DrinkCraftBeer

Crispin Lansdowne Cider [Review]

Sarah — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:50:00 +0000

Crispin Artisinal Reserve Lansdowne (fermented with Irish Stout yeast and organic molasses) is cloudy, unfiltered comfort in a bomber. Somehow they managed to bottle the feeling of sitting fireside in a pub while the weather is whipping outside (you'll see what I mean). The 22 oz. bottle starts out instructing you to give it a "full bottoms-up tilt & swirl" to mix in the unfiltered apple-wine sediment and you are going to be glad you did! This is the first cider that I've had to switch over to the white Drink Craft Beer glass - it's my darkest & densest so far! After the initial fizz from the pour, you don't see any bubbles moving around and with the murky cedar brown coloring it looks like a true unfiltered non-alcoholic cider. I'm talking the gallon or quarts you buy in the fall, that you might have drank at an elementary school Halloween or Thanksgiving party, and that you now sometimes heat up and mull. That's what this looks like, with the same cloudy brown with the red undertones, no bubbles, the light only gets a few millimeters into the glass. Lansdowne doesn't have any perfect beer comparison in appearance but the closest would be a red/brown ale - no one is going to be mistaking this for anything but a cider. To be honest I'm not quite sure what to expect coming in for the sip.

Pulling up the glass, my nose finds the molasses first. And is that a little bit of honey mixed in with the apple scent? After checking the label, yup, in addition to having racked apple wine and organic molasses, their Lansdowne lists a "kiss of organic honey." At the end you barely get a bit of stout yeast. Maybe it's because it's on the label and was in my mind, but just barely sneaking up the nose.

Sipping at last, here comes a rich, winter-autumny flood. First that apple wine with the burnt sugary taste that molasses has, almost like a bite of burnt caramel candied apple. Right after that you get the slightly heavier mouth feel of the cider, a lot slicker & smoother than usual, probably due to the Irish Stout yeast. Not too shockingly the best way to describe it is that light but weighty stillness that a sip of stout has, not a flurry of carbonation like many other ciders. The apple notes are not that bright, crisp Macintosh or Gala feel, more a subtle Red or Golden Delicious. Every exhale is all molasses and burnt sugar with the stout trying to shoulder it's way up. The further you get into your glass, the apple fights its way back to the tasting ground, but that molasses & honey notes hold onto every single breath out. This is a bottle to bring out on that rainy or snowy weekend when you have a good pot of stew going, those earthy savory meals are going to be complimented by the warm molasses notes and still weight of Lansdowne. It's a little like a boozy equivalent of that old blanket your grandmother knitted that you grab on those chilly raw days. Snuggle up with this Lansdowne as well.

I bought a single 22oz bottle of this cider at Bauer Wines & Spirits, Newbury Street, Boston.

Oatmeal Stout Chocolate Chili [Recipes]

Chef John — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:10:00 +0000

[Editors Note: It's our pleasure to welcome another new author to our site! Chef John joins our team today along with the launch of a new recipes section on our site! Chef John has been a good friend of ours for many years and we're really excited to have him on board. He made some smoked beer can chicken tacos with pumpkin mole sauce this past fall and ever since then we've wanted him to do some writing for us. We hope you enjoy his first contribution to the site as much as we did. ]

While spending a Saturday night with good company and great cocktails at Backbar , a new spot in the heart of Union Square in Somerville, I was listening to Jeff and Devon talk about their next tasting at Taza. After a while they asked me if i would be interested in writing food recipes for their website. I'm always up for creating a new recipe so I was more than happy to. With beer and chocolate in mind, I figured, what would be better than a great chili? The Superbowl was right around the corner which gave me a great audience to test it out. This recipe provides great depth of flavor. When you take your first bite the oatmeal stout adds a richness and malt flavor. Then, the chocolate brings a dark color and sweetness. When you think it's over, you get hit with an onslaught of fire roasted peppers. It is great as a warm bowl topped with tortilla strips and slices of avocado and is also thick enough for a dip. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Ingredients:

2 oz Olive Oil
1/2 Spanish Onion Small Dice
5 Cloves Chopped Garlic
2 Serrano Chilis Fire Roasted, Peeled and Diced
1 Jalapeno Pepper Fire Roasted, Peeled and Diced
2 Poblano Peppers Fire Roasted, Peeled and Diced
2 Chipotles in Adobo Diced
3oz Adobo Sauce
1 1/2 lb Beef Brisket Medium Dice
12oz Mayflower Winter Oatmeal Stout
2 discs Guajillo Taza Chocolate (2.7oz)
1 disc Coffee Taza Chocolate (1.3oz)
2 oz Oregano
2 oz Whole Cumin Toasted and Ground
16oz Can Whole Tomatoes
32 oz Beef Stock
Salt To taste

Topping:

4 Corn Tortillas Cut in Strips and Baked
Sliced Avacado
Chopped Scallion
Sour Cream

Cooking Instructions:

1. Roast Peppers on Grill or on top of a gas range. If you do not have access to either you can coat them in oil and roast in the oven. Once charred cover for 10 minutes. Run under water and peel off skin, then chop.

2. Saute onion and peppers in oil in stock pot

3. Add brisket and cook util browned

4. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute

5. Add oatmeal stout and simmer for 5 minutes

6. Toast cumin seeds in a small skillet until golden brown, grind

7. Add toasted and ground cumin, oregano, chipotles, adobo and Taza chocolates

8. Add canned tomatoes

9. Add 8 oz beef stock and simmer every half hour for 2 hours until brisket is tender.

10. Top with baked tortilla strips, sliced avocado, scallions and sour cream.

Enjoy!

Chef John

Pre-Extreme Beer Fest Lunch at B. Good

Jeff — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:22:00 +0000

A beer fest is a great place to try all sorts of new brews. Extreme Beer Fest is especially good for this, as there are tons of choices that are rare or that you might never see again. Obviously you want to try quite a few!

If you're going to be sampling, though, you should lay down a good base of food in your stomach first. Something solid, but not too heavy. Filling, but good quality ingredients. Luckily, we've got just the thing for you!

On Saturday, February 4th, 2012 Devon and Jeff from Drink Craft Beer are going to be at the Dartmouth Street B. Good from 11:45am until we leave for Extreme Beer Fest (probably around 12:30 or 12:45). B. Good is the Official Pre-Beer Fest Lunch Spot of Drink Craft Beer. The first eight people to come by and say hi to us will get a free lunch, courtesy of B. Good! If you're going to Extreme Beer Fest, this will be a great pre-fest lunch. If not, well, you still need a tasty lunch!

We'll be wearing our Drink Craft Beer t-shirts, so find just find us. First eight will get a free lunch.

When:
Saturday, February 4th, 2012
11:45am-12:30pm (possibly 12:45pm)

Where:
B. Good
131 Dartmouth Street
Boston, MA 02116

What:
First eight people to say hi get a free lunch from B. Good.

We've worked with B. Good in the past with some delicious results, this is not one to miss:

Burgers And Beer, Need We Say More?

Burgers Aren't Just For Summer - Burger And Beer Pairing With B. Good

Bantam Wunderkind Cider [Interview & Cider Review]

Sarah — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:38:00 +0000

[Editor's Note: Craft beer is all about local and regional companies led by creative people manipulating a few choice ingredients into a delicious alcoholic beverage, often best paired with various foods. With that in mind, we think it's time to welcome hard ciders to the Drink Craft Beer party! And, with hard cider, we're also welcoming the newest member of the Drink Craft Beer team, Sarah, our new Cider writer! Sarah has been a long-time cider lover and pushed for us to cover the topic for quite a while...we finally decided it was time for her to put up or shut up and, well, here she is so it looks like she chose to "put up." Drink Craft Beer co-founder Devon has been known to enjoy, and even sometimes brew, hard cider so this is a natural extension of interest for us. Please welcome Sarah, and hard cider, to the site. Cheers!]

