Bike Dog | Nameless Brut IPA

Summertime in Sacramento is hot. This coming weekend, it’s going to be triple digits and everywhere from the industrial park of West Sacramento, through the highway 50 corridor, up into the foothills, beer lovers will be flocking to their favorite brewery to find some shade and enjoy a brew or two.

If you find yourself at Bike Dog, you may notice a new subset of the ever-loved IPA, their Nameless Brut. Compared to the loud, bold and anything but subtle juicy IPA’s that have been all the rage for the past couple of years, the Extra Brut IPA is a super dry, clean-cut IPA that is crisp, clear and offers the perfect blank canvas to feature the almighty hop.

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Firestone Walker | Luponic Distortion IPA Series #10

I just got back from a weekend of epic proportions. World class beer, informative talks, great music,  new friends, and an impressive brewery tour. The Firestone Walker Invitational is definitely … Read More

Narrow Gauge Brewing | SHB: DDH Citra

One of the first things that happened on my return to St. Louis after a two year absence was a receipt of a Narrow Gauge Brewing SHB: DDH Citra. By receipt I mean it was forced upon me. And by forced upon me, I mean a friend insisted I try this new (to me) beer. Before I could ask about this acronym-soup of a beer, I had a sip and promptly forgot my crude thought on what SHB: DDH might mean. Read More

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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Great Divide Brewing Company | Heyday Modern IPA

As an employee owner of New Belgium and a lover of craft beer, I am always on the lookout for high-quality brews. One place I often look, and am rewarded by, is fellow longtime Colorado craft brewer, Great Divide Brewing Company. Today, I’m lucky enough to enjoy their Heyday Modern IPA. Heyday is a new offering from Great Divide that riffs on current IPA styles to create a modified IPA experience they’re dubbing, “Modern IPA,” and it’s a beer that has me thinking of summertime. Read More

Rogue Ales | Cold Brew IPA

Coffee and beer is hardly a revolutionary coupling. As is the case with most hackneyed combinations, however, there’s a reason these two are so often paired together — albeit usually in the context of a stout or porter, whose malty flavors and thick, creamy mouthfeel play well with the roasted bitterness of coffee beans.

Rogue Ales’ Cold Brew IPA aims to do something different, even in the less-common realm of coffee-infused IPAs and pale ales. The can boasts of a “hop punch,” an intriguing claim given the array of coffee beers I’ve had over the years, most of which treat hoppiness as an afterthought. Thanks to a generous hop mix that includes Liberty, Rebel, Freedom and Simcoe, the Newport, Oregon-based brewery manages to deliver.
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Bear Republic Brewing Co. | Racer 500 Indy Pale Ale

With my wife being from Indianapolis, I know that when the calendar turns to May; it’s Indianapolis 500 month. To celebrate the event, Bear Republic Brewing Co., known for its Racer 5 IPA and other racing-inspired beers, has released Racer 500 Indy Pale Ale. The beer is only be available at the brewpub and the state of Indiana.

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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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What We’re Drinking | May 11, 2018

There are many events in May during which we can pour a glass of beer and enjoy our friends and families. For these instances, we have a variety of solid beer choices to share with everyone to celebrate. It does create quite the dilemma finding space in the fridge for the amount of food and beer that joins us throughout the month, but we can all agree this is the best problem to have. Cinco de Mayo or the Kentucky Derby could have cleared out room for some noteworthy beers to chill. To fill the void, PorchDrinkers have plenty of good candidates to consider this week on What We’re Drinking. Read More

Ultimate 6er | Best Monkish IPA Releases of 2018 (so far)

With warm weather approaching, the time has never been better to track down the best crushable IPA you can find. Monkish Brewing has easily established itself as one of the best out there at creating top quality New England Style IPAs, and this 6er will guide you through the best cans that have graced us with their presence so far this year. Read More

4th Tap Brewing Cooperative | Kung Fu Robot IPA

4th Tap Brewing Co-operative is one of the most interesting breweries in Texas because they are the only worker-owned cooperative brewery in the state. Founded in 2015, the brewery has taken an inspired, unique approach to their beers and just released their personal take on a new IPA, a Citra and Mosaic hop blend with a touch of flaked oats for a smooth mouthfeel. I caught up with co-founders Erin and John Stecker to find out more about Kung Fu Robot IPA.

