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This Week: Cherry Blossom Dinner at Granville Moore’s, Belgian Tasting at Bier Baron & Firestone Walker Hits D.C.

Tammy Tuck — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 23:00:09 +0000

It's a big week in beer with plenty to do, from pairing dinners and meet-the-brewer events to beer seminars and regular old draft nights. You can even volunteer for Earth Day in the name of beer this week. Check out my notes below for more info or click on any event in the D.C. Beer Events Calendar above for details.

PICK OF THE WEEK

Few breweries can sport the amount of hardware Firestone Walker Brewing Company has in their trophy case. Inside you will find plaques for Brewery of the Year in 2003 and again in 2010 at the Great American Beer Festival and more individual beer medals than you can shake a bottle opener at. What a treat that this California brewery has decided to start shipping their beer our way. Firestone Walker has a wide range of brews, from their straight forward Union Jack IPA to barrel-aged goodies like Abacus, a big, boozey barley wine with tons of oak character. D.C. drinkers have the opportunity to meet co-founder David Walker, taste some of his beers, and hear about the linked oak barrel system he makes them in twice this week. Walker and several of his Proprietors Reserve series limited release beers will be at ChurchKey Monday from 6 to 10PM and The Black Squirrel on Tuesday from 7 to 10PM. If you can't make it, don't worry. These unique, award-winning beers are available throughout the District starting this month.

This week's pick was a tough call because there are a lot of great events. On Monday, Bourbon in Adams Morgan is having a battle of the cans with Natty Boh, now also available on draft in D.C., and Schlitz. The event includes special beer prices, some including shots, hidden prizes, and the winner will be decided by which beer ends up building the largest can pyramid. Sounds like a good time.

If low-alcohol beers sound good but not the frat party atmosphere, on Sunday Pizzeria Paradiso is putting on a pairing brunch with craft beers of 5 percent or below alcohol by volume. The seating begins at 12:00 at the Dupont Circle location. There won't be any Bloody Mary's served at the end of the brunch as a prize for your temperance, but you can always go get one after.

On Tuesday at 6:30PM the Bier Baron, the beer bar formally known as the Brickskeller (or TBBFKAB), is having their first tasting event. The new owners will be filling Dave Alexander's shoes, who hosted some of the biggest names in craft beer when he and his wife ran the Brickskeller, with an inaugural tasting of Belgian beer. The list includes Rodenbach Grand Cru and Steenbrugse Tripel among others.

Also on Tuesday, Granville Moore's is hosting a beer pairing dinner to ring in Spring and the arrival of D.C.'s cherry blossoms. The foie gras "hash" of duck confit, sweet potato dumplings, and bourbon-pouched cherries with Kasteel Rouge is enough to make the night with $60 and a trip to H Street, Northeast.

Tuesday again, "Beer Activist" Chris O'Brien is leading a tutored tasting of local beers at the I Street Synagogue at 7PM. The author of Fermenting Revolution: How Drinking Beer Can Save the World, will regile guests with stories from his research and explain how many of the world's beers are made in ways that support their surrounding communities. It's a few weeks late for green beer in the literal sense, but that's what he's all about.

And finally for Tuesday, ChurchKey will feature nine Sierra Nevada beers, most notable their new release Ovila Abbey Dubbel. This beer is the first in a series of collaborations with the monks from Abbey of New Clairvaux in Northern California. A portion of the proceeds from the beer will go toward the restoration of the Abbey's Ovila chapter house, which was dismantled and shipped to California from it's original 1190 location in Spain in 1931. ChurchKey will be showcasing new Belgian-inspired dishes to mark the occasion.

And Wednesday was a day of rest...or a trip to the suburbs. Be sure to tune in to the Kojo Nnamdi Show at 1:30 to hear the founders of Chocolate City Beer talk about D.C.'s brewery boom. Gordon Biersch in Tyson's Corner will be tapping their malty, ready-for-spring Maibock and Tuscarora Mill in Leesburg is hosting a beer dinner featuring Brewery Ommegang.

Thursday, to celebrate the Cullen-Harrison Act, which made 3.2-percent alcohol by volume beer legal after prohibition in 1933, the local bars who collaborated with Schlafly Beer to make House In Session Ale are throwing a release party at Old Ebbitt Grill at 6PM in the restaurant's corner bar. Read more about this special D.C. beer here and here, and keep a look out for another post this week. (You've been wondering how those Ben's Chili Bowl half-smokes got to St. Louis, right?)

