Articles & Clippings

 
The articles contained here are either previously published pieces, or new commentaries published here for the first time. This is just a small sample of things to come. I will be expanding this section of the web site in the next few months, so please check back soon.

The Brave New World of Beer and Food — A mere twenty years ago, the United States remained mired in the culinary Dark Ages that many of us grew up in. Vegetables came in frozen blocks, coffee came in crystals, there were three kinds of cheese, two kinds of bread (regular bread and regular bread with food coloring, which they called "wheat bread"), we all knew the names of five brands of margarine and ketchup was king. And there was one kind of beer, an empty, neutered industrial product best suited to washing down hot dogs...
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Beer Trumps Wine on Holiday Tables — At Brooklyn Brewery, the official end of summer comes on the first autumn day when we don't need to use the glycol stage on our heat exchanger during cast-out. Once it's shut off, we probably won't turn it on again until May. There's a faint melancholy to it, but then again, I'm looking forward to winter beers. Summer is often thought of as "beer season", but many of our favorite beer styles are brilliant with cold-weather dishes, especially around the holidays. People are often surprised to hear that the question most frequently asked of wine professionals is "what wine goes best with turkey?" The answer, of course, is beer. As much as I enjoy wine, I've always found it oddly unconvincing on the holiday table. It looks nice, of course, but does it really have the flavors to match ham, turkey and other holiday dishes? Wine's got a big hat, but I don't see any cattle...
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