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.
Subscriber Exclusive
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.
Subscriber Exclusive
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.