On Saturday morning put on your overalls and traipse down to the Southeast Waterfront to help the local Great Lakes Brewing Company crew clean up the area near Seafarer's Yacht Club for Earth Day. For your altruism, which includes showing up by 8:30AM, you will be rewarded with a special pass to the post clean-up after party and a golden ticket for Great Lakes Christmas Ale.

That's all I got for this week. If I missed something, let me know.

Send submissions for the D.C. Beer Events calendar to thelagerheads@gmail.com.

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Beerspotter’s Top 5 Beers of 2010

Orr Shtuhl — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 15:38:02 +0000

My New Year's resolution for 2011 is to be an omnivorous drinker: to appreciate beer in both quality and quantity. I had long been beguiled by promises of sexier beer—aged in bourbon, wine, brandy, and raw oak barrels; inoculated with yeast strains from far-off lands; infused with enough hops to endanger the species—but for every big beer I enjoyed, three others assaulted my palate. There's a time and place for triple bocks aged on lees of Malaysian kumquat wine, but at the end of the day I want to come home to a beer that tastes like, you know, barley and hops.

Though I won't deny that alcohol has a fun side, at a point it becomes a barrier to enjoying another beer. Sometimes I want to taste a good beer without the side effects (if Fuller's made a nonalcoholic version, their buttery London Pride would replace my morning oatmeal). In 2010, while creative upstarts flourished and boutique breweries mugged for the cameras, America's most celebrated beer makers returned to their roots with quietly seductive "session" beers, the wonderfully English term for beers tame enough to accompany you through the night.

So here are my top five beers of the year. Two are brand new; three are new to D.C. Hopheads, you'll note there's not a single IPA on the list. Feel free to retaliate and tell me everything I missed, such as, say, Oskar Blues Gubna. But at least I can enjoy all of my favorites in one sitting.

5. Victory Mad King's Weiss: New ideas are churning at Victory, which sent a number of small-batch kegs to D.C. in 2010, such as their Pursuit Pale Ale series, which tested various configurations of Simcoe and Citra hops. The year's standout was Mad King's Weiss, a brewpub standby that appeared briefly in August at Room 11 and ChurchKey. It's an all-around hefeweizen, squarely within the German tradition but hitting every note—from wheat to honey to clove—with a little more oom-pah.

4. Saison du BUFF: I'm loathe to admit liking any beer with its own cinematic trailer, but there's no ignoring this collaboration between Dogfish Head, Victory, and Stone. It's brewed with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme, but what sounds like a nauseating gimmick actually makes for a zesty, herbaceous saison. Balanced with citrus-heavy hops, it really is a new American riff on the classic European farmhouse ale.

3. Hopfenstark Saison Station 16: Rough and spicy, rye is becoming a popular ingredient in brewing, and it's most at home in a bone-dry saison. In Hopfenstark's hands, the rough-hewn malts meet lemon notes and lactic, sourdough tang for a memorable take on the style from one of the bright spots in the burgeoning Québécoise brewing scene.

2. 21st Amendment Bitter American: With Bitter American, brewmaster Shaun O'Sullivan propels the growing West-coast trend of low-alcohol, high-hop ales. Notably, Stone takes a crack at one with Leviation Ale, but the complexity O'Sullivan achieves with his rich specialty malt makes the others pale in comparison (ahem). The 21st Amendment brewpub in San Francisco has poured the summer seasonal since 2007, and after making its D.C. debut last year, it will see full release in cans come summer 2011.

1. Sierra Nevada Tumbler: The last two years have been huge for Sierra Nevada, which has put out 10 new beers—a stunning number considering the size and ubiquity of craft beer's friendly green giant. Its 30th Anniversary series and collaboration with Dogfish Head have drawn the most publicity, but while they were tinkering with imperial stouts and barleywines, Sierra Nevada quietly perfected the world's least assuming beer style: the brown ale.

