Tales of ales from the heart of Ohio to the ends of the Earth
The sun rose over Southern California early on Sunday morning, accelerated by the shift to daylight savings time, but we were not awake to see it. Eventually we did rise from our slumber and got some breakfast at the hotel. My original plan for the second day was to go north to Lost Abbey, then... Continue Reading →
I recently had the chance to go to Southern California for business. My business was on a Tuesday which normally would mean that Monday would be the travel day. So I decided to come a couple of days early, arriving around noon on a Saturday in early March. My friend Tom works for an airline... Continue Reading →
Every year to mark their anniversary Alesmith releases a special beer they call Decadence, and each year the style of the beer is different. Recently (March 2014) I was fortunate enough to visit their brewery in north San Diego, and try the latest incarnation on tap, Decadence 2013, a German Doppelbock. Vitals Brewery: Alesmith (CA)... Continue Reading →
Here at Pat’s Pints we do our best to describe, compare, and contrast beers that fall under the same style category. In December we surveyed various holiday beers. Much of January was spent drinking and writing about Belgian Quadrupel Ales. In this post and its follow up we profile a historically important, but underappreciated style,... Continue Reading →
Think you know your Ohio beers? If so have a go at my Ohio Craft Beer Crossword Puzzle. The puzzle and clues are shown below, but for convenience you may want to use the links in the post to download pdf files of the puzzle and the clues, then print it out at home. Once... Continue Reading →
When I started this blog about 6 months ago I have to admit that I knew relatively little about Cincinnati breweries and their beers. Even though Columbus is only about 100 miles away most of the new, up and coming Cincinnati breweries don’t distribute here. I still have a lot to learn, but all of... Continue Reading →
Having spent a month of grueling research on Belgian and Belgian-style Quadrupel Ales this final post in the quadrophilia series is my attempt to summarize what I have learned. Over the past four weeks I’ve tried 15 different quads in three rounds of blind taste testing with my friends. I’ve gone back to many of... Continue Reading →
Even though the final round of quadrophilia wrapped up last week, once I got going I couldn’t control my urge to add more raisin soaked 11% abv beers to the list. There are after all only a finite number of quads out there, so by adding a few more one can start to approach a... Continue Reading →
This is the moment you’ve all been waiting for. We reveal the final results of Quadrophilia and award the title, “King of the Quads”. The video below gives you all of the information you need delivered in video form by three happy judges who have been drinking some of the best 10-11% abv beers in... Continue Reading →
After two preliminary rounds our quest to identify the best Quadrupel Ale in the world has reached the final stage. The final round will be presented in two parts: this post where we meet the finalists, and the follow up where the results are revealed. For the visual/audio learners out there I’ve captured a video... Continue Reading →
In Round 1 we compared four American brewed quads, with Three Philosophers coming out on top. In this round, we move across the pond to Belgium and the Netherlands where this style of beer originated. There are two Trappist beers (Rochefort 10 and La Trappe Quadrupel), one abbey ale brewed with the old... Continue Reading →
We start the contest off with quads brewed on this side of the pond. The truth is that it was not that easy to find beers to fill up this side of the bracket. Not too many American breweries make a quad. Firstly, to brew Belgian-style beers a brewery needs to develop the right strains... Continue Reading →
The cold days of winter are an ideal time for sipping strong, dark, hearty beers that warm you from the inside out. Strong malt-forward beers come in several different styles including Imperial Stouts, Barleywines, Doppelbocks and Old Ales, but one of the most interesting families of strong beers are the Quadrupel Ales (quads) that originated... Continue Reading →
This week brings another highly anticipated special release to Ohio, Bell’s Hopslam, which is a 10% abv, double IPA, brewed with honey and six different varieties of hops. For those of us living in Ohio there are more elusive beers to come by (like Founders KBS or Three Floyds Zombie Dust) but Hopslam is usually... Continue Reading →
As just about everyone knows Deschutes Brewery, the 5th largest craft brewery in the US with headquarters located in Bend, Oregon, will be available in Ohio starting this Friday, January 24. Deschutes makes a number of beers that are very highly regarded such as The Abyss (Imperial Stout), The Dissident (Flanders Oud Bruin), and Fresh Squeezed IPA (an IPA fresh hopped with Citra... Continue Reading →
In the previous post I described some of the breweries that call the Boston area home. That knowledge isn’t of much use if you don’t know where to find their beers. In this post I review the bars and bottle shops where I was able to get a taste of the Boston beer scene during... Continue Reading →
Approximately every two years I attend a conference in Boston that falls the week after Thanksgiving—the Fall MRS meeting, where unfortunately MRS stands for Materials Research Society rather than Maibocks, Rauchbiers and Stouts. Between this conference and other work related travel I’ve probably been to Boston 9-10 times, but in all those trips I’ve never... Continue Reading →
Here is the next installment of a Pick 6 beer list. In this edition another old friend and fellow beer lover, Michelle Dolgos, offers up her favorite beers of all time. Michelle grew up in Michigan and has since lived in Knoxville, Columbus and Liverpool. Michelle is now a chemistry professor at Oregon State University... Continue Reading →
Not too long after Thanksgiving I visited Seventh Son Brewery with my wife and our friends Tom and Mary. We ordered a couple of sampler trays and among the beers we tried I thought the most interesting one was Golden Ratio IPA. The brewery doesn’t offer a lot of details about this beer other... Continue Reading →
Sideswipe Brewing is the newcomer to the Columbus brewery scene. Unlike the other new breweries in the capital city, Sideswipe chose to enter the marketplace with bottled beer rather than a taproom or brewpub. Toward the end of last year (2013) 22 oz bottles of three Sideswipe beers started showing up on the shelves around Columbus:... Continue Reading →
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