Close your eyes for a second and imagine yourself running through a forest of glowing neon trees that dance and change colors to booming electronic music. You travel through a tunnel illuminated with dancing patterns and figures on the walls, ceilings, and floors, then emerge above a lake glowing in…
Beers: Gregorius; Benno Styles: Belgian Strong Dark Ale; Dubbel Brewery: Stift Engelszell ABV: 9.7; 6.9 If, at some future moment, I am compelled by the holy spirit to give up my house, car and cushy blogging gig for a life on religious contemplation, I think I’ll become a Trappist. Also…
In 2008, after a career in the Army Special Forces, Jason McCarthy founded GORUCK, a company that produces rucksacks tough enough for Green Berets. To test the materials, he sent them to his Army buddies, who would take them into combat and critique their quality. But McCarthy disliked the idea…
Beer: Oatmeal Yeti Brewery: Great Divide Brewing Co. Style: Imperial Stout ABV: 9.5 percent It’s safe at this point to say it: the yeti exists. Scientists were skeptical for many years, but the evidence is overwhelming. Seasonal migration patterns have different species of yeti lumbering right through the middle of…
Beer: Velvet Merkin Brewery: Firestone Walker Brewing Co. Style: Oatmeal Stout ABV: 8.5 While the hair that grows around ladyparts is today mostly thought of as something to be avoided, back in the 15th century, pubes were the bee’s knees. A prostitute with an impressive undercarriage could command an army…
Beer: Surette Brewery: Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project Style: Saison ABV: 6.2 percent Another day, another new brewery in Phoenix. This week’s rookie has landed on shelves after a relatively short flight from Denver, but tasting their beers might make you think they came from Belgium. Chad Yakobson, brewer and…
Sure, the Saturday, August 24, Arizona Cardinals home game is still a part of the preseason. Sure, the starters will probably only be in for, like, one series, while second- and third-stringers dink around the field for the remaining two hours and 50 minutes. Sure, you’ll have to deal with…
Beer: Pilsner Urquell Brewery: Plzensky Prazdroj Style: Bohemian Pilsner ABV: 4.4 percent For good or for ill, there is no brewery that’s affected beer consumption worldwide more than Plzensky Prazdroj. One hundred and seventy-one years ago this November, the Czech brewery introduced pilsner, a beer style with qualities so unique…
The Arizona Diamondbacks need us, you guys. At their July 5 home game against the Rockies, attendance at Chase Field was as high as it’s been all season, topping 45,000, and they won that game five to nil. Since then attendance has waned to an average of about half of…
Beer: Saison Brewery: Funkwerks Style: Saison ABV: 6.8 percent Phoenix, it must be said, is a pretty odd place — made up primarily of people exported from other regions. With our climate and the variety of drinkers making their homes in the Valley, it’s difficult to dial in on what…
Beer: Arctic Saison Brewery: Grassroots Brewing Co. Style: Saison ABV: 6 percent Until the highly sought-after Three Floyds Brewing Co. collaborated with Mikkeller, we could never get its beer in Arizona. Russian River also was never available in our state — until the famed brewery collaborated with Sierra Nevada Brewing…
Ever been mistaken for someone you’re not? It’s usually pretty awkward for both parties involved, but nothing worth making a movie about. Unless, of course, you were mistaken for a government agent by foreign spies who then kidnapped you, framed you for the murder of a U.N. Diplomat, and chased…
Beer: Duvel Brewery: Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat Style: Belgian Strong Pale Ale ABV: 8.5 percent The year is 1830, and the southern provinces of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands are sick of it. Sick of the tulips; sick of that sauce made with egg yolk and butter; sick of the…
As we all-too-slowly nudge our way into the 2013-14 NFL season, much talk is being made in the office about fantasy football. But if we could, we’d give up completely on researching possible sleepers and just draft the entire Arizona Rattlers starting lineup.Let’s look at their most recent game (as…
Beer: Irish Red Brewery: Fate Brewing Co. Style: Irish Red Ale ABV: 5.4 percent Having just attended a gathering of beer industry leaders who discussed the merits of drinking local and supporting a brewery’s core brands, I am (for this week, anyway) pumped on flagships. These are the beers that…
Beer: Got Beer Brewery: BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse Style: Gotlandsdricka ABV: N/A Got beer? Gotland does. A 90-mile-long island off Sweden’s eastern coast, Gotland has a population of about 60,000, several hundred of whom brew beer. And bubbling away in the cellar of nearly every one of these Baltic brewers…
Beer: Wailua Ale Brewery: Kona Brewing Co. Style: American Pale Wheat Ale ABV: 5.4 percent At substantial risk of telling you what you already know: It’s hot outside. Like, soul-crushingly, melt-your-eyeballs hot. I enjoy thick, robust stouts and palate-busting barleywines as much as anyone, but when I’m wandering this desert…
Beer: Cherry Buzz Brewery: SunUp Brewing Co. Style: American Pale Ale ABV: 5 percent We begin today with an apology. I’ve been derelict in my bloggerly duties and neglected, when it occurred May 1, to wish the women of Arizona Girls Pint Out a happy third anniversary. Since 2010, this…
Remember the episode of Futurama in which the characters land on a planet populated solely by giant Amazonian women? During a tour of their village, the ladies stop at a basketball court. “Here stadium, where our women basketball teams play,” they say. “We no can dunk, but good fundamentals. That…
Beer: Imperial Stout Brewery: Marble Brewery Style: Russian Imperial Stout ABV: 11 percent May 8, 2013. Eleven men sit around a large meeting room table inside the Micromatic Facility in Machesney Park, Illinois. Some wear the tired eyes of jet lag; others intently study piles of paper notes; many attempt…
In our experience, if you’re going to skip work, Wednesday is the best day to do it. It breaks up the week, giving you the boost you need to push through til Friday. If you can pull a Ferris Bueller and catch a ball game while you play hooky, all…
Beer: Homefront IPA Brewery: Phoenix Ale Brewery Style: American IPA ABV: 6.5 percent I didn’t know Gregory Fretz well. I really only met the man once, during the Beer for Brains Bocce Brew HaHa held in 2012, as he was pouring glasses of Phoenix Ale Watermelon Wheat. He told me…
