American Craft Beer Week celebrates the small brewery. One of the newest breweries in the Houston area is Karbach Brewing Co. The owners, Chuck Robertson and Ken Goodman, sold their beer distribution business in order to start Karbach. The brewery is housed in the old beer distribution warehouse on Karbach Street in Houston, and they currently brew five different beers. Rodeo Clown Double IPA is one of their newer brews (well, newer as in it wasn’t one of the three  [ Read More ]

Today begins American Craft Beer Week, a week-long celebration of the smaller, independent brewers in the United States. Restaurants, bars, and breweries all over the country will be having special events this week to celebrate. Since 1984, the Widmer Brothers have been brewing craft beer in Portland, Oregon. Two years later, the brothers released their Hefeweizen. Widmer refers to it as “the one that started it all”. Widmer was brewing a Weizenbier along with an Altbier when they first started  [ Read More ]

Samuel Adams Griffin’s Bow is part of a series of limited release beers from the Boston Beer Company. The local grocery store had a bunch of the limited release beers in stock so I picked a couple up. Griffin’s Bow is an oaked blonde barleywine. Toasted oak was put into the beer when it aged to add the wooden flavor. The nose reminds me more of an IPA than a barleywine with floral and fruit notes. Color is somewhat copper,  [ Read More ]

Torpedo is a bit of a strange name for a beer. Just by looking at the label it doesn’t make much sense since it’s the Sierra Nevada logo with Torpedo written under it. No real hints there. So why Torpedo? Here’s the description straight from the Sierra Nevada website: Our obsession with harnessing huge hop flavor led to the development of what we call the hop torpedo, a revolutionary method of dry-hopping designed, built, and debuted here at the brewery.  [ Read More ]

We’ve been listening to your requests, and version 1.3 of the Walt Disney World Beer List app contains one of the most popular ones. Since day one app users have been requesting a checklist feature, and it’s something we’ve been working on for a while. Each beer on the WDW Beers tab of the app now has a little circle next to it. Simply touch the circle to check off a beer; the circle fills in with a green checkmark  [ Read More ]

Hey! Let’s talk about the Mitten. No, silly. I don’t mean gloves. I mean THE Mitten. The best state. Michigan. By the way I’m just reading now that Wisconsin is trying to call themselves the Mitten. Come on, guys. I digress. Ah, pure Michigan. Great lakes, great coney dogs, great people that say pop not soda, and great beer! Founders Brewery is located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This brewery, like many craft breweries, has great beer, a great taproom, fun  [ Read More ]

What happens when two craft brewers get together? They brew beer together. Back in August 2010 (which was also when I was in Scotland for a business trip), the guys from Indiana’s Three Floyds took a trip to Fraserburgh, Scotland to brew a collaboration beer. They named the result Bitch Please. To be honest, they could have just put this rage comic face on the label and it would have been named the same thing by default. Before we get into  [ Read More ]

From the Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery in Mexico, the brewer responsible for Sol, Dos Equis, Tecate and others, comes Bohemia. Bohemia is a pilsner that gets its name from the region that is now part of the Czech Republic. This region is well known for its brewing and is the birthplace of the pilsner. Bohemia is a clear golden lager with a small, quickly dissipating head. Light grain in the nose. The taste is fairly light as well; grain notes with a  [ Read More ]

I was starting to think I just wasn’t a big fan of lagers. How can this be? I like Abita Amber and Saint Arnold Lawnmower, among others. Looking back at the recent lagers I’ve had compared to the recent ales, I started to figure it out. The lagers include Bud Light (ick), Michelob Light, Coors Light, Sapporo, and Sol. Meanwhile, the ales include Saint Arnold Endeavour and Unibroue Éphémère Blackcurrant. I was suffering from a classic case of recency bias, and  [ Read More ]

Happy Easter! Each year in the spring Dogfish Head releases Aprihop as its seasonal beer. After dyeing eggs with the kids last night, I sat down and enjoyed one of these. Aprihop isn’t just a beer that should be consumed in the month of April; it’s named for the apricots the beer is brewed with. Aprihop is a darker orange color with a nice white head. Some light floral and caramel scents in the nose. Apricot notes up front with  [ Read More ]