Kicking off our coverage of hard ciders, we are proud to introduce you to Bantam Cider, a brand new cider company launching just last month out of Cambridge, MA producing what they are calling "Modern American Cider", starting with their first product, Wunderkind. Bantam was co-founded by Dana Masterpolo (Co-founder & Head Storyteller) and Michelle da Silva (Co-founder and Head Taster) after 18 months and many batches of intensive home crafted ciders and many plans for where they wanted to take this new cider works.

First two photos used with permission of Bantam Cider Company.

Drink Craft Beer: How did the idea to create a hard cider company come about?

Michelle: I always loved wine, my grandparents actually made wine for years and I was always involved in that process from a very young age so making cider wasn't that far off. We started trying that out, and the big appeal being that here in New England we have a lot of great apples available to us to take advantage of led pretty naturally to cider.

Dana: I piggybacked off Michelle's wine experience and loved the idea of being more involved in my community, doing something that was more creative and that's how I got brought into making these small batches with Michelle over the years. We started making cider and hit a point where we realized we were going to parties and you never used to see cider, but we hit a time where we were seeing people going for cider more & more. But we noticed the ciders out there were pretty limited and we thought there was an opportunity to make something in a new direction for the cider industry. We just want to open people up to the idea of having another option for a drink, when you want a change from beer, another option than wine.

DCB: With the growth of ciders overall, and larger players like Angry Orchard, what are your feelings about a bigger brand entering the field?

M: Because the market is so new, getting cider into the conversation more and more is the priority and as people start to drink cider more & more they start to develop preferences and palates and experiment. I think more cider in the market helps everyone. It's a market that people are starting to hear about, haven't been too many big brands, you have Woodchuck and a few others but there is a lot of room for various people to come in. So the more cider is in the conversation the better for all ciders -

D: The rising tide carries all boats, isn't that the saying?

DCB: How did you figure out what you wanted for your first cider?

D: When we were developing and fine tuning, we did a lot of blind tastings with 10, 15 friends and family and a big range of ciders. We were very deliberate in wanting blind tastings so no one had any idea what was our product, what was bottle, what was canned, and we found later that those that were "higher quality" weren't necessarily ranking that high and those six-packs made with concentrate weren't always the lowest. That was a big learning point to us. We made our decisions that we wanted to use real apples not concentrate, not adding sugar, no colors. People can like the taste of both, but we just wanted to approach from that way. And people really care that it is from real apples. We purposefully have it listed on the label "fermented pressed apples" so that people know, and people care. Our philosophy was to take that route.

DCB: Tell us a bit more about Wunderkind.

D: Our goal is to make a really amazing product, with great fruit and to find a local place. Because we are cider, we had to find a winery that would work with us for permitting reasons. Unlike beer, cider is not a clear recipe - you are dealing with fruit, with a product that changes a lot seasonally and so we want to be really active in the process. Thankfully we wound up at Westport Wineries which is also Buzzards Bay Brewery and were able to create it there. We were their first cider so they are very excited! Our first batch was about 1000 cases and our goal was to just get our product out there and eventually go up to larger batches. Our first batch went really well - and by really well I do mean everything imaginable that could go wrong did ha ha - but we got through it and we are excited that people genuinely seem to like it. We deliberately went into our first batch open and it took a lot to decide - you would be surprised how many different types and combinations of apples make such a difference. We wanted our first to be widely appealing and we went into this knowing we didn't want our first to be something so dry it fell off your mouth. We talked to local farmers to see which types are available year round and since this is something we hope to have available year round, we wanted to be aware of those limitations.

M: Being seasonal we have to be aware to plan our production, they can cold store certain types, but you want to plan so that come August you don't run out of fruit waiting for the fall harvest. It's not as delicate as grapes but much more affected than the grain base in beers.

Wunderkind is a mix of Cortland, Empire, Macintosh and green apples. There are thousands and thousands of varieties so the combinations are so much more varied than you would imagine. We work with local farmers in Western Mass and luckily those farmers we deal with most often have connections to other farmers that have other types of apples we use less often, heirloom varieties for example, and we can access those through that network.

D: Some are much drier, some are more full bodied, some much thinner. Here in New England, we were amazed- you go in the grocery store and you see some available, but we were shocked to see how much aren't pretty enough to go on store shelves but are perfect for something like cider. Macintosh is a really popular apple but it's really nice that we can use fruit that is there, they have it, it just might not be pretty enough for shelves.

DCB: Any suggestions for food pairings with your Wunderkind cider?

M: Ooohhh! Love this question! Cheeses are great obviously-cheddar and brie in particular, even goat cheeses. Sooo good. It goes great with Thai or Indian - any spicy foods really. Salmon is a nice one too believe it or not. Cider is great to cook WITH too - a great marinade. Good to cook with pretty much any sort of pork, especially if you are sauteing a dish with some cider in there you get amazing flavors. We haven't tried baking yet, but want to try it in some cornbread maybe? Cider is shockingly versatile.

DCB: What's something interesting you would tell someone who doesn't know your cider, or cider in general even?

D: We both agree that we hope to get people to enjoy it in a wine glass or a tulip glass. But there are different ways to drink cider too, you can make it different.

M: It's a great champagne alternative, makes a great Mimosa or Kir Royale.

D: I like to drink it much like a Hefeweizen, you know how you put a slice of orange? It tastes just like a cava sangria without putting any effort into it at all! I spent some time in Spain and used to get this cava sangria over there that I could never recreate. Same thing here, you put a slice of orange in your cider and it totally gives a new spin & it tastes JUST like the cava sangria I used to have! Experimenting some more, it's actually really great with a sprig of mint in it too. You wouldn't think but it brings out a whole new set of flavors.

[Disclaimer: I tried the orange in cider during this interview and it was a totally different flavor but AMAZING - I think that will get a lot of quality time in the warmer weather.]

DCB: What to expect next?

D: As soon as you get your first product on the shelves people start asking "what's next?". We do have some things in the hopper, I think our first priority is to get another few runs of Wunderkind but trust us, we have plenty of ideas.

DCB: Big thanks to Dana & Michelle at Bantam Cider for sharing with us!

Bantam Cider will be doing tastings this weekend, so be sure to stop by & tell them Drink Craft Beer says 'Hi!'
Friday February 3rd 2012 - Ball Square Fine Wines & Liquors (in Somerville) 5-7pm
Saturday February 4th 2012 - City Feed & Supply (in Jamaica Plain) 2-4pm

Bantam Wunderkind Cider [Cider Review]

Bantam's Wunderkind Cider is the inaugural offering from this self-described "tiny company." Coming in at a very approachable 6% abv, the label describes this as a Modern American Cider so I'm curious to see how exactly they define that. Pouring out this cider it has a good amount of carbonation with a finger and a half of fizzing light head that quickly dissipates into a constant flow of singular small bubbles coming up from the bottom. Even minutes later the pace of small to medium bubbles is still a crowd heading for the top with only the slightest bit of delicate white foam ringing the glass. Wunderkind has a very light hint of color, very clear with only the faintest touch of young straw color; a yellow tending more towards the green family than browns.

Coming in for that first sip, you still have that carbonation coming up at you, and you get a whiff of honey right off the bat. Bantam uses a flower-blossom honey in with their fermented pressed apples and sparkling wine yeast and that flower-blossom honey is what comes up in the nose well before you get that punch of crisp apple fresh scent. Pulling up that first sip you know right away that this is going to be a crisp, juicy cider.

Those little bubbles cut through the honey flavors bouncing around your mouth and really meld the crisp apple flavors with the smoothness of the hints of honey. Honey can be a very cloying flavor but this one toes the line of adding to the recipe instead of coating over your mouth. Wunderkind has four or five types of apples mixed in and you really get the juicy sharpness of those Macintosh and Cortland shining through. This cider is right up my alley so I can see myself enjoying one of these 22 oz. bottles myself one night or bringing it over to share with a friend. I had the luck to try it with a slice of orange as suggested by the creators so that is something strongly suggested, especially as a way to change up your cider for those warm summer months.
* For more food & beverage suggestions, please read above.

