Tales of ales from the heart of Ohio to the ends of the Earth
With St. Patrick’s Day upon us the popularity of Irish stouts reaches a zenith. An estimated 13,000,000 pints of Guinness are sold worldwide every St. Patty’s Day. Anyone reading a beer blog will be very familiar with Ireland's most popular export, but what you may not know is that Guinness Draught, the beer that is... Continue Reading →
I’m always happy with blind tasting events when the beers that rise above the field are a mix of tried and true favorites and surprising newcomers. That’s exactly what happened a few weeks ago at the King of Ohio IPA competition. Fat Head’s Strange Magic took top honors, while Seventh Son’s Miracle finished in the... Continue Reading →
A few weeks back I had a chance to attend the Columbus Winter Beer Festival downtown in the convention center. For me big beer festivals are at best a mixed bag. It’s a good chance to sample a wide variety of beers, but the flavors and memories inevitably run together into an indistinct blur. The... 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 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 →
Now that Columbus Craft Beer Week has come to an end it’s worth looking back on some of the beers that deserve special mention. While my one pint of the official collaboration beer Dysfunctionale was neither here nor there, I did come across some exceptional beers while making the rounds. Everyone knows that Lineage makes a... Continue Reading →
Over the last few months Columbus has been awash in some pretty impressive Imperial IPAs including the likes of CBC Creeper, Fathead’s Hop JuJu, North High’s Stardust to Stardust and Butch Otter, Great Lakes Chillwave, Seventh Son Proliferous, 2 Tones Space Lazer, and the ever rotating selection of Hoof Hearted double IPAs. If your palate hasn't... Continue Reading →
Craft beer enthusiasts have a strong tendency toward what some might call stamp collecting. Constantly seeking out new beers, the harder to find the better. Making convoluted justifications for spending their weekends queuing up in nondescript industrial spaces and muddy farm fields. Violating the 10th commandment in a way that would make Robert Redford’s character in... Continue Reading →
A couple of weeks back I was attending an event held downtown at Brewcadia, upstairs from Barley’s Ale House on High Street across from the Convention Center. I noticed a new house beer on tap, a double IPA dubbed Tour de Hops. Whenever I come across a new beer made by Ohio’s longest tenured brewer,... Continue Reading →
Today the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines will square off on the gridiron for the 113th time. What pairs better with the granddaddy of football rivalry games than a tasty craft beer, but for those who bleed scarlet and gray, not just any beer will do for today's game. Fortunately, there are several locally... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
I think it’s a fair to say that many American craft brewers take considerable creative license with the traditional style guidelines. Colin Vent at Seventh Son is not hesitant to use the creativity of his culinary training to dream up unique recipes. Who else is adding heather flowers to a stout (Galloway Tale)? Chris Davison... Continue Reading →
I’m an enthusiastic advocate of Ohio beer, but there are certain styles that local brewers have been slow to embrace. Ohio has a bounty of delicious double IPAs and imperial stouts, including many celebrated award winning beers, but choices are much more limited when it comes to sour beers and wild ales, especially those made... Continue Reading →
Pat's Pints 