Archive for March, 2009

Superior is not among my favorite Mexican beers, and I can’t say that I’ve ever gone out of my way to buy it before. I don’t avoid it either.

Most of us have seen Tecate. Most of us have not tasted it, though. It’s the beer in the ugly red can that someone at the table across from you is drinking in the Mexican restaurant. Starting to ring a bell?

Negra Modelo is one of the richest tasting, most robust beers in Mexico. A complex beer, redolent with caramel and chocolate flavors from the malt, the beer is perfectly balanced with a bit of spiciness or nuttiness in the hop aspects of its flavor profile.

Light and spritzy with just the barest hint of grassy hops and a very slight tingly mineral scent that’s probably from the carbonation (carbonic acid). Generally clean with nothing offensive, but neither is there anything enticing.

Dos Equis Amber is actually classified as a lager, but it has the body and bouquet of a fine amber ale. It’s something like a Newcastle Brown Ale mixed with Sam Adams. Most interestingly it seems to have less carbonation and/or gas than your average lager.

A lot of folks who either don’t know much about beer, or who don’t care much about flavor or the quality of what goes into their mouths, seem to have stuffed the ballot box so to speak, with dozens of glowing reviews of what is, in fact, one of the worst beers brewed in Mexico.

This is a very light-bodied American style pale lager (an offshoot of the pilsner style). This is, in my view, probably the blandest, least interesting style of beer on the market, although it probably accounts for 90% of beer sales in the U.S.

Have you been tempted one too many times to pick up the “bag-o-beer” maker down at the WalMart? What stopped you? Well, you probably realized that if God had intended you to be able to make beer in a week, that he would have been doing some serious drinking while resting on the seventh day. If you’re thinking of brewing your own, put down those plastic brew impostors and read through our brew master’s article. The hardest part is naming your brew.

I am a big fan of Peeps, the little marshmallow chicks that candy manufacturer Just Born ships to just about every grocery and drug store in the world to stocks the shelves with around Easter. So it was cool to find this photo gallery of how they are made.

Look at that picture… how could you not appreciate a cookbook with a big fatty slab of meat on the cover?

Forget the hair of the dog, wash away your morning hangover with a bar of beer from the Beer Soap Company.

A fun addition to your boogie nights, or a lame disco duck?

People who enjoy a glass or two of wine or beer every day could be helping to keep their bones strong according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Now here’s a fun way to start the grill. Despite the way it looks, the Shoot and Cook Rifle BBQ lighter will help you light your grilling flames safely.

Our economic meltdown has stifled entrepreneurial activity across the board. But as we’ve mentioned recently, craft beer makers are seeing slow, but still-strong sales increases as they outperform the rest of beer industry.