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 [...]

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 [...]

A Walking Tour of the Reno / Sparks Beer Scene (Part 1)

Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.
Before lunchtime on a Saturday afternoon, my ever-forgiving wife and I are already headed south on McCarran Boulevard from northern Sparks. I’m driving a red Jeep Cherokee that we don’t own, following detour signs that originally hinted that anyone hoping to get from McCarran to Rock [...]

Misleading the Consumer

There is an article in today’s Vancouver Sun and while the subject is wine it has direct corollaries with one of the most contentious issues we have on Ratebeer. The article is here: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Consumers+deceived+cost+imports+being+sold+wines/2009339/story.html
In case this link goes away, the story discusses wines that Canadian macrowineries are buying in bulk, bottling in BC [...]