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Narrow Gauge Brewing Company | King Fallen Flag

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the breweries in western Pennsylvania — Dancing Gnome, Grist House, Voodoo Brewery and Brew Gentlemen, to name a few of my favorites. The craft beer served at those places, as is the rest of the craft beer served in the region, is absolutely delicious. However, every once in awhile you want to branch out and explore other breweries. That is where Narrow Gauge Brewing Company (St. Louis) comes into play, including its King Fallen Flag.

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What We’re Drinking | April 20, 2018

Hope everyone is ready for some smoking good beers…get it?! Cause it’s 4/20? Yeah, I don’t care either. What I do care about is some of the tasty brews that are starting to peek out before spring weather greets us all – Saisons, IPA, and fruited beers! In case you aren’t in a place that is hitting 60+ degrees Fahrenheit, crack that heater, put on a pair of shorts, crack a cold one and see What We’re Drinking.

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Platform Beer Co. | Haze Jude

The New England IPA (NEIPA) was once only available via bottle trades or to those willing to wait in long lines. But that has slowly started to change because larger breweries are making this style and distributing them in much larger volumes. That’s good news to those that previously couldn’t get their hands on these beers. However, it is worth asking if the large scale production can mimic what made this style so unique and special. Cleveland’s Platform Beer Haze Jude helped answer that question.

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Ultimate 6er | Southern Arizona Sampler

I feel fortunate as a beer nerd to live in Southern Arizona, Tucson specifically. The beer scene here has started to gain some national attention, but still largely flies under the radar. Tucson is a legitimate beer destination with 20+ breweries, drive out a little bit further and there are additional breweries in Tombstone, Bisbee, and Sonoita. The desert is definitely not dry here, so sit back and crack open a few delicious local brews. Read More

Pelican Brewing Company | Beak Bender

Now, don’t get me wrong—I understand that everyone is different. That said, we’re all human and there are a handful of things that are guaranteed to make anyone’s day. Take, for example, a yawn-inducing work meeting being cancelled, a spectacular cup of coffee, running into a puppy on the street, and, perhaps best of all, one of your favorite breweries adding a beer onto their year-round line-up. Queue Pelican Brewing Company and the Beak Bender, a hoppinated India Pale Ale that is now available year-round. You’ll want to get familiar with this one—trust me. Read More

Alvarado Street Brewery | CollaBEERation Four Way Juicy IPA

Move over Ménage à Trois, it’s all about the Four Way now. Alvarado Street Brewing collaborated with Hop Dogma Brewing Co., Humble Sea Brewing Co. and Discretion Brewing to create a four- way collaboration IPA for Beer THIRTY‘s 4th birthday celebration. Only 100 cases were released on March 7 at Alvarado Street, and then were sent up to Beer THIRTY on March 9 for the birthday bash!! As if this brew wasn’t enough, Beer THIRTY had sweet glassware to go along with it at the party.

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Sculpin Standout | How Ballast Point Crafted an IPA That Stands the Test of Time

I remember sitting on the patio of Ballast Point’s Little Italy taproom in San Diego a few years ago sipping on a fresh Grapefruit Sculpin. At the time, I marveled at how impressive that beer tasted – the combination of mellow bitterness and fruity overtones came together in perfect harmony. It was one of the best beers I’ve ever tasted, and it’s still a beer I weigh other fruited IPAs against. Introduced in 2005, Ballast Point’s Sculpin IPA has become a pace setter in the American craft beer scene — especially for West Coast IPAs.
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The Mitten Brewing Company | Country Strong American IPA

I love a good IPA. I know I’m not alone in this, and I do not mind. Because when people love good IPAs, they make good IPAs, and that means more for me. In Michigan, it’s not hard to find good IPAs, which is why when one stands out to me, it’s for good reason. The Mitten Brewing Company’s Country Strong American IPA is just one of those standouts, and it has become my new go-to brew.

7.2% ABV | 58 IBU

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SweetWater Brewing Co. | Ground Score IPA

Sweetwater Brewing Company’s latest Dank Tank release Ground Score is an unfiltered dank IPA just in time for SweetWater’s 420 Festival in Atlanta, which is shaping up to be an unfiltered rip of music, beer and the culture that has made this brewery a national standout.

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