Ultimate 6er | Wood-Aged Beers Worth Bragging About

A month after the Super Bowl, Budweiser’s infamous, widely-derided “Brewed the Hard Way” advertisement is still polluting our commercial breaks, eliciting groans and chuckles from anybody who likes to fuss over their beer. During this pathetic, moronic, and unoriginal 60-second viewing experience, one of the most eye roll-worthy moments is their mention of beechwood aging. In a triumphant, chest-thumping, knuckle-dragging celebration of all things mediocre, I suppose it’s appropriate, because the process is all about speedy lagering and filtering, not taste. After being processed in sodium bicarbonate, the beechwood chips they use contribute no flavor whatsoever. In contrast, I’d like to showcase six wood-aged craft brews using woods that actually contribute something to the beer.

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Ultimate 6er | A Bevy of Belgian-styles

Belgian-style beers run the gamut from light, bubbly pale ales to hearty, dark quadrupels. They can be bright, vivid, and effervescent, and they can be strong, savory, and bold. However they appear, they tend to make an impression. So much so that even the most adamant of non-beer drinkers (I’m looking at you, winos) can be won over with the right combination of fruit, spice, and alcohol. Read More

The Ultimate 6er | Finding Beer in Utah on a Sunday

The taboos associated with Utah seem to be broad and polarizing. Locals are protective of their state. From the outside looking in you can only imagine men with five wives who belong to a cult that won’t allow you to drink alcohol. Visitors to the state seem to revel in its beauty, gloating over world-class ski resorts to the vast red rock desert in the southern regions and are often puzzled over the strange Utah liquor laws.
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Ultimate 6er | A Bevy Of Belgian-Style Ales

Belgian-style beers run the gamut from light, bubbly pale ales to hearty, dark quadrupels. They can be bright, vivid and effervescent, and they can be strong, savory and bold. However they appear, they tend to make an impression. So much so that even the most adamant of non-beer drinkers (I’m looking at you, winos) can be won over with the right combination of fruit, spice and alcohol.

Today, I’m exhibiting a pair of Belgian-style or Belgian-inspired beers from each of three American brewers: Ommegang, Goose Island and Boulevard. The pair from Ommegang are the Rare Vos Abbey-style amber and the Three Philosophers quadrupel. Those from Goose Island are named Matilda, a pale ale and The Ogden, a tripel. The last two come from Boulevard Brewing. They are the Long Strange Tripel and The Sixth Glass, another quad.

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Ultimate 6er | Positively Delicious Beers for the Negative Temperatures

Now that winter has settled in, I’m sure we’ve all enjoyed a winter warmer or two on a chilly evening. But given the onset of plummeting, freezing temperatures across the country, a new question arises: what beers to turn to in the midst of an arctic blast, wrapped in a blanket burrito while attempting to thaw out the very marrow in your bones?

When the temperatures drop and it hurts to breathe outside, stay inside and look no further than this list, which has been tested and proven effective in the midst of the most bitter Colorado cold. And make sure to serve them at a nice cellar temperature of at least 50 degrees Fahrenheit to help your body retain that precious heat!
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Ultimate 6er | Robert Burns Night

Photo Credit: http://www.robertburns.org.uk

Next Sunday is the late, great Robert Burns’s birthday. For those who are not familiar with Burns, he was a well-known Scottish poet from the 18th century, considered the national poet of that fair land. Most people know about one of his many poems titled Auld Lang Syne, a little song we all sing tipsily around the New Year. Apart from that small element of Hogmanay, there are others who commemorate his life and his poetry by celebrating his birthdate every January 25. Robert Burns Night dinners have been popular events for many years now: parties that are not wanting in scotch, bagpipers, poetry readings, haggis, neaps, and tatties. In my experience, festival-goers will most likely find themselves at a brewery where there is a fresh tapping of a scotch ale, or more than one! Therefore, what better way to commemorate our dear friend Robbie than with a few of the best scotch ales out there*? Read More

Ultimate 6er | Breaking New Year’s Resolutions

Ahh, January, the month of New Year resolutions made to be broken. Especially gloriously vague exclamations like “I’m going to exercise more!” This just means you don’t already exercise … Read More

Ultimate 6er | Secret Santa Gifts for Hard-To-Buy-For Family Members

It’s December 24 and after a month of delaying, you’re still trying to figure who the heck who it is you pulled from the Secret Santa bag for your family party. Jeremy? Did someone have a kid and you didn’t notice? Is he a long last cousin that’s been living Potter-style under the stairs all these years? Whose aunt is Aunt Kathy cause you’re pretty sure she isn’t yours.

My family party this year is at a record low of 29 people this year, but with a family that big there’s no way you can know enough about everyone to get them a perfect gift. In an effort to make sure that poor Jeremy doesn’t end up with the re-gifted candle for Christmas, below I’m giving you six beers for the family party members you don’t know well.

