May 15, 2012

Near the end of April, NABC’s team gathered to brew our first-ever two batches of German-style wheat ale, and I’m happy to report that neither of them is representative of the standard, everyday Hefe-Weizen formulation. If so, I’d have to shoot myself. One is a Heller Weizen Maibock called HellBock, and the other a Weizen Doppelbock consciously mimicking a...

May 1, 2012

When it comes to preaching the gospel of real beer, the truth can be revealed to you in the unlikeliest of places … and by the least expected of messengers. Back in 2006, my hardy band of beer cyclists gathered our spare tubes, route maps and brewery addresses in preparation for an epic assault on Central Europe. Once on continental ground, our strenuous...

Apr 15, 2012

I freely admit to getting no kick out of juleps. Horse pimps don’t thrill me at all, and the fireworks during Flatulence Over Louisville are an excellent annual pretext to skip town for somewhere that’s both quiet and civilized by comparison, and which has craft beer readily available to wash away the bad taste of the air show’s martial glorification of...

Apr 1, 2012

In 1909, the German-language Louisville Anzeiger newspaper praised Augustus Tusch of neighboring New Albany. “Herr Tusch is a lager brewer of great repute whose cleanliness and quality is of the highest order, with barrels filled and delivered fresh within the astounding radius of ten blocks from his business address.” It seems that Tusch was about to...

Mar 15, 2012

You know it’s going to be a rough day when there hasn’t even been enough time to make coffee, and you’ve already seen a note like this one at Beerpulse: Anheuser-Busch’s answer to Leinie’s Summer Shandy has arrived in some markets. Meet Shock Top Lemon Shandy. … and of course, after reading words like these, all you really want to do is vomit...