Terrapin Beer Co. | Moo-Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout

ABV 6% | IBU 30

In anticipation of Terrapin Beer Co.’s upcoming Hop Harvest Festival, today’s beer showcase will feature the seasonally appropriate Moo-Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout. Admittedly, that is partly because I already consumed my bottle of their newest release, The Walking Dead Blood Orange IPA, but Moo-Hoo is well deserving of a write up. To some, Moo-Hoo will be a welcomed relief from the surge of IPAs over the summer and the ongoing flood of pumpkin-themed brews. It is a chocolatey marvel that comes out but once a year. Read More

Southern Tier Brewing Co.| Choklat

Lakewood, New York, is by no means a bustling metropolis.

In all honesty, I have never been to this village – yes, village, you heard me correctly –  which sits at the very southwestern tip of the state. Because I haven’t experienced the place first-hand, I took it upon myself to do a bit of research on Lakewood, and the following is what I know to be true.

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Susquehanna Brewing Co. | Pils-Noir

One of the best parts about living in New York City in the summer is getting the eff out. I spend as much time as possible myself running away to the woodsy wonders of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The combination of plentiful lakes and rivers, scattering of small towns, apparently every single firefighter from New Jersey working volunteer service, and legal fireworks; the area is gangbusters for all you can stand Americana. To sweeten the vacation deal, the area is flush with smaller brew pubs and craft breweries that allow me to discover a new favorite beer each time I go down there. While the 4th of July day was a literal washout for the folks on Lake Wallenpaupack, it did allow me to discover this wonderful fusion of light pilsner quality with dark tastes that matched the gloomy weather.

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Evil Twin Brewing | Ashtray Heart

ABV: 8.9%

I miss smoking in bars. My clothes and hair don’t reek every night, and the lack of clouds of noxious oxygen thieves in bars dulling taste and smell might have done more to promote the rise of craft beer than any other external factor – but the romance of the dive bar is largely sustained by the haze that lingers around dim light bulbs. There was a certain je ne sais quoi that many establishments lost once they cleaned up (while others revealed even worse smells that the smoke was hiding). In my eternal hunt to recapture this hazy atmosphere, I stumbled into one of my favorite dive bars in Brooklyn (low lights, great bartender, amazing jukebox, check-check-check), and discovered Evil Twin’s Ashtray Heart. With one sip, I found the gritty but smooth feeling I was missing, with none of smoking’s greatly-enhanced chance of lung cancer.

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Founders Brewing Company | Big Lushious

ABV: 7.8%

This Friday we will celebrate one of the worst holidays, Valentine’s Day. If you’re in a relationship, it is almost impossible to make any kind of unique romantic plans that 100 other couples won’t be doing. If you’re single, it’s a 2 week build up engineered to make you feel like a loser. The one positive is that no one judges you for buying ridiculously expensive chocolates. This year I decided to try to find the beer equivalent of romantic, fancy chocolate. With the cartoon Rihanna-circa-Umbrella on its label, Founders’ Big Lushious was the clear choice.

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Stone Brewing Co. | Master of Disguise Imperial Golden Stout

9.7% ABV
National Release/ Limited Season

As is usually the case this time of year, dark weather brings out the dark beer in my libation rotation. Shying away from the conventional brewed coffee, the stout has become my go-to for comfortable drinking. Spending time in Ireland just recently, my liver has come to expect little else than the delicious homemade Guinness that really isn’t the same on this side of the Atlantic. Coming back after a fair share of Black & Tan’s and Baby Guinness Shots (the most delicious shot if Kahlua and Baileys are up your alley), I spent a fair amount of time during the Holidaze getting reacquainted with Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, Sierra Nevada Stout and the annual Christmas Car Bomb (while abroad, order at your own risk, fyi).

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Mobcraft Beer | Beelzebub’s Run

ABV: 7.6%

IBU: 23

Have you ever had a great idea for a beer but no means to realize it? Do you lay awake at night longing for that imperial rice lager aged in fish sauce barrels that nobody seems interested in brewing? Well, don’t lose hope; Mobcraft, the world’s first crowdsourced brewery, might just be the answer to your dreams.

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Dry Dock Brewing Co. | Signature Series Double Hazelnut Brown Ale

8% ABV
30 IBU

It’s fair to say I have a soft spot in my heart for Dry Dock Brewing Co. Their Aurora taproom is one of the first breweries I visited after moving to Colorado, and its proximity to my office made it a frequent haunt for happy hours with coworkers and friends. With a lineup of beers running the gamut from a really solid Hefeweizen to one of my favorite double IPAs in the state, I didn’t need many excuses to return. One of their most highly-anticipated releases has always been Signature Series Bligh’s Barleywine, an excellent take on the style aged in whiskey barrels. This winter, Dry Dock added several companions to their Signature Series including one that caught my eye while shopping several weeks ago, Double Hazelnut Brown Ale. Deciding that a big brown ale plus whiskey plus hazelnuts sounded like one of the most delicious things ever, I grabbed a bottle and headed home. Read More

West 6th Brewery | Pay it Forward Cocoa Porter

Chocolate can be extremely polarizing. It can magically alter the brain chemistry of a hormonally-crazed female, turn pint sized trick-or-treaters into sugar charged hellions, or serve as the perfect wing-dessert to a romantic dinner for two. However there are certainly situations where chocolate may not necessarily work. It probably doesn’t pair well with soup, nor serve as an appropriate topping to a kale and tofu salad (trust me Ive tried) and to some it might seem a tad averse to mix chocolate with beer. But such is not the case with West 6th’s Pay it Forward Cocoa Porter.

