Always Bet on Black

I’m really not much of a gambler and no; I’m not talking about Schwarz biers.  Porters and Stouts are the topic in this piece friend.  OK, not all porters are dark as stouts and still show some hints of deep ruby, but roll with me here.  It’s almost the end of 2008 and Chicago is nothing short of the Siberian tundra.  Fortunately, we have the advantage of the World Beer Championships Porter and Stout tastings falling on a rather appropriate time of year to keep us warm and satiated with malt bomb bliss.  Let’s see what happened….

In the Porter category we were treated to a handful of excellent examples.  Upland Brewing gave us the Bad Elmer’s Porter (87 points), Williams Bros.   more >>

Bottoms Up!
Lager in the New Year

Bottom fermented and with little room for error, Lagers are in no way mundane or something to pass up experiencing.  With so many different producers creating multiple varieties these days one can experience a local brewer’s take on a tradition, variation thereof, or a classic benchmark brand that is most likely widely available.  Plenty of new styles of ale have been showing up on the scene recently.  Barrel aged ales, wildly fermented ales, and a myriad of hop-bombs to entice the beer hunters out there.   more >>

2008 Continental Ales
A Rich Pageant of Flavor

In the latest category tasting of the World Beer Championships, we sampled Continental European Ale Styles and Maibock’s.  Let’s start with the Abbey Dubbel category. Goose Island Brewing Co.’s Pere Jacques (93 points) and Anderson Valley Brewing Co.’s Brother David Double (90 points) reminded us that brewer’s here in the U.S.   more >>