Author: Professor Good Ales

Almost two years ago to the day, I posted this rabble-rousing little beer bomb, here in the brand new ThePourFool website and instantly got a mini-flood of emails from disgruntled Euro-Snots who wrote things like – quoting now –

“Have you even actually tasted a Flanders ale? If you had, there’s no goddamned way you’d ever write something like this…”

“So, let’s get this straight: American ‘craft brewing’ is not real brewing. It’s more like a hobby that’s been taken up by way too many people who don’t actually understand beer. This ‘Crux’ bunch (stupid name) should stick to making the kind of moron-level beers that all their other slacker pals are cranking out, all the British crap that only mouth-breathers drink.”

Want to read more? Please click…

HERE

It wasn’t too long ago that the Pale Ale, in either authentic English or nouveau American Pale Ale (“APA”) version, was little more than an afterthought. I went a period of almost five years before I could amass more than five or six Pales that got me excited enough to write about them. It’s becoming, Thank God, hard to remember how thoroughly the disease of IPA Obsession was upon us but the headlong scramble to make the Next Big Deal in India Pale Ales trumped everything in brewing, including common sense and good judgment.

Want to read more? Please click…

HERE

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.

Want to read more? Please click…

HERE

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)

Want to read more? P;ease click…

HERE

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?”

Want to read more? Please click…

HERE

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.

Want to read more? Please click…

HERE

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.

Want to read more? Please click…

HERE

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.

Want to read more? Please click…

HERE

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

Want to read more? Please click…

HERE