Tag Archives: Beer Reviews

The Halftime Pint: Bronx Pale Ale

One of the greater things about watching football in America is that most matches, especially those of the EPL, are early in the morning American time, giving people an excuse to day drink. This is part of our series discussing exactly what to drink when you’re at the pub, presented by our resident homebrewer, Keith

The Beer: Bronx Pale Ale, The Bronx Brewery, The Bronx, New York

The Pub: The Black Rabbit, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn

What You Need to Know: The Bronx Brewery is a new addition to the burgeoning NYC brewing scene, launching in September of 2011. The brainchild of former Red Hat engineer Damian Brown and ex-Heineken consultant Chris Gallant, they’ve released three beers thus far: a Pale Ale, Black Ale and Rye Pale Ale.

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The Halftime Pint: Lump Of Coal Stout

One of the greater things about watching football in America is that most matches, especially those of the EPL, are early in the morning American time, giving people an excuse to daydrink. This is part of our series discussing exactly what to drink when you’re at the pub, presented by our resident homebrewer, Keith.

The Beer: Lump Of Coal Stout, Ridgeway Brewing, South Stoke, England, United Kingdom

The Pub: The Queen Vic, in Northeast DC

What you need to know: Ridgeway Brewing is a “gypsy brewery,” meaning that brewer Peter Scholey travels around to different breweries, uses their equipment, and then affixes the Ridgeway name and label on it.  There are quite a few breweries that operate this way, and put out consistently good product.  Stillwater Artisanal Ales, out of the Baltimore region, operates this way (though they just got a “permanent” space at the newly opened Of Love and Regret), as does Mikkeller out of Copenhagen.

The style, a Foreign Export Stout, is a “traveling” version of the classic stout.  It’s typically bolder, roastier and more alcoholic, so to better survive long trips on cargo ships.  It’s not as strong as the Imperial, but then again, it never had to satisfy Catherine the Great. Continue reading →

The Halftime Pint: Kronenbourg Blanc

20121111-165058.jpgOne of the greater things about watching football in America is that most matches, especially those of the EPL, are early in the morning American time, giving people an excuse to daydrink. This is part of our series discussing exactly what to drink when you’re at the pub, presented by our resident homebrewer, Keith.

The Beer: Kronenbourg 1664, Brasseries Kronenbourg, Obernai, France

The Pub: The Queen Vic, in Northeast DC

What You Need to Know: I covered the history of the Kronenbourg brewery when I reviewed their flagship pale lager. Basically, they’ve been brewing since the Holy Roman Empire.

White ale, or witbier, is a pretty popular offshoot of the Belgian Ale tradition. It’s a typically hazy ale that blends wheat with the normal barley mash, and often includes spices to help out with the flavoring and aroma. Really good wits have a really nice balance of spice, yeast funk and fruit flavors (often of the citrus variety).

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The Halftime Pint: Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald

20120925-072446.jpgOne of the greater things about watching football in America is that most matches, especially those of the EPL, are early in the morning American time, giving people an excuse to daydrink. This is part of our series discussing exactly what to drink when you’re at the pub, presented by our resident homebrewer, Keith.

The Beer: Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, Great Lakes Brewing Company, Cleveland, Ohio

The Pub: The Blaguard, in Northwest DC

What you need to know: Yep, it’s another porter, of the American Robust variety.  So roast should factor heavy, but, as Great Lakes stays a fairly style traditional (even their Commodore Perry IPA is fairly restrained), hops should be mellow and grassy. Continue reading →

The Halftime Pint: DC Brau Your Favorite Foreign Movie

20120807-111123.jpgOne of the greater things about watching football in America is that most matches, especially those of the EPL, are early in the morning American time, giving people an excuse to daydrink. This is part of our series discussing exactly what to drink when you’re at the pub, presented by our resident homebrewer, Keith

