Every winter we become inundated with the beers of the cold-weather season: thick porters, spicy holiday ales and novelty beers with flavors ranging from pumpkin to iced gingerbread. Many styles of beer have been delegated to our harvest times due to the availability of their constituent ingredients. One beer, however, has blossomed every spring for thousands of years, harkening back to the very first days of modern brewing. Yes, without the cooler months, the lambic would certainly not exist, and with it would go one of the best beverages ever created for a warm springtime day. Let’s gai...
For centuries, beer has been seen as a peasant’s drink. Made by even the lowliest farmer, many of the upper crust would not partake in the beverage due to its connotations to the poor. Even in some of man’s earliest written records, we find that beer’s oldest ancestors were snubbed by the well-off for drinks of a higher perceived quality. Thankfully, one style of beer arrived recently on the scene to bridge the gap between farmer’s quaff and debutante’s drink: the Barleywine. Barleywine is a relatively new style of beer, despite its name being as old as some of man’s first soci...
This March you shouldn’t have to sacrifice taste for holiday spirit. With the plethora of dyes and light beers on special this St. Patty’s, you’ll be likely to turn green at the prospect of finding a suitably Irish drink to celebrate. Rather than make yourself ill with an emerald ale, bolster your body with thick and Irish-descended stout. And what better stout to give you the kind of energy to get through a night of leprechaun-themed shooters than the nourishing milk stout? The history of the stout goes hand in hand with that of the porter, having been developed from the mixing of be...
It seems that every Saint Patrick’s Day bursts in with a bang and trudges out with a headache. With the blur of green hats, shirts, ribbons, rivers, and parades we forget to appreciate one of the truly important green things associated with the Irish: green beer. While green beer is decidedly an American institution, its history goes back at least one hundred years. While green beer has survived due to our fascination with novelty, the future of green beer may well be held in foreign lands. But before we get too far away, let us investigate some claims into the invention of this...
Valentine’s Day is a holiday mired both in ancient lore and supermarket propaganda. The holiday is supposedly based on the wedding ceremonies the titular Valentine performed for Roman soldiers who were banned from marriage by their Emperor. (Apparently, married men aren’t as hard-hearted.) Whether this is true is anyone’s guess, though greeting card companies enthusiastically promote the story. Every year in remembrance of these alleged acts, we gather heart-shaped boxes of candy and flowers to give to our significant others in the hopes that they won’t find another to elicit favor fro...
New Year’s Day is a time of remembrance, and with the arrival of the year 2012 many people have begun to remember the Mayans, those crazy ancient people who predicted our planet’s demise by the end of this trip around the sun. While those doomsday claims may not have many rigorous studies attributed to them, we say "who cares?" — anyway, this is a beer column. We’re more into the Aztecs, those badasses who were known for ripping out people’s beating hearts before kicking them down the filthy pyramid steps. A little Indiana Jones humor goes a long way. Now on to making you smart. As...
It’s the time of year for holiday beers, and the mad rush associated with getting them can turn any merry soul into a veritable Scrooge. If you didn’t get your holiday beer by mid-November, you may as well just forget it unless you know a distributor who will charge you twice as much for the good stuff. Bah, humbug! Rather then let yourself become like the embittered businessman, settle in with the dark and roasty flavors of one of the first beers of the Industrial Revolution: the porter. With its history in technological expansion and beverage recombination, the porter paved the way fo...
You may believe that Thanksgiving is only about getting indigestion with your in-laws while fighting over the remote with your niece due to an all-day “iCarly” marathon. What could be more American? We here at the Brewstorian can think of only one thing, and that thing, of course, is glorious American beer. And what beer could be more symbolic of our melting-pot heritage than pumpkin ale? A style that has recently undergone a seasonal resurgence, pumpkin ale in modern times has become a uniquely spiced version of America’s beverage of choice. Big brewers throw in artificial flavorings...
