Tales of ales from the heart of Ohio to the ends of the Earth
The results of the 2022 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) competition were announced yesterday. A total of 9904 beers were entered, up slightly from the 9680 beers entered in 2021. (With an entry fee of $165 per beer (for BA members) that's nearly $1.6 million in entry fees alone.) A total of 300 medals were... 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.
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 →
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 →
In the second half of our interview with Sean White, co-owner and head brewer at Little Fish Brewing, we continue our exploration of the fascinating world of sour beers. The episode kicks off with with a candid discussion of the challenges of spontaneous fermentation. As the pod progresses we talk about the important role of... Continue Reading →
In this episode we sit down (virtually) with Sean White, co-owner and head brewer at Little Fish Brewing in Athens, Ohio, for an expansive discussion of sour beers and wild ale brewing. With two World Beer Cup medals for their barrel-aged sours (a bronze for Petit Poisson in 2018 and a gold for Barrel Aged... Continue Reading →
Ohio is approaching 300 breweries, a dramatic expansion from just five years ago when I started this blog. It’s a luxury of riches that means most of us don’t have to travel very far to find tasty beer. Just about any style you crave—hazy IPAs, high gravity malt bombs, crisp lagers, barrel aged sours—can be... Continue Reading →
At the most recent Great American Beer Festival Ohio took home 14 medals, shared by no less than 13 different breweries, both numbers exceeding high water marks from previous years. Cincinnati’s Brink Brewing picked up two medals and was recognized as the best very small brewery of the year [1]. Fathead’s medaled for an impressive... Continue Reading →
Nine Ohio breweries were recognized at last night’s World Beer Cup award ceremony in Nashville, TN. This year’s competition featured a record setting 8234 entries from 66 different countries, almost double the 4754 entries at the 2014 competition. Only 302 medals were awarded, which means that less than 4% of the entries were honored with... Continue Reading →
Many great beer styles are associated with a region—pilsners with the Czech Republic, lambics with Brussels, goses with Leipzig, saisons with Wallonia, steam beer with San Francisco, and so on. While most styles originated in Europe long ago, America has made important contributions in my lifetime. American-style pale ales and IPAs originated in the Pacific... Continue Reading →
Craft brewers have benefited from the eat/drink/buy local movement as much as anyone. There’s something that feels right about having a pint of beer in the place where it was made, sometimes even served to you by the person who brewed it. While frequenting local breweries undeniably helps support the local economy, it doesn't boost... Continue Reading →
It’s a beautiful fall day and I’m driving southeast to visit one of Ohio’s up and coming breweries, Little Fish Brewing in Athens. Over the course of the ninety minute drive the flat landscape and urban sprawl of Ohio’s largest city give way to the rolling western foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Downtown Athens has a... Continue Reading →
For the first time the Pat’s Pints Podcast goes on the road as Mark and I head down to Athens to hang out with Sean White and Jimmy Stockwell of Little Fish Brewing. Our wide ranging conversation touches on various aspects of the Little Fish story and brewing farmhouse ales—saison yeast, brett, barrel aging, paw paw beers, turning a... Continue Reading →
Back in July Tom Aguero, the man behind the Brewminds blog (formerly Queen City Drinks) contacted Rick Armon, Ohio's beer writer laureate and the man responsible for the most up-to-date and informative beer blog in the state, The Beer Blog - Ohio, and yours truly to see if we were interested in participating in the Six-Pack Project — an idea developed several years... 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 →
Pat's Pints 