Tales of ales from the heart of Ohio to the ends of the Earth
While saisons are a great beer any time of year (for example it’s my go to Thanksgiving dinner beer), there’s no season like summer for a saison. After all they were historically brewed in the cooler months for consumption during the summer. Quoting from The Beer Bible by Jeff Alworth (Workman Publishing, 2015): “Rustic ales... Continue Reading →
Pilsner’s occupy an odd place in the beer world. Casual drinkers confuse them with macro lagers. Beer geeks tend to view them with ambivalence. Have you ever been to a pilsner release party? Yet many brewers have a special place in their hearts for them. No place to hide off flavors, no wild ingredients to... Continue Reading →
When the dog days of summer are in full swing there’s nothing like a cold beer to beat the heat. Not just any beer though, August calls for beers that are thirst quenching, refreshing, and sessionable. This is no time for a malty doppelbock or a barrel aged behemoth. (For those who take exception to... Continue Reading →
Recently I spent two days in Boston with my amazing, adventurous wife, Laurinda. A weekend getaway in a cosmopolitan, historic city seemed like a great way to celebrate our wedding anniversary. After all what’s more romantic than excursions to out of the way industrial parks in parts of the city with absolutely no connection to... Continue Reading →
For me summertime usually comes with plenty of travel. While I get a bit homesick for the great beers of Central Ohio, it does provide an opportunity to try beers that are not distributed to the Buckeye state. This year my first extended trip of the summer was an 1800 mile cross country road trip... Continue Reading →
Today (Friday, July 1) Actual Brewing will be releasing their take on Stone’s venerable American strong ale, Arrogant Bastard. I hung out with the crew at Actual several weeks ago on brew day to get the scoop on this somewhat unusual collaboration involving the brewers and equipment at Actual and the recipe from Stone. Let’s... Continue Reading →
Regardless of what you call them—the descriptive but somewhat oxymoronic Black India Pale Ale or the more fanciful Cascadian Dark Ale—Black IPAs have emerged as a style to be reckoned with over the past several years. When done right they capture the best elements of the IPA and Porter genres. Among Central Ohio breweries, Land... Continue Reading →
To finish my three part series on American IPAs (better late than never) we return to where it all started—to the bold, flavorful hop varieties born and bred in the USA. Within the IPA genre it’s a big tent approach when it comes to the malt bill—East Coast, West Coast, Session IPA, Double IPA, Rye... Continue Reading →
The 2nd Annual Columbus Craft Beer Week begins today. I’ve spent hours perusing the list of events in a vain attempt to put together the ultimate itinerary for the obsessed craft beer fanatic, but there are just too many enticing events to distill the week down to a definitive short list. That doesn’t stop me from making... Continue Reading →
After missing a month the Pat's Pints Podcast is back just in time for Columbus Craft Beer Week. This month we sit down with Lenny Kolada and Sam Hickey from Smokehouse Brewing and learn about their new venture, Commonhouse Ales. We sample two beers in the Commonhouse Ale lineup and preview the upcoming mini Real Ale... Continue Reading →
In the first post of this series I discussed how American IPAs went through a period where hop aroma, flavor, and bitterness levels progressively increased, culminating in double and triple IPAs that boasted triple digit IBU levels. In recent years the most sought after American IPAs have slowly but surely become less bitter and more aromatic. ... Continue Reading →
Sitting in the sleek Hoof Hearted Brewpub drinking a DIPA cloudier than a German Hefeweizen, fruitier than a grapefruit/mango smoothie, it’s hard to fathom how this beer could have evolved from the English-style IPAs of my youth. In a single generation American IPAs have morphed into something that would be unrecognizable to the founders of CAMRA,... Continue Reading →
Beer is made by yeast, full stop. Given its pivotal role brewers are generally pretty picky about what type of yeast they let into their fermentation tanks. Scientists have classified over 1500 different species of yeast, but the vast majority of beers are made by just two species—Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ale yeast) and Saccharomyces pastorianus (lager yeast).... Continue Reading →
This past week I turned 50 years old. Not content to spend the rest of my days frequenting restaurants where they give AARP discounts, I decided to do something I’ve been kicking around in my head for a while—undertake a crawl of all six downtown Columbus breweries. The plan was to first work our way... Continue Reading →
If you follow the happenings of the beer world on social media, every once in a while you realize you’ve stumbled onto a beer holiday without even realizing it. I’m not talking St. Patrick’s Day or Thanksgiving weekend either. I’m talking about little known days like IPA Day (Aug. 7), Stout Day (Nov. 3), Sour... Continue Reading →
This month we discuss hoppy beers, Hoof Hearted's new brewpub, can release parties, and Van Halen with Trevor Williams from Hoof Hearted Brewing.
Last week Land Grant released the latest beer in their series of seasonal can releases, a Baltic porter entitled Jacqueline Deep Search. When news of the release reached me several questions immediately came to mind. Just how is a Baltic Porter different from any other porter? What’s with the strikethrough in the name? When ordering this... Continue Reading →
IPAs are the poster child of the American craft beer movement, to argue otherwise is like pinning your hopes on a Martin O'Malley presidency. The American-style IPA category is the most competitive style at the GABF (336 entries in 2015). Sales wise IPAs are far and away the most popular style of craft beer accounting for... Continue Reading →
In this podcast we talk high gravity beers with Jim and Jennie from Zaftig and Doug Oldham from the Columbus Craft Beer Alliance.
What’s your favorite Central Ohio brewery? With the number of choices rapidly approaching 30 it’s a daunting, subjective task akin to picking your favorite David Bowie album, but that doesn't stop people from trying. One such attempt is the Columbus Underground reader’s poll of the best microbreweries in Columbus (strange that they still use the term microbreweries). For... Continue Reading →
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