Recent Articles

From our Love Handles files on the world’s great beer bars: The Rake in Alameda, California, is a celebration of malt.

From Beachwood to Riip and now under his own brand, Ism, Ian McCall has honed his West Coast IPA craft and racked up a bunch of medals along the way. The secret? He’s not afraid of bitterness, as long as it’s properly shaped and timed.

Research shows that consumers spend 2.4 times more per year when they can buy their beverages in glass and cans than when they buy cans alone. Add glass, drive sales.

A splash of kriek deepens the tart berries and cherries in this traditional fruit crisp, ideal for bringing to summertime cookouts—scoop of ice cream, recommended.

From Cloudburst founder-brewer Steve Luke, here’s a recipe for a modern interpretation of an old-school, unfiltered Pacific Northwest IPA, leaning into Chinook, Centennial, Cascade, and Simcoe.

While Chinook and other classic C-hops may not be as exciting to brewers today as Citra, Mosaic, and Galaxy, some of the best IPA brewers in the country continue to treasure the “classics”—and they keep finding new uses for them, too.

Ready to brew a great American lawnmower beer?

Over the past few decades, Victor Novak has earned his reputation as an award-winning brewer at breweries such as Dock Street, Taps, and Golden Road. Now, as innovation director at California’s Figueroa Mountain, he’s leaning into his love of classic lager styles as well as progressive fruit beers.

A little bit of history, a touch of science, and an introduction to brewing solutions that will change the way you brew forever.

With more than 1,000 cideries in North America—most quite small—it can be hard to know where to start. Here are five tips from the pros.

Temescal, Prison City, 1840 Brewing, and others share their stories about making clean sours with Berkeley Yeast’s Galactic strain.

As with farmhouse ales, not every farmhouse cider is made on the farm. Yet the evocative word tends to accompany certain traits—and there’s plenty that should appeal to drinkers looking for old-fashioned flavors with a sense of place.

The secret to making consistently award-winning cider is, of course, great fruit married to thoughtful design and flawless execution, and for this multigenerational family of apple growers from Colorado’s Western slope, anything less than the best wouldn’t do justice to their beloved fruit.

From cofounder and brewmaster Matt Cole and his team at Fat Head’s in Ohio, here’s a recipe for the Bavarian-style weissbier that’s won three gold medals in the past four years.

Take a revolutionary leap forward in brewing technology with hop-derived, variety-specific extracts that reflect the truest expression of hops.

Steve Parker, cofounder and head brewer of Fidens in Albany, New York, lays out their approach to blending hops for hazy IPA, as well as what they look for when selecting varieties such as Citra, Simcoe, and Strata.

Fat Head’s Brewery in Middleburg Heights, Ohio, has won more than its share of medals over the years. One of its most decorated beers is Goggle Fogger, the Bavarian-inspired hefeweizen that’s won three major gold medals in the past four years. Here’s how its pieces fit together.

Perhaps the oldest way of preparing grain for brewing, drying malt in the open air was traditional for lambics, white beers, and various rustic ales scattered around Europe, Africa, and beyond. Today, brewers and maltsters interested in history, terroir, and old-fashioned methods are taking their malt back out into the sun.

From Philadelphia’s lager-centric Human Robot, here’s a recipe for a Czech-style amber lager that came to life almost by accident—and one that uses a method they call “enhanced decoction.”

The past few years have been challenging for brewers who depend on European hops, with concerns that the frequency of bad harvests could be accelerating. So, we asked two brewers who know a thing or two about getting the most from Noble hops to share how they maintain quality, from working with growers to developing novel workflows.