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Internet broadcasting has been popular for quite a while now, and sooner or later someone was bound to start net-blogging beer. Actually: sooner that soon. Now. For a while. Craft beer radio features podcasts, CBR Wiki, rankings and reports on many different beers. Is it great radio? The Professor only suggest you decide for yourself at www.craftbeerradio.com
European brewers really like Christmas.
Breweries in Belgium brew some of their best beers for this jolly time of year, while England dedicated an entire beer style – the winter warmer – to the coldest of seasons.
Last week, I gave you my top 10 American winter seasonal beers. Here’s a look at my top 10 European winter seasonals, which change every year.
1. Christmas Ale, St. Bernardus, Belgium, 10 percent alcohol by volume (ABV)
St. Bernardus’ Christmas Ale is always one of the first winter beers I buy. This Belgian strong dark ale is full of flavors of dark fruit and spices.
Despite the high alcohol, this is so easy to drink. It’s actually relatively smooth. It’s sweet, but it’s what you’d expect from such a high-alcohol beer.
If you buy one Belgian Christmas ale a year, this is the one to buy.
2. Christmas Ale, Corsendonk, Belgium, 8.5 percent ABV
Continue reading “The Beer Nut: Top 10 European Winter Seasonals to Try”
Note: these pictures are a lot better than what I usually take. That’s because I didn’t take them. Courtesy of The Barley Mob.
We got there at about 7:30 am after leaving Nashville at 3:30am. There’s a time change and we didn’t want to be late for our 8am judge gathering. Luckily we called for information and pulled up maps. The address is Patten Parkway. 
A one block “Parkway?” Well, whatever. If Tony Giannasi, master homebrewer, builder of grand, huge, tap displays, competition organizer and alien from the planet Snorpschnatch… (OK, I made that one up, but since the oceans on Snorpschnatch are all high gravity ales he probably wishes he was.) … (If Tony) hadn’t been standing outside with boxes of prizes and corny kegs of beer we would have thought we were in the wrong place. The Honest Pint in Chattanooga is a work in progress: not open yet. And as you can tell from the chandeliers alone it will be magnificent.
Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”
The Bottle Collection
Mediocre picture for a less than mediocre beer. This one’s about middle age-wise in a collection that started in the early 50s. Early 90’s probably. Wild Boar Special Amber wasn’t all that “special at all.” Listed as an Oldenberg product, just south of Cincinnati, OH. Most likely a contract product. I remember it as bland, slightly “amber,” few hops if any and OK carbonation. The Bunny Bread of even craft contract brews.
The problem is I did a tour of the old Oldenberg facility about that time. Nice place. Huge German-style beer hall. The beer: they had three unremarkable taps for samples. I asked the tour guide what they did if someone contracted a Robust Porter, since they didn’t have one, or an IPA, and she proudly announced that they would give the closest brew they had to that style.
Considering the beer I had that day, this beer and other Oldenberg contract beer I’ve had, I believe her. They used to contract brew for McGuires in Pensacola and the product was very unsatisfactory. They told me Oldenberg simply wouldn’t work with them. So the contract was dropped. Only recently did McGuires contract out again, since they don’t have a bottling line. The experience was that bad.
Wild Boar is a restaurant chain. Probably the contract-ee. Apparently the brand has been revived with another, hopefully better contract brewer: Dubuque Star Brewing Co. in Dubuque, Iowa. Being sold at Wild Boars in Atlanta from what I can gather.
Interesting collectible.
Not so interesting product.
I’m not crying that this version of the brand is gone.
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 20 minutes
Beer Style: Brown Ale
Seasonality: Winter
Serves: 4
The Food Blogga created this recipe for Roasted Sweet Potatoes in honor of San Diego Beer Week. It’s sweet, salty, smoky, and tangy. It’s great with beer buddies like pork and beef and goes really well with chicken sandwiches and salmon burgers.
Continue reading “Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Maple Smoked Bacon and Beer”
Think the craft beer lover in your life has everything? Well, unless they own a bottle of each of the following beers, they couldn’t possibly: presenting the most expensive beers ever sold. Collecting rare and vintage beers is for the most hard-core beer fans, who run the gamut from casual hoarders to nattily-attired collectors to a handful of real wingnuts. Below, their Holy Grail.
Antarctic Nail Ale, $800
A single bottle of Antarctic Nail Ale, made by Nail Brewing Co. of Fremantle, Australia, was sold for $800 at a charity auction last month. Why so spendy? A portion of the water used was melted Antarctic Sea ice harvested by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (of Whale Wars fame). Call it the Moby Dick of publicity stunts.
Continue reading “This Year, Give the Gift of Really, Really Expensive Beer”
You might have noticed the proliferation of beers marketing themselves as “Fresh Hop” brews on the market recently. But you’re probably wondering: What does this mean? Don’t all beers have fresh hops in them? If not fresh, then what are they?
Hops are the budded plant that gives beer its bitter and aromatic qualities. They’re harvested in late summer/fall, from August to early September. Because of this, hops are most often dried or processed into compressed pellets or 
plugs that store year round. The techniques for this process are pretty sophisticated, so the quality of hop pellets are pretty good. If you’ve ever bought hop pellets from a homebrew store, these are essentially the same things that commercial brewers use year round in their beers.
During the fall, however, brewers have a rare opportunity to work with fresh hops. Also called wet hops, these buds don’t keep long and require a much larger dose than plugs or pellets to get the same bittering. They’re expensive and rarer, and so beers made with fresh (wet) hops are too.
Continue reading “Fresh Hop Brews”
Guldenberg Belgian Abbey Beer
8.5% abv
Brewery De Ranke, Wevelgem, Belgium
Scribe’s sample was a simple bottle: no wrap. Nice head: so what? It’s the beer that counts. Hops are a bit “musty”:” light, in the background. Light straw color, hazy.
Yes: Belgian.
Nose: about right.
Yeast: just right.
Body: lacking
A bit Tripel-ish. Not so much Belgian Abbey-ish. More body required. More complexity. Someone wanted to monopolize of Belgian beer’s popularity and got a shadow of a Tripel. Age might help, but doubtful. If you’re brewing a Tripel put the label on the $#@! package.
There are far better Belgian Abbey Ales.
Kenneth Wars mug shot courtesy of Angelina County Jail.
LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) – An Alvarado man known since 2007 as the “Beer Bandit” has pleaded guilty to using a brick to break into an Angelina County convenience store to stealing 30-packs of beer.
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Some of the Beer Nut’s favorite winter seasonals. Art Illman/for Daily News and Wicked Local
This is the most wonderful time of the year — well, at least when it comes to craft beer.
While craft brewers seem to settle on boring wheat ales during the summer, those same craft brewers pull out all of the stops for their winter seasonals.
It’s the biggest variety of beers — India pale ales, red ales, barley wines, stouts — it’s just a cornucopia of flavors.
Here are my picks for the top 10 winter seasonals available now. If you have any of my past lists, you’ll notice it changes each year. That reflects my ever-evolving personal tastes…
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