Buffalo Bill’s Brewery | Orange Blossom Cream Ale

Hi all! I’m Kate, a new contributor around here. I write the blog Brown Ale Girl, which shares snippets of life, food, and beer in Cincinnati. I love drinking dark beer, supporting local businesses, and witnessing the revitalization of the Queen City. 

ABV: 5.2%

IBU: 13

Yogi Berra is credited as saying, “Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.” Granted that it’s THE American pastime, I think a lot of people would agree. I grew up in a household where the Cincinnati Reds game was on the outdoor radio and family room television every night. Therefore, it’s not officially spring to me until I attend a baseball game. I was a little late this year, but this week I went to my first Reds and high school game of the season. To be honest, I felt chills when I heard the first “thwack” of the ball hitting the catcher’s glove. Read More

Marz Community Brewing Co | Jungle Boogie

Chicago is a city of neighborhoods. And after living here for any extended period of time, that phrase becomes so common and clichéd that it loses its meaning and incites a collective eye roll from any Chicagoan who hears it (as I’m sure any Chicagoan reading this has already audibly groaned at another utterance). But although it’s become a throwaway phrase, it’s still important to the city’s identity. Sometimes being a city of neighborhoods ends up creating divides and pockets of separation, as demonstrated by the city’s most recent mayoral election. Thankfully, there are dedicated groups of Chicago brewers more focused on bringing people together than providing further means of division. Read More

Westbrook Brewing Co. | Fisticuffs

8.0% ABV

Westbrook Brewing Company may not be the biggest, but they are one of the best breweries in South Carolina. This past January, RateBeer.com released their list of “Top Beers, Brewers, New Brewers By Subregion,” which listed Westbrook as Best Brewery in South Carolina, again. So, would you expect anything less than Fisticuffs from the Charleston, SC based brewery? I would say, not! Read More

Great South Bay Brewery | Blood Orange Pale Ale

Average reading time: 1 minute

ABV: 5%

IBU: 40

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Carly.  She went for a stroll along the water front in Brooklyn.  Pretty soon, she came upon an unassuming bar.  She peeked inside, and when the bartender beckoned, she walked right in. Atop a stool at the counter, there were many taps of craft beer and Carly was thirsty.

Packing some punch from the Great South Bay of Long Island, New York is the Blood Orange Pale Ale. I call it the Goldilocks of Pale Ales — not too tangy, not too tart, this one is just right. The combination of American hops, malted barley and bitter blood oranges stir up a frenzy of flavors in your mouth that radiate across your tongue. While emitting a florally fresh scent that is expected from Cascade hops, they also play a part in adding a citrus-like quality to the body. The ale’s color is light, matching the mood one acquires upon drinking. Read More

Brewery Ommegang | Abbey Ale Dubbel Ale

ABV: 8.2%

My mother always says “Presentation is Everything”. Oftentimes, when enjoying an Ommegang beer, I assume she stole her personal little motto from these Cooperstown brewers. From factors as important as taste and quality to such seemingly inconsequential items as font choices, every inch of the Ommegang experience, from their early days to current day, is a masterclass in craft brewing.

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Brouwerij Rodenbach | Vintage Oak Aged Ale 2012

Average Reading Time: 2 Minutes

Flemish Style ale
Brouwerij Rodenbach
Steenhuffel, Belguim
ABV: 7%

In short, Brouwerij Rodenbach‘s Vintage Oak Aged ale could, easily, be described as a champagne among beers! The long way round takes about 200 years, which is about how long Brouwerij (Brewery) Rodenbach has been brewing. How exciting is that? Read More

Uinta Brewing Company | Yard Sale Winter Lager

The April snowstorm that blanketed the Salt Lake Valley last week is the biggest I’ve seen since moving here in September. Admittedly it hasn’t been a great winter. Luckily I was able to take advantage of my employer’s powder morning policy, getting up to Brighton Resort for first chair and making a few last-week-of-the-season powder turns. The hardest part is leaving to head to work while the late-comers are still arriving to make their own tracks in my snow.