Cambridge Brewing Co. Audacity of Hops [Beer Review]

Devon — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:46:00 +0000

Sometimes I wonder if the rarity of a beer makes me predisposed to like it. Do I subconsciously want to like a beer just because it was so hard to get, or so rare that very people will ever try it? Normally this would be a philosophical question left to the ages (or perhaps a good pysch experiment) but in the case of Audacity of Hops I can actually answer it. You see this beer started as a collaboration beer between Cambridge Brewing Company and Mayflower Brewing (and several other Massachusetts breweries) for the 2009 Craft Brewers Conference. Everyone who attended the event was given a bottle of this beer, and at the time it blew us away. But that bottling was limited to that very, very small run for the event. Sure it’s been on tap at Cambridge Brewing Company from time to time since then, but now it’s in 22oz bottles and I couldn’t wait to try it again. I have to admit, though, I had a bit of fear. Had I over hyped this beer in my head because it wasn’t readily available to purchase? In a word...NO.

I sat down on my couch and started filling my glass. Immediately nearly all my concerns were washed away as the citrusy aroma of hops poured out. Audacity of Hops is more than a clever name, the hop aroma leaps from the glass to let you know you’re in for some serious hop goodness. It pours a rich, hazy gold color with a fluffy white head that stays for a shockingly long time. Any tiny doubt of how good this beer is was eradicated in the first sip. A rush of grapefruity hops coated my tongue, instantly everything I remembered about this beer was confirmed. I let out an involuntary satisfied sigh as I put my glass down, a tell tale sign of tasty beer. This beer isn’t just about the hops though. There’s a fantastic balance of malt sweetness that follows up which then gives way to a perfect spiciness imparted by the Belgian yeast. If it sounds like I’m swooning over this beer it’s because I am. What started out as concern that it wouldn’t live up to my expectations resulted in the blissful realization that this amazing beer is now available whenever I want it, and that’s a great thing.

Backlash Declaration Belgian-Style IPA [Beer Review]

Jeff — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:15:00 +0000

As I believe I’ve mentioned about twenty times on this site lately, 2011 was a huge year for beer in Massachusetts. We saw the release of so many new breweries that it was tough to keep up! One of those was Backlash Beer Company, a Boston-based but Holyoke-brewed beer that, with this release, counts three Belgian styles under their belts. The latest, a Belgian-style IPA, has come with a lot of hype on the back of Backlash signing a state-wide distribution deal that will expand their reach from the Boston-area to all of Massachusetts.

Clearly unfiltered, Declaration is a dark, hazy tawny beer! Crowned with one of the biggest, sturdiest eggshell colored heads I’ve ever seen, this brew stands a solid 2 fingers taller than the pint glass that is trying to contain it. It seems that the beer is much in line with the ethos of the brass knuckles on every bottle of Backlash. The real question, though, is does the taste stand up to the imposing appearance?

Citrusy hops and very-well-complementing Belgian yeast aromas are definitely getting us started in the right direction! I’m looking for the malt, but all I come back with is the spiciness of the yeast and those damned hops! They’ve seemingly Houdini’ed any smell of the base grains away...eh, to hell with it. Who needs malt in a Belgian IPA anyway?

I read on the Backlash Blog that they claim this is the hoppiest Belgian IPA they know of. Is that true? I don’t know...there are definitely contenders out there who I’d have to try at the same time to really know (after all, beer is super subjective based on the experiences going on all around you...that’s one reason it’s so great!). The important question, though, is: “Is this a good beer?” My answer! I sure as hell think so! I have a checklist (OK, I don’t actually have a checklist, but now that I’m thinking about it, here are the things I think make a great Belgian-style IPA): (1) Big hop bitterness, taste and aroma, (2) dry malt (3) Belgian yeast spice notes, (4) none of that oily hoppiness that many American brewers have put out lately...the Belgians are more sophisticated than that (they’re European after all). This beer nails that in spades! It’s bitter, but balanced, with a great hop taste and a funky Belgian/hoppy nose; it’s super dry; and it’s completely devoid of the oiliness that works in some American IPAs but not in this style (in my humble opinion). The conclusion? Delicious beer! And, luckily, Backlash just inked a statewide distribution deal in Massachusetts. That means all you people in Western Mass can finally find out what us Easterners were talking about (and what’s been being brewed in their own back yard).

Jeff’s Note: Normally I’m a big opponent of wax on bottles. It doesn’t make the beer taste better and it’s a pain to open. That said, Backlash founders Helder and Maggie hand dip each bottle, then hand stamp each, so I had to include that in the picture! Also, it’s really not hard to open. You guys are doing something right even with the packaging!

I bought a 22oz bomber of this craft beer at Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont.

Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale [Beer Review]

Jeff — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:55:00 +0000

Every year fans of Lagunitas Brewing Company (based in Petaluma, CA) look forward to their winter seasonal, Brown Shugga’. This year, because of the enormous growth they’ve done in the past couple years, they were stretching their capacity to the max. The result? There was no way they could brew Brown Shugga. Unfortunately, the beer takes a long time to develop in fermentation tank before it’s ready to be shipped and that meant they’d miss out on brewing several batches of their flagships. There was no way that Lagunitas could cause even more of a supply shortage of their deliciously hoppy ales. So what did they do? With their typical style, they brewed up Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale Brown Shugga’ Substitute, a super hopped IPA that was faster to ferment and didn’t tie up much needed capacity. Well, turns out it was a pretty good beer and the readers of Drink Craft Beer voted it their favorite new brew of 2011. Somehow we haven’t tried it until now, so I’m just going to dive right in!

Lagunitas Sucks pours a beautifully clear, rich golden hue with a puffy white head on top. For real, this thing just looks like a West Coast IPA! It looks hoppy. Maybe this is the reputation proceeding it (it was the top new craft beer in the Drink Craft Beer Top 11 Craft Beers of 2011: Readers’ Choice Edition), but I can’t wait to try this one.

Just as I expected from the appearance (and the aforementioned reputation), it smells super hoppy! It’s not so much oily hops as bright, citrus hops. There’s some sweetness to it, but I can’t tell if that’s the malt acting up or just something I’m getting from those little green lupulin cones of deliciousness.

And the first sip just confirms everything I said above. It’s hoppy! Not just bitter. Not just flavor. It’s hoppy...like, really hoppy. The bitterness is balanced, but asserts itself on the back of your tongue. As soon as it hits your lips, though, your entire mouth is awash in a sea of orange citrus hops. I’ve rarely tasted anything like it. We’ve had a lot of clementines around the house lately and, honestly, that’s what it’s reminding be of: biting into a ripe clementine. It’s juicy, it’s sweet...but not from the malt it doesn’t seem...it’s orangey and it’s a bit tangy even. I would totally believe that they put orange in this. But they didn’t. Just 63.21 IBUs (that’s an astoundingly accurate number...and, for those keeping score at home, no way are they actually able to be this accurate) of pure hop goodness. I can see why this was our readers’ favorite of 2011!

I bought a single 12oz bottle of this craft beer at Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont.

Wachusett Imperial Black IPA [Beer Review]

Devon — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:37:00 +0000

I have a soft spot for black IPAs so when we heard Wachusett was launching an Imperial Black IPA as their latest beer, Jeff and I knew we had to go check it out. Black IPA as a style can mean so many things, sometimes it’s purely an IPA with some darker malts, other times a hoppy porter and in a few cases a hoppy stout. If the word imperial normally scares you off, don’t let it this time. At 7.3% abv it certainly comes in higher than the average IPA but it’s not a massive booze bomb like some other imperials on the market. In fact I tried to taste the alcohol in the beer and couldn't.