The Beer: Your Favorite Foreign Movie, DC Brau, Washington, DC

The Pub: Smith Commons, in Northeast DC

What You Need to Know: I’ve gone into the history of DC Brau before in this column- it was the first of a handful of new breweries in DC to publicly release beer brewed on its own premises. The story of YFFM is pretty unique, though. In establishing itself in the District, DC Brau took care to cultivate relationships with the major “beer geek” bars in DC. One such bar, Meridian Pint, in an effort to tie itself closer to DC’s beer culture, held (roughly) quarterly homebrew competitions, which would culminate in a Tournament of Champions where the winners would re-brew their winning beers and face off for a limited audience. The premise was simple: have about 20 brewers sign up, fill up the downstairs bar on a weeknight, and promote homebrewing in DC. DC Brau latched onto this competition, and decided to offer the ultimate prize: the ToC winner’s beer would be brewed at DC Brau, and released to the public. (Full disclosure: I entered the last of these before the ToC, but my vanilla coffee stout did not get the votes to carry on)

DC Homebrewers Club member (full disclosure: I am also a member) Brian Barrows won, with a Belgian Patersbier, though the votes were close enough that runner-up Mike Reinitz will also get to brew his robust porter with DC Brau’s equipment and expertise. During the brew session, DC Brau played some Steely Dan on the stereo, and so the name was taken from the closing line from the song “Peg.” Continue reading →

The Halftime Pint: Arcobräu Zwickelbier

20120724-085944.jpgOne of the greater things about watching football in America is that most matches, especially those of the EPL, are early in the morning American time, giving people an excuse to daydrink. This is part of our series discussing exactly what to drink when you’re at the pub, presented by our resident homebrewer, Keith

The Beer: Arcobrau Zwickelbier, Arcobräu Gräfliches Brauhaus, Moos, Germany

The Pub: Bridgewater’s Pub, 30th Street Station, Philadelphia, PA

What You Need to Know: Arcobrau in its current incarnation was founded in 1789, from the foundations of the von Preysing castle brewery in Moos, which burned down (with the rest of the castle) in 1619. The von Preysing family finally consolidated their beers under the Arcobrau name in 1960.

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The Halftime Pint: Kronenbourg 1664

One of the greater things about watching football in America is that most matches, especially those of the EPL, are early in the morning American time, giving people an excuse to daydrink. This is part of our series discussing exactly what to drink when you’re at the pub, presented by our resident homebrewer, Keith.  During the Euros, we’re doing things a little differently; we’re trying to find beers from the countries participating in the tourney.  We’ve covered England and Sweden, this week, it’s another eliminated nation, France!

The Beer: Kronenbourg 1664, Brasseries Kronenbourg, Obernai, France

The Pub: The Queen Vic, in Northeast DC

What You Need to Know: Euro Pale Lager is the European equivalent of American Light Lager.  Think Stella, think Heineken, think Tennent’s, think Harp.  But, as with the ALL, there’s room to do an excellent version.  Samuel Smith, for example, has an organic lager that’s quite good.  The style is highly carbonated, light in color and flavor, and has a bit more hop snap than its American cousin.  It’s actually a lot closer to the Munich Helles Lager, with just a bit less sweetness, and I’d say that Kronenbourg more closely straddles the gaps between EPL (Suck it, Barclays! . . oops, force of habit) and Helles Lager. Continue reading →

The Halftime Pint: Belhaven Scottish Ale

20120407-173524.jpgOne of the greater things about watching football in America is that most matches, especially those of the EPL, areearly in the morning American time, giving people an excuse to daydrink. This is part of our series discussing exactly what to drink when you’re at the pub, presented by our resident homebrewer, Keith.

The Beer: Belhaven Scottish Ale, Belhaven Brewery- Dunbar, Scotland, United Kingdom

The Pub: The Queen Vic, in Northeast DC

What You Need to Know: Scottish ales are a product of the climate of Scotland. As hops don’t grow in the cool Scottish weather, they’re used very sparingly.  Also, the cool climate affects the yeast.  Where an English ale yeast will ferment quite quickly and settle out, Scottish yeasts take longer, and the beers themselves are treated more like lagers.

Belhaven Brewery was founded in 1719 by John Johnstone; according to Garrett Oliver’s The Brewmaster’s Table, the Belhaven site was originally the site of a brewing monastery, where beer had been produced dating back to the 1300s. The brewery was, until its late 2005 sale to Greene King Brewery of Bury St. Edwards, the oldest independent brewery in Scotland.

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