Beer Cocktail Recipe | Chaucer’s Braggot Cocktail IPA Challenge

Everyone has a favorite cocktail. Not just from the base recipe or primary ingredient, but it isn’t your cocktail unless it’s made with your favorite brand. So when you jump from the 10 major brands of whiskey to the hundreds of available pale ales in your state, the search becomes a massive task. That’s where I’ve taken the steps to help narrow down the best Braggot Cocktail that will get you started on the road to personal perfection.

A braggot is technically defined as a beer mixed with mead; however, the beverage can exist through traditionally brewed recipes. The Beer Judge Certification Program would list it as an Alternative Sugar Beer (31B) where honey is used as the primary ingredient. They can vary wildly in terms of flavor, weight and sweetness. You would think this style would appear more often in our age of experimentation, but finding a commercially available braggot has been very difficult lately.

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Surly Brewing Releases New Hop Shifter Gluten-Reduced IPA

Crack open two Surly Brewing Hop Shifter IPAs and they might taste different from one another. No, nothing is wrong with either can, the taste difference is by design.

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Ultimate 6er | 6 Reasons to Love Bale Breaker Brewing Company

The Yakima Valley in Eastern Washington accounts for nearly 80% of the United States hop crop, and the team at Bale Breaker Brewing Company have established themselves as leaders in the Yakima Valley hop scene, both as growers and as brewers. The brewery is located amongst hop fields that were first planted in 1932, and the brewers at Bale Breaker have made a point of showcasing Yakima Valley hops in virtually every Bale Breaker brew. Though a relatively young brewery (they opened in 2013), Bale Breaker has become one of the most well-known IPA producers in Washington and is a leader in the Eastern Washington brewing scene. Today we present an Ultimate 6er dedicated the people who made Bale Breaker what it is today: 6 Reasons to Love Bale Breaker Brewing Company. Read More

HenHouse Brewing | Chemtrails IPA

You know when you find a beer or brewery that just tugs at all your little beer heartstrings? That was HenHouse Brewing for me when I first visited the Bay Area in July. Being a beer girl from Seattle, I have a natural tendency to scope out all the breweries in any area I visit.

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Odd13 Brewing | n00b

I’m that guy. I’ve been him for a long time now. I’ve known it for a long time, but didn’t care. I went with it. I’m the guy who no matter what always just wants to try the NEW beer. It’ll be sitting right next to a beer that I know I love and have even ranted and raved about to my friends. And yet, I can’t help myself; I grab the shiny new beer next to it on the shelf. I’ve never really had a go-to beer.

That has finally changed.

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2017 GABF Route Guide | Hoppy Beers

For the past month and a half our staff has been reaching out to every brewery attending the Great American Beer Festival to try to preview what they’ll be bringing to the fest. As part of that research, we’ve sifted through that list of beers to bring you a series of themed routes to help you plan for your GABF based on various styles and flavors.
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Beerstagram | August 24 – August 31

Hello Beerstagram friends! Somehow Labor Day weekend is already upon us. Any fun plans for the long weekend? We have a nice roundup of photos for you this week, including many announcing that is finally hop-picking season, hooray! Wet hop beers all around. Be sure to keep tagging us on your beer sipping adventures @PorchDrinkingCO and we will see you back here again next week, cheers!

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National IPA Day | Midwest Region Roundup

West Coast, East Coast, New England… Midwest? Yes, here in the land of tornadoes, Great Lakes, major rivers, sweeping winter cold fronts, barbeque, corn, wheat and sausage, we like our IPAs, too. Heck, hops are even grown here in abundance. In the Midwest, as in every other region, IPAs remain the most prominent form of craft beer served, and there are many worthy of having them over and over again.

The difficult part is picking only a few that represent the Midwestern IPA scene. We can’t name them all, but we at Porchdrinking.com can provide a small taste — pun intended — of what the Midwest offers.

Check out the rest of our #IPAday regions:

Northeast | Southeast | Mountain | Pacific Northwest | Southwest

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Dancing Gnome | Better One or Two

Dancing Gnome has been regularly canning their delicious beers and last week they released one of their DIPA’s, Better One or Two. I’m sure a few of us have seen … Read More

SweetWater Brewing Company | Squeeze Box IPA

Grapefruit Season!