What you do get is an insanely smooth and balanced black IPA. There’s a nice hop aroma that comes from the use of Zythos, Falconers Flight and Calypso hops. Not familiar with those strains? Yeah we weren’t either, they’re new west coast strains. What we can say is they taste really really good, imparting both citrus and pine notes into the beer. This beer is also most definitely an IPA first. They use midnight and chocolate wheat malts, which turn the beer pitch black but don’t make it overly sweet or too roasty. The use of wheat also adds an incredible smoothness to the finish. Both Jeff and I kept commenting how easy the beer was to drink, which could be a bit dangerous because, while you can’t taste the 7.3% ABV, it’s still there. While there’s no doubt this is a very hoppy beer it’s also incredibly balanced, and in our opinion it’s one of the best beers Wachusett has put out. We were told the beer should be hitting stores starting today (Friday, January 27th 2012), so if you’re reading this go pick some up!

Check out some more pictures from our trip to Wachusett Brewing Company to try the Imperial Black IPA!

The Unexpected Side of London Craft Beer

Devon — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:23:00 +0000

So often we hear how English, German, Belgian and Czech brewing has influenced American Craft Beer. I recently made the trip to London fully expecting to immerse myself in pint after pint of session ale. Before I made the trip I asked all of you where I should go, and person after person told me I had to go to Craft Beer Co., a beer bar specializing in craft beer. It was here that my journey through London began and I discovered a burgeoning community of craft brewers and craft beer enthusiasts, many inspired by American Craft Beer. I expected to come back and write all about session ale, but what I discovered was so much more. What follows is by no means a definitive guide to London, but what I consider three must visit spots for any beer enthusiast visiting London.

Craft Beer Company

As previously mentioned this spot was recommended again and again by many of you on Twitter. As I walked in the door I knew I had found something special. The night before I had immersed myself in local pubs, had a few pints of bitter and a ploughman’s lunch...this place was nothing like any of those pubs. The giant line of casks had easily four times more beers available than any bar I’d been to. The expansive line called out to me like a challenge, though thankfully part of me knew better than to try them all. As I approached the bar something caught my eye in the coolers behind the casks. Lined up neatly I saw a familiar sight, bottles of Pretty Things St. Botolph's Town. What?! I couldn’t believe I was seeing beer from such a small Massachusetts brewery in London. Don’t worry, though, I didn’t order that, but it was impressive to see.

What I did get a nice pint of Dark Star Hophead, half a pork pie, and a scotch egg. Pork pies and scotch eggs are the only food served here and it’s the only food they need to serve, they’re that damn good. What struck me as I had a few pints was the ABV I was seeing. When Jeff visited London a few months ago he commented on how man cannot live on session beer alone. What I was finding is that craft brewers in the UK are starting to break with tradition and many of the beers here ranged from 5-7% ABV, much higher than the 4% or lower you find in traditional British beer.

As I was enjoying some fine ale and food I struck up a conversation with a couple guys sitting near me. We started chatting about craft beer and I asked if places like this were typical. I got an instant “No,” it was clear that this bar is on the forefront of a new movement in the UK. From what I can tell there’s pretty much nothing that competes with this place on variety of beers. We chatted, they gave me some tips on where to go next and in thanks I bought them a bottle of Pretty Things (which cost me a whopping £20, I’ll let you do the exchange rate math on that one but lets just say it’s not good). Based on their tip I was off the Cask Pub & Kitchen.

Cask Pub & Kitchen

Cask Pub is the sister pub of Craft Beer Co. The link is clear when you see the logo alone but the beer on tap is different and Cask has a full kitchen. If you make it over to Cask be sure to get the fish and chips. I know it sounds cliché but it's seriously good. The breading is light and crisp and the fish just melts in your mouth; pair that with a nice pint and you’re golden. Once again I was blown away by the selection, there was tons of local craft beer as well as coolers full of craft beer from the states, there were even some beers that I can’t get in Boston, like Duck Rabbit.

As I sat down eating my fish and chips, I started chatting with a couple guys near me. (Sensing a theme here? What can I say, give me a couple pints and I’ll talk to anyone.) Well this time it wasn’t just a couple random guys, one of them happened to be Paul Herbert, brewer for Kent Brewing Co. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I met a craft brewer in a craft beer bar but he gave me some amazing insight into the London craft beer scene. (More from that conversation in a future article.) I did ask him the most important question of all, though. "If I had to go to one bar in London before I left, where did I need to go?" That question led me to the last, and I would say most important, bar I went to.

Southampton Arms

There were points along my journey to this bar where I wasn’t sure I’d make it. I had to change lines of the Tube a couple times due to construction and make my way through random alleys of North London. Anyone who knows me knows I have the worst sense of direction known to man so getting lost is kind of my M.O. When I got off the train I started following the directions I had written down on my phone. I entered an odd area that was, as near as I could tell, an old folks community and made my way down a narrow, dimly lit alley.

At this point I was sure I had gotten lost but then, just as I was about to give up hope, I turned the corner to see one of the greatest signs I’d ever seen: "Ale, Cider, Meat." Those three words told me I was in the right place.

When I walked in the door the bar was packed and it was only 6pm. A sign above the bar read “We are the only dedicated ale + cider house in London to sell only beers + ciders from small independent UK breweries." Bad ass. While the selection at both Craft Brewing Co. and Cask Pub & Kitchen were amazing, neither were really the night out in London that I was looking for. In stark contrast stands Southampton Arms. A blend of indie rock and classic vinyl plays constantly over the stereo. Small worn wood tables cover most of the bar area. What struck me most was the variety of people here. The range in ages was amazing, everyone from college kids and 20-somethings to people in their 50’s and 60’s were hanging out with friends enjoying a good pint. I had an amazing session ale simply called “3.9.” As you might expect it was 3.9% but it was loaded with hops, of all the beers I had on the trip I miss this the most.

What amazed me about all the places I visited is that they were all relatively new, most of them have only been in business a couple years, signs of a craft beer movement emerging in the UK. I can’t wait to go back in a year or two and see how much more the scene has grown. But for now I’ll just have to look back on my fond memories of London and the amazing beer scene that caught me totally by surprise.

Founders Breakfast Stout [Beer Review]

Johanna — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:27:00 +0000

[Editors' Note: We're happy to welcome our newest, and first, regional correspondent, Johanna. Johanna is a native of Michigan, one of our favorite states for craft beer, and will be writing about beer made in and distributed to the Great Lakes region. She discovered craft beer at the Keweenaw Brewing Company brewpub in Houghton, MI...but we'll let her tell you the story of how she got into craft beer in a future article. We met Johanna over Twitter (her handle is @Hufr0, say hello). She asked us about the "Drink Craft Beer Meeting" we had one night and how one gets into the club. After several emails back and forth, here we are! So, Johanna, welcome to the club! We're incredibly glad to have you as a member of the Drink Craft Beer team!

Are you a good writer? Do you like interacting with people? Do you love craft beer? Do you think you fit in with the mission of Drink Craft Beer? Do you want to be our next regional Drink Craft Beer correspondent? Get in touch with us and let's talk.]

Founders Breakfast Stout is an oatmeal coffee stout with both Sumatra and Kona beans. Much like coffee the stout smells sweeter than it tastes. It's 8.3% ABV and surely is a bit of a jolt like a morning coffee can be. Maybe that’s how it got its name. But I think they named it Breakfast Stout because sometimes you wake up thinking about it. You drift back to the last time you had some. The dark molasses beer stirring in your glass a bit, the deep burnt caramel head dancing at the top leaving a rusty film on the glass as you drain it. It doesn’t remind you of any other stout you’ve had. It’s too rich and powerful to be a memory of an oatmeal stout. It’s hoppier than you expected it to be, biting back at you. The chocolate doesn’t hit you at first, masked by all that coffee. The more you drink the sweeter it tastes and you begin to sense the chocolate. It leaves a remarkably smooth, deep, dark and rich flavor on your lips.

