The wife got me a subscription to Mantry for Christmas. If you are too lazy to click that link, Mantry can be best summed up as a food snob of the month club geared towards men. In addition to receiving a pound of bacon, gourmet fried pork skins, bacon toffee chocolate, and a few other things, I also received a bottle of Bloody Mary concentrate. The thing is, I’m not really a fan of Bloody Marys. I don’t like tomato juice, and I don’t get the point of vodka (seriously, what’s the point? It doesn’t taste like anything!). So, I went ahead and did the only thing that I know how to do: I mixed it in beer. (more…)
When we last saw our heroes, Emily, Melissa, and Danny were drinking Full Sail Old Boardhead Barleywine Ale, which they eloquently described by stating that it “looks like a sunset,” “it tastes like brown,” and something about a Disneyland ride.
We now join in on their embarkment into mead territory, with a metheglin from Redstone Meadery. Want to learn more about meads? Continue reading below for more details.
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CraftHaus has moved one step closer to opening their brewery while simultaneously benefiting any future breweries planning on opening in the city of Henderson. They’ve worked with the city to get the brewpub license amended to something a bit more practical for startup breweries. To see the details of change, and how this benefits not just CraftHaus, but future breweries as well, read below. (more…)
2013 was a great year for us and we want to thank you all for continuing to read and share our articles, tagging your photos #hookedonhops, and saying hello to us when we are out at a bar or festival. We appreciate all of it, and we are excited for what’s to come in 2014!
In the meantime, I have compiled the articles and topics that were the most popular over the past year. Enjoy! (more…)
We have created new Emily and Melissa Drink Beer videos! First up, Full Sail Brewing Company’s 2012 Old Boardhead Barleywine Ale.
For additional backstory behind these videos, read below
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Lagers tend to not get the same amount of respect within the craft beer community that ales do. The name alone tends to bring up connotations of industrially brewed “fizzy yellow beer,” despite there being about 20 different styles of lagers to choose from. This likely stems from the fact that most craft breweries start out focusing on ales, likely because they are cheaper to make. Lagers not only require a lower fermentation temperature, they also require a much longer aging process, tying up fermentors that could’ve turned over a couple batches of ale. While there are several craft brewers in America that are known for their lagers, they tend to focus on making traditional examples of the styles.
What I would like to see, is the sort of innovation and creativity that American brewers have used to create very uniquely American ales, but towards the different lager styles. (more…)
I must confess, that as many times as I have frequented Aces and Ales, I have yet to attend either a dinner event, or Tuesday Night Tastings. This is not due to a lack of faith, as I have yet to enjoy a less than stellar dish during any eating experience at this establishment. Mainly, it’s simply due to life obligations sadly getting in the way of my palate’s enjoyment. Thankfully, both Luis and I were able to attend the recent Coronado Beer Dinner, and I must say, I can’t wait to attend the next!
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A year later than what was originally announced, but I was right when I suggested that the year-round sour would likely be a blended sour beer. The press release suggests that they will rotate through various sour beers by stating that “The brewery will use this expansion to bring Lips of Faith offerings like Tart Lychee and Eric’s Ale into year round production by 2015.” Tart Lychee was an amazing beer, and I’ve heard similar comments made about Eric’s Ale as well.
The benefits of using beer blends is that less of of the aged sour beer needs to be used for each batch, allowing them to then release more beer than if the beer was made up of 100% sour beer. Additionally, these beers would be less sour, and thus more approachable to drinkers who are unfamiliar with sour beers. As the label on Eric’s Ale states: “This is a sour beer for those who don’t like sour beers.”
Full press release below (more…)
I originally posted this article last year, and I got a lot of great responses from many of you who used Belgian beers to pair with your Thanksgiving feasts, so since it’s that time of year again, I thought I’d repost it. (more…)
Part 3 of my “Tasting Beer” series. The first two posts are here and here.
Thing one: wine-ification is a terrible word. Thing two: I’m pretty sure my first exposure to wine was out of a box, so it took a while before I understood the idea of wine being fancy. That is not to say that beer ever had a “fancy persona” in my mind either, but I guess that’s kind of the point to all of this.
Lately, thanks to the rapid growth of craft beer in America, there has been an increase in restaurants that feature craft beer, and programs like Cicerone have been getting more attention. This is of course is when the opinions start to come out about craft beer’s role, and often times, it is compared to wine. The New York Times had an article associating beer bottle sizes with “wine-ification,” Food & Wine compared beer glassware and food pairing with snobbery, and NPR recently discussed Cicerones.
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