An Ode to the Nutty | Why I Love Pistachio Cream Ales

The amount of different beer styles you’ll see on shelves at your local convenience store has exploded over the past decade. While IPAs, Pilsners and Stouts dominate shelf space, the consumer’s quest for the odd continues to push brewers to make even more outlandish offerings. Fruited sours with enough fruit purée to fill a blender. Pastry stouts that load up on sugary sweetness and eyebrow-raising adjuncts. While these newer styles might draw the hype of beer fans and secondary trading markets, they’re not for me. However, there is one beer style that I’m consistently drawn to that does feature an outlandish ingredient—pistachios. Specifically, the Pistachio Cream Ale, one of my consistently favorite beer styles to drink regardless of time or season. 

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Homebrewing Recipe | Top of the Morning Cream Ale

Homebrewers are driven by the desire to make new recipes. Usually when we recreate an old recipe, we try to improve on past mistakes or change ingredients to make a better product. This is the one beer recipe I’ve made more than once thanks to it’s quality. I present to you my award-winning Top of the Morning Cream Ale!
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Petoskey Brewing Company | Cranium Crush Waffle Cone Raspberry Cream Ale

7.0% ABV

The Sunday evening before Memorial Day brought rain, but it let up when I was feeling most productive. When the clouds broke and the western skies opened, I walked to the laundromat, washed, and exchanged a dollar for dryer quarters. Read More

Scorched Earth Brewing | Hickster

ABV: 4.8% | IBU: 14

After pinballing through Chicago Craft Beer Week, my liver was in need of some time off. I obliged for about a week before the amazing weather we’ve been having eroded my willpower. However, I compromised, and vowed to drink only beers that were less than 5% ABV. It’s more fitting for 80 degree weather anyway and, frankly, I’m a little worn out on 7%+ IPAs. Thankfully, CCBW reintroduced all the beer styles I haven’t visited in awhile, which granted me plenty of options. One of these stuck out, and I’m pretty sure it will be a consistent 6-pack in my fridge this summer — Scorched Earth’s Hickster.

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Ultimate 6er | Essential Indiana Beers

The holidays are a great time to spend with friends and family. For a Colorado transplant like myself, that means a lot of travel. When I left Indiana for the bright lights of Colorado eight and a half years ago, the craft beer scene in Indiana had its bright spots but left a lot to be desired. Whenever I would head back for a visit to Indiana, I felt like a beer sherpa with the crazy amount of Colorado craft beers in my bags for family members. But every year at Great American Beer Fest, I found more and more Hoosier breweries in attendance (and more of them getting great buzz). Read More

Middle Brow Beer Co. | Keep It Copacetic

ABV: 4.7%

Keep It Copacetic is an elote-inspired cream ale made by Middle Brow Beer Co. in conjunction with the folks over at ManBQue, an organization that got its start in Chicago, but now has chapters worldwide. Read More

Cucumber Beer – The Ultimate 6er

Searching for that refreshing brew this summer can be overwhelming while I stare giddily at the bottle shop coolers. I scan and scan until I find something that can pack in the flavor but also has a refreshing finish. I stay calm and I don’t get ruffled. I know I have found what I am looking for. It’s a Cucumber Cream Ale from Twisted Pine Brewery and it’s just one of the many green gourd guzzlers out in the market place this summer. To stay as cool as a cucumber this summer, walk with me through a myriad of tasty barley pops that pay homage to the cuke. To the cucumber beer patch we go . . .

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