Sometimes you gulp it like a rushed morning coffee. Normally you wouldn’t do such a thing with a craft beer but with Breakfast Stout you can’t always help it. You can taste the higher alcohol content when you do, almost like a coffee wine. Somehow it doesn’t ruin the experience. There is almost wildness to the sweet. It reminds you of a molasses; almost a gamey sugar. You can taste it as you lay there in bed. And while you fight the fact you have to go to the bathroom you look at the alarm clock and wonder,

"How early can I have some Breakfast Stout without being a social pariah?"

If it were a holiday it might be acceptable, even now, to have some. Still refusing to kick off the covers (it's cold out there) you pick your brain for a holiday from any religion or country that could possibly be this day. You got nothin’. You twist in the sheets battling facts and social norms,

"Fine. I’ll just make up a holiday. Support Michigan Made Products Day. Yeah that’s it. How can you appreciate it if you have to wait until afternoon to have some?"

You smile. Now you can get out of bed and start your day, knowing you’ve won.

But you never do drink that morning stout. I’ve been saying for some time that one day I will get up and have Breakfast Stout for breakfast. A double chocolate, coffee and oatmeal breakfast sounds good to me and that’s just the beer. I’ll pair it with some good food and it will be fantastic. With 60 IBU’s (International Bittering Units) I’m thinking either something sweet or something greasy like steak and eggs. I have yet to do so, (when I finally do this I will tell you every last drop of detail) but every now and then I find myself wakeful with the thought of my last Breakfast Stout experience dancing in my head. I haven’t found another stout that has been nearly as memorable. Most times I find myself thinking about it when trying other stouts. So far it is my favorite. The only criticism I have is that the Breakfast Stout is available September – January only and not all year round. So go find some while you can and prepare for a summer of dreaming about it.

Win Two Tickets to Extreme Beer Fest 2012 [Giveaway]

Jeff — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 03:34:00 +0000

Let us guess...you didn't buy tickets to Beer Advocate's Extreme Beer Fest in the first hour that they went on sale and now you don't have tickets? Who knew they were going to sell out so fast?!

This is an awesome fest that you're not going to want to miss and, luckily, we bought two extra tickets that we're going to give away to one lucky reader!

But, to take a phrase from the television infomercial guys, that's not all! We've also teamed up with one of our favorite sources of quick food in Boston, the official Pre-Beer Fest Lunch of Drink Craft Beer, B. Good. In addition to two tickets to Extreme Beer Fest, we'll treat our winner (and whoever is using his or her second ticket) to a pre-fest lunch at B. Good's Darthmouth Street location with Devon and Jeff from Drink Craft Beer.

How To Enter

Entering is simple, it's only two steps:

Subscribe to our email list using the form below.
Like Drink Craft Beer on Facebook

If you're currently a member of the Drink Craft Beer email list, just respond to the email we're sending out shortly and make sure you like us on Facebook!

Already have tickets to Extreme Beer Fest 2012? We've got another giveaway coming up specifically for people like you, so stay tuned!

Rules

Tickets are to the Saturday afternoon session (Saturday, February 4th 2012 from 1-4:30pm).

We'll alert the winner via email, so make sure your email address is correct.

We're going to give the tickets to the winner as we go into the fest; these tickets are non-transferable. You cannot sell them.

You MUST be 21 to enter or win. You only win tickets. Transportation, any lodging you need, or anything else is not included.

Subscribe to our mailing list to win two tickets:

Thanks to everyone who entered, this contest is now closed. We'll be announcing a winner at early-midday on Wednesday, February 1st 2012.

What's your favorite food to pair with beer? [Poll]

Devon — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:30:00 +0000

We love pairing beer and well...anything. We recently finished putting together some kick ass beer and chocolate pairings for our event at the Taza Chocolate factory and it got us thinking about some of our favorite pairings. We've done numerous pairings in the past ranging from cheese to burgers to chocolate or Christmas cookies. We're always looking for the magical combination where the beer plus food creates flavors that don't exist without the pairing; the classic 1+1=3 scenario if you will. Now we want to know what some of your favorite pairings are.

As usual, vote below then let us know your favorites on Twitter, on Facebook or in the comments below the poll. If you have a specific pairing you think we need to try let us know!

Cheers!

Can't Keep 'Em Apart - A Beer & Chocolate Love Story

Jeff — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:42:00 +0000

Valentine's Day is coming up and, to us, what could be better than celebrating with some craft beer and chocolate? How about raising money for The Greater Boston Food Bank? What if we told you you could do all those things at the same time?!

Well on Saturday, February 11th, 2012 from 2-6pm you can! Drink Craft Beer is taking over the Taza Chocolate Factory Store and we're doing some pretty cool stuff.

Event Registration Online for Can't Keep 'Em Apart - A Beer & Chocolate Love Story powered by Eventbrite

Taza Chocolate is a bean-to-bar, organic, direct trade chocolate company that has been growing like crazy over the past years. We met them when it was just a couple guys in a factory in Somerville and we’ve watched them grow to national distribution. To us, it’s incredible what Taza Chocolate is able to do with just a few select, high quality ingredients. It actually mirrors our love of craft beer, as brewers do the same with a few simple ingredients. That’s why we think that these two are such a perfect complement to each other.

It’s no secret, Taza Chocolate and Drink Craft Beer have long been friends. We’ve done not just one, but two events together in the past where we’ve paired some of the best craft beer on the market with our favorite bean-to-bar, organic chocolates. But we’ve never brought you all to the factory before!

Given the reaction to past events, we knew we had to do another and what better time than right before Valentine’s Day? So, with that in mind, we’re taking over the Taza Chocolate Factory Store on Saturday, February 11th from 2-6pm and offering you a chance to try four delicious chocolate and craft beer pairings! All we ask in return is a $3 donation at the door, 100% of which will go to The Greater Boston Food Bank. Come join us at:

Taza Chocolate Factory Store
561 Windsor Street
Somerville, MA 02143

Every dollar that gets donated allows them to provide 2.5 meals to those in need, so your $3 donation will provide 7.5 meals! If you bring just one friend, that’s 15 meals for people who are going hungry!

For just $3, you'll get:

Four samples of craft beer paired with four Taza Mexicano Chocolates
Meet Rob Lucente, Co-Founder of Peak Organic Brewing Company
Meet Caitlin Jewell & Jeff Leiter, Co-Founders of Somerville Brewing Company (aka Slumbrew)
Hang out with Devon and Jeff from Drink Craft Beer
A chance to provide 7.5 meals to those who are in need

The pairings you'll get to try are:

Peak Organic Oak Aged Mocha Stout with Taza Mexicano Salted Almond Chocolate

Honestly, we originally thought that Taza’s Mexicano Coffee Chocolate would pair with this beer. But the coffee and chocolate (the chocolate is actually nibs from the Taza factory...it all comes full circle!) in Peak Organic’s Oak Aged Mocha Stout just mirrored the flavors in the chocolate way too much...it tasted good together but it didn’t enhance anything, which is the goal when you’re pairing food and beer. The salted almond chocolate, however, was a great surprise choice! By itself, this is possibly our favorite of Taza’s offerings, it tastes almost like a high-end peanut butter cup. But the beer takes it to a whole other level. The oak introduces a bit of a vanilla taste to the beer, which draws out the richness of the chocolate. While this is going on, the sweetness of the chocolate (in our mind, the sweetest tasting of the Taza Chocolates) adds a little bit of body to the Peak Organic Stout that the high alcohol diminishes. Wrap this sweetness up with the flavor-enhancing salt and the nutty almonds and you’ve got yourself a pairing made in heaven. As you walk away, you’ll note an alcoholy vanilla note. Yeah...it’s nice.