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Ultimate 6er | Clear eyes, Full Pints, Can’t lose

I recently experienced one of the least fun football related weeks I can remember. My San Francisco 49ers were annihilated on Thanksgiving day by Seattle (the city I live in). … Read More

Ultimate 6er | Preparing For the Playoffs

For those of us in Fantasy Football leagues, our minds are prematurely wrapped around playoffs as we reach the final stretch in our outrageously competitive seasons. In reality, week 14 through 16 are equally as important: aside from teams that have no chance of going to the Superbowl, there are some critical triumphs that must be won to determine others’ qualifying status.  Let’s focus on some of the biggest December games that will make or break our brackets to prepare our odds — and our palates — for this year’s NFL playoffs.

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Ultimate 6er | Essential Indiana Beers

The holidays are a great time to spend with friends and family. For a Colorado transplant like myself, that means a lot of travel. When I left Indiana for the bright lights of Colorado eight and a half years ago, the craft beer scene in Indiana had its bright spots but left a lot to be desired. Whenever I would head back for a visit to Indiana, I felt like a beer sherpa with the crazy amount of Colorado craft beers in my bags for family members. But every year at Great American Beer Fest, I found more and more Hoosier breweries in attendance (and more of them getting great buzz). Read More

Ultimate 6er | Thanksgiving Feast

Friendsgiving: the greatest excuse for you to binge eat, binge drink and binge watch the NFL with all of your closest friends in a single day. It’s also a great day for your friends who are amateur cuisiniers to demonstrate their skills while those of us who can barely cook noodles properly get to benefit from their endeavors.

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Ultimate 6er | Daylight Saving Stouts

As much as we all loved gaining the extra hour the first night of November, I would be hard pressed to find someone who relished the idea of leaving work at dusk and returning home in darkness. This week’s edition commemorates those dark nights of fall and the foreboding weather to come with a delicious and decadent brew to ease your fears and warm your spirit. Enjoy these with caution and care, for consuming all of these in one evening will require more than an extra hour in the morning, and you may think twice before brewing that pot of coffee. Read More

Ultimate 6er | Six Craft Lagers to Trick David Chang

Celebrity chef David Chang set the internet ablaze earlier last week when GQ published his paean to watery industrial pale lagers “My Name is David Chang, and I hate Fancy Beer.” While less incendiary than the title might suggest, the article provoked intense rebuttals from many in the craft beer community including fellow New Yorker Garrett Oliver. Even our own Tristan Chan weighed in on the subject in this week’s Happy Hour post. While I don’t share Chang’s love of crappy beer, I’m sympathetic to his anti-snobbery concerns and can understand wanting light, crisp brews that are refreshing and don’t overwhelm your tastebuds while eating food. I’m sure hordes of beer writers are at this very moment penning intelligent and passionate essays about the many reasons beer pairs better with food than almost any beverage out there–and they’re right–but I doubt Chang will read them. I suggest a more nefarious solution: let’s just trick him.
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Ultimate 6er | Koozie Doozies

Yeah, a nice craft beer sipped from a fancy glass is great, but sometimes a little neoprene sleeve around a classic can of suds is even better. The koozie keeps your beer from getting warm and your hand from getting cold. More importantly though, it gets you out of the house, out of the bar, just drinking good beer with good friends with a fun bit of squishy love between your hand and the can. I give you my Ultimate 6er, the beers and the best places to drink them, Koozie Doozies: Read More

Ultimate 6er | Märzen Madness

With the end of September comes the wrapping up of the Oktoberfest season, or what I would coin as Märzen Madness. Fairs across the U.S. have had their seasonal stein-raising festivals full of oom-pa-pa music, some of the more widely known tipples with German names and an array of food that may cause indigestion for most. In Munich, those millions lucky enough in attendance have a few more days before the nonstop imbibing ends and a cleanup of epic proportions begins.

To emulate this spectacular party still taking place abroad, to profess my love for the seemingly simple but still complex Märzen and to give one last hurrah to the summer, which is why this party takes place, I have provided you with the quintessential collection of some of the better Oktoberfests around. Read More

Ultimate 6er | 6 Beers Your Bartenders Are Currently Drinking

We don’t always solicit advice from complete strangers, but when we do, it’s usually going to be about which beer to choose. Read More

Ultimate 6er | Washington Cider Week

As many of my colleagues have pointed out on this very site, fall has arrived (just check out Josh’s feature on NFL opening day or Tristan’s editorial on pumpkin beer … Read More

Ultimate 6er | 6 Delicious Dark Beers

As a fan of dark beers, I’ve taken it upon myself to share an Ultimate 6er featuring only such beers. To keep it local, I’ve selected three beers native to North Carolina. Those from NC are Green Man Porter, Highland Oatmeal Porter and Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout. The others are Founders Porter, Boulevard Dark Truth Stout and Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro. Read More

Ultimate 6er | Green Mountain State

The hidden craft market has been brewing in Vermont for years. This humble state is always in the top craft lists but never seems to get the media hype it deserves. By the sounds of it, that’s what they want. Many of these brewers don’t distribute outside state lines, let alone outside of their county or town. So unless you travel up through the green mountains yourself, you will need to wait until the next time a fellow craft head drives cross country to share the wealth from this secluded state.

Last week I found myself in the middle of the craft mile in Vermont for an extended weekend. Overwhelmed with this opportunity, I embraced this rare experience. After some homework and multiple country store stops, I’ve compiled my Vermont Ultimate 6er.

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