Beer Diary...

 O ne of my favorite styles of beer is the Belgian Golden Strong, and the classic commercial example is Duvel. 

Improvising with Style: A Homebrew Hack Worth Keeping  I ran into a bit of a special needs situation last week, and figured it was worth sharing—not for sympathy, but because this is what I love about homebrewing. No matter how many batches you’ve clocked, something will always go sideways. A missing part, a busted seal, or in this case a completely disgusting bottling bucket. The unexpected shows up, uninvited, and dares you to stay creative. So here's the scene, I'm in my element puttering around the brew cave and I'm needing to bottle a batch of porter. Easy enough—except the only bottling buckets I had looked like they’d been dragged through a gravel lot and left to soak in dirty dishwater for a few years. Discolored, scratched to hell, and definitely not the sterile environment you’d want for your pristine, freshly fermented beer. Unless, of course, you're into doctoring your brew with unknown bacteria strains and suggesting that it's a Belgian such or such....

Best beer value  K irkland Signature — a name that conjures bulk toilet paper and thirty-pound bags of trail mix — also makes beer. Or rather, they commission beer. And not just any beer. These cans of budgeted bliss are contract brewed by Deschutes Brewery, which, as far as breweries go, is like finding out the gas station hot dog you just ate was actually made by Thomas Keller. Their Helles — that’s “light” in German, though in beer it just means “not IPA” — is clear, golden, and practically screams, “Drink me while wearing cargo shorts.” At 4.5% ABV, it’s light enough to keep you from falling face-first into your lawn after three, yet satisfying enough to make you think, “Huh. Maybe Costco does know what they’re doing.” It’s crisp, bready, ever-so-slightly bitter, and—perhaps most importantly—cheap. $14.60 for a twelve-pack (that’s 276 pesos if you’re playing the home game in Mexico). It even won a gold medal at the 2023 GABF, which makes it, technically, an award-winning b...

  I ndia Pale Lager (also called a Cold IPA in some corners of the beer world) is, at its core, an IPA fermented with lager yeast at cooler, lager-friendly temperatures. It’s not rocket science—just a way to get all the bold, hoppy character of an IPA with the clean, crisp edge that comes from cold fermentation. I like them because they are the complete opposite of the beers I truly abhor: those murky, overly fruity New England IPAs. India Pale Lagers are a West Coast style, which naturally means they’re superior to anything being brewed in the Midwest or East Coast. (Sorry, but it had to be said.) And let me just say—it’s been refreshing to see the haze finally clearing from tap lists. If I'm lucky, the hazy craze is on its way out, and clear beers are reclaiming their rightful place in the lineup at my favorite breweries. If I'm really lucky, those “hazies” will occupy a single tap which I believe is a fair share of the taproom landscape. It’s been a long, sticky run for...