Ultimate 6er | Pairing Beers with Female Leads of Video Games

One of the best perks of playing video games is the escape it provides from your day-to-day. Video games allow you to go from parachuting into high-stress combat environments to wielding a torch and ball of magic in an underground cave somewhere in a fantasy land devoured by dark spirits and dragons.

It’s no secret that people enjoy seeing themselves in video games, movies and other media. Representation is important. So, this list highlights some of the absolute best female-led video games whether you’re looking for action or a narrative-driven experience. 

Grab a beer and start browsing your preferred digital store while you wait on these must-play titles to download.

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Ultimate 6er | A Toast to Historical Women of the 1920s

The 1920s was an important decade for women. The 19th Amendment gave us the right to vote in 1920, and what followed was a decade of strength and a search for equality that broke barriers and changed women forever. Women of the 1920s did everything men did, and sometimes they did it better.

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Ultimate 6er | Beers for (Double) Dry (Hopped) January

While many of you are participating in Dry January, some of us are participating in Double Dry-Hopped January. Double dry-hopping is the process of adding hops after the wort is cooled, twice to add those beautiful hop aromas to a beer. You are essentially dry-hopping the beer twice. There is no real set way to brew a DDH beer because every brewery and brewer has their own way of doing it. It’s all in the science and creativity of making this beautiful liquid we all love. Here are six beers to drink this (Double) Dry (Hopped) January.

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Bell’s Brewery | Juicy Gossip

Have you heard the Juicy Gossip? Turns out, Bell’s Brewery has a new beer just in time for the holidays. Nope, it’s not a coffee or dessert stout, or even a nice Christmas ale. In fact, the only thing Christmasy about this brew is the amount of tea you spill to your family members about how much you love this – pale ale? Yup. Juicy Gossip is just that – a juicy pale ale all ready to squeeze some good stuff out of your holidays.

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Bell’s Brewery | Light Hearted Ale

For many years, being a craft beer drinker often meant maintaining happy ignorance about how many calories you’ve consumed after a few pints at the brewery or while at home, relaxing at the end of the day. The only truly low-calorie beers were slapped with the names of macro brands – Michelob Ultra, Miller 64, Bud Select 55 – and tasted just the way one would expect. Over the past year or so, demand for lower-calorie brews has increased and the craft beer industry is listening. Now, there are plenty of low-cal offerings from some of the biggest names in the business including Dogfish Head, Deschutes, Lakefront Brewery, New Belgium and Ballast Point. Even among these myriad options, Bell’s Brewery’s Light Hearted Ale (a Lo-Cal IPA) stands out.

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Ultimate 6er | Beer and Dip Pairings

Super Bowl Sunday is one of my favorite days of the year. My friends and I gather for an evening of celebration and friendly competition: the annual Dip Party. The football plays on mute for any plus ones who care about sports, and the game is only un-muted for the half-time show. Everyone attending brings a homemade dip and dunker, with first, second, and third place prizes based on a popular vote. 

From sweet to savory, nostalgic classics to fresh takes, the party is all about the dip — a quintessential snack at any gathering. And as dip is the perfect party food, beer is an obvious beverage choice. This is especially true on Super Bowl Sunday when the industry is inundated with heightened awareness for beer’s biggest players. Whether enjoying a small spread or hosting a dip feast of your own, below are fail-safe beer pairings for some classic party dips. 

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Ultimate 6er | Summer Adventures in Michigan

Michigan is one of those places that never stops. Despite jokes about two seasons (winter and road construction) the truth is, every season begins and ends and brings with it the sort of activities that seem as if they only happen in movies. There is skiing and snowmobiling in the winter, gardens of wildflowers and baby animals in spring, and hills and landscapes full of red, yellow and orange in the fall. It’s summer, however, when Michigan truly comes alive, mostly because the state is littered with natural and human-made beauties that couldn’t possibly be in one area of the world. It’s with this in mind that for this week’s Ultimate 6er, we have six Michigan summer adventures and the beers that will make them even better.

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Bell’s Brewery | Song of Myself

Beer is poetry. It takes a great deal of understanding and thoughtfulness to make a beer that speaks to drinkers and keeps them coming back for more. Putting together a genuinely exquisite beer requires the consideration of each part individually, from the water to the hops, from the malt to the yeast. Over time, those elements become part of one, and sometimes, if we’re lucky, time will improve it even more. Poetry is much the same. With thorough understanding and thoughtfulness, a poem can last for generations, sitting on our tongues and inspiring whomever it touches. It was this inspiration that led Bell’s Brewery to honor one of Larry Bell’s favorite poets, Walt Whitman, with the launched of their Leaves of Grass series. The first release, Song of Myself, is a German-inspired American IPA. Its release in May 2019 coincided with Whitman’s 200th birthday.

