Joe Stange

If I could get Korean brewpubs and taprooms to understand one thing, it is this: You do not have to serve burgers, wings, and/or pizza. You do not.

Now that I have reading glasses, I want to always wear a strap to hang them around my neck. And cardigans. And a scrutinizing countenance.

Recipe: Northbound Doppelbock... and Eisbock From Northbound Smokehouse & Brewpub in Minneapolis, here’s a recipe for their Doppelbock that won gold at the 2024 World Beer Cup—and that beer also was the basis for their Eisbock, which won gold at...

Northbound Eisbock out of Minneapolis was a 2024 GABF gold medal winner when we wrote about it last year. Then (ope) it won gold again. Here’s how they do it, including the doppelbock recipe that gets all froze up and whatnots. Links in there with more details. www.beerandbrewing.com/recipe-north...

Need those Northeast breweries to make more noise and get out the vote next year.

Podcast Episode 445: The Best in Beer 2025 Special, Featuring the Stories Behind the Picks In this once-a-year episode, Jamie Bogner and Joe Stange share Craft Beer & Brewing’s Best 20 Beers in 2025, as selected by our judges and editorial team—plus, the results of our Readers’ Choice surve...

You can also listen to a thing! Wallow in our descriptors. www.beerandbrewing.com/podcast-epis...

Best in Beer 2025 issue drop! This is kinda like our Christmas. Go dive in over at beerandbrewing.com.

House just passed the bill, which as expected still contains the de facto ban on THC, to take place 365 days from enactment. Government is soon to reopen; the $28-billion hemp-derived THC business is on the clock and fighting for its life.

Granted, lots going on in the news. But the deal to end the shutdown includes a provision that would ban (close the loophole on) hemp-derived THC—a rather popular $30 billion industry—and the mainstream news outlets have barely caught a whiff of it.

Irish whiskey is in a weird place — and new US tariffs sure don’t help. For @vinepair.com, I talked to distillers, fans & insiders about Irish whiskey’s path forward. That includes growing sales in places like Poland, now the #2 market for Irish whiskey after the US.
vinepair.com/articles/iri...

One of the very few times I look down my beer-dude nose at wine people is when they're trying to pair it with spicy wings.

Fellas, seems like a good day to remind y'all to NOT burn any witches. Magic's not real. Those are just ladies!

all this for gold-plated shitters, wild

Likewise, Joel!

What are the names of the U.S. Navy officers carrying out these orders to serially bomb civilian boats that pose no threat to their own vessels, killing everyone aboard? Surely they’ll want to take personal credit for this honorable service and perhaps wear a little campaign medal on their chest.

Lush export India porter, on cask, at Machine House in Seattle

Recipe: Halfway Crooks Sanguine From Shawn Cooper and Joran Van Gingerachter of Atlanta’s Halfway Crooks, here’s a recipe for their own “brewer’s beer”—a dry, bitter, quenching pale ale packed with Belgian-grown hops and accentuated...

This is a fantastic beer with a mental yeast blend. So, definitely check it out if you’re into stuff like fantastic beers and mental yeast blends. beerandbrewing.com/recipe-halfw...

There’s a fairly dumb structural reason why we’d probably never expand the House like that: The actual chamber at the Capitol isn’t big enough.

Constitutional amendment to require all states to adopt data-driven, nonpartisan redistricting process. AI spits out maps; technocrats and/or judges narrow it down to maybe 5. Each political party rank-orders their preferences, high score wins. In a tie, flip a coin. Stuck with it for a decade.

Beer in Art #1614

The Guitarist, by Hermann Kern, c. late 19th century (Austria, Slovakia)

TIL that Korean has its own portmanteau for the combo of fried chicken and beer—chimaek (치맥), for chikin + maekju.

Now ready to die for these people.

Style School: Get to Know Modern Chicha Forget the chewing and the spitting. The Americas’ most important indigenous beer is alive and well today, connecting old traditions with curious drinkers.

beerandbrewing.com/style-school...

Interesting tidbit from Gallup (via Mark Brown newsletter) on the drop in self-reported alcohol consumption.

🎶 won't you take me to ...

It's divisive. I love it. My son hates it. But he’s also a teenager who bitches about pineapple on pizza, so what the fuck does he know?

Cool. You running?

State Department may require visa applicants to post bond of up to $15,000 to enter the US | CNN Politics The State Department is proposing requiring applicants for business and tourist visas to post a bond of up to $15,000 to enter the United States, a move that may make the process unaffordable for many...

Will the hotel industry speak out on this one? Restaurants? Bars?
www.cnn.com/2025/08/04/p...

A bunch of people standing in front of a brewery kettle in the Mönchsambacher brew house.

Joe, Ben and Daniel standing in front of a few fermenters that are about twice as tall as they are. The fermenters have a perspex cover but are otherwise open so that there's no top pressure.

"Kufenbier" finishing fermenting. Private customers can bring their own casks, get it filled with beer that just finished fermenting, get a slight secondary fermentation going and then they can lager it at home and drink it as young or matured as they like.

A bottle of Mönchsamber Bock, barrel-aged in wine barrels (Pinot Noir or Chardonnay), with a small beer glass partially filled with that beer next to it. It tasted of Bockbier, with a slightly fruity, vinous and faintly bretty note.

Yesterday was an absolute bucket list day, when I got to visit Brauerei Zehendner in Mönchsambach 30 min south-west from Bamberg together with @louisekrennmair.bsky.social, @johnzee7.bsky.social, @silentdan.bsky.social, @thirstypilgrim.bsky.social and the rest of our Stammtisch crew.

I wonder if (relatively) higher beer prices are also contributing to Hobbybrauen in Germany? And it does seem (anecdotally, to me) that craft beer is slightly more scarce than it was in 2019.

IMO the company is a marvel when it comes to character and quality at that scale.

Why should I trust AI with anything when autocorrect continues to insert apostrophes into my possessive “its”?