Beer: a delicious beverage that dates back to the dawn of civilization. Beer is enjoyed by people of every race and creed, can be brewed from every variety of grain imaginable and can vary in taste and substance that rivals wine and liquors. Though beer has been undergoing a renaissance of micro- and craft-brewing over the past few decades, most know nothing about beer’s storied existence other than its ability to get ya drunk. While its ability to intoxicate is well documented, the history of beer is underrepresented. This column aims to fix just that. In honor of that most cherished...
Something lurks in Lake Erie. A creature displaced in time, hungry for the megafauna of an era bygone. At least this is what the Great Lakes Brewing Company would like you to believe with its seasonal Double India Pale Ale, Lake Erie Monster, a tribute to the lake’s local cryptid South Bay Bessie. Does this brew live up to Bessie’s legendary status, or is it just another big fish story? The beer pours the dark yellow color of corn flakes and has a foamy head with lots of nice lacing on the edge of the meniscus. The aroma of the drink is tangy with dominant citrus notes, an artifact o...
Listen, I don’t have a lot of time Mac! I need you to take this review and get out of here! Keep it safe! This week I’m taking Christian Moerlein’s OTR Ale to “Sleep With the Fishes,” if you catch my meaning. That’s right, I’m going to drink it. The perp opens with a very grainy aroma with strong citrus notes. The beer pours a very tangerine orange and has a thick, sudsy white head. The head, brief, is followed up by some slight lacing but continuous carbonation. The beer itself is very mild on the front, tasting slightly fruity with a touch of caramel. The hop ...
Geopolitical strife, partisan quarrels, real-estate tycoons; the American political system is in shambles. None of our elected officials can grasp every facet of the current social paradigm and it is driving us needlessly apart. Our country was formed on equality of the common man, so I say we take a stand against our popular overlords and introduce a new ruling class based upon the one thing we all love: drinking good beer. And what better beer to answer this call to arms than 21st Amendment’s Brew Free Or Die IPA? This beer pours a slightly cloudy and golden yellow with small amoun...
(A six pack later) The weather was decent enough today to warrant donning my running shorts and headphones. At about a mile-and-a-half, I became excited at the prospect Spring evenings with their brilliant reds and warm breezes. Dogfish Head's Indian Brown Ale excited me to this effect as well. A sweet, slightly hopped number of Dogfish's regular rotation, the Indian Brown Ale is a peculiar mix of a scotch ale and the brewery's legendary india pale ale. The beer smells of dried, tart cherries and pours a honey brown color. The head is light tan but unfortunately doesn't linger long. ...
You can get Harpoon Leviathan Imperial IPA from Portage Lakes Brewing Co. – 365 beers in store…one for every day of the year! Call 330-644-BEER They were unrelenting. We had taken heavy fire to port and were being boarded. I retired to my quarters as my men were holding back their initial push. It was time to summon the Leviathan. That is to say it was time to drink Harpoon's Leviathan Imperial India Pale Ale. There was no way in Davey Jones' Locker we were winning this one. This beer is a victory, however. This IPA pours with a nice viscous head with a body color reminiscent of ...
You can get Shmaltz He'Brew Messiah Bold from Portage Lakes Brewing Co. - 365 beers in store...one for every day of the year! Call 330-644-BEER Who can review a beer after one chug? In all fairness here is the review a six pack later: Of the nearly thousand texts found on the banks of the Dead Sea only one contained the recipes for an ancient beverage served in the temples of Jerusalem. The people would brew this sacred kosher drink in secrecy, hidden away in caves out of the sight of the Roman guard. Shmaltz Brewing Company's He'Brew Messiah Bold is not this legendary brew. ...
Here's the premise: We give this beer drinking dude Ryan a bunch of different beers which we have purchased at one of our favorite beers stores, Portage Lakes Brewing Co. (365 beers in store.,..one for every day of the year! Call 330-644-BEER ), and he takes them one by one to the head. If he gives it a thumbs up then we're good, otherwise, well you get the point. This week he has reviewed Sierra Nevada Glissade. Check the video below. Ryan's word: Many mountain climbers know the best way down a snowy hill is to employ a technique known as the glissade. This may sound hairy to...
