Types of Beer Countries Around the World

I travel a lot, as do many beer enthusiasts. So to help travellers novice and veteran alike understand what they are up against beer-wise around the world, I have categorized the world’s nations according to their beer scenes, for your reading pleasure.
The Old World – Centuries old brewing traditions lead to tremendous respect for [...]

The Name of this Blog is

I’ve already had two beers, I’m ready for the broom
- Bob Dylan & The Band

[Welcome to Ready for the Broom, a unique, on-the-street view of the craft beer movement, as seen through my eyes. In this first article, I hope to give you a sense of my perspective and what to look forward to in [...]

A Walking Tour of the Reno / Sparks Beer Scene (Part 2)

Let’s say that Buckbean Brewing is Jupiter and Great Basin (the only brewery in Sparks) is Mars, and that the uncharted BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse twenty million miles south of downtown Reno is that occasional-planet Pluto. This would result in the remaining trio of tightly-packed breweries orbiting Reno’s casinos – Morandi’s Record Street Brewing, Brew [...]

Schlenkerla Oak Smoke

Do I really need to say any more? News of this upcoming Christmas release is slowly getting out. I for one couldn’t be happier. It’s not that I think Schlenkerla needs to do any tinkering to improve its product – Märzen from the wood is a perfect 5.0 beer for me. [...]

GABF opening night

There was a huge buzz outside as the clock counted down to the opening of GABF 2009. As press, I had a precious few minutes to run the floor and say hi to a few folks.
The crowd quickly poured in and just as quickly formed long lines at New Glarus, Dogfish Head and [...]

September’s Beer by Bike event

This Saturday (9/26) Beer by Bike will be having it’s monthly (last Saturday of the month) ride. This time it’s to the Grey Lodge Pub in the Northeast for lunch and beers.  A few of us from the suburbs will be getting on Rte 73 to get home afterwards.
Anyone interested, meet at the Philadelphia [...]

GABF Landing: Logan’s Party w/ Doctor Bill

I’m here in Denver for the GABF. The city is alive with beer. Denver Beer Week started end of last week and there’s a large list of places with beer events and specials.
Logan’s Party was full of Logan’s wonderful hospitality, a good group of RateBeerians, a host of unearthly beers, great organization (see the white [...]

Life in the Beer Desert

I don’t like being without beer. After the embarrassment of riches that is Franconia, we have spent the last month in Turkey. The macrobrewers here are sketchy, making beer victories few and far between. When you get excited about a place with Tuborg Gold on tap simply because it’s not that vile [...]

Craft Beer Week Wrap-up

The second annual NYC Craft Beer week ended yesterday with a big blow-out celebration at Studio Square in Long Island City, Queens. In addition to the large selection of different craft beers, a number of bands provided entertainment in the outdoor beer garden all afternoon and into the evening.  Indoors there were a number of [...]

Cellaring Cask Ale

Alrighty
Cellaring cask ale is something iv been doing for many years now and its possibly one of the most rewarding parts of my career in the pub trade. There’s no specific art to cellaring cask ale, its just something you get a feel for and begin to understand it over the course of time. However [...]