Tales of ales from the heart of Ohio to the ends of the Earth
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 →
Fans of funky, fruity, spicy, yeast-driven beers take note, the King of Ohio contest is returning this fall with the single-minded goal of identifying the best Belgian-style beer brewed in the Buckeye State. The annual contest, organized by beer bloggers and writers in the Buckeye State, is open to all commercial breweries in Ohio... Continue Reading →
I’ve spent a considerable chunk of my spare time over the past year exploring the roots of historical beer styles ranging from pilsners to Flander’s Reds to Scottish Ales, On returning to the US what better way to reintroduce my palate to home grown brewing than a trip to Vermont, a state that can take... Continue Reading →
When you strip it back to the basics brewing beer is a pretty simple process. You need some malted grains, preferably barley, some water, and a way to heat the water. The quality and efficiency goes up significantly if you can measure and control the temperature, but there are workarounds like decoction mashing if you... Continue Reading →
In yet another episode without a proper guest Mark, Hans, and Pat take a deep dive into the world of Trappist Tripels and Belgian Golden Strongs. They start with the progenitors of the two closely related styles, Westmalle Tripel and Duvel. Having paid homage to these trailblazing examples, they look at the way Italians treat... Continue Reading →
It’s a Friday afternoon in early April, two days into my Belgian beer holiday. As I write this I’m sitting in the modern tasting room of Brouwerij Drie Fonteinen, savoring a 2012 vintage bottle of oud geuze and a cheese board. Sunlight streams through the windows, it seems like the first completely sunny day in... Continue Reading →
I just returned from a short family vacation to Scotland. My traveling companions for the journey included my wife Laurinda, our daughter Iris and two of her friends from Columbus, and my buddy Ralph Wolfe, who also doubles as father of one of the aforementioned friends. On a trip where half of the party are... Continue Reading →
Welcome to the third installment of my Belgian beer adventure. Those who have been following along at home may remember that part two ended on a Monday afternoon at Brasserie Dupont in the tiny village of Tourpes. After leaving Dupont we crossed back into Flanders and made our way to the beautiful city of Ghent,... Continue Reading →
Belgium is formally divided into three regions, Dutch speaking Flanders in the north, French speaking Wallonia in the south, and bilingual Brussels lying roughly in the middle. Setting the capital territory aside, the other two regions are separated by more than just language. Each has its own parliament, political parties, religious preferences, and of course... Continue Reading →
Last month I completed a week long, beer-centric trip around Belgium. What an amazing trip and not just because of the beer. For a country with the second highest population density in Europe, it has a surprising amount of green space. We encountered vistas as diverse as the wooded hills of the Ardennes, the verdant... Continue Reading →
Nine Ohio breweries were recognized at last night’s World Beer Cup award ceremony in Nashville, TN. This year’s competition featured a record setting 8234 entries from 66 different countries, almost double the 4754 entries at the 2014 competition. Only 302 medals were awarded, which means that less than 4% of the entries were honored with... Continue Reading →
As an American living in the UK it’s been interesting to observe the outcomes of recent votes by two organizations that exist to protect and promote beer in the UK. In March the Society for Independent Brewers (SIBA) voted against raising the maximum amount of beer a brewery could produce and still belong to the... Continue Reading →
Have you ever stumbled across a bottle of beer that has been forgotten for far too long? I’m not talking something that's just a few years old, but a beer that was bottled when you were just a kid or possibly before you were born. Your first instinct might be to toss it in the... Continue Reading →
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 →