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Railhouse Brewery | Mastiff Oatmeal Stout

ABV: 6.5% | IBU: 33

Before we find ourselves too far removed from winter, I wanted to share a stout I discovered recently, Mastiff Oatmeal Stout from Railhouse Brewery. Railhouse is veteran-owned (hence the patriotic bottle cap) and -operated in Aberdeen, North Carolina. Aberdeen, like many towns home to NC brewers, is relatively small and out of the way. Located a couple hours south and west of Raleigh and an hour due west of Fort Bragg, you might never hear of it were it not for the beer. Read More

The Bronx Brewery | Bronx Pale Ale

The last two weekends I’ve been spending some time in the Bronx, the last borough (that matters – sorry Staten Island) left to be aggressively gentrified within an inch of its life. Their zoo is legit and has real zoo animals, not like the sideshow attractions that pass for the Prospect Park and Central Park Zoos. Their Little Italy has authentic groceries and restaurants, as opposed to 60 dollar all you can eat/drink buffets whose one authentic Italian quality is their eerily accurate ability to re-enact Roman vomitoriums. There aren’t any American Apparels and things are named practically instead of after eye-catching phrases that have been market tested to death. Basically, the Bronx still bears the grit of the city and the community-minded neighborhood vibe that all us transplants who came to New York thought we were getting instead of sanitized, post collegiate money drains we’ve inadvertently created by moving here.

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Coast Brewing Co. | 32°/50° Kölsch

ABV: 4.8%

I picked up another four-pack of Coast Brewing’s 32°/50° Kölsch this weekend. I love this Kölsch. It is currently offered in draft, 22oz. bombers and four-pack 16oz cans year round. Coast Brewing’s 32°/50° is an excellent spring/summer time beer to accompany any and all outings. In a world of dark ales and hoppy IPAs, the Kölsch is a welcomed and pleasant respite from the intensities of the season.

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Off Color Brewing | Bare Bear

Style: Finnish Sahti
IBU: 20
ABV: 7.0%

For the average American, a sauna inspires images of scantily clad, sweaty old men at the gym. Either that or Florida in August. Fortunately for us, the wonderful citizens of Finland have a much different perspective on the sauna, and found it a perfect environment for brewing beer. With over 200 days of winter-like conditions every year, they could stay warm while brewing beer, which meant they had beer to keep them warm while they went outside for materials to brew more beer! At least that’s my theory…

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The Burnt Hickory Brewery | The Fighting Bishop

ABV 8.5% | IBU 23

The Burnt Hickory Brewery is a sleeping giant that is awakening in Kennesaw, Georgia. It has been in business for only 3 years, as of … Read More

The Brew Kettle | All for One Session IPA

ABV: 4.75% | IBU: 35

Over the decades, Cleveland sports has had many moments that have been hard to swallow. Despite Cleveland being one of the more pained sports cities, moments of intense optimism do pop up from time to time bringing a refreshing tint to the hues of cynicism. For example, there’s always the start of baseball season and the chants of “It’ll be this year!” Along with that, there’s annually a nice brew to go with that. Turning to basketball though, the return of LeBron James and the acquisition of many other stellar players has allowed my Cleveland Cavaliers to fare quite well in the second half of this year’s NBA season. Hope is blossoming again, albeit with the normal hint of caution. Still, The Brew Kettle, a local brewery in the Cleveland area, has begun distributing its All for One Session IPA to continue stoking the flames of the playoff push that is now imminent. Excitement has definitely returned to the CLE!  Read More

Sierra Nevada | Hop Hunter IPA

Brewery: Sierra Nevada (Chico, CA)
Style: IPA
Season: Perennial
IBU: 60
ABV: 6.2

As the summer slowly comes into permanent existence here on the East Coast, it’s time for that special style from the West Coast. Who else but Sierra Nevada would employ a new style with signature quality and popular fanfare? Read More

