Even in a pretty miserable year—and let's not kid ourselves: this has been, by any measure, a pretty miserable year on the global scale—I've got a lot to be thankful for. Most of all, of course, there's my beautiful fiancée lady snow, to whom I became formally engaged this past
Tag: beer
Commentist Beer Barrel and Open Thread: Draught House Anniversary Party In Review
Commentist Beer Barrel: Damn Hippies
Austin's best annual beer event is happening again today. The Draught House Anniversary Party is the kind of shindig that only a decades-old pub and brewery, with a decades-old pub and brewery's connections, can throw. Every year they roll out a stacked beer list. Everything's a special release or something aged
Commentist Beer Barrel: Scotchy Scotch Scotch
Commentist Beer Barrel: One Mint Julep
Commentist Beer Barrel: Märzens and Milestones
Commentist Beer Barrel: Alternatives
This year's Oktoberfest opened in Bavaria just about two weeks ago. Most of Oktoberfest every year takes place in September, just like you'd expect, and it coincides nicely with the start of fall in most parts of the Northern Hemisphere that aren't the burning hellscape of Central Texas. Here, daily highs
Commentist Beer Barrel: On the Value of Changing Your Mind
"We'll be last brewery in the US to use aluminum cans," Lagunitas founder Tony Maguire tweeted in 2012. Maguire was shocked by the excesses of the aluminum industry, an earth-destroying enterprise preying on developing economies and potentially displacing good, sustainable, silica-based manufacturing of glass beer vessels. Or that's what it
Your Holiday Monday Evening Open Thread
Commentist Beer Barrel: Nora Brought Out The Brandy
To me, the best consequence of the saturation of the craft beer market over the last seven or so years with beers aged in whiskey barrels has been the saturation of the craft beer market with beers aged in whiskey barrels. Whiskey barrels—specifically American bourbon barrels—are, in my opinion, the best
Commentist Beer Barrel: Skål!
Denmark got a big Olympic win today, overcoming France for the gold medal in handball. I thought about burying the lede on this, in case any Commentists log onto the site while desperately avoiding Olympic handball spoilers, but... look, I just didn't think that was very likely, y'know? I'll apologize
Commentist Beer Barrel: It’s A Trappist!
On spring break, in 2007, in a hidden-away bar in Brussels, there was a college junior, sitting with a group of new friends, listening attentively to the server's descriptions of the classic Belgian beers on offer. He didn't especially understand the descriptions, so he did what any college junior with no