I love blind beer tastings. And as I throw more of them it seems many others love them too. I’d like to encourage everyone to try them and share in the fun, here are three different ways.
Continue reading “Hosting a Blind Beer Tasting: Three Different Methods”
I got a special invitation to join MadTree in a session ale tasting and hear a special announcement. What follows part 1 of 2, with part 2 coming at a soon but as of yet undetermined time.
Modern Homebrew Recipes is the book homebrewers have been waiting for. At least it’s the book that this homebrewer has been waiting for! Click that link to go buy it now or keep reading to find out why I think it’s so great.
Continue reading “Book Review: Modern Homebrew Recipes by Gordon Strong”
[Ed. Note: Earlier this month I introduced you to the Beer Judge Certification Program and mentioned that Lindsay from Love Beer, Love Food would be covering the Certified Cicerone Program. If you enjoy her article here, please follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and her blog. I promise she’s got loads of great beer & food info. – Tom]
Hey there! I’m Lindsay, and I write a website called Love Beer, Love Food which is all about beer, home brewing, and cooking. Since I am a Certified Cicerone®, Tom asked me to come onto his lovely site here and explain more about the Cicerone program. As Tom mentioned, there are actually two kinds of ‘beer experts’ out there – Certified Beer Judge, which Tom recently achieved (hooray!), and Certified Cicerone® (pronounced sis-uh-rohn).
In the world of beer, there are a few organizations that focus on certifying folks on their knowledge of beer. The big two are the Cicerone Certification Program (just called Cicerone) and the Beer Judge Certification Program (abbreviated BJCP). The primary difference between the two is in their focus. Cicerones focus on restaurants and serving craft beer while BJCP focuses on judging homebrew competitions. BJCP is also an all-volunteer organization while Cicerone is a private for-profit company.
I’m proud to say that I was recently certified as a Recognized level Beer Judge. I wanted to take a few minutes to tell you about it while my certified Cicerone friend Lindsey from Love Beer, Love Food will have a guest post for us on that soon.
Continue reading “Learning About Beer: Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP)”
This post is in direct response to Andy Crouch’s article “The Futility of Beer Styles” in this month’s (October 2013) Beer Advocate magazine [Edit: Andy has made me aware that this was only part 1 of 3 and these concerns will be addressed in future parts. A fact not mentioned in the magazine]. If you haven’t read it yet then I won’t fault you for reading it before continuing this post. However, if you don’t get Beer Advocate magazine or don’t want to wait then the quick summary is that he advocates for discontinuing the use of beer styles.
I’m happy to bring news and a review of a new beer book coming out The Complete Beer Course: Boot Camp for Beer Geeks: From Novice to Expert in Twelve Tasting Classes (buy on Amazon) by Joshua M. Bernstein. 
Continue reading “Book Review: The Complete Beer Course”
I do most of my beer related-internet stuff from my phone, and more recently my tablet. That said I’ve been meaning to write this post for some time and I figured now is a better time then most since many fellow beer lovers may have gotten a tablet or new smart phone for ChristmaHanaKwanzika. First off though this list isn’t exclusive to smart phones/tablets. All of these apps have related websites, which I still use frequently when I’ve had too many beers to work the tiny keyboard on my phone. Right, so the following are kind of in order of importance (at least importance to me).
BrewMinds 