Ultimate 6er | Stranger Things

If you haven’t watched Stranger Things yet (what are you doing?! It’s already been up for a few weeks!), you may want to take a break and read another PorchDrinking … Read More

Ultimate 6er | 2016 Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Variety Pack

Take a look at the brewing notes and ingredients for this year’s Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Variety Pack and you’ll see what is perhaps the heart and soul of American craft beer. Read More

Ultimate 6er | A Guide to Utah Pils

As I drive to meet a local brewer to learn about his most recent release, I think about the time we once asked another brewer what he felt was the ‘next big thing’ in craft beer. His reply: “German Pilsner.” This no doubt came as a bit of a shock. Berliner Weisse, session IPA, or even Imperial fruit beer would have all seemed appropriate. Instead, he picked a classic style originating from the Czech Republic in 1842. Interesting enough, we started noticing a trend: Friends working in breweries often mentioned pilsner as their go-to-beer. A few years ago there might not have been enough local quality pils to make an Ultimate 6er and although it hasn’t become the ‘next big thing’, it has made a resurgence. We give you a guide to Utah’s very own Pilsners. Read More

Ultimate 6er | Comedy Bang Bang: The Podcast

I started listening to podcasts as a way to kill time at work, and Comedy Bang! Bang! was one of my first. At the beginning, I was completely baffled. Who were these people? What the heck were they yammering on about? There seemed to be punchlines with no setups, setups that went nowhere, stories that started in the middle, and a bevy of bizarre catchphrases. Inexplicably, I continued to listen until… EUREKA! A callback made sense! Before I knew it storylines were coming together, and I was finally on the inside of all those jokes I didn’t understand before. Read More

Ultimate 6er | The 2016 Evolution Fighting Game Championship Series

The world of eSports is vast and glorious; on the brink of mainstream acceptance through the understanding and mutual respect put into the time and skill of learning video games. There are games with underground followings like Counter Strike: Global Offensive and genres such as MOBAs that have reached the zenith of national sport. But today’s Ultimate 6er is centered around a breed settled when the quarters were slammed on the arcade cabinet in the days of yore: Fighting Games.

The Fighting Game Community or “FGC” has had a vigorous history through years of rigorous reinvention and a fervent, dedicated fanbase of thrill-seeking gamers. Beyond the coordination and strategy of other gaming tournaments, Fighting Games have an unmistakably thematic flair. The ups-and-downs of comeback, the mind game of predicting your opponent and the study of position create a viewing experience unlike any other. It’s just two players, two controllers, two characters drowning out the thousands of passionate fans to play the best match possible. Read More

Ultimate 6er | Austin Summer Cans to Beat the Heat

People everywhere are rejoicing because summer is officially here, and with it comes pool parties and a plethora of outdoor fun. While other people around the country are enjoying a lovely boozy lunch on the patio with a mild breeze and plenty of sunshine – those of us here in Texas are bracing for oppressive triple digit heat.  Pile on the high humidity and you have the perfect sweat soup. So what do folks here do? We grab a can of the perfect summer beer and head to the nearest body of water. Read More

Ultimate 6er | Summer Sixer Southern California

Some folks of cider make a rout
And cider’s well enough no doubt
When better liquors fail;
But wine, that’s richer, better still,
Ev’n wine itself (deny’t who will)
Must yield to nappy ale.

-John Gay (1685-1732), “Ballad on Ale” from Songs and Ballads

I couldn’t let Northern California have all the fun. Check out my California Summer Sixer list with the best of what Southern California breweries have to offer this summer season. All beers listed are currently available with an ABV of 5.5% or lower. The average ABV for this sixer is also 4.7% – perfect planning, if we say so ourselves.

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Ultimate 6er | Summer Sixer for Northern California

Fill with mingled cream and amber,
I will drain that glass again.
Such hilarious visions clamber
Through the chamber of my brain.
Quaintest thoughts, queerest fancies
Come to life and fade away.
What care I how time advances;
I am drinking ale today.

-Lines on Ale (1848), by Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849)

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Ultimate 6er | Refreshing Summer Sippers

There’s a lot going on this week friends. Of course, it’s Shark Week! Olympic trials in swimming, track and field and gymnastics have started. And my favorite holiday is less than a week away. That’s right, Independence Day is my favorite holiday! I look forward to it each and every year. To me, the Fourth of July signifies everything that makes summer amazing. Yes, it’s a day to celebrate our Independence and the birth of Democracy. But it’s also a day to soak up those special moments spent with friends and family into the wee hours of the evening, enjoying cold brew after cold brew as you kick back, relax and take in all that is summertime. (The Fourth of July also kicks off what I call my “birthday week” which culminates on 7-11. Gifts of craft beer are always appreciated! ) Read More

Ultimate 6er | Netflix Original Programming

Netflix is the little technology business that could, going from movies-through-the-mail to one of the largest streaming services in the world. Available on every smart device and video game console available, Netflix has a reported total of 81 million people – with 46 million being in the US alone. It’s replaced cable for most of us, opening up a treasure chest of hidden gems and old classics in the most digestible manner possible. Netflix is now a powerhouse in the audio/visual world after acquiring exclusivity rights with Disney, but also through releasing their own original content.

