Great wine always tastes better with great water. I’ve become a water-phile somewhere along the way, and continue to explore new waters as I come across them. Here are my top 5 favorite waters that are widely available. Continue Reading »

With fall in full swing and Halloween on its way, that can only mean one thing to beer connoisseurs; pumpkin ale. What the seasonal Christmas Ale is to Christmas and the Oktoberfest Ale is to the fall harvest, Halloween has its very own pumpkin ale. Although pumpkin ale has been around for several years and has even been rumored that Thomas Jefferson used pumpkin to make beer way back when, it wasn’t a well-known beer until recently. It received a big boost in 2007 when the Great American Beer Festival gave it its very own subcategory in the fruits-and-veggies beer category. Continue Reading »

Did you know that at one point Schlitz was the biggest brewery in the world? Yes, it is true. Did you also know that after being bought by Pabst in 1999, Schlitz is now back and is produced in a way similar to the original 1960s recipe. Continue Reading »

This blog was inspired by a great story that ran today in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle about the rum runners of Lake Ontario. The newspaper had the ability to cite previous issues of itself dating back to 1921.

I was surprised to learn that prior to being a main route for alcohol smugglers during prohibition, Lake Ontario was a major gateway for fleeing slaves heading towards Canada. Continue Reading »

Night 1 of the American Wine & Food Festival was a beef extravaganza, with some of the Los Angeles’s best restaurants showing off their interpretations of what’s for dinner. The event was held at Wolfgang Puck’s Red Seven restaurant, and Chef Puck was on hand to shake hands and slurp down some wine himself. Continue Reading »

Mutineers JJ Bagley and Alan Kropf will be heading up to Washington this coming weekend to attend and judge the Yakima Valley Fresh Hop Ale Festival. Jessica Moskwa, Executive Director of the event, tells us what the event is all about: Continue Reading »

A look at the beautiful vineyards of Domaine Drouhin in 2007.

It is that time of year again, HARVEST. Different regions harvest at different times throughout the fall, and it is around this time that Oregon’s Willamette Valley typically begins the annual wine making process, but this year things are running a little bit behind.

What does this mean? Nothing yet. Things can change in an instant in Oregon, and all we can say so far is that this has been a cool year, things are behind schedule, and vineyard challenges have been minimal. As a fan of wines that highlight complexity instead of alcohol, I see this vintage as holding huge possibilities. Continue Reading »

The economic crisis has been dominating the news as well as the attention of politicians; however, this last Tuesday night a bill was passed in the Senate relating to rum taxes and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The bill says that the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico will receive $13.25 for each proof (a liquid gallon consisting of 50% alcohol) gallon of rum produced in the U.S. Virgin Islands and sold in the United States. The bill, S. 2886, extends a previous tax arrangement that lasted from July 1, 1999 to December 31, 2007. The bill is retroactive to January 1, 2008, and extends the 1999 arrangement to December 31, 2009. Continue Reading »