In the 1990s and the first half of the last decade, brown ales were staples of brewpubs and start-up breweries; they were crowd-pleasing, mostly identical, and usually not terrible. A few breweries still produce good versions, notably Smuttynose, Avery, and Bell's, but the style has been falling out of favor—just this year Goose Island discontinued theirs. Meanwhile, the traditionalists at Sierra Nevada took a crack at the style and created the best brown around. Tumbler opens and closes with dry autumnal roast, bookending a rich, lingering body of chocolate and maple. (A touch of smoked malt helps set the mood.) A year ago, I'd have laughed in your face if you'd told me my new favorite drink would be a plain-Jane brown ale, the neglected fogey of beers. But between traditional hefeweizens, hoppy session ales, and comforting shades of brown, it seems plain is making a comeback.

The Super List: June 2010

Tammy Tuck — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 20:53:41 +0000

In these last days of 2010, thinking about New Year's resolutions made me realize I didn't quite follow through on one from last year. The Super List, my plan to thumb through my beer journal at the end of each month and post a list of beers I deemed worthy of a "super" rating, dropped off by late spring. So instead of just one year-in-review post about the best beers of 2010, I've decided to play catch up on my last six months of drinking.

Below are the beers that blew my socks off in June. I'm always interested in what others think of the beers I pick, so if you have had any of them and feel so moved, hit me in the comments.

Three Floyds Alpha King Pale Ale (Three Floyds tasting at The Brickskeller) – This wasn't the first time I'd had this inspiration brew for the annual Alpha King Challenge, which names one brewer and their beer ruler of hops for a year. The 6.5%-abv deep amber, caramel-colored beer was spicy, citrusy, and had a burning hop presence with a nice fiery finish. I am not usually a fan of Warrior hops, the variety used for bittering this pale ale, but Alpha King had a malty backbone that balanced the extreme hop bite.

Three Floyds Behemoth Barleywine (Three Floyds tasting at The Brickskeller) – This big beer is a much more predictable pick for my "super" rating than it's royal kin. The 10.5%-abv amber brown, cream-headed beer reminded me of orange slice candies soaked in grain alcohol (and that's a very good thing). It was strong, intensely citrusy, and had a peppery after taste. I suggest sipping, or at least not having this true behemoth with a lot of other beers on the same night.

Allagash Bourbon Barrel Belgian Style Stout (at Lupulun ReunuLess tasting at The Brickskeller) – This experiment involved Rob Tod taking Allagash Black, his popular Belgian-style stout, and aging it in Jim Beam barrels for eight months. The dark brown, thick tan-headed beer smelled like a German chocolate cake, with lots of cocoa, vanilla, and coconut. It tasted as it smelled with a hint of something savory, perhaps Worcestershire sauce. It was complex and delightful and I hope Allagash decides to bottle some.

Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Fritz & Ken's Ale (At Lupulin ReunuLess tasting at The Brickskeller) – This 9.2%-abv opaque black imperial stout smelled wonderfully smoky. The collaboration brew between Fritz Maytag, who turned Anchor Brewing Company into the craft icon it is today, and Ken Grossman, founder of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, tasted sweet at first and then had a complex roast character with hints of dark chocolate and coffee liqueur. It was full-bodied and perfectly balanced. Nothing less should be expected from such legends of the craft.

Cantillon Fou Foune (on draft at ChurchKey) – This hazy, pale gold-colored apricot lambic from Cantillon, a Brussels brewery known for sour beers produced by spontaneous fermentation, was beautifully sour and superbly dry. Greg Engert expertly hand-picked this refreshing 5%-abv beer for me as the perfect antidote to a night of extreme beer tasting at Savor.

Allagash Curieux (Allagash / Bruery Brunch at Pizzeria Paradiso) – I am a big fan of this beer, and as it seems, just about anything Rob Tod puts in a bourbon barrel. Allagash's Tripel Ale aged in fresh Jim Beam barrels for eight weeks, Curieux is a glowing gold, cream-headed beer that is crisp but full-bodied and malty. This 11%-abv subtley sour beer has a touch of vinegar in the after taste. It is likely that the food pairing, a sweet potato cheesecake in warm bourbon sauce, helped me see the beer in such high regard. But it could have just been all the bourbon.

Founders Cerise (in bottle at Delilah’s, Chicago, IL) – Cherry beers either go very right or very wrong. I discovered this beauty when Bruce and I stopped into the famed Chicago beer bar to wet our whistles in the gap between a wedding ceremony and reception. The 6.5%-abv hazy pink-orange ale had faint apple crisp notes in the nose. But what sealed the deal was its intense, not overly sweet flavor of dark, deliciously tart Michigan cherries.

