Recent Articles

Simultaneously pursuing great lagers alongside a two-pronged approach to hazy IPA—with both sweeter and drier iterations—has established this Kansas City brewery as a creative force in the Midwest.

Sam Tierney, head brewer at The Propagator—Firestone Walker’s innovation brewhouse in Venice, California—separates conventional wisdom from cool science when it comes to brewing great lager. Proper technique is the key.

The dry-hopping techniques often used for today’s IPAs can lead to spikes in diacetyl, attenuation, and other issues. Here are ways to avoid it—from different hopping methods to detailed quality control analysis.

It begins with a recipe designed for barrel-aging, and sourcing the best and freshest barrels possible. It continues with an understanding of how storage temperature affects flavor extraction. Firestone Walker’s Eric Ponce explains.

From Browar PINTA in Wieprz, Poland, this rich, big-bodied Baltic porter gets a long boil and tropical accents from dry hopping with Sabro and Strata.

The cofounder and brewer for the suburban Chicago powerhouse of progressive styles makes coveted beers with a workmanlike, no-nonsense approach.

Like many Polish breweries, Browar PINTA embraces its country’s signature beer style—Baltic porter—with high-gravity gusto, going for hefty body and deep malt flavor. Lately, they’ve added a new dimension to these ponderous beasts: expressive dry hops.

Alberta, Canada, is an undersung hotbed of independent brewing. One of the best places to taste what the province has to offer has locations in Lacombe and Red Deer—a homey restaurant that takes locally grown beer as seriously as locally grown ingredients.

Remember double IPAs before they went all soft and hazy on us? This is one of those—bright and bitter, with plenty of oomph.

In northern Michigan near the shores of Lake Huron, an active-duty airman moonlights as a pro brewer at Alcona Brew Haus. They’re releasing a special beer to support veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan—and you can brew it, too.

From idea to grain to glass, Firestone Walker’s Eric Ponce underscores the creative potential of barrel-aging and blending by walking us through the development of Mezca-Limón, a strong ale inspired by mezcalita cocktails.

North Carolina’s Burial Beer calls this recipe a “mash-up of delightful keller-pils with dank West Coast IPA.”

An American beer scene still dominated by IPA is enjoying a renaissance of small-scale lager brewing—the ground is fertile for combining the best of both. We don’t care what you call it—IPL, cold IPA, hoppy pilsner, whatever—as long as we get to drink it.

This homebrew-scale recipe, based on brewer Paul Kaiser’s own notes, is for an authentic pre-war American lager with a high proportion of adjuncts.

From fresh catch to fridge favorite, this bright and flavorful warm-weather dish is a perfect foil for the refreshingly tart beer—your choice—with which it’s made.

For the director of brewing operations at California’s The Bruery, sensory evaluation is what drives decisions, and beers earn their shot at becoming bigger releases by working their way up the tiers.

While drinkability remains the supreme goal, the dark side of Planet Lager can offer richer delights than the brighter styles. Despite their more exotic look, they can also be surprisingly light and refreshing. Here are five top picks from the pros.

The days of waiting in line in the hopes of getting some KBS are long gone—it’s year-round and fireside-ready, with new varietals on the way.

In this video course, Firestone Walker’s Eric Ponce shares advice and lays out the careful process behind the brewery’s barrel-aged and blended blockbusters such as Parabola and Anniversary Ale.

Floodland founder Adam Paysse shares his insights and perspective on collecting and nurturing mixed cultures for rustic, farmhouse-inspired beers.