Belgian beer is certainly special, with many of their traditional brands and styles being truly unique in terms of their flavor, ingredients and production methods. Most Belgians will argue that they have the best beer in the world and while I won’t be supporting that argument in this post I will agree that they have some amazing beers that simply must be on everyone’s list of beers to try. At the mention of Trappist beer one may conjure images of old, grey, balding monks in robes, stirring wooden paddles in cauldrons and happily downing hefty glasses of ale like Friar Tuck. In this post I would like to give an introduction to Trappist beer in terms of its history, rules, brands, and how they are different from other “abbey ales”.

We’ve all seen the server or bartender go through the painstaking process of slowly pouring beer from the faucet or out of a can or bottle into a nearly-horizontal glass, making every effort to not allow any foam to show up at the top of the glass. However, every brewer will tell you that foam is an important characteristic of beer that is supposed to be there. In some countries there is a clear line below the top of the glass, highlighting the level of liquid that you paid for (with room for foam on top). In other countries the liquid is meant to be held together by surface tension at the brim of the glass without a trace of foam.

In this post I won’t be sharing about how much foam each pint should have, but I will share some ways that brewers can improve foam in their beer. Particularly, I’ll share some takeaways from Dr. Charles Bamforth’s 2012 book, Foam, from the ASBC “Quality Series”.

Australia is a land that has everything it needs to make world-class beer with hop farms in Tasmania, barley fields in Western Australia and a brewing history heavily influenced by British immigrants in the 19th century. While I’ve previously traveled to Tasmania, Melbourne and Sydney, this past December (2019) I made my first trip to Western Australia - home of the Margaret River wine region, a beautiful coastline, and other agriculture that has made it ripe to support an emerging craft beer scene. In this post I’ll touch on a few breweries I was able to visit in Margaret River, Fremantle, and the coast in-between. I’ll give you my general impression as well as a relative “grade” of the venue and the beer, and some justification for each.

As a brewer, I’m always interested in learning more of the science behind brewing and fermentation. As a beer enthusiast, however, I always love a good history lesson about beer and brewing. American Palate has published a series of historical books on beer and as I have traveled I have come across a few of the titles to supplement my, often dry, beer science knowledge with the more colorful story of beer around the world.

Having recently visited Portland, aka “Beervana”, and other parts of Oregon on a summer family road trip, I came across Portland Beer: Crafting the Road to Beervana at the locally famous Powell’s Bookstore. Needless to say I was happy to avoid another technical brewing text to go for a more enjoyable read to give me more of a background on this city that has come to be recognized as one of the hubs for craft beer in America.

In this post I wanted to filter out a handful of historical facts that I found interesting.

I ordered my first craft beer back in 2003 and while my love for beer has grown throughout my travels, it has taken me 16 years to finally make it to Portland, a.k.a. “Beervana”. I don’t have the hard figures on how many breweries are in Portland, and I’m sure that it is in a constant state of flux. However, it is safe to say that there are loads of breweries not only in Portland, but all across Oregon as well. So, this summer I made the pilgrimage for 10 days from Portland to the northern coast, through the Willamette valley, out to Hood River, down to Bend, and back in a trip that won’t soon be forgotten. In this post I will not be providing an exhaustive review of Oregon’s breweries. However, I will point out some highlights of this road trip through the Beaver State.

Australia is a place with no shortage of great beer and since Tasmania accounts for majority of the hop supply, it’s no wonder that there would be a handful of breweries putting out some excellent craft beers in the state’s capitol of Hobart. We spent a week in Tasmania, using Hobart as a base, and since we never made it up to Launceston (home of James Boag’s and also close to Van Dieman’s) I decided to focus this post on the breweries of Hobart.

I recently had the opportunity to help organize the annual home-brew competition held by the Hong Kong Homebrewers' Association (HKHA) at the beginning of June.  It wasn't really my intention to fill that role, as I'd much rather just brew and enter beers, but sometimes things just turn out that way.  On the bright side, there's always something to be learned from a new challenge so in this post I'd like to point out a few things that I have gleaned from this experience.

Gluten is a troublesome protein found in cereal grains such as barley, wheat, and rye.  Approximately 1% of the world population is affected by celiac disease which is an autoimmune disorder that damages the small intestine and affects nutrient absorption.  Gluten sensitivity is a recognised condition affecting about 6% of the US population, and involves other, less serious reactions from ingested gluten.  Since the primary source of sugar in brewing comes from cereal grains, most people with celiac disease and gluten intolerances avoid beer altogether, but craft brewers have gotten creative over the years in trying to offer gluten-free options that still taste great.  This post will introduce you to the basics of gluten-free brewing.

German "craft beer"?  Why would they need that?  For a country that oozes "craft" in everything that they do, and a history that is steeped in strict traditions when it comes to brewing, it seemed unlikely that we would ever see German brewers joining the craft beer revolution.  I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that the most diverse and international city in Germany would serve as a catalyst for this new German craft beer movement.

On February 24th we opened our doors for our first tasting event featuring brews from Founder's Brewing Co. in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  The tasting featured a range of their full-bodied, full-flavoured beers including:  PC Pils, All-Day IPA, Azacca IPA, Dirty Bastard, KBS, and Lizard of Koz.  The crowd favourite was the KBS, or Kentucky Breakfast Stout, which came as no surprise.  In this post I share my thoughts on these brews as well as some of the things I learned about Founder's Brewing in preparation for the tasting.

Since my wife hails from the "O.C." (Orange County) we find ourselves visiting regularly.  Over the years we've seen an impressive growth of craft beer in her neck of the woods.  While Huntington Beach, CA is known as "Surf City USA" and is typically a summer destination for campers, beach-goers, and surfers alike, it is also starting to build a reputation as a craft beer destination.

As an American living in Hong Kong, once you make it to November and are finally rewarded with a drop in temperature then you can't help but start thinking about the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays on the horizon.  Over the past several years my wife and I have been fortunate to host or attend Thanksgiving gatherings with friends which always include staples of turkey, breaded stuffing, cranberry sauce, potatoes, vegetables, and pumpkin pie.  This holiday always reminds me to reflect on what I'm thankful for, and beer is definitely on that list!  In the past I've never brewed a beer for a specific holiday, but in this post I will share a few recipes that I brewed for this year's Thanksgiving celebration!

Taiwan is an island that has a reasonably developed craft beer scene.  My previous experience with Taiwan had only been a long-weekend trip to Taipei back in 2013, but I recently took a 4-day trip to southern Taiwan and it was in the unassuming town of Hengchun that my wife and I would stumble across a pleasant surprise for the craft beer lover.......3000 Brewzeum.

With over 4,000 breweries and growing by the day, the United States is never a bad place to go for interesting craft beer.  This past Summer I had the opportunity to visit breweries in Middlebury, Burlington, and Stowe and I was left thirsting for more.  This post will touch on a handful of breweries in this self-proclaimed "weird" state and the wonderful beers that they produce.