Check out the Super Lists for the rest of 2010: January, February, March/April, May, June, July, August, September, November, and December.

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Beer Event Picks for Friday: Wait, There’s 10?

Orr Shtuhl — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:24:54 +0000

That's right, our D.C. Beer Events Calendar shows ten goings-on going on today, the day before Savor. The good news is, the events are pretty spread out, ranging from Alexandria to Columbia Heights. The bad news is, you have to choose. For me, the must-see event is the meet-and-greet with Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman, the pioneering grandaddy of U.S. craft beer. He'll be at Churchkey from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., where they'll be handing out free glassware and pouring cask ales and rare barrel-aged beers.

Of course, if meeting one craft beer icon isn't enough, you could chug your cocoa-and-chili-infused Sierra Nevada Hellraiser Imperial Stout and rush over to D'Vines, where Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione will be signing books and sampling Dogfish Head Fort.

Or, if you're in Dupont, check out the secretly great beer spot Bread & Brew (the name refers to coffee, not beer), where they're giving away Great Lakes glassware and serving the brewery's Lake Erie Monster Double IPA, one of the season's finest IPAs.

Then, if you're attending SAVOR tomorrow, have a glass of water and get a good night's sleep. With 70 breweries bringing a total of 140 beers to sample, you'll want your game face on.

Who Are Craft Beer’s Big Dogs?

Tammy Tuck and Bruce Falconer — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:56:05 +0000

The Brewers Association has released a list of craft beer's top 50 breweries, ranked by volume. The top three, as you might guess, are Boston Beer Company, Sierra Nevada, and New Belgium. Even on a master list of American breweries that includes mega-players like Anheuser-Busch InBev, MillerCoors, Pabst, and Yuengling, these top three craft breweries occupy the fifth, sixth, and seventh positions, respectively. (It's striking to note that craft beer makes up just 4.3 percent by volume of overal market share, the remaining 95.7 percent belonging to business comglomerates. It's not like the craft beer "big three" are corporate titans...) The closest thing we've got to a mass-production brewery in our region is Delaware's Dogfish Head, which ranks sixteenth among craft breweries and twenty-fourth overall.

Just how much beer is Dogfish churning out? Production details and industry trends for Sam Caligione's shop and a host of other American brewers will appear in the May/June issue of The New Brewer, available May 18, so stay tuned for that. Meantime, if you're chomping at the bit to know more about the commercial power of the craft beer industry as a whole, consult the 2009 sales numbers and craft brewing stats, both released by the Brewers Association.

Photo by calebdzahnd used under a Creative Commons license

Policy Lays Down The Law With Rare Beer

Tammy Tuck and Bruce Falconer — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:35:51 +0000

Not long after the U Street corridor spot opened a year ago, we popped into Policy for the first time and quickly filed it away as a place to go in the unlikely event we were in the mood for velvet ropes, fancy cocktails, and house music.

We never thought beer would bring us back, but last week we struck gold when we stopped in for the SXSW Sneak Peek event hosted by Flying Dog, Brightest Young Things, and ESL Music. Hidden inside the chic resto lounge is an impressive beer selection that includes some of the rarest bottles on the East Coast. Read on to find out which ones...

At the time of our visit, Policy's drafts included the usual suspects like Brooklyn Lager, Allagash White, and Magic Hat. But also available was Dogfish Head Old School Barleywine. With an ABV of 15%, this big beer is no small investment to have on tap, and not the kind of beer we pictured party-goers drinking while shaking their booties.

Our beer bias flared up again when we saw the drink list had almost 60 beers, with six drafts, a couple dozen canned beers, about 15 large bottles, and just under 20 "longnecks." Alongside staples like PBR and Miller High Life, Policy offers beers from craft can breweries like 21st Amendment, Butternuts, and Oskar Blues, with five of the six styles the popular Colorado brewery distributes.

But what flipped our lids was what we found casually listed among the list of big bottles. Three months after DC's known stock of Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head’s collaboration beer Life & Limb had been wiped out (or so the beer geek community thought), Policy was still pouring it. And if that wasn't enough of a shock, they also carry two beers from Russian River, one of the highest-rated and most sought-after breweries in the US, if not the world.

