Sixpoint Bengali Tiger

Now that we’re all on board with the surge in popularity regarding craft beer in cans, it’s time to talk about another popular beer from Sixpoint, released in cans the same time as the others and available just as widely. After last week’s post regarding The Crisp, I figured Sixpoint’s new cans might each need a post to themselves. Thus this week, Bengali Tiger gets its due. Canned IPA? Sign me up. You’ve probably figured out by the name that Bengali Tiger is an India Pale Ale, and on the can the brewery takes it a little farther in describing [...]

Alesmith Yulesmith, Summer 2010

Can there be too many West Coast breweries populating the shelves and tap handles in New York City? There really can’t be enough of these, bringing their massively bitter hop bombs and occasionally, some worthy, balanced beers, as the market tends to sort out the mediocre from the exceptional. Alesmith, from San Diego, falls into the latter category for me, and graces this week’s post with its semiannual release, Yulesmith. A “Holiday Ale” by name, it encompasses two holidays in, thankfully, different bottles now. The Winter version is an Imperial Red Ale, a more balanced, even slightly sweet beer, straddling [...]

Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale

One of my first beer-related revelations about the Midwest was Bell’s, formerly Kalamazoo Brewing, named for the owner/brewer Larry Bell and of course the town of Kalamazoo, Michigan, where the brewery was located, and where the cafe and store now serve up lots of beer to the public. While I figured the German influence in Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan would mean lots of good wheat beers, Vienna lagers and Oktoberfests, little was I prepared for a predominantly ale-brewing force on my first real visit to the area. About eight years ago I flew to Chicago for, yes, a beer [...]

Mission St. India Pale Ale

Tell me, who doesn’t love going to Trader Joe’s and finding things you didn’t know you needed? I like to cook, so I wandered in to pick up a few random things. As is often the case, my searching led me straight to the beer aisle, where I picked up today’s subject. I hadn’t realized TJ’s carried its own beer brands until friends out West told me about reasonably good breweries taking contracts for the chain. So while some of the beer churned out is the decidedly mediocre, but great value, Simpler Times canned lagers, there are also beers made [...]

New Belgium Ranger IPA

Out in Fort Collins, Colorado, New Belgium Brewing has been making a huge variety of beer. Absolutely huge. I’d like to talk about what’s pretty much a first for the brewery — an India Pale Ale, in the American, Pacific-Northwest style, sold not only on draft and in the brewer’s signature banded bottles, but also in cans. What comes to mind when people say New Belgium Brewing? Fat Tire Amber Ale. Don’t get me wrong, Fat Tire is a fine Belgian Amber, modeled on DeKoninck’s Amber — a classic Belgian beer from a respected Belgian brewer — and it pays [...]

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