Slumbrew Happy Sol with Taza Mexicano Ginger Chocolate

The Taza Mexicano Ginger Chocolate can vary from having a light ginger taste all the way to an intense ginger taste. The great part about pairing it with Slumbrew’s Happy Sol Blood Orange Hefeweizen is that the combination works at all ends of the spectrum. The Hefeweizen really brings out the ginger in the chocolate. Then, once that’s out there, the flavor goes perfectly with the clovey spice and orange of the beer. You end up finishing on a juicy, gingery thought and almost forget you’re eating chocolate. It’s a really neat effect!

Sixpoint The Crisp with Taza Mexicano Orange Chocolate

OK, we know what you’re thinking: “Chocolate with a pilsner?! But that’s such a light beer!” And yeah, we know it’s light. But you don’t need dark beer for dark chocolate. In this case, the pairing works because the orange is a bit subdued and almost hidden when you’re just eating the chocolate. Sixpoint’s The Crisp, though, is a crisp but full pilsner with some fruity notes at the end of the taste. These serve to bring out the orange in the chocolate and really brighten it up, so you’re left feeling as if you’ve just bitten into a big, juicy, chocolate orange. It’s delicious! These are some of our favorite types of pairings to do because, while we love a dark beer with chocolate, this is what really tends to throw people for a loop and push the bounds of what they think for food pairing.

Narragansett Porter with Taza Mexicano Coffee Chocolate

Now that we’ve done some nontraditional pairings, let’s get back to one that people will expect a little more. Taza’s Mexicano Coffee Chocolate has some pretty serious coffee to it and, while it’s on the sweeter end of their offerings by sugar content, the coffee lowers this apparent sweetness. Narragansett’s Porter, a robust, roasty and malty porter really serves to bring some sweetness to the pairing and rounds the whole thing out. Putting them together really makes the taste of both a lot more full, which is what we always look for in a pairing; 1+1=3.

This is an awesome chance to come and try some great chocolate, drink some amazing beer and meet some of the coolest brewery owners in New England! Not to mention, you'll be raising money for a great cause. Come on out and see us on Saturday, February 11th! Again, it's 2-6pm and the location is:

Taza Chocolate Factory Store
561 Windsor Street
Somerville, MA 02143

What kind of content would you like to see from Drink Craft Beer in 2012? [Poll]

Jeff — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:52:00 +0000

In our continued effort to make Drink Craft Beer better for you, our readers, we're going to take this chance to turn a Friday Craft Beer Poll a little inward looking. 2011 was a great year for Drink Craft Beer and we want 2012 to be even better. That said, the only way we can do that is to make you happy! So we want to know what you'd like to see more of in 2012. Do you like our interviews with brewers, brewery owners, and other craft beer industry people? Do you want us to recommend and review more beers? Do you really enjoy our multi-beer articles where we do a quick overview of what we like for different styles and/or seasons and what you might want to check out? Or, do you like hearing about our beery exploits as we go to breweries, other cities and other craft beer things we do?

As usual, vote below then let us know what you want to see on Twitter, on Facebook or in the comments below the poll.

21st Amendment Bitter American [Beer Review]

Jeff — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:51:00 +0000

Last year at about this time, I came across a new beer from 21st Amendment (a brewpub out in San Francisco, CA) that I loved. I bought it by the sixpack regularly but then one day, on a day that came far too soon, I was told it was gone. Sold out. “Sorry, it’s a seasonal and the season is done!” OK, so that last part isn’t a direct quote, but that was the gist. I was amazed. It wasn’t even Spring yet, and this deliciously crisp session beer was off the market?! Well this year I’ve learned my lesson, and I’m going to buy even more. [Editor's Note: Since writing this, 21st Amendment has announced that this beer is now year round.] Why don’t I tell you a little bit about it:

Bitter American does not pour like what many think of as “American beer.” That is, if you think of American beers as represented by the likes of light, corn/rice filled lagers that are best consumed out of cups sitting on a ping-pong table or during a super hot summer day after mowing the lawn. This brew pours a crystal clear deep orangey golden...almost a burnt sienna, if I wanted to pick a fancy sounding word.The head is white with just the slightest hint of brown to it, and it puffs right up before falling down to a good, solid half finger that just lounges at the top of your glass.

Now if you’re one of those people who think session beer is weak and flavorless well...well, you’re probably new to this site, actually, come to think of it...and this beer will certainly turn your mind around! The smell is nothing but American hops! Citrusy, a little piney and fruity, this beer smells like a crisp hop-bomb that needs to be drank, like, right now.

Oh yeah! Lately I’ve been a little sick of over-resiny hoppy beers and this is exactly what I’m looking for. It’s got some major fruity hop flavor, just like it smells. The bitterness is assertive, but it keeps a respectful distance at the same time; it’s just very well balanced for the minimal malt in this beer. Speaking of malt, it’s definitely there and you can taste it, but the only word I can think of to describe it is clean. It provides a nice, mild character to the beer, but it’s not overdone. I guess that would be how I sum up this whole beer. It’s got assertive hops, good bitterness and some tasty clean malt to it, but not of it is overdone.

[Editor's Note: This was written before 21st Amendment announced that this beer was going year-round...so please consume the rest of this article with that in mind.]

I wish this was a year-round beer from 21st Amendment because this would be a staple in my fridge at all times. It’s a great beer for relaxing with in the winter, but I bet it would be an even better beer for hanging out with in the summer! Plus, the fact that it comes in cans means it’s perfect for barbecues, the beach and any other place that glass can’t go. The fact that it’s only available from January to March seems like a crime given how well it would work for summer.

In fact, you know what? Why don’t you email Nico and Shaun, the founders of 21st Amendment, and let them know that this should be a year-round beer. Here’s the contact information from their website:

Nico Freccia - Co-Founder/Businesss Operations - email: Nico AT 21st-Amendment.com

Shaun O'Sullivan -- Co-Founder/Brewmaster/Media Relations - email: Shaun AT 21st-Amendment.com

I picked up a six-pack of this craft beer at Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont.

Heavy Seas Cabernet Barrel Aged Below Decks Barleywine [Beer Review]

Jeff — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 03:33:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, we interviewed the founder of Heavy Seas Beers, Hugh Sisson. While I was writing up the article, I got to thinking how much I’ve enjoyed many of their beers as well as how I haven’t had anything by them in a long time. Flash into the future a couple weeks and I find myself at Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont, MA picking up a few bottles when what do I see? Heavy Seas Mutiny Fleet 2011 Cabernet Barrel Aged Below Decks Barleywine! I think, “This has got to be a sign!” and pick up a bottle. I’m glad I did! Heavy Seas doesn’t always get the attention it deserves up here in the well-served craft beer market of Massachusetts, but this might change a couple peoples’ minds!

Normally barleywines pour a golden to rich honey hue, but Barrel Aged Below Decks bucks that trend and falls into the glass a rich, near-opaque coffee color. A tan, single header forms on top but quickly dissipates into a patchy film on top, most likely an effect of the high alcohol and wine barrel aging.

With a barrel aged beer, I often worry that the barrel is going to overwhelm any inkling of the original expression. In this case my fear is assuaged, the first smell I get is a sweet, kind of boozy, malt. It’s rich, smooth and, honestly, smells like the perfectly comforting beer for a cold night. We haven’t had many of those in Boston this year yet, but it’s starting to trend that way so I’m happy to have this one.

Upon reexamining, though, you’ll definitely find a good, strong hint of that Cabernet barrel they splash across the front label. It’s possible to overlook it at first as the dark fruit tones of the wine blend so well with the character of the malt and slightly fruity nature of the English-style barleywine. This is a great example of finding a character that enhances the beer and playing it up. It’s always great to see barrel aging done subtly and in a thoughtful way.

