Tales of ales from the heart of Ohio to the ends of the Earth
While brewing the morning coffee my phone gave a familiar ping. It was a text message from my old friend Rick Armon. His message reminded me that the Great American Beer Festival had announced its 2021 winners last night: So the real Ohio story out of the GABF? This year was the first year Fat... Continue Reading →
In this episode we take a deep dive on strong German lagers from the bock family - doppelbock, maibock, weizenbock, eisbock. We trace the history of this style back through the mists of time to the city of Einbeck, then follow it's reinvention as a lager in 17th century Munich, and the development of the... Continue Reading →
Recently a group of friends started a beer book club. The basic idea is to read books about beer, and then talk about those books while drinking beer, because after all there’s nothing like broadening your horizons. At least that’s how I assume the club will operate, because we’re still working on our first book,... Continue Reading →
The Lambic brewers have been conditioning their complex sours on fruits for a very long time, using cherries (kriek) and raspberries (framboise) to accentuate the fruity esters created during the complex mixed fermentation process. In this episode, recorded remotely last summer during quarantine, Dan Reeve joins us for a closer look at these complex, elegant... Continue Reading →
One can make a good argument that the sour beers of Belgium—Flanders reds, oud bruins, lambics—are the most sophisticated expressions of what can be accomplished by fermenting grains. While Flanders reds and oud bruins lack the romantic allure of spontaneous fermentation used to produce lambics, they make up for it with a more substantial malt character and a curious combination of sweet and sour.
Matt Cunningham from Rustic Brew Farms in Marysville, Ohio joins us to talk about the malting process. A fourth generation farmer, Matt got into the malting business in 2014 as a way to diversify the crops grown on the family farm. Over the past seven years he has grown production from malting by hand, to... Continue Reading →
Does the cold weather and the pandemic quarantining have you dreaming of travel and adventure? Does the prospect of crisscrossing a foreign country in search of one of the world's most sought after beers sound enticing? If so join Mark, Pat, and our Belgian-beer loving friend Hans Gorsuch, as we embark on a virtual tour... Continue Reading →
Among the scores of historic beer styles, Berliner Weisse has one of the more interesting back stories. Like many styles it was for many centuries largely confined to a specific place, the Prussian capital that later became the capital of Germany. Once lauded by Napoleon as the “Champagne of the North”, by the early 21st... Continue Reading →
This post accompanies Episode 24 of the Pat’s Pints/Mark’s Mugs - All Things Beer Podcast. Despite our best efforts to describe the appearance of these glasses, a picture is worth a thousand words. As such the content here is limited to a series of pictures with brief descriptions of each glass. For more details we... Continue Reading →
Ever confuse a stange with a Willi Becher, or wonder why the Belgian’s have a different glass for every beer? Have you ever pondered the technology behind the newfangled Spiegelau’s craft beer glasses? If so, this is the episode for you. We are joined by Land Grant brewer Justin Reik and Canadian connoisseur Chris Mercerhill... Continue Reading →
Back in January I toured the Columbus Brewing Company Production Facility with Tony Corder for a story that I published a few weeks later. Of the many wonderful things on offer at CBC, the nascent sour beer program was perhaps the most exciting. At that time there were boxes and boxes of recently filled 500... Continue Reading →
The tradition of releasing a special beer for the cold, short days of December is centuries old, a tradition that has only intensified with the shift of the craft beer industry toward a rotating mix of seasonals and one offs. In the latest episode of the Pat’s Pints Podcast, Mark and I sat down with... Continue Reading →
‘Tis the season to be jolly and in this episode we do our best to spread some holiday cheer. We look at the evolution of Winter Warmers and other seasonal winter offerings stretching from the dark ages to the modern day. We are joined by our friend and Barley’s brewmaster Angelo Signorino, who has been... Continue Reading →
Yesterday I received a press release from Jimmy Stockwell, co-owner of Little Fish Brewing, announcing plans to open a second location in Dayton. Founded in 2015 by Stockwell and longtime friend Sean White, the Athens brewery has enjoyed considerable critical acclaim for their farmhouse ales and barrel aged sours. Notable awards include medals from the... Continue Reading →
In this episode Mark and I are joined by by homebrewer and Pat’s Pints Podcast veteran Hans Gorsuch for an in-depth discussion of an underappreciated gem of the beer world, saisons. We sit outside on a warm summer evening and enjoy a range of saisons while the cicadas serenade us as the evening turns to... Continue Reading →
Awards were given out at the 2020 Great American Beer Festival last night. Given the dumpster fire that is 2020 you can be forgiven if you didn’t realize that the GABF was being held this year. I must admit I didn’t realize awards were being given this year myself until the award show was wrapping... Continue Reading →
Given the unfortunate cancellation of 2020 Oktoberfest, we invited fellow beer lovers Jamie Gentry and Chris Davison of Wolf’s Ridge Brewing to join us for a celebration of the glorious German beers of fall—märzen and festbier. We go deep on the history and characteristics of these beers, and Chris shares a cornucopia of tips for... Continue Reading →
In this episode Nick Smith from Steam Machine Brewing in the UK joins us to talk about the rebirth and surge in popularity of IPAs over the past 40 years.
Two Ohio breweries, Akronym and Jackie O's, had a strong showing at the National Honey Beer Competition earlier this month. The competition, which is sponsored by the National Honey Board, features 13 different style categories. BJCP-certified judges use the standard criteria (aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel) for evaluating the beers, plus take into account the role... Continue Reading →
Despite the recent respite from the heat, it has been a long hot summer in more ways than one. When the mercury rises, there’s nothing like a nice cold beer to slake your thirst. Beers that fill this role, sometimes called lawn-mower beers, tend to be light bodied, neither too bitter nor too sweet, with... Continue Reading →
