How does beer go bad?

Beer is a pretty simple thing. For the most part, it contains four ingredients: water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. But the number of things that can go wrong before you sit back to enjoy a beer greatly exceeds 4. Maybe 4 to the 4th? Who knows. A lot can go wrong.
For this post, I’ll [...]

Beer School – Serving Temperature

Try to match these slogans with the beer brand they have been used for: “Cold as the Rockies”, “Cold. Wet. Delicious”, or how about “A hard earned thirst needs a big cold beer and the best cold beer is Victoria Bitter”. Okay, so that last one wasn’t all that challenging, but it illustrates the [...]

Beer School: The Hop

Okay kids, grab your taste buds and your Walt Whitman. Carpe Diem!

As you have been learning in our educational series, there are four primary ingredients to beer: Water, Barley, Yeast, and Hops. It is my pleasure – and honor – to talk to you about my favorite ingredient: the hop.

Beer School: It’s the Water

What’s in your beer? Hops, malted barley, yeast and water. But what how does water contribute to beer? “Glass” is in session, so find out here.

Celebrating Cellar Beers

What to cellar, how to cellar it, and what happens when a beer writer has too many beers in her own cellar.

Getting Fresh

Let’s face it: Most beers are designed for immediate gratification. They are meant to be enjoyed as soon as possible; the fresher they are, the better they will taste.
One of the best examples I ever received on that loosely framed “beer rule” came one day when Portland Brewing’s founder, Fred Bowman, invited me to have [...]