Let this beer warm up a bit before drinking. Then, my instructions are simple: Sip. Pause. Enjoy. Think. Repeat. Honestly, all the components have just come together very well and I am super impressed! One of my favor aspects of this brew is just how smooth and creamy it is; it’s nothing short of incredible in the mouthfeel department. As you take the initial sip, just before it hits your tongue, there’s a quick suggestion of cocoa, but it’s gone as soon as the beer hits your lips, overtaken by plum and fig-like dark English malts. The Cabernet plays right into these aspects, adding an extra level of fruitiness that, with the sweet malt, makes this beer an enjoyment to linger over every sip. Finally, the oak wraps it all up and melds everything together while smoothing the whole shebang out. Only at the end will you note a bit of alcohol but hey, that ain’t bad for a 10% abv beer, right? Definitely go out and try this one soon, it’s a limited batch but it’s oh so worth hunting down.

By the way, this would be a great Valentine’s Day beer! It’s got notes of chocolate, fruit and is insanely smooth. Most anyone will like the beer and it will go great with desert.

I picked this bottle up at Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont.

Sixpoint's Shane Welch [5 Questions]

Jeff — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:14:00 +0000

One of the best things about craft beer is that the beer is made and the companies are run by people who care about what they do. Also, many breweries are local or regional companies which means it's made in your area. All of this lends itself to one of my favorite things about the industry: you can actually know the people that brew your beer and run the companies that produce the brew that you love!

With that in mind, we've launched a series of articles where we'll talk with people from the craft brewing industry and ask them a series of five (or sometimes more) questions so that you can get to know these fine people a bit better.

We're happy to introduce our second guest for this series, Shane Welch, the President of Sixpoint Craft Ales in Brooklyn, NY. It's been a longtime since we had our first Sixpoint beer, back when they were only sporadically on tap in Boston. And it was love at first sip! So much so that we even visited them years ago when we drove down the East Coast brewery hopping. So, with that said, we'll jump right into the interview.

Drink Craft Beer: How did you get into craft beer?

Shane Welch: I got into craft beer at an earlier age than probably anyone in the industry. My father was a very early adopter of "craft beer" in the 1970s when your selection was strictly limited to import brands. At the time, he was drinking Chimay and high-end German imports. Here is a photo [at right] from 1981 where I am drinking the dregs out of my father's ceramic stein. I loved the taste of beer ever since it crossed my lips.

DCB: What was the turning point (a beer or moment) that made you love craft beer?

SW: Are you requesting my "a-ha" moment? :-)   My "a-ha" moment was when I started to drink real homebrewed beer. It was the first time I realized that beer could actually be something beyond a commodity - something that was a live product, fermented cereal grains seasoned with hops.

DCB: You walk into a magical beer shop with every beer currently available. You can put together one six-pack. What do you walk out with? Only one beer can be from your brewery.

SW: This is sort of a trick question because many of my favorite beers are not available in bottles. They are draft-only varieties. But since this is a "magical" beer shop I am assuming they also can magically bottle these draft-only varieties and have them for sale. :-)   In that case, I will go with beers from:

Live Oak Hefeweizen
Live Oak IPA
Barrier Brewing Company Dunegrass (shout out to Craig Frymark and Evan Klein)
Hill Farmstead Ephraim (shout out to Dan Suarez and Sean Hill)
Ale Asylum (shout out to Dean Coffey)
Augustiner Edelstoff Helles (non-export version, the fresh draft straight from the brewery) - fyi this is a beer I can drink gallons of

DCB: What would you be doing for a career if you weren’t in beer?

SW: Mathematician, and probably working for or with Google.

DCB: What do you drink when you’re not drinking craft beer (or beer at all)?

SW: I love to drink and collect different teas from all over the world.

DCB: Where do you see the craft beer industry going in the next year? And, in that vein, can we get a sneak peak at what new to expect from you in the coming year?

SW: Craft has legs and will continue to grow, even if the growth tapers on a percentage basis. Regarding new beer releases...let's just say we will be combining German precision and engineering with Sixpoint creativity.   :-)

DCB: You can brew any beer you like, no matter the cost and consumer demand, what would you make and what dream ingredients would you use?

SW: The Poppenoff, without a doubt. If you have to ask, you'll never know.   ;-) [Editor's Note: We have no idea what this beer is...we'd have to ask, so I guess we'll never know]

DCB: Thanks for your time, Shane! And thanks to your dad for having such great taste in beer back in the day...without that, we may never have been able to experience nano-kegs! Also, Shane and Sixpoint just brought on a new Brewmaster as Shane transitions out of overseeing all of the brewing operations himself and into running the company even more. Look our for a new 5 Questions with Sixpoint Brewmast Jan Matysiak soon!

What do you think will be the biggest trend in 2012? [Poll]

Jeff — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:54:00 +0000

In our Top 11 Craft Beers of 2011: Drink Craft Beer Edition and our Top 11 Craft Beers of 2011: Readers' Choice Edition we looked back at the year that was 2011.

Well, now it's time to look forward. We've seen a lot of experts and industry folks saying what they think is going to be the next big thing in craft beer in 2012. Do you want to know what we're really interested in, though? What you, the craft beer drinkers, think is going to be big in 2012!

Vote below then let us know which way you went on Twitter, on Facebook or in the comments below the poll. If you voted "other" let us know what you think that "other" is and why! Cheers!

Top 11 Craft Beers of 2011: Readers' Choice Edition

Jeff — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:48:00 +0000

One week ago, at the end of December, we released the Drink Craft Beer Top 11 Craft Beers of 2011. This was our personal list of the top eleven new beers that really wowed us in the last year. As we mentioned in the article, beer is a particularly regional thing and, due to some seriously impressive growth in the local beer scene in New England, our list ended up being 100% Northeast breweries. This is great news for us and our local readership, as we have tons of new, local beer that we love, but many of our readers who live a bit more far-flung were quick to point out that they felt slightly excluded. Well, as you all know, exclusion is not what we're about here at Drink Craft Beer!

To rectify this error, we turned to some of our favorite craft beer drinkers, all of you: our readers on DrinkCraftBeer.com, our followers on Twitter, people who "like" us on Facebook, people in our circles on Google+, and more! We figured, with readers living across the country and the world, we could put together a great list of new brews from 2011 that are from all over...and boy did we! We polled you all to see what your favorite new beers were and you didn't disappoint. We haven't tried all of these yet (in fact, we've only tried four), but that just gives us some resolutions for 2012. So, with that said, here is the Drink Craft Beer Top 11 Craft Beers of 2011: Readers' Choice Edition!

Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale

Lagunitas Brewing Company, out of Petaluma, CA, brews a much anticipated hoppy brown ale called Brown Shugga' every year...that is until this one. A few big growth years in a row have them pushing the capacity of their brewhouse to the limit and Brown Shugga' is a hugely inefficient beer to make. According to the company, they would have lost the ability to produce three cases of Pils or IPA for every case of Brown Shugga' the made. Obviously that wasn't an option, so they decided to make the best of it and brew a temporary replacement for just this year. In typical Lagunitas fashion, they figured they'd have some fun with it at the same time. And so was born, "Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale," a big, hoppy beer weighing in at 7.85% abv made with barley, wheat, oats and rye. Turns out people loved it, which is good as capacity issues are still plaguing the brewery, so this beer will make a second appearance as "Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Leftovers Ale." We wonder if we'll see it again next year, though?

Stone Brewing Co. 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA

Every anniversary Stone Brewing Company, from Escondido, CA, creates a new and innovative beer to commemorate the occasion. Having seen success with a Black IPA for a prior iteration, they decided to go bigger and darker, bringing us their 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA, a 10.8% dark-as-night-and-hoppy-as-the-dickens monster! The beer is delicious and the bottle includes the expected rant from founder Greg Koch or some other member of his team. This is definitely worth looking for!

Deschutes The Stoic

Deschutes Brewing Company, representing the Pacific Northwest up in Bend, OR, introduced a beer that will make you stop and think this year...or at least slow down while you're drinking it. At 11% abv this is not one to be trifled with. It's a Belgian-style Quad brewed with pomegranate, then 16.5% is aged in oak wine barrels and another 16.5% is aged in oak rye whiskey barrels. To be totally honest, we haven't tried it yet, but after writing this we really want to! Anybody want to send us a bottle?