For this week’s Ultimate 6er, we’ll be looking at several of the heavy hitters in the Netflix Original Lineup. Don’t fret if you don’t see any of your favorites here, but these have some of the best beer combinations you could hope to ever watch with your favorite show. So let’s Netflix and Chill (more like cooler) for some summer streaming! Read More

Ultimate 6er | Summer Sport and Beer Pairings

Beer and food pairing is becoming an ever more-relevant skill, and we’ve seen an increasing number of culinary programs now require finely-tuned beer pairing skills just as they do with wine. Outside professional realms, beer pairing skills will help you put a damn tasty and impressive meal on the table, and it’s hard to surpass that satisfaction. So why shouldn’t we possess the same care and consideration when we pair a beer with experience? We’re not here to tell you that beer and outdoor activities go great together. That’s already ridiculously obvious. But carefully selecting your beer by factoring in the day’s physical activities can also be a refined skill, similar to choosing your dish’s boozy soulmate.

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Ultimate 6er | Welcome to My House

My husband and I recently moved from a tiny 2-bedroom basement apartment on Capitol Hill to a 4-bedroom, 3-bath home on a wooded lot in Virginia. It’s been a whirlwind of changes and we’re blissfully happy learning the nuances of a compost pile and how to repair a pool vacuum.

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Ultimate 6er | Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment Inc. is one of the finest video game studios on American soil, mounted in the halls of pop culture for creating some of the most significant video game franchises in the world. From their humble beginning creating Super Nintendo titles such as Blackthorne, The Lost Vikings and Rock & Roll Racing, Blizzard is a name loved by gamers for their legacy of rich stories and diverse content. When this crew makes a new game, the video game landscape changes.

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Ultimate 6er | Parks & Recreation Part 2

NBC’s Parks & Recreation is one of my favorite TV shows. Like any devoted Parks & Rec fan, season seven was a dark time for me, as I knew it meant that this hilarious show was coming to its unimaginable end. However, once Hannah Carlson debuted her wildly-popular Parks & Rec Ultimate 6er article in April [Ludgate], I finally felt ready to move on from my despair and celebrate my love for this show. Since there are so many great characters, I decided to feature six additional Pawnee favorites, and have this Ultimate 6er post pick up right where Hannah left off. Read More

Ultimate 6er | Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend is synonymous for cookouts, pool parties, beach trips and it kicks off the beginning of summer. Plus, we get one extra day of fun in the sun (#MondayFunday anyone?) On the way to your Memorial Day parties, be sure to pick up one of these tasty brews that we think will go perfectly with all of this weekend’s shenanigans! Read More

Ultimate 6er | Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

Photo Courtesy of CNN.

There are some television shows, for whatever reason, I only watch while enjoying a beer or two. It’s as if the quality of the program is somehow diminished if I’m not cradling one of my favorite brewery-branded snifters, nursing a beer for the entirety of the episode, really drinking in the experience – pardon the pun. Call it tradition. Call it habit. Call it whatever you want, but there’s just some intrinsic link between the two – an association that immediately transports me to a happy place few other combinations have the power to do.

Sure, ask those closest to me, my wife or good friends, and they’ll tell you Anthony Bourdain is my spirit guide, and his CNN travel show Parts Unknown, now in its seventh season, is just the program I eluded to in the opening passage. When I sit down to stream the newest episode, a beer is almost always in-hand. Read More

6 St. Louis Beers Perfect for Team Captain America (Part 1)

Let’s get it out of the way.  I’ve never been a “geek” about anything, ever.  But after now attending two Comic-Con’s with my self-proclaimed “geek” of a son, who I … Read More

Ultimate 6er | Beer Festival Pro Tips

We are well into the festival season and you’re out there floundering around like a fish at a beer festival. Don’t worry, I am here to help. Okay, well, I am sure you’ve got a better handle on this whole festival thing than that. You may actually be more like a wolf at a sheep sheering contest. That’s really not that much better though; really, just as bad but in the other direction. Wow, this digressed quickly… without further ado, we are leaving the beer behind in this week’s Ultimate 6er to give you six tips for your next festival!

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Ultimate 6er | Washington Collaboration Beers

The collaborative spirit of the craft beer industry has long been one of my favorite topics to cover, so I was ecstatic to learn about the first-ever Washington Beer Collaboration Festival put on by the Washington Beer Commission. The two-day festival featured 25 collaboration beers from 50 different Washington breweries and celebrated the collaborative and creative culture among Washington brewers. I attended the inaugural festival on a sunny Saturday afternoon and sampled about half of these unique brews. Read on for some of my favorite concoctions from this innovative festival.

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Ultimate 6er | Denver’s Top Beer

Denver is a city of world class breweries. You can literally close your eyes, spin around, start walking in any particular direction, and you’ll find amazing beer. I’m talking world class, triple-A examples of every style imaginable. But what if we were to narrow down everything that we have to offer into a format that we all understand? A six pack perhaps? The rules are simple: the beers can’t be distributed out of state, have to be available at least once per year, and packaging isn’t a requirement. Yes, I have taken on the unreasonably lofty task of narrowing down the top in the state to six total beers. Clearly you can’t go wrong with Denver beers, but these in my opinion, are some of the beers that are most representative of Denver’s top tier craft beer scene. Be gentle. Read More