An American exploring the world of European beer while living in the UK
After spending a few enjoyable days in Amsterdam, today I leave the land of tulips and windmills, Rembrandt and van Gogh, Heineken and Grolsch. My destination, Belgium, has long been at the top of my list of dream travel destinations. The anticipation is palpable, and for good reason. In Belgium brewing is elevated to an... Continue Reading →
After more than a year in hibernation the Pat's Pints Podcast returns with an episode devoted to British Ales with a focus on beers with heavy metal themes, including Camerons Motorhead-inspired Road Crew and Robinsons Iron Maiden themed beers. Mark and I are joined by longtime friend Hans Gorsuch for an extended discussion of bitters,... Continue Reading →
After a few months of the dark, damp English winter my wife was pining to head south to reacquainted herself with the sun. A few destinations were discussed, and eventually Rome rose to the top of the list. With all that the Eternal City has to offer—unrivaled history, inspiring architecture, amazing food, babes suckling on... Continue Reading →
When I first moved to the UK it didn’t take long to figure out that Cloudwater Brewing represented something very modern. The visuals—16 oz cans with wrap on labels, ingredients listed on the can for all to see, prodigious hop additions, premium pricing—were immediately familiar to someone from the USA. When I bought a can... Continue Reading →
It’s New Year’s Day in Dublin, the first day of my first visit to the Emerald Isle. With temperatures hovering a little above the freezing point and a stiff wind blowing out of the west, this is not the night for a leisurely walk by the Liffey. It’s not raining, but the streets are still... Continue Reading →
As the days get short and the mercury drops, the popularity of strong, dark beers waxes. What better time to break out that bottle of barrel aged imperial stout that’s been quietly aging in your cellar. A perfect time for the long awaited next installment of my Ohio vs the World series, a sporadic feature... Continue Reading →
Most craft breweries are small businesses in the truest sense of the word, and the people who launch them are often forced to be creative when it comes to siting their breweries. In Ohio alone, I’ve visited breweries housed in old car washes (Lineage) and auto parts stores (JAFB), in pole barns (Little Fish) and... Continue Reading →
If beer styles were celebrities Berliner Weisse might well be viewed in the same light as David Hasselhoff or Def Leppard, more popular abroad than in its native land. Yes, I know Napoleon dubbed it the champagne of the north when his armies occupied Berlin, but the 20th century was not a good one for... Continue Reading →
Pilsner occupies a rather unusual spot in the pantheon of beer styles. When people first get turned onto craft beer their instinct is to gravitate to something dark or hoppy or fruity. Lagers are generally none of those things, in fact they are almost the antithesis of what casual observers think craft beer is about,... Continue Reading →
As I was scrolling through my social media accounts this morning I saw that Wolf's Ridge Brewing scored a gold medal at the Festival of Barrel Aged Beers (FoBAB) yesterday in Chicago. My first instinct was to tweet to Chris Davison congratulating him and everyone else at Wolf's Ridge, but when I scrolled through the... Continue Reading →
For reasons that are not completely obvious to me Czech beers have had less impact on American brewers than beer styles from elsewhere in Europe. Have a look at the commercial examples listed with each of the four subcategories of Czech lager in the BJCP style guidelines and you won’t find many familiar names. When... Continue Reading →
After years of unbridled growth, the American craft beer industry appears to be entering a new phase. Over 800 craft breweries opened their doors in 2016, but the rate at which they are opening is gradually starting to slow. A small but increasing number of breweries are closing up shop, Blank Slate Brewing in Cincinnati... Continue Reading →
Scotland’s contributions to the world far exceed any reasonable expectation for a country with half the population of Ohio. The world would be a duller place without the likes of whisky, golf, curling, kilts, bagpipes, and the catchy 80’s pop hit “In a Big Country”. We can thank Scotland for the steam engine (James Watt),... Continue Reading →
Many great beer styles are associated with a region—pilsners with the Czech Republic, lambics with Brussels, goses with Leipzig, saisons with Wallonia, steam beer with San Francisco, and so on. While most styles originated in Europe long ago, America has made important contributions in my lifetime. American-style pale ales and IPAs originated in the Pacific... Continue Reading →
This month marks the fourth anniversary of the Pat’s Pints blog. Looking back, I realize that I fortuitously started this adventure at a point in time when the beer landscape in Ohio was in the early days of its current renaissance. At that time there were about ten craft breweries in Franklin County, some of... Continue Reading →
As many of you know I’ve temporarily relocated to the north of England, where I’ll be spending the next eleven months on sabbatical at Durham University. Obviously, my ability to cover beer goings on in the Buckeye State are going to be limited during this period, and believe me I’m already missing the great beer... Continue Reading →
Craft brewers have benefited from the eat/drink/buy local movement as much as anyone. There’s something that feels right about having a pint of beer in the place where it was made, sometimes even served to you by the person who brewed it. While frequenting local breweries undeniably helps support the local economy, it doesn't boost... Continue Reading →
In recent years mixed fermentation saisons have become a hot trend among American craft breweries. These beers combine the dry, yeast driven character of a classic saison with the tart, funky character that comes from bacteria and Brettanomyces yeast. Jackie O’s Pockets of Sunlight is a beer is made in this vein. It’s never wise... Continue Reading →
One of the perks of being an academic is the occasional opportunity to travel to faraway places. If you’ve been reading this blog for long enough you’ll know that I try to take advantage of these opportunities when I can. I’ve got a responsibility to my readers after all. Earlier posts described my efforts to... Continue Reading →
It’s been over a month since my last post, perhaps my longest hiatus since starting this blog nearly four years ago. In the meantime, I’ve been to Colorado for a workshop, Idaho for vacation; South Korea for a neutron scattering conference; and upon returning home spent several evenings in my yard pulling the weeds that... Continue Reading →