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Cooking with Beer | Chocolate Pretzel Pie

I bring you the Cappuccino Stout Chocolate Pie with a Pretzel Shortbread Crust. To keep it short, let’s call it the Chocolate Pretzel Pie. Since this confectionery treat is clearly overloaded with sugar, I chose a cappuccino stout to cut the edge off things. If you’re not a coffee person, don’t fret. The Cappuccino Stout from Lagunitas adds just the right amount of bitterness to balance things out without becoming coffee in solid form. All you chocolate lovers out there need to give a big thank you to Christopher Day for giving me the inspiration for this recipe. Cheers and remember: when cooking with beer, the pie’s the limit!

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Cooking with Beer | Southern Tier Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

I don’t know where you stand on whether it’s acceptable to start drinking pumpkin beers or not, but I’ll tell you I’ve decided that it is definitely okay to start eating them. Southern Tier came to Colorado earlier this year so I quickly snatched up their products, Pumking and Warlock. For the past few weeks they have just been sitting in my fridge, haunting me, daring me to use them. Finally, I caved, and in the best way possible. I figured, why not use them both at once? Since it’s just about fall, I did the most #basicbitch thing I could think of – make pumpkin cheesecake brownies (oh em gee, pumpkin spice lattes!) While they aren’t exploding with pumpkin flavors, they have just enough to make you think, “Damn, these aren’t #basic at all!” That’s exactly what I was hoping you’d say. Cheers to eating your beers.

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CBC 2014 Recap | The Events

The week of the Craft Brewers Conference was so jam-packed with incredible events that it was simply impossible to catch all the good stuff. We have only so many hours in the day and sadly, only one liver. However, I did my best given these unfair limitations – here’s where I spent my evenings April 7th-11th. Read More

Lost Abbey | Deliverance

ABV: 12.5%

This week I woke up and it felt like somebody just emptied a fistful of quarters into a Magic Fingers bed. Only I’m at home in California, not in a South Dakota Super8 circa 1978, and that means… earthquake! I’d never felt a quake before, and really it was over as soon as it started. Nothing cracked or fell, and even my pictures stayed straight on the wall. So it was mostly an excuse for folks to go all Chicken Little all over Twitter, but it was a little unsettling to think about the ground opening up and swallowing us all. What better beer to mark a “near death experience” than Deliverance from Lost Abbey.

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Boulder Beer Co. | Shake Chocolate Porter

ABV: 5.9% | IBU: 39

There are chocolate porters, and there are CHOCOLATE PORTERS. This deviantly devilish beer falls into the later category. Without a doubt, the most chocolatey … Read More

Long Trail Brush & Barrel Series-Culmination Chocolate Porter

With an exciting Sunday showdown for NFL fans across the country, I attempted to make good on a New Year’s resolution by watching football with other people….at a bar. Imagine that. Drinking beer, hanging out, high-fiving all over the place, who does that?

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Mrs. O’Leary’s Chocolate Milk Stout

ABV: 7%

Chicagoan or not, we all know of The Great Chicago Fire. Recently, I mentioned breweries like Revolution and Haymarket Brewing who incorporate a bit of Chicago history in … Read More

Evil Twin Brewing – Lil’ B Imperial Porter

Evil Twin Brewing – Lil’ B Imperial Porter
ABV: 11.5%
IBU: 35
SRM: 20

Colorado has always been a place of privilege when it comes to accessing the finer selections of craft beer. With the staples being rooted in our scene now for 30 years and handfuls of breweries opening up each month, we are really epitomizing the moniker of the Napa Valley of Beer with our distribution side of things opening up as well. In the last few months, we have been blessed with Clown Shoes Beer and Epic Brewing hitting our shelves. Now, within the last few weeks, we have had an influx of infinite awesomeness with Speakeasy Ales and Lagers, Alesmith, Stillwater Artisanal and Evil Twin Brewing. I will be sipping many of these new brews on the back porch soon enough but for now I will talk candidly about an old friend, Evil Twin’s Lil’ B Imperial Porter.

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Brew Bites | Chocolate Stout Cake

Experimenting with cooking and baking with beer is a fun pastime hobby of mine but I only wish I could do it more often! Baking with beer definitely fits well. The chocolate, caramel, nutty, and roasted flavors obtained from stouts and porters just seem to fit perfectly in brownies, cookies, and cakes.

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Brooklyn Brewery- Black Chocolate Stout

Brooklyn Brewery- Black Chocolate Stout

ABV: 10%

IBU: 51

Best Enjoyed: October-March

The lockout has ended and hockey is back in season. This my friends, calls for a beer. Sports and beer have always had an interesting marriage, consummated in parking lots, club boxes and sometimes divorced in bathrooms and pavements. Every game day has its own traditions, and for weekday games at Broad and Pattison, the equation always includes a trip to the Perch Pub (Broad and Locust Streets, Center City Philadelphia).

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Founders Brewing | Breakfast Stout

ABV: 8.3% | IBU: 60

I used to think this brew was best poured into a wide base tulip on a cool summer’s evening. I have changed my mind. This breakfast beer is best served with breakfast. It’s a big beer but not too big. Grab a mug, pour a Founders Brewing Breakfast Stout and grab a slice of coffee cake. Take a seat on your front/back porch with the morning paper. It’s time for breakfast the way it was intended.

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