of the conference was Tom Shellhammer’s keynote address [1]. Shellhammer, the Norwester Professor of Fermentation Science at Oregon State University, is internationally recognized for his research on hop chemistry. His... Continue Reading →
About two weeks ago I wrote a post highlighting my favorite British breweries with the promise to follow up with similar posts from my forays into mainland Europe. In today's post we move across the English Channel to the Low Countries. Last April I spent 10 days with my wife and daughter visiting Belgium, The Netherlands... Continue Reading →
At this time of year it’s customary to publish best of lists. In past years I have published a list of my favorite Central Ohio beers, but this year I’m going in a different direction. As many of you know I recently returned from an 11-month sabbatical in Northeast England. Many people have asked me... Continue Reading →
Now and again people in the beer industry are kind of enough to consider me part of the media. We all know that’s not really true, but the gig often includes free beer and sometime food, so I’m happy to play along [1]. On Wednesday, I mingled with the likes of Dan Eaton, J.D. Malone,... Continue Reading →
The beer portfolio at Land Grant Brewing Company features an extensive mix of beers, ranging from the year-round core beers like Stiff Arm and Greenskeeper, to one-off collaborations like Got Fuzz or Totes Liotes. The Franklinton brewery recently announced that two hop-forward beers—Quadrahopic and Concentrate—are being promoted from the irregularly recurring IPA series to year... Continue Reading →
Ohio is approaching 300 breweries, a dramatic expansion from just five years ago when I started this blog. It’s a luxury of riches that means most of us don’t have to travel very far to find tasty beer. Just about any style you crave—hazy IPAs, high gravity malt bombs, crisp lagers, barrel aged sours—can be... Continue Reading →
In its relatively short history the King of Ohio contest has consistently produced surprise winners. In 2014 when the theme was IPAs, Half Wet Musk of the Minotaur from upstarts Hoof Hearted Brewing edged out Fat Head’s highly decorated Head Hunter to win the title. When the contest resumed in 2016 and the focus shifted... Continue Reading →
At the most recent Great American Beer Festival Ohio took home 14 medals, shared by no less than 13 different breweries, both numbers exceeding high water marks from previous years. Cincinnati’s Brink Brewing picked up two medals and was recognized as the best very small brewery of the year [1]. Fathead’s medaled for an impressive... Continue Reading →
Two of my favorite Columbus breweries are celebrating anniversaries with blow out parties today (Saturday 9/28/18), Land Grant (noon to midnight) and Wolf’s Ridge (10 am to midnight). To celebrate I’m reviewing a beer featured in the massive bottle release at Wolf’s Ridge, Terre du Sauvage Gold. Not quite ready for the release is an... Continue Reading →
I haven’t posted a dedicated beer review in well over a year, but when Columbus Brewing Company releases a new Imperial IPA it demands your attention. Following in the footsteps of GABF medal winners Bodhi and Creeper, Cowboy Bernie is a 9.3% Imperial IPA featuring experimental hops from the Yakima Valley. Given the photos CBC... Continue Reading →
In a recent post I recapped my visit to Vermont’s most celebrated breweries—Hill Farmstead and The Alchemist. It was a popular post, due in no small part to the current craze for hazy IPAs, but there’s more to the Vermont beer scene than aromatic hop oils and colloidal suspensions of polyphenols and yeast. In this... Continue Reading →