DC Brau "The Corruption"

D.C. Brau Brewing Company is one of those breweries where you don't even have to ask where they're from (it's Washington, D.C. if you had to ask). This is a brewery that was recently brought to our attention by a good friend who moved from Boston (or Cambridge/Somerville as he'll try to protest) to Washington, D.C., so we're stoked to see this place get named by our readers as well! This is another one that we haven't had a chance to try, but people seem to love it and it's an IPA in a can, so we can't wait to go down and visit D.C. to drink some...errr, to catch up with our friend who moved down there...OK, maybe both!

Maine Beer Co. Lunch IPA

Lunch, the much hyped IPA from Maine Beer Company in Portland, ME, is the only beer to make both our readers' top eleven list and our top eleven list this year. It's amazing, but we've already written a lot about this one, so we won't bore you with more. Check out our original review of Maine Beer Co.'s Lunch IPA to see why it's gotten so much attention at a national level, despite only being available in a few states in New England.

Victory Headwaters Pale Ale

For Downington, Pennsylvania's Victory Brewing Company, 2011 was their 15th year of brewing delicious ales and lagers. To commemorate they didn't just launch an anniversary beer, they launched a new flagship beer! Victory Headwaters Pale Ale was made to commemorate not just Victory, but the local river that supplies their water that is so necessary to brew with. By the end of the summer, though, this crisp, citrusy and hoppy pale ale was posing a whole new set of problems for the crew at Victory: the Citra hops they needed to brew the beer and make it so delicious were running quite short. There was a period towards the end of the summer when this beer was hard to come by but, luckily, they secured a new supply and have been churning it out steadily ever since. The aroma is like few other beers on the market and the flavor is out of this world, so we suggest you pick up a six-pack if you see one.

Boulevard Brewing Collaboration #2 White IPA

Boulevard Brewing Company burst onto the Massachusetts beer scene this year but they're far from a new brewery. Based in Kansas City, MO they've been churning out beer since 1989 and have built up quite a reputation in that time. We only get the limited release and special brews up in our state, but that's fine by us as we got a chance to try this one that you all voted as one of the top of the year! They collaborated with another one of the breweries that made this list, Deschutes, to turn out this Belgian-style IPA brewed with lemongrass and sage. It's a really interesting and not-too-bitter take on the style that we could definitely drink more often.

Baxter Brewing Amber Road

When people tell you that the craft beer market is growing, you know that that's a fact. One of the breweries contributing to that growth isn't one of the biggest, but it is growing at a record setting pace for it's first year. Baxter Brewing from Pamola, ME was founded in January of 2011 and it's been on a rocket ship course since then, canning all three beers that it has released. Amber Road is their latest, and most malt-forward, beer that just snuck into the 2011 voting back in November. We've heard good things, and the IPA is delicious, so we can't wait to check this one out!

Troeg's Perpetual IPA

Standing in contrast to the last brewery we mentioned, Troeg's Brewing Company (now in Hershey, PA) will celebrate their 15th year in business in 2012. This past year they launched a new IPA (not short for India Pale Ale, as is usual, but rather for Imperial Pale Ale) that weighs in at 7.5% abv, 85 IBUs and uses five different types of hops. They add hops at every step of brewing to give it a seriously bold and in-your-face hoppiness. According to their website, it's a seasonal that comes out in August so, if you haven't tried it yet, you'll have to wait until then. We'll be waiting with you.

Cigar City Ligero Black Lager

If you like beer and you like hype, then you love Cigar City Brewing from Tampa, FL! Their line-up of big stouts and IPAs has made them many fans across the country, even while their distribution remains limited, causing enthusiasts from across the country to ship rare beer from their regions to friends in Florida in return for a couple bottles of this Tampa brew. That said, Ligero is not one of those hype beers from Cigar City. It's just a German-style black lager (aka Schwarzbier) with only 5.5% abv. Smooth, toasty malt and herbal hops mean this one doesn't get all the attention it deserves, so we're glad to see it get it's place on the Drink Craft Beer Top 11 Craft Beers of 2011: Readers' Choice Edition list!

Hardywood Singel

It's great seeing new breweries on this list as we always love seeing the industry grow! Hardywood Park Craft Brewery is a newcomer from Richmond, VA but founders Eric and Patrick have worked in the industry for years. Their Singel Ale is a take on the Belgian monastery-only beers that are mellow, light and meant for the monks to consume. This one is hazy with the expected yeast esters that Belgian-style brews are known for. It's crisp with some great carbonation. Hardywood Singel would be perfect for a hot summer day, or any time of year with alongside food. This is a style of beer we greatly enjoy when done right, but not many craft brewers are making them. We hope to see this brew up north soon or maybe someone will send us a care package for us to review?

Now that we've told you our favorites of 2011 and the favorites from our readers, do you think anything was overlooked? What was your favorite this year that you haven't seen mentioned? Let us know what you really enjoyed in 2011 on Twitter, on Facebook or in the comments below!

What Was Your Favorite New Beer Of 2011? [Poll]

Jeff — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 17:14:00 +0000

A few days ago we released the Drink Craft Beer Top 11 Craft Beers of 2011. These were the beers introduced in 2011 that impressed us the most. As many have pointed out, though, it's an extremely Northeast biased list. One of the great things about craft beer is that each region has it's own breweries; one of the tough things about this, though, is that you usually don't have access to those breweries in other parts of the country. While we'd love to travel around the country all the time and try everything, we simply can't. Luckily, we have all of you craft beer drinkers who can help us out with this!

We put out our Top 11 New Craft Beers of 2011, but we want to know what YOU liked this year! What was your favorite NEW craft beer released in 2011? We'll compile all of the votes and then release a Nationwide Top 11 of 2011 list on Tuesday, January 3rd. Since this is a list of 2011 beers, voting closes at the stroke of Midnight on New Years Eve, so you have to get your vote in while the calendar shows 2011 and not a second later!

As usual, vote below then let us know what you voted for on Twitter, on Facebook or in the comments below the poll.

The current standings are (with 77 votes counted as of 12/30/2011 at 2:34pm ET):

Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale - 7
Deschutes The Stoic - 7
Stone Brewing Co. 15th Anniversary Imperial Black IPA - 6
DC Brau "The Corruption" - 3
Troeg's Perpetual IPA - 2
Cigar City Ligero Black Lager - 2
Epic's Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout - 2
Maine Beer Co. Lunch IPA - 2
Hardywood Gingerbread Stout - 2
Brew Dog Hops Kill Nazis (aka Hops Kill ?) - 2
Backlash Brewing Groundswell - 2
Narragansett Summer Ale - 2
Berkshire Brewing Co. Kelly's 60th Anniversary Dark Red Irish Ale - 2

All with only one vote:

Hardywood Singel
Stone Vertical Epic 11-11-11
New Glarus Laughing Fox
Shipyard Applehead
Midnight Sun Open Container
No Label Black Wit-O
Wachusett Homegrown Hop Ale
Jailhouse Misdemeanor
Lazy Magnolia Ginger Jaque
Boulevard Brewing Collaboration #2 White IPA
Jester King Das Wunderkind
21st Amendment / Ninkasi Allies Win The War!
Notch Session Saison
Austin Beerworks Fire Eagle IPA
Victory Headwaters Pale Ale
Hangar 24 Pugachev's Cobra
Baxter Pamola Amber Ale
Karbach Brewery Sympathy for the Lager
Firestone Walker XV Anniversary Blend
Right Brain Brewery Firestarter Porter
Port City Porter
DC Brau "The Citizen"
DC Brau "The Public"
Coast Old Nuptial Bourbon Barrel Aged Barleywine
Harpoon Chocolate Stout
Drakes Aroma Coma IPA
Jack's Abby Kiwi Rising Double India Pale Lager