Although mainstream American lagers and their light/lite siblings, at 4–5 percent, fall into a plausible session range, the term “session beer” didn’t really have a function in this country until craft beer was well established.
Julie Johnson
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Posted inFood & Drink
The Triangle is awash in new craft breweries
A decade ago, when I was part of the effort to modernize the beer laws in this state, there were so few breweries that I could jot them all down from memory when we needed to reach our supporters. Today, both the growth in the number of Tar Heel breweries and my faltering memory put […]
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Craft brewers defend their turf
What is a “craft beer”? We use the term loosely to describe the 70 or so styles of beer that are not light lagers. I also like the alternative “specialty beers,” which could apply to any of these styles, since none of them comprise even 1 percent of the total beer market. The fact that […]
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Hang up the hangover
In reasonable amounts, beer brings conviviality, relaxation and good humor. Overindulge, though, and you risk committing a stupid, embarrassing or dangerous act, but you’re also tempting that species of minor death, the hangover. The pounding head, the spins, the sticky mouth, the aching joints, the churning gutsall of it self-inflicted. When you’re in the throes […]
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At Thanksgiving, reserve a seat for beer
Nearly 400 years ago, when the Pilgrims stared at the alien coast of Massachusetts, the sight must have filled them with equal measures of hope and dread. They were too far north: Their intended destination was Virginia, and navigation errors had taken them off course. But here were untouched woodlandsa prospect lost to Britain decades […]
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Are presidential homebrews a political edge?
They’re brewing beer in the White House. The Commander in Chief has pronounced White House Honey Ale and White House Honey Porter “tasty stuff.” Inspired by an especially productive beehive near the South Lawn vegetable garden, President Obama took up the suggestion that the honey might add a distinctive note to presidential homebrew. Although the […]
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White ales: pale, cloudy, spicy—and popular
How did craft brewers lose their grip on white ales, the most popular craft beer style? For nearly three decades, small, independent brewing companiescraft brewers, specialty brewers and microbrewershave brought long-lost variety back to the American beer scene. Against a backdrop of light, mass-marketed lager, these pioneering companies offered diversity: pale ales, porters, dunkels and […]
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Lighten up, beer geeks
In 1995, beer journalist and illustrator Alan Moen drew a wonderful cartoon at the expense of the most famous writer about beer, an Englishman named Michael Jackson. In it, a smirking devil watches a naked, sweating Jackson suffer the fires of damnation. Old Nick is offering the tormented author a can labeled “Light Beer.” The […]
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Good beer: It’s not just for bottles any more
A day at the beach. Picnics on the lawn. Eighteen holes after work. Supper around the campfire. An afternoon on the lake. All wonderful summer activities where a good beer would be welcome, but where the weight and hazards of a glass bottle would not. The answer, of course, is beer in a can: Far […]
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Champion beers: worth the splurge
Even in tough times, good beer is an affordable luxury. I’ll never be able to pay foror justifydrinking the world’s finest wines or spirits every day, but even the most expensive six-pack of specialty brew is a bargain when beer is viewed as a fine beverage. That’s why, when lists of award-winning beers are announced, […]