For beer lovers, this is the Formula One World Championship, the X Games, and the Superbowl all rolled into one massive occasion. For twenty-seven years, the Brewer’s Association has put on one of the world’s largest beer tastings. How large you ask? How about 46,000 attending and over 1,800 beers to sample with only three days to get it all done? Continue Reading »

“Noble Rot” is a groundbreaking piece of beverage writing that straddles the line between research and entertainment. At 288 pages, it is a quick and enjoyable read that tricks you into gaining a comprehensive understanding of the past and current workings of Bordeaux and the most influential people that have helped shape it. It is a must read for anyone with a taste for Bordeaux, or an interest in French wine culture. If all of that didn’t convince you to go out and get this book, you should because the gentleman who wrote it, William Echikson, is incredibly nice and even agreed to do an interview…Enjoy Continue Reading »

I can say with confidence that Crystal Pepsi is one of the main consumer products that defined my childhood (that, Ken Griffey Jr. Crunch Bars, and hypercolor shirts). In my childhood home of Waterville, Washington, summertime temps would get up around 110 degrees, so having a quenching beverage you could rely on was crucial, and at the tender age of ten, this palate was already becoming particular about what it wanted. Continue Reading »

Thirteen years. That was how long Prohibition lasted in the United States as a result of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I am thoroughly convinced that this generation could not handle it. It was a brutal war.

For example, a woman named Carrie Nation would go into saloons and start breaking bottles with a hatchet. She described herself as “a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus, barking at what he doesn’t like.” Continue Reading »

What is it?

Ginger beer is one of the best kept non-alcoholic secrets in beverage. You are probably familiar with ginger ale (an airline favorite), but ginger beer is a very different beast. Ginger beer is typically made using natural ingredients in an artesian way, whereas ginger ale is produced using industrial processes. Ginger ale ends up tasting like Sprite with ginger syrup added, whereas ginger beer can be very complex, bursting with ginger flavor, and often with small pieces of ginger floating in the liquid visible to the human eye. Continue Reading »

Meet “WinePod”, a “state-of-the-art tool for small lot artisan winemaking”. Okay, so you buy this thing, and you can make your own wine at home. Sure, it lists at $4,499, and you could take all that money and buy a ton of really awesome, professionally-made wine, but what is the fun in that? Continue Reading »