Wicked Weed | Oblivion

ABV: 8.7% | IBU: negligible

We use a lot of colors when we talk about beer. This beer is amber. That beer is black. This one is straw. That one is brown. These are all quite common. Yet, for all of my beer-drinking life, I have only infrequently come across the color red. Maybe it’s my geography. Some of the world’s best-known and most highly acclaimed beers come out of Belgium, among them a variety of reds. Rodenbach’s Grand Cru, Duchesse de Bourgogne from Brewery Verhaeghe, and New Belgium’s La Folie are just a few examples.

In spite of (and thanks to) my geography, I’ve been fortunate enough to come across a delectable sour red ale from one of North Carolina’s finest breweries, the Asheville-based Wicked Weed Brewing Company. They call it Oblivion, and they give it a little story. Read More

Evil Twin Brewing | Ashtray Heart

ABV: 8.9%

I miss smoking in bars. My clothes and hair don’t reek every night, and the lack of clouds of noxious oxygen thieves in bars dulling taste and smell might have done more to promote the rise of craft beer than any other external factor – but the romance of the dive bar is largely sustained by the haze that lingers around dim light bulbs. There was a certain je ne sais quoi that many establishments lost once they cleaned up (while others revealed even worse smells that the smoke was hiding). In my eternal hunt to recapture this hazy atmosphere, I stumbled into one of my favorite dive bars in Brooklyn (low lights, great bartender, amazing jukebox, check-check-check), and discovered Evil Twin’s Ashtray Heart. With one sip, I found the gritty but smooth feeling I was missing, with none of smoking’s greatly-enhanced chance of lung cancer.

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4 Noses Brewing Co. | Bareback Blonde Ale and Make My Day Session IPA

4 Noses Brewing Company’s mission is to be a socially responsible brewery of extraordinary passion and creativity, constantly crafting unique and classic styles. Hosted in their comfortable yet elegant tap room, they strive to serve only the freshest ales and lagers, in addition to their constantly changing barrel-aged beers.

4 Noses taproom is mad gorgeous. Their ales and lagers embody creativity and passion for brewing. While most would implore you not to take their word for it and to explore on your own; we wholeheartedly want you to take our word for it (because we won’t steer you wrong) AND to visit their taproom at your earliest convenience. You will not be bummed. We promise.

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Uinta Brewing Company | Anniversary Barley Wine Ale

10.4% ABV

There’s a common misconception that you can’t get strong beer in Utah. In reality, you can get strong beer in Utah; you just have to jump through a hoop or two to get it. So when you finally do drive the ten miles to the state owned liquor store, at a time that it’s actually open, when you’re willing to pay the ridiculous prices for room temperature beer, you know the secret handshake you have to give the clerk, and you walk out of the place with a couple of mix and match six packs of beers like Uinta Brewing Company‘s 10.4% ABV Anniversary Barley Wine Ale, you tend to want to save a bottle or two to enjoy on a random week night. Well, my friends, tonight is one of those nights. Read More

Upland Brewing Co. | Blackberry Lambic

It is open season in Bloomington, IN. Open sour season that is with the recent release of Upland Brewing Co.’s highly regarded sours. A sour ale from almost every fruit imaginable, Upland has created some of the most sought after sour beers in the country—and I got my hands on one! Read More

Comrade Brewing Company | Hop Chops

ABV: 9.5%

Ever since I started hosting trivia at Comrade Brewing Company (Wednesday nights at 7pm, y’all!), Comrade has consistently brewed some fantastic beer. Each week they seem to be putting out a brand new beer for all those beer lovers of northwest-ish Aurora. (Or is it southeast-ish Denver?) They love trying new things and mixing up the ever-rotating tap list, but if there is one thing that Comrade Brewing Company is consistently awesome at it’s hops. Read More