January 2010

  • Tactical Nuclear Penguin: World's Strongest Beer

    By lisala on 1/30/10 11:35pm
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    While Stateside micro and craft breweries concentrating on lower ABV session beers, Scottish brewer BrewDog of Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire have produced a limited release ale called Tactical Nuclear Penguin. At 32 %ABV it is the world's strongest beer. The beer began life as a 10% ABV Imperial Stout. Then the beer was aged for 16 months in two different whisky cases, and then aged at -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) for three weeks to reach the final heights of 32% ABV. The freezing serves to do much the same thing as distilling does for spirits; it removes water. The alcohol in the beer doesn't freeze, but the water does, which means you can neatly remove the ice, and then freeze the beer again. This raises the percentage of alcohol, and yes, it also changes the flavor and texture; it's more like whisky at the end than a beer.

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  • February Spring Seasonals from Pyramid and McTarnanhan's

    By lisala on 1/29/10 7:25pm
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    Spring is beginning to, well, spring, and it's a good time to start thinking about seasonal brews for Spring. Personally, I plan on enjoying as much of Kona Brewing's Pipeline Porter as I can before it disappears in March, but in the meantime, Pyramid Brewing's seasonal Spring Fling will be appearing on shelves in the first week of February, and there have already been sightings of this hoppy pale ale made with Two-row and Caramel malts, and hops that include Nugget, Willamette, and a new-to-me Cascade/Fuggle hybrid. This one goes away in March too, so I suggest grabbing it while you can; it's a bit sweeter (the Caramel malt?) than some Pale Ales, so some folks are being very pleasantly surprised by it. At 5.2% ABV, this one almost qualifies as a session brew.

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  • The Beer-Tasting Challenge

    By becksta on 1/14/10 12:50am
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    Beer Tasting PartyBeer Tasting PartyWhen I was a kid, my mom gave us the Pepsi challenge. I was sure that I would pick Pepsi since I was a member of the Pepsi generation, but strangely  and embarrassingly enough, picked RC cola over either Pepsi or Coke.

    In preparation for an upcoming party, I decided that I definitely needed to have another challenge. Since most of my friends prefer beer to pop, I thought a beer challenge would definitely be the way to go.

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