Policy's rare bottles are not cheap. Consecration, a sour oak-aged ale, and Damnation, a Belgian-style strong golden ale, will run you around $30 a bottle. Yeah, that's pricey, but since Policy is the only place we have seen Russian River in DC, we expect they will have no problem selling it.

It was time to find out who was responsible, so we tracked down Policy's Beverage Director Chris Schmid and Manager Jordan Davidowitz. Schmid, who is one of the DC Beer Week organizers, takes advantage of beer laws that make it easy to import alcohol into DC. He has been getting Russian River from Philadelphia, one of the only places the brewery is distributed on the East Coast, and then pays the required fees and taxes to the District of Columbia Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) office so he can sell the beer in DC.

In doing this, Schmid also contacts breweries directly. Many are receptive, but some do not want to distribute geographically beyond where they can make sure their product will be in good condition and treated well (which is often the reason a brewery will not distribute somewhere).

When asked which beers Schmid was most proud to have he said, "We've had Rock Art Vermonster and Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout, and we have Schlafly's Reserve Oak Aged Barleywine. I love that beer." Davidowich added, "We've been under the radar so far." We'll say, but not for long. Policy is aging kegs downstairs and Schmid is trying to get a keg of Russian River's Pliny the Younger, the jealousy-inciting beer that is rumored to be at the bottom of the bar raids in Philly earlier this month.

According to Davidowitz, Policy is a modern chic restaurant and lounge with an aggressive cocktail and beer list. "We're not a Birch & Barley, but we take beer very seriously." The Lagerheads agree, but now that we have shared Policy's secret with you, please remember to leave some beer for us.

5 Exciting Breweries for 2010

Orr Shtuhl — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:38:00 +0000

I hope your New Year's resolutions didn't involve beer. Or at least not drinking less of it, because 2010 is shaping up to be an exciting year, with talented breweries on the rise and new ones about to hit D.C. Of these five to watch for, three produce in small batches of large bottles only, which means that unless you've got a ravenous thirst, these are beers for sharing, for pouring around the dinner table and talking about what's in your glass. And that's the best way to learn.

Jolly Pumpkin are among the American masters of barrel-aging and wild yeast, and their dry, stanky, farmhouse-style ales like Bam Biere and Oro de Calabaza are two of my favorite saisons (pictured above, at right). They arrive in D.C. in tiny, intermittent shipments, sometimes months apart, so let me know if you spot them. Having tried their sweet-tart La Roja and their foamy, heavily spiced and oaked Luciernaga (The Firefly) over the holidays, I can say that Jolly Pumpkin is one of the few American breweries whose beers I will always buy, no matter the bottle, whenever I find them.

Sierra Nevada is the granddaddy, and their ubiquitous pale ale is the most important beer in America. Which is why it's great that they're still creating exciting new recipes, like their deep-hued Torpedo IPA and their perennial favorite of mine, the Summerfest lager. 2010 marks the brewery's 30th anniversary, marked by a collaboration with beer personas like Brewers Association President Charlie Papazian, and a new seasonal golden bock.
Bruery founder Patrick Rue was just a (very talented) homebrewer when he incorporated in 2008, and already his beers have found cult status as well as shelf space in D.C.'s most serious stores. They specialize in Belgian-style beers like their Orchard White or their wild-yeast-afflicted Saison Rue, but they also brew a mean loaf of dark rye.
Pretty Things is a husband-and-wife team about whom I've already rhapsodized, with special attention to their rosemary-smoked Babayaga stout. They're not available in D.C. yet, but they're expected to join us this spring.
Lagunitas’ near-perfect IPA, the summer seasonal A Little Sumpin' Sumpin', was the #3 beer of 2009, and had the list been longer it also would have included their 2009 Correction Ale, a pale ale with an orchardful of grapefruit flavor despite a modest 6% abv. Between these newcomers and go-tos like their New Dogtown Pale, they're growing into a serious can't-miss brewery. My resolution this year is to try everything they put out.

Don’t Mind DCist, Life and Limb Is Indeed Almost Gone

Orr Shtuhl — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:24:00 +0000

Looks like DCist cracked their Friday beers early today. Jamie R. Liu posted a story this afternoon linking to a Lagerheads post about the Sierra Nevada-Dogfish Head collaborations "Life and Limb" and "Limb and Life" — from November. As Y&H readers and Twitter followers know, Limb and Life was gone from the face of the earth (or at least D.C.) before Thanksgiving, and Life and Limb is close behind.

