Entries tagged with 'Serious Beer'
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"Malty beer resonates with the caramelized skin of a turkey and brings out the herbal flavors in stuffing." [Photograph: Maggie Hoffman] If you want to eat like the Pilgrims this Thanksgiving, you should probably get busy hunting for deer and wild ducks. But if you want to drink Pilgrim-style, you just need to get yourself some beer! The colonists believed that beer was usually safer to drink than water and worried about drinking their barrels dry. After dithering too long over where to locate their settlement, the passengers of the Mayflower finally chose Plymouth just before a harsh winter began. William Bradford wrote, "We could not now take much time for further search [for an ideal destination,] our victuals being...
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Fresh hops awaiting harvest. [Photograph: Deschutes Brewery] As Serious Eaters, you probably use a lot of fresh herbs in your cooking. Dried basil just doesn't have the aromatic sweetness of fresh basil. But have you considered whether there are dried or fresh hops are in your beer? Hop flowers provide the bitter backbone that makes beer taste the way it does. Some varieties of hops add a fruity citrus taste, while others give off a juniper-like scent. Most of the time, brewers use dried, compressed hop pellets to do the job. But once a year when hops are ready to be pulled from the vine, some brewers celebrate the season by heading out to local farms to harvest hops...
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"The West Coast has hoppy IPAs, the Midwest has a strong tradition of pilsners and lagers, but the South has no real (craft) beer tradition." [Photograph: Carolyn Lilly Wilson] Sean Wilson has a vision for the beer scene in the American South. Using heirloom grains and other ingredients from North Carolina farms, he and his collaborator, Chris Davis, hope to create a distinctly Southern style of beer. They will open Fullsteam Brewery in Durham late this winter or early next spring. I chatted with Sean about the challenges he's faced and his plans for the brewery. Name: Sean Wilson Location: Durham, North Carolina Occupation: President of Fullsteam Brewery Tell us a little about Fullsteam and what you envision for your...
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[Photograph: Maggie Hoffman] I'm just going to be honest with you: I think it may be time to forget Oktoberfest (if you haven't already.) Märzenbier is tasty stuff, but I've decided that American rye beers are really the perfect autumn brew. By substituting rye for some of the barley in the mash, brewmasters give these beers a hint of spicy warmth and a touch of rye-bread flavor. Though the Germans have used rye in their pumpernickel-brown roggenbier since medieval times, the ryes we tasted were distinctly American. There's no hard and fast rule as to what an American rye must be, but these tended toward reddish amber, fruity, and generously hopped. They're a little spicy, with a sour kick...
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We tasted ten brown ales—from bright, hoppy ones to the sweet and pruney. Whether you're looking for something bitter to see you through the World Series or a more warming, chocolately beer on a rainy night, we have favorites for both.
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A good brown ale is gentle, smooth, and wonderfully drinkable, pint after pint. Despite their low alcohol, these are flavorful malty beers. We tried five brown ales—check out our favorites.
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[Photographs: Maggie Hoffman] You shouldn't look at a twelve-ounce bottle of Belgian dubbel and think, "For that much money, I could practically get a six pack of my regular beer." It depends on your priorities (and your regular beer), but this week's tasting convinced me that a single goblet of Belgian dubbel is an experience well worth the expense. Besides, you'd probably spend that much on the same quantity of mediocre wine for a dinner party without thinking twice. And these beers are anything but mediocre. They're rich and deep, nuanced and a bit mysterious, with musky roasted malt and sweet raisiny flavors balanced with a touch of bitterness. They're the kind of beers you want to sip slowly,...
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Surely jack-o-lantern-flavored, cinnamon-perfumed beer isn't
serious beer. We tried seven pumpkin beers, and as it turns out, some were actually pretty good—especially with a bowl of chili.
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If you can't make it to Germany this year for Oktoberfest festivities, you can at least drink in solidarity. We tasted twelve beers—a few traditional German märzen beers head-to-head with some American interpretations from craft brewers.
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