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PorchDrinking’s Weekly Denver Beer Beat | September 5, 2018

The Denver Beer Beat sheds light on news of brewery openings, special tappings, firkins and one-off batches, bottle releases, dinners, pairings, etc.
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The OGs of Craft Beer | Bell’s Brewery Oberon Ale

Once upon a time, I was a young person who only drank Bud Light. You couldn’t get me in the same room with a craft beer. My (now) husband could not stand it, but he mostly just gave me a little hell while he drank his microbrews. However, his frustration got the better of him one day and he proclaimed, “That’s it! We need to find you something that isn’t Bud Light. Anything.”

I hesitantly agreed and he went to his fridge, coming back with a beer he had already picked specifically for me. I drank it. I didn’t just like it, I loved it. Little did I know that this beer would lead me to a career and to a passion that I would hold for the rest of my life. That beer was Oberon Ale from Bell’s Brewery.

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The Weekly Buzz | July 20 – 26

I’ve just arrived at the point where I have decided to neglect my real, bills-paying job in order to do a little work for my Internet beer-writing gig. Typing this intro on my phone is a real time-saver! I don’t know why I never thought of this before. The sign on the door that reads “No Personal Cell Phones in Work Area” doesn’t bother me either. Everyone here knows that The Weekly Buzz is more important than operating this very complex cement plant control room. If only they’d let me drink on the job…
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Bell’s Brewery | Hopsoulution Ale

Springtime is here and, for me, that can only mean one thing: sitting on my sunporch and drinking some fantastic IPAs. Thankfully, I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan (AKA Beer City, USA), which means I’m generally near the birthplace of some of the best made IPAs in the world. Michigan breweries know their IPAs, and Bell’s Brewery has blessed us with one helluva new brew in their recently released double IPA, Hopsoulution Ale.
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The Weekly Buzz | March 16 – 22

I had planned on writing something political this week. The urge to create a good old-fashioned doom-and-gloom post was almost undeniable, but it turns out that I don’t have the energy. There is simply no fuel left in my tank. We had a snowstorm on the second day of spring, which led to a lot of unwelcome shoveling. I had to replace the battery in my fiancee’s car (in the midst of the heaped-up snow). It’s just been one of those weeks. Here’s some stuff from Twitter and Instagram. I’ll be in bed drinking beer and enjoying my Weekly Buzz.
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The Weekly Buzz | February 9 – 15

It’s been another fun week on Beer Twitter! There has been so much going on that a bunch of things probably slipped past my net. Either way, I’ve got a fun collection of stuff for you in this week’s edition of The Weekly Buzz, so make sure your boss isn’t around, crack open a beer and start scrolling!
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Ultimate 6er | Age of Aquarius

During a “Tropiquarium” birthday party for 5-year olds, surrounded by Komodo dragons and sugar-fueled children, I had a thought provoking conversation with a fellow adult about the upside of living in Switzerland — mostly the chocolate made by magic elves but also the feeling of living in a bubble. Crime is low, average net worth is high, debt is frowned upon, armies of pleasant public works employees keep the joint spotless – you know, just like the rest of the world. He suggested this is a good place to be since “the world is on fire.”

Billy Joel once said we didn’t start the fire, it was always burning since the world’s been turning, which is fair, but the fact remains the world feels like it’s on fire. Which brings me to the topic du jour – the Age of Aquarius.

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The Weekly Buzz | October 20 – 26

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you’re completely and totally scatterbrained? I am having one right now. I can’t believe I even managed to pull together this modest collection of social media nonsense. It just goes to show that you can complete any task if you procrastinate until the last possible second and then scroll through Twitter at a frantic pace. So, in honor of my half-assery – which may or may not be a word – let’s raise a glass and dive into The Weekly Buzz.

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The Weekly Buzz | August 25 – 31

This week was terrible in so many ways, almost all of which were related to a bastard named Harvey. It’s disasters like these that help renew my faith in people. … Read More

The Weekly Buzz | July 28 – August 3

It’s been another long, hot week. Not only that, but it was a busy week in the world of craft beer. GABF tickets went on sale, we celebrated National IPA Day and one of this country’s oldest craft breweries was bought by Sapporo. As the weekend creeps towards us, we all need to sit back, take a deep breath and enjoy a delicious beer. While you do that, feel free to peruse this week’s edition of The Weekly Buzz.
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The Weekly Buzz | July 14 – 20

Happy Friday, PorchDrinkers! Another beautiful beer-soaked weekend is upon us, and that means it is time to recap the week’s finest beer-related tweets. You could just go to Twitter and scroll through it yourself, but why subject yourself to all that political vitriol? I braved the trolls so you wouldn’t have to. So sit down on your porch swing and crack open a beer. It’s time to start The Weekly Buzz.
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The Weekly Buzz | July 7 – 13

I just finished a seven-day, 73-hour work week. This was a completely unexpected turn of events, and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to complete The Weekly Buzz. Fear not, dear readers! Sacrifices  were made, the proverbial candle was burned at both ends, and I managed to cut and paste some tweets for your enjoyment. You’re welcome! I’m going brewery hopping for the next 24 hours. Don’t you dare try to stop me!
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