But Liu's story describes both beers (complete with text creatively adapted from the press release) as though they were just released — and further confuses readers (and commenters) by pointing them to stores where they can buy them. Note to readers: Life and Limb bottles are extinct. Kegs are all but gone too. The last known keg in D.C. will be tapped at Scion on ~~Monday~~ Sunday.

Confusion settled. Now let's get out of here; it's half past beer o'clock by my watch.

PSA: Beer Events Coming Up With Great Lakes, Life and Limb

Orr Shtuhl — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:50:09 +0000

These commercials only last 30 seconds, so let's get to it:

Flying Dog Tweet-Up at Big Hunt – Thursday, Jan. 7, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Flying Dog taps their Garde Dog, a French-style farmhouse ale, for their first monthly tweet-up, which will happen the first Thursday of every month around D.C. The first 25 folks to tweet their arrival get a free pint glass, but I'd go for their nice and hoppy Raging Bitch Belgian IPA, which will be on tap too.
Flying Dog Glass Giveaway at Rustico – Thursday, Jan. 7, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Pretty much the same deal...except this Garde Dog will be on cask. Also on tap will be Raging Bitch, Gonzo Imperial Porter, and Doggie Style Pale Ale.
Life and Limb at Scion – Sunday, Jan. 10, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. I don't know how this Asian fusion restaurant secured a keg of the highly sought Life and Limb collaboration between Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head, but they're tapping what's probably the last keg in D.C. to celebrate their six-month anniversary. From 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. they're only offering it as part of a food pairing: $12 gets you 6 oz. of the beer and two bites to pair with it. After 8, they'll sell the rest by the glass.
Loose Cannon on Cask at Galaxy Hut – Monday, Jan. 11, 6 p.m. Heavy Seas Loose Cannon, the freshest-tasting IPA in the area, is even more floral on cask. Plus, this one will be a test version made with Maryland-grown hops. It's so easy to support local businesses when they're this delicious.
Great Lakes tapping at Big Hunt – Monday, Jan. 11, 8 p.m. Ohioans rejoice! Cleveland's Great Lakes Brewing Company is arriving in D.C., and the first keg will be tapped here. Drink their three flagship beers: Dortmunder Gold (German lager), Commodore Perry IPA (a subdued, English-style IPA), and Eliot Ness (a Vienna lager, sweeter and reddish-brown).

2009: The Year in Beer News #1

Tammy Tuck and Bruce Falconer — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:17:24 +0000

And now, a year-in-review look at beer happenings beyond DC. Today we bring you the first of two collections of snapshots of last year's national (and international) beer news stories. You'll laugh, you'll cry, so grab some tissues because Y&H is about to get all "graduation slide show."

Beer Wars: Brewed in America - The beverage-focused documentary film showed just how nasty Big Beer (Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors, predominantly) can be. We saw the film's April screening and live broadcast in Friendship Heights; our friend Tom Cizauskas saw it in Arlington. He posted a fair review. Rent the DVD and decide for yourself.
Allagash Makes True American Lambic – Who says you have to be in Brussels to pull yeast out of the air and make beer? At SAVOR in June Rob Tod described his discovery of a wild yeast in Maine, and he debuted his first Spontaneous lambic in Philadelphia in December. Clay Risen at The Atlantic has the details.

The Tax Saga – Thanks to the recession, Congress was ready to go hogwild when it came to raising those sin taxes and there was much discussion and debate about it this year. In the end it seems the beer industry has more or less prevailed...for now.
Obama's Beer Summit – The People pleaded, they chastised, and then finally got over Obama, Gates, and Crowley's beverage choices and recognized the event for what it was. Still, beer was on everyone's mind, and we mean everyone, about as viral as an inaugural puppy.
Collaboration, Collaboration, Collaboration – Americans with Germans, hopheads with hopheads, aforementioned hophead with homebrewing web brothers . Spring, summer, fall, winter–last year was all about brewers cross-pollinating their recipes and ingredients (a part of the movement).
Light Beer Reaches New Low: Select 55 – This summer a new winner took the prize, clearly oblivious to how ludicrous that prize was. 'Nuff said. (In case you haven't noticed, a certain Y&H blogger is tired of talking about it.)

Stayed tuned for the last batch...