Tales of ales from the heart of Ohio to the ends of the Earth
This past Sunday marked another successful finish to one of Ohio’s longest running beer traditions, the Barley’s Homebrew Competition. The contest dates back to last century, the summer of 1996 to be specific. At that time I was still in graduate school in Oregon, drinking the likes of Rogue, Deschutes and Widmer. In those days... 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 →
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 →
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 →
To wrap up my series on Barley's Brewing and their long tenured brewmaster, Angelo Signorino, I solicited feedback from three people deeply immersed in the Central Ohio brewing scene. Without further adieu I turn the keyboard over to Colin Vent, head brewer at Seventh Son, Jay Wince, president and head brewer at Weasel Boy Brewing, and Jim... Continue Reading →
In my last post we took a look back at the early days of Barley’s Brewing and the origins of some of their classic beers, like the Centennial and Scottish Ales. While those are still great beers I don’t want to give anyone the erroneous impression that Barley’s is only for people who spend most of... Continue Reading →
Remember if you can the year 1991. The Soviet Union collapsed, the South African parliament repealed apartheid, Nirvana released their debut album Nevermind, and the Cincinnati Reds were reigning World Champions. These events have been documented on Wikipedia, chronicled in TV documentaries, etched into the long term memories of my generation. What you may not... Continue Reading →
