Month: July 2015

A questionable claim, at best. But we’re glad that Hoppin Frog, covered by our writer: Ken Carman, made the list. Maui? We guess our writer. Tom Becham may question that. Picture from different post, courtesy www.manteresting.com.

Ohio

Hoppin’ Frog Brewery (address and info)
Akron
Great Lakes, with its Christmas Ale and Eliot Ness, might be Ohio’s most iconic brewery, but down the road in Akron, Hoppin’ Frog’s clandestinely brewing up the state’s best beer in what appears to be a storage unit. One sip of the 9.4% beast that is Barrel Aged B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher, an imperial oatmeal stout, should be enough to make a fan out of anybody who doubts its reputation as one of the finest beers in the world.

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HERE

Beaches and brews are two of the great staples of summer vacation.

Last year we published the feature “5 of America’s Beeriest Beach Towns” and received an overwhelming response from our readers. The story no doubt struck a chord with all those among us who love the smell of the ocean, the sound of the surf and the taste of a fresh beer.

With the dramatic rise in popularity of flavorful, hand-crafted ales and lagers produced by our country’s small and independent craft brewers, even remote coastal towns now offer plenty of breweries, brewpubs and bottle shops.

And so, for the summer of 2015, we present five more places to seek out for a beery, beachside getaway:

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HERE

Think of how few flavour additives are ever added to Belgian beer – rarely anything other than fruit, of course, and the odd spice such as coriander and Curaçao. Then think of what lengths brewers go to in order to inject flavours into their beers using different sorts of malt, special yeast and, especially nowadays, all kinds of exotic hops.

Isn’t it odd that you would try to create fruity, spicy or herbal flavours without using fruit, spice or herbs? Not any more. Thanks to a new collaboration between lambic brewers Lindemans and Danish beer firm Mikkeller, you can now sample a lambic beer made with the addition of fresh basil leaves – if you’ve ever wondered what the best beer is to go with pizza, wonder no longer.

Lindemans reckons, and few would disagree, that the new trend worldwide is towards sour beers, even if the hype surrounding bitter-hopped beers is not yet played out. Mikkeller, known for its desire always to test boundaries, agrees.

“The Belgian Lambics have something mysterious about them,” says Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, co-founder of Mikkeller. “The spontaneous fermentation process adds to that mystery. We have been experimenting with pretty much all beer styles, and finally we got to work with Lindemans lambic!”

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