Roundtable Discussion: Locally-Made Gateway Craft Beers

In this week’s roundtable discussion, the staff here at PorchDrinking discuss their favorite local gateway craft beers. Here are some local craft beer options for that friend who still drinks Milwaukee’s Best:

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Ultimate 6er – An Intro to Sour Beer

Working at a beer store I find the most common style people are insatiably curious about is the sour beer category. There are a few different ways to make a sour beer. The most common methods include using wild yeast strains like brettanomyces or adding certain types of bacteria into the brew – saccharomyces, pediococcus, and lactobacillus being the most common. I’ve done my best to include an ecclectic mixture that showcases a little taste of each in my Ultimate 6er – An Intro to Sour Beer. Read More

Flying Fish Brewing Co. – Exit 16 Wild Rice Double IPA

ABV: 8.2%

IBU: 62

When it comes to choosing beers, I am generally a stylistic creature of habit. Hoppy? Sold. But on occasion, I am drawn to a brew because … Read More

The A(i)les of Being a Craft Beer Lover in College

How about this scene:  You swing open the back door to a house that leads into a dark basement.  A cloud of body heat, and body sweat greets you at the door.  Each step taken down the stairs (that surely don’t meet building code) enters you into another level of this nimbus dense, wet heat cluster.  Finally on the basement floor you immediately identify the source—a hundred sweat dripping college kids standing shoulder-to-shoulder yelling to one another over the boom of the music.   As thirteen dollar handles of vodka are being passed over your head you scale across the side of the basement to make your way around the crowd.  There are solo cups filled with last weekend’s beer that were placed and forgotten on the shelves beside you.  And is that something growing in the beer?   Hard to see, but you can sure smell a festering sourness woft out of the cup.  Buddy, that ain’t no lambic.  Human traffic is backed up at an unchilled keg.  Pour yourself a cup.  Oh great, a nice head to this one.  The whole cup is foam but it quickly dissipates into a lukewarm puddle.  Take a gulp.  Gotta’ love Natural Light.  Then take a look over to the beer pong table.  There’s a guy, ping-pong ball in one hand, snifter glass of Dogfish Head 90 Minute in the other.  That’s me.   I love craft beer and I’m in college.  That guy is me.

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Mud Hound Brewing Company

Leesburg is less than an hour west of Washington, D.C., past the closely-knit suburbs and into rolling Virginia countryside. It has a quintessential small-town feel, with white fences, antique stores and colonial-style homes. It is also chockablock with brewpubs.

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Dragoon Brewing Company – The DOS

Dragoon Brewing Company – The DOS Russian Imperial Stout

ABV: 10.4%

While sampling the offerings at Dragoon Brewing Company in Tucson Arizona, I was absolutely blown away by the DOS … Read More

Southern Tier Brewing Company – 2X Stout

With the summer heat looming, it probably doesn’t make the most sense that I should be reviewing a milk stout. Chalk it up to being strange, or the fact that Cliff Lee surrendered four solo home runs in consecutive innings. Instead of picking up his 11th win of the season, it was just one of those nights … and we have had a lot of those nights. Dark and foreboding is what I saw behind this 12 oz bottle and I knew that I had picked correctly (especially after enjoying a couple Stone IPAs with dinner, thinking things would go otherwise).

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Homebrew Gadgets

Homebrewing is a great way to experiment, have fun and get your friends to tell you stories that they may not otherwise tell you. As I became a more advanced homebrewer, there were certain gadgets that I found that improved my brewing and some that frankly made things more stressful. Here are some of the more useful homebrew gadgets that I have come across. Read More

Sixpoint Brewery – Resin IPA

I’m going to start this review with a short story that actually happened a couple months back. As I sat down on an empty bar stool at the newest bar in Oxford, OH, O’Pub, the bartender asked me what I wanted to drink. “Well, what’s your best beer?” I asked. Read More

Ultimate 6er | Floral Beers

Flowers may have given you a headache this spring, but now they’re really trying to make it up to you. This summer there are a host of floral beers available, and this Ultimate 6er is just a jumping off point.

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Goose Island – Madame Rose

Colored in crimson, aged in red-wine barrels and soaked in sour cherry deliciousness—what more could you ask for? A seductive member of Goose Island’s now famed ‘Three Sisters’ group, Madame Rose is one of the brewery’s elusive bottled wild ales that tantalizes and plays with our taste buds from start to finish.

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Corkscrews Wine Storage of Denver | A Beer Cellar Home Away From Home

1845 W 12th Ave, Denver, CO 80204

Although they may not have “and Beer” in their moniker, they have been appropriated with that name by yours truly.

We all know much like wine, beer has the ability to age, evolve and develop complex new aromas and flavors. Think that Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine is a loaded treat right now? Try it in 10 years, when it has smoothed out into a melodious elixir commendable only by a snifter. Time, along with yeast and bacteria, can polish a beer’s rough edges and unlock its full potential—or, given a few months too many, create a liquid best sent down the drain. I found the perfect place to help me prevent most drain pours and it is right down the street from my employer. Enter Corkscrews Wine “and Beer” Storage of Denver and how they are changing the face of craft beer and long term storage.

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Dillon Dam Brewery – Extra Pale Ale

In the middle of nowhere in Colorado, there’s a town called Dillon. Unfortunately, this is not Dillon, Texas, home of the Panthers and Friday Night Lights. Dillon bumps right into Silverthorne, another small town, both nestled in the mountains on the edge of the Dillon Dam. Which is where Dillon Dam Brewery comes in. Read More

Lawson’s Finest Liquids – Spring Fever Session IPA

My journey to acquire Lawson’s Finest Liquids put all of my beer-hunting skills to the test. Rural roads, quaint stores, and rare beers combined to make my search for Lawson’s … Read More

Awesomesauce- Songza

If you’re anything like me, your music listening habits are somewhat…unique…

Basically, there are very few times in my life when I have a particular song or artist in mind that I HAVE to listen to at that particular moment.  More often than not, what I want to listen to is based on vague feelings or snippets in time (which might explain why I have an iTunes playlist labeled “Cool Fall Days” and another labeled “High School Girls”.)  Read More

New Belgium Rolle Bolle

New Belgium’s Rolle Bolle (Seasonal) 5.2% ABV, 30 IBU

In the midst of nearly killing ourselves riding our bikes through the Rocky Mountains a few weeks back, my friend Brennan and … Read More

Oceanside Ultimate 6-er

In these, the dog days of summer, the ocean-advantaged dwellers among us will be snatching up opportunities to get between the waves and those further inland are also certainly finding … Read More

Saint Somewhere/Prairie Artisan Ales – Plus Tot L’etat Farmhouse Ale

Saint Somewhere/Prairie Artisan Ales – Plus Tot L’etat Farmhouse Ale

ABV:  6.5%

IBU: 25

A farmhouse style ale that is brewed with persimmon and elderflowers.

This Saison pours a hazy … Read More

How to Dress for July 4th

Independence Day is almost here, and that means it’s time to pick out a red, white and blue outfit. Preferably one with stars and stripes.

Oh, you’ve already done that? Congratulations. This means you are not a procrastinator, which is a good thing. It also means we can’t be friends, because you are clearly better at life than I am and I just won’t stand for that shit.

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Finch’s Beer Co.: threadless India Pale Ale

ABV: 6%

IBU: 90

On Friday afternoon, I popped into my neighborhood Whole Foods to pick up something new to drink for the weekend. DC summers are a swampy mess … Read More