Beer Review : Left Hand Smokejumper Smoked Imperial Porter
It is known throughout the land – I am flamboyantly enraptured with every single beer produced by Left Hand Brewing. Their Milk Stout is the most excellent session stout ever, JuJu Ginger is the best accompaniment for sushi since wasabi, and Polestar Pilsner is so yummy it makes an ale junkie like me develop insane cravings for lager. But most of all, Left Hand’s seasonal and limited beers conjure intense feelings of euphoria – Oak Aged Imperial Stout, Rye Bock, and the Midnight Project collaborations with Terrapin Brewing. Read the rest of this entry »









As my friends continue to prove unable to handle their liquor, this hopes to become a series of helpful hints and amusing anecdotes which more experienced party-goers can use to ridicule friends who ill-advisedly drink beyond their means. It also sets up some pretty good photography. Here’s hoping they’ll still hang out with me.
With the holidays approaching, the glorious bounty that is winter seasonal beer begins to descend upon the shelves of local bottle shops. One of my favorite seasonal offerings is the Petrus Key to Heaven gift pack, which features 6 unique brews from Belgian brewery
I challenge you to find a more suitable, adult-appropriate companion for a well assembled burger than a flavorful brew. But not every beer has the power to bring out the best in every burger — some matches are just better than others. Thankfully,
The
According to beer judging guidelines, brown ales should be a celebration of sweet dark grain. English style browns exhibit a heavier, dominant malt character with very little hops presence, while American browns tend to balance malt and hops flavors, sometimes with a modest degree of citrusy bitterness. Alcohol content of both types is usually moderate, somewhere between 3% and 5% ABV.
If you didn’t know, Creative Loafing recently relocated its offices from Howard Ave. to Ybor, and staffers are psyched. No disrespect intended to SoHo, but our new digs are an easy walk from coffee, alcohol, food and music, not to mention the ample natural light and old-Florida brick architecture. It’s like waking up from a black-and-white dream.
Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale — Brewed in Portland, Maine by
California will soon be host to the world’s smallest wine appellation, or legally designated wine region. The U.S. is already home to the largest appellation in the world, the ever-popular Upper Mississippi River Valley American Viticultural Area, which covers almost 30,000 square miles spread across four states, approved earlier this year by the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Maybe they’re going for a Guinness Book of World Records spot?
This time of year is ripe for ghosts, ghouls and scary tales, but don’t let witches brew distract you from great inexpensive wines. Halloween screams for some scary and spooktacular vino, and one of my all time favorites to drink on Halloween night is
Sierra Nevada 2009 Southern Hemisphere Fresh Hop Ale
Not really sure how cult classics are born, but the ones who get it right seem to rocket to success quickly. Some have equally cult winemakers to aid them in their assent — Helen Turley (Colgin, Bryant Family), Heidi Barrett (Screaming Eagle) — but others have fabulously gorgeous wines which sell themselves. Bodega Achaval Ferrer, a ten-year-old winery in Argentina’s Mendoza region, is the latter.
Many articles try to correlate personalities with purchases: cars, pets, and clothes. Just for fun I’m going to correlate a person’s sexual personality with the type of wine they drink.
Ybor brewery
Recently, craft and macro-brewers alike have seized upon a formula that’s worked for the greeting card industry and the Food Network for years now: holiday-themed product. It’s an easy sell for Hallmark and its ilk, and televised cooking shows have made a good go of showcasing cooking focused more on big holidays than seasonal ingredients. But beer? Shoehorning iconic flavors into brews — available for a limited time only! — seems more of a stretch.
My cabinets overflow with wine glasses of every shape and size. We manage to break one weekly, but the brimming collection strangely never dwindles. The cheap, logo-emblazoned ones are like indestructible cement, but the pricey ones regularly fall in battle. Unique to my house? I think not, because people often ask if the half-paycheck glasses are needed or if the $1.99 cheapies will suffice. The European
(Part 2 of our 















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