As we prepare for turkey day, serious football, and the dreaded holiday shopping season winter warmer and Christmas beers are starting to appear on shelves. Not everyone is ready to slap on the sweaters and hunker down for the bitter cold. Some of us are looking for something different something counter to the spice and malt offerings of the season. Read More

Hop Harvest at Anheuser Busch’s Elk Mountain Farm

Sprawling across 1,700 acres in Idaho’s northern most region lies the world’s largest contiguous hop farm. Elk Mountain Farms, located in Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho, just 10 miles from the Canadian border, produces a majority of the hops used by Anheuser Busch InBev’s (ABI) High End Brands Division.

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2016 GABF Route Preview | Hoppy Beers Route

For the past month and a half our staff has been reaching out to every brewery attending the Great American Beer Festival to try to preview what they’ll be bringing to the fest. As part of that research, we’ve sifted through that list of beers to bring you a series of themed routes to help you plan for your GABF based on various styles and flavors.

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Goose Island Beer Co. | Brewery Yard

When drinking your favorite craft beer, how often do you think about the history behind it? To be honest there isn’t a lot of history behind most craft beer. In an industry that isn’t very old and more typically focuses on the new and exciting release, history often doesn’t make its way into craft beer. But Goose Island’s Brewery Yard is one beer that features a unique and interesting historical tale.

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La Cumbre Brewing | Monzón Wet Hopped Pale Ale

This showcase is sponsored by Small Batch Liquors.

ABV: 6.0%

Bottle: Crown Capped 675ml

Brewed on: 09/09/2016 | Sampled on: 09/17/2016

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Cellarmaker Brewing Company | Double Dobis

Photo courtesy of Cellarmaker Brewing. 

ABV: 8.2% | IBU: 86

Cellarmaker Brewing Company burst on the San Francisco beer scene in 2013 and has been brewing some of the best beers on the West Coast ever since (especially their pales and IPAs). Cellarmaker tends to rotate through beers quickly, and rarely brings back the same beer twice, especially in short order.  But, there are exceptions to every rule.

In June, Cellarmaker bottled their Double Dobis beer. Cellarmaker recently started bottling one beer a month, and they are always out of this world. Double Dobis was no exception. Read More

Monkish Brewing Company | Really Real Double IPA

ABV: 8.3% | IBU: 75

Beer trading has seemingly taken off in the last year or so with the increased focus on limited release brews. Treehouse Brewing and Tired Hands are brewing hugely sought after beers from the East Coast, however a contender has arisen from California, making waves with their own New England style, hazy IPAs. That brewery is Monkish Brewing Company and that beer is Really Real Double IPA. Read More

Beerstagram | August 18th – August 25th

This week’s edition of Beerstagram is dedicated to hops. It is time for our annual hop harvest in many places in the Northern Hemisphere, hop hop hooray! These bright green beauties are surely bound to make for some incredible batches of beer. Be sure to check out local breweries in your area, many of them make fresh hop IPAs around this time and they are surely a treat to be savored and enjoyed. Cheers!

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Put that Pumpkin Beer Down, It’s Wet Hop Season

It’s that time of year again, when brewers start brewing harvest beers. No, it’s not pumpkin season. It’s hop season!

While pumpkin beers are brewed earlier and earlier every year… and I have already seen a few Oktoberfest beers, I refuse to buy either until I brew a wet hop beer. It has become a tradition for me since I was first introduced to the idea of wet hopping a beer at Voss Farms in 2013. Read More

Anchor Brewing Company | Go West! IPA

ABV: 6.7% | IBU: 75

In my first article for PorchDrinking.com, it only makes sense for me to write about a San Francisco IPA, more specifically Go West! IPA. Although the options are somewhat endless, with new breweries opening seemingly every week, I had to start with San Francisco’s oldest brewery. It just so happens, Anchor Brewing Company is located just a few blocks away from my home. Read More

The Six Best Beers for Summer Backpacking

You have finally reached your campsite after hiking 20 miles over rugged terrain with all of your gear on your back. A heavy band of sweat clings to your head as you finally drop your pack and begin to set up your shelter. Once you’ve eaten and settled in for the night, you reach into your pack and pull out a beer. Beer might not be as essential as food, water, shelter or clothing, but, in your modest camp, it’s nothing short of a luxury.

Since the most important criterion of a backpacking beer is portability, every beer on this list will be canned. Cans are much lighter than glass and don’t require you to pack a bottle-opener. You also do not run the risk of a can breaking and leaving dangerous shards all over the campsite. Last but not least, aluminum conducts heat faster than glass, which means they’ll get cold faster when you stick them in a creek. There are many to choose from, but, if you ask me, these are the best summer backpacking beers. Read More