As we mentioned earlier today, we've been tearing into a significant amount of our beer library the past couple of days to make room for some new additions (like the Goose Island BCS Rare) and found a lot of stouts, heavy ales and porters ready for the drinking. Example, last night we broke out a 2010 Dark Lord and a 2009 Flossmoor Station Wooden Hell for an evening meetup with friends. more ›

If beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy, as Benjamin Franklin once surmised, then the Norwegians behind Nøgne Ø are the equivalent of missionaries luring bloodthirsty Vikings away from the halls of Asgard with the allure of satiny ales. Brewmaster Kjetil Jikiun came to craft brewing like nearly every other successful brewer we've met: he started out as a homebrewer. Jikiun is also a commercial airline pilot, was able to expand his knowledge of beer while flying around the globe and became a fan of the quality of beers being produced by American craft and microbreweries. more ›

Spring is a time for beers with hearty flavors and lighter bodies - red ales, doppelbocks and porters. While working through both the food and drink menus a couple week back at Rootstock we noticed only two beers on draft and Matilda's waltz has given me Tom Traubert's Blues lately, all in part to its familiarity. more ›

Get this beer while you can. Van Twee is the long-awaited collaboration between De Proef and Bell's breweries. MAde by De Proef's Dirk Naudts and Bell's John Mallet, Van Twee is a porter-dubbel hybrid, with Michigan sour cherry juice and brettanomyces in the secondary fermentation. more ›

Flossmoor Station has upped the ante since they launched their bottling operation last year. They've been brewing their three year-round releases as quickly as they can to keep up with demand while offering other rare selections like Collaborative Evil. more ›

Occasionally I receive e-mails from readers asking what taverns or restaurants they can find the "BotW" selections and if I could include them in the reviews. Admittedly I take for granted that readers know I buy most of the selections from one of two stores: Lush Wine and Spirits University Village location and Archer Liquors. But knowing that a certain bar carries a "BotW" selection may spur some readers to both seek out the beer and the bar. That's doubly good for the economy. more ›