Author: Professor Good Ales

Written by Franz Hofer for A Tempest in a Tankard

When you think of beer destinations in Central Europe, certain cities and regions stand out as iconic.

Rauchbier from Bamberg. Budweiser from Budweis. Kölsch from Cologne. Pilsener from Pilsen. Altbier from Düsseldorf. Berliner Weisse. Gose from Leipzig. Light and dark lagers from Munich. And the beer riches of Bavaria in general.

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Portland seems to have skipped the rainy spring season and gone straight to the sun-filled patio, day-drinking spring season. Blame global warming, or maybe just our mercurial weather patterns (it’s probably going to go back to rainy at any point), but whatever the case, it’s the perfect excuse to try a seasonal beer or two from one of our many breweries.

Oddly, not every brewery has released their spring beers yet, but from the ones that have, here are our favorites.

Ecliptic Brewing Zenith Grapefruit Gose

Gose, 5.2% ABV
Mississippi (district)

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These are beers you’re going to see at picnics and softball games and rafting trips and bicycle races and around campfires for years to come, because they speak to everyone in the Pacific Northwest who really loves our epic brewing tradition…

There have been a few notable dissenters who’ve roped me into long and pointless email exchanges about my ongoing love for Deschutes beers. The very things that I love about them are the things that seem to set a lot of folks off. One guy, who has now mercifully moved onto to ragging somebody else in the Beerniverse, spent two solid months trying to argue me off Deschutes, back in 2009-2010. “Their beers are flabby!” he wrote, “They talk about hops but then they don’t deliver. It’s all just marketing. They know that Northwest beer lovers want hops and yet they crap up every beer with malts that blunt the bitterness! They claim to love hops but they know that newbie drinkers won’t touch a properly bitter ale, so they mute everything! When are you and they going to get a clue?”

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An Alabama craft brewery will observe the state’s new growler law by debuting a limited-release peach beer inspired by the ongoing Gov. Robert Bentley scandal.

Salty Nut Brewery of Huntsville said its new Unimpeachable Pale Ale will celebrate the “unimpeachable leadership shown by Bentley,” who came under fire in March after he admitted to making sexually inappropriate comments to his former political adviser, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, who has since resigned.

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Hops Canada founder Joey Bedard (left) and TIB Coun. Howard Campbell on the farm beside the North Thompson River. The band is two-thirds owner of the brokerage and farm now under development. (Cam Fortems/KTW)

Standing amid a barren forest of poles laid out in a grid and topped by cables, Joey Bedard interrupts a tour of his farm to take a call.

It’s Sanjay, from India. He wants hops, the cones used for centuries both to preserve beer and give it complex taste.

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Whether Op uw gezondheid! – or – À vôtre santé!, it’s meant for she who bought the beer.

Belgian Craft Beers – there are so many, it can be hard to determine which ones are maybe even worth travelling to Belgium for. There are a thousand lists out there but as a Belgian myself, already looking forward to having some Abbey cheese and beer in a pub garden in the West of Flanders during the Summer, here are the 9 ultimate brew gems…

Karmeliet

Even the Belgian’s themselves think of this beer as something very special. Famous for its heavy and strong taste, impeccable foam and dark colours, Karmeliet is the kind of beer you order one of and simply indulge. Its fame is rare for a beer that’s only been around for about 20 years, however the monk-crafted recipe itself dates all the way back to 1679. Its popularity ran particularly high when it won the World’s Best Ale prize in 2008.

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The world’s most popular beverage throughout most of recorded history nearly died out after the Middle Ages but now counts as the smallest but fastest growing segment of the American alcohol beverage industry.

What Defines Mead?

In order to understand the mead industry singularly we must first find perspective as it is placed into the larger context of the entire US alcohol beverage industry. Nearly all styles of mead are produced in a winery. This is because the federal government classifies honey as an agricultural product which when fermented in the absence of cereal grains, is classified into one of several categories such as an “Agricultural,” “High Fermentation” or “Other than Standard” wine. These categories are often confusing to both professional mead makers and the governing body, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, a division of the US Department of the Treasury. Due to this convoluted system, the American Mead Makers Association is working through our legislative committee to restructure the federal classification of mead styles to reflect commonly accepted terminology among the mead making and mead drinking communities. This results in a meadery first being a winery that has the legal ability to ferment the sugars found in fruits such as the grapes in wine and apple juice in hard cider, and certain agricultural products such as honey and other sugars. Special ingredients can also be added as long as they are approved by the formulation division of the Tax and Trade Bureau

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Bummed by anti-LGBT legislation in North Carolina? Here’s a novel way to fight it: Drink beer.

Thirty-six breweries in the Southern state have banded together to brew Don’t Be Mean to People: A Golden Rule Saison.

As of the time this article was posted, a Kickstarter campaign to create the brew has raised over $24,000, which well exceeds its goal of $1,500.

All of the profits of the beer, which will be released in May, benefit two LGBT groups. The first, Equality North Carolina, is fighting the newly passed House Bill 2, which struck down down LGBT-inclusive municipal antidiscrimination ordinances and prohibits cities from adopting any new ones. It also expressly requires transgender people to use public bathrooms and locker rooms that do not match their gender identity.

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Harlem has a special place in the American imagination when it comes to culture, art and music. But would you also imagine small-batch beer? Well.

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