I’ve been home brewing – off and on – for roughly 20 years, but I’m always eager to see how things are done at commercial breweries. I recently had the opportunity to help brew a batch of beer at Menace Brewing in Bellingham, and it was yet another learning experience. While [...]
In principle, beer is incredibly simple: use hot water to coax sugars out of malted barley, spice with hops, and then let some microorganisms gorge themselves. But in practice, the wide variety of available malts, hops, and yeast strains means that brewers have nearly limitless opportunities for creativity and innovation. [...]
We tend to think of hops as one of the four essential ingredients in beer. But that just shows how modern we are: although people have been drinking beer for at least 5000 years, hops have only been a crucial part of the recipe since sometime in the 14th or [...]
Sour ales, or beers that feature acidic and tart qualities derived from one or more strains of lactic acid bacteria, can be made in many different ways. Generally speaking, there are traditional, long-aged sour ales and there are quick/wort-soured sour ales. Most of the commercial sour ales on the market are [...]
If you’ve been to a block party at Stones Throw Brewery, not only did you get a chance to catch up with friends and neighbors, you got to enjoy local beer made by co-owner/brewer Tony Luciano, and you may have noticed the drummer in the band that was playing was [...]
Stoup Brewing's Upstairs at Stoup taproom Differentiation in the craft world is what drives competition. It's integral to what keeps the industry evolving, shifting and improving. But every once in a while a brewery finds a synergy with another. This leads to collaborations and a strengthening of the [...]
Pop quiz: what do the words eventful, lonely, and obscene have in common? I’ll give you a hint: they all entered the English language between 1590 and 1610. Alright, I’ll just tell you: what those words, and at least several hundred others, have in common is Shakespeare. He didn’t just [...]
