Beer: Beer Week Weizenbock Brewery: Four Peaks Brewing Co., Wanderlust Brewing Co., Mother Road Brewery, Huss Brewing Co., Ten Fifty-Five Brewing, Dragoon Brewing Co. Style: Weizenbock ABV: 7.5 percent Happy Beer Week, readers! You tired of beer yet? Me neither. This week’s brew encompasses the best that Arizona has to…
It’s often said that wrestling is one of the oldest and purest forms of athletic competition. For the ancient Greeks, who made the sport the highlight of their olympic games, wrestling was both science and divine art. We wonder what they would think if we took them to the US…
Christmas? Nah. Arizona Beer Week is the most wonderful time of the year, and it kicks off Saturday, February 15, with the 14th Annual Arizona Strong Beer Festival, a showcase of the best (and most alcoholic) brews available in the state. This year, about 120 breweries will pour more than…
Beer: Duchesse de Bourgogne Brewery: Brouwerij Verhaeghe Style: Flemish Red Ale ABV: 6.2 percent Because they tend to get me in big trouble both personally and professionally, I try to avoid making sweeping generalizations about the opposite sex. So it’s at great peril that I start off this week’s review…
Imagine being among the first group of people to have ever seen The Taming of the Shrew. Your friends scoff at you having gone to see some weird play nobody’s ever heard of, but you know you’ve seen something special. “I don’t know man,” you say. “I have a feeling…
There’s a reason the majority of New Year’s resolutions to finally start eating right last only about a month: Girl Scout cookies. Once those cute little be-sashed monsters start peddling their boxes of high-calorie deliciousness, it’s game over. But we here at Chow Bella buy into the “in for a…
Beer: Brown Ale Brewery: Upslope Brewing Style: American Brown Ale ABV: 6.7 percent This is a story about love. It’s also a story about beer, which, when you think about it, is kind of redundant. It begins years ago in a small Argentinian town called Ushaia, a picturesque hamlet made…
When the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, begin February 6, everyone will be watching ice hockey. But you have a chance to be a hockey hipster, bragging to all your friends about how you watched Olympic-level hockey before it was cool.How? The Phoenix Coyotes have five — count ‘em,…
Beer: Shake Down Series Anniversary Porter Brewery: Wanderlust Brewing Co. Style: Baltic Porter ABV: 10 percent You might think brewing is an easy job. It isn’t. Sure, there are perks — you make your own hours, your work uniform consists of sweet boots and a manly beard, and drinking on…
The Nitro Circus is just like any other circus you’ve been to, with a few minor differences. Like, instead of three rings inside a giant tent, the Nitro Circus features a dozen steep ramps inside a packed stadium. And, instead of four or five leotarded carnies doing a few flips…
Beer: Winter Bourbon Barrel Bomber Brewery: Grand Canyon Brewery Style: English Brown Ale ABV: 6 percent When you see the words “bourbon barrel” on a bottle of beer, certain flavors can be expected. Bourbon, for one. Oak. Vanilla. Maple. Toffee. The best beers aged in bourbon barrels combine these flavors…
If video killed the radio star, then digital killed the Polaroid star. Noting the rise of DSLR cameras and built-in photography tools in cell phones, Polaroid announced in 2008 that it would cease production of all instant film, and the weird, boxy cameras that have been a part of our…
Beer: Storm King Brewery: Victory Brewing Co. Style: Russian Imperial Stout ABV: 9.1 percent As I sip this week’s beer, I’m reminded of an old saying about “snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.” Not for a reason that has to do with come-from-behind wins or anything — it’s just…
Beer: KCCO Black Lager Brewery: Resignation Brewery & Redhook Ale Brewery Style: Schwarzbier ABV: 5.1 percent The popularity of The Chive should be surprising to approximately no one. The site is built on a simple equation: funny pictures and videos + hot women = lots and lots of hits. The…
Before the start of this NBA season, the Phoenix Suns seemed less like a professional basketball team than the premise for Major League 3: a team put together with the express purpose of losing games so ownership could grab a decent pick in next year’s stacked draft. But this bunch…
Beer: Fernet Aged Porter Brewery: Odell Brewing Co. Style: Imperial Porter ABV: 9.8 percent On almost any subject, you’ll find a group of nerds willing to fight you to the death to defend its awesomeness. Every day across the land, Star Trek nerds put on their crazy Klingon makeup, fantasy…
Ten years ago, Madonna kissed Britney Spears at the VMAs. Finding Nemo and The Lord of the Rings were the most popular movies of the year — if you don’t count Paris Hilton’s sex tape, One Night in Paris, which had just hit the stands. But the most memorable event…
Beer: Bipolar Express Brewery: Historic Brewing Co. Style: Spice/Herb Beer ABV: 6.8 percent Come on, everyone! Hop aboard the Bipolar Express! Or don’t. Whatever. I hate you. With so many new breweries entering the marketplace, the craft beer lover’s experience is becoming increasingly marked by opposite extremes. These breweries are…
We don’t care what the New Age feel-good granola eaters say: Friendly competition never hurt anyone. Hell, even a little unfriendly competition can be a good thing. Take, for example, Cowboy Ciao’s Chef Challenge, which will be held Thursday, December 19, at the Scottsdale eatery. The more that Pig &…
Beer: Voodoo Doughnut Pretzel, Raspberry and Chocolate Ale Brewery: Rogue Ales Style: American Brown Ale ABV: 6.75 percent Redemption, thy flavors are pretzel, raspberry and chocolate. Regular readers will remember that I wasn’t the biggest fan of Rogue’s last collaboration with famed Portland donut shop Voodoo Doughnut. That beer –…
It just wouldn’t be Christmas without a boat parade, right? Since 1999, Tempe Town Lake has hosted the Fantasy of Lights Boat Parade, a procession of as many as 50 watercraft bedecked with Christmas lights and other holiday decor. But that’s just one aspect of this shiny event — thousands…
Beer: Hop Henge Brewery: Deschutes Brewery Style: Imperial IPA ABV: 9.3 percent In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, lived a strange race of people: the druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing, but their legacy remains, hewn into the living…
