Beer: Ristretto Cosmic Black Lager Brewery: Green Flash Brewing Co. Style: Schwarzbier ABV: 8.2 percent This column is normally directed at beer aficionados, but coffee connoisseurs may also want to pay close attention — this week’s brew is packed with enough espresso flavor that it earned the name Ristretto. For…
Beer: RuinTen IPA Brewery: Stone Brewing Co. Style: Imperial IPA ABV: 10.8 percent When I was in college, I spent seven weeks studying German language and culture in the city of Regensburg, located in southern Bavaria. The experience, as those who’ve studied abroad are required to call such things, was…
If you’ve ever used the phrase “booty call,” you owe Bill Bellamy a dollar. The comedian coined the phrase while performing on HBO’s Def Comedy Jam, finally giving late-night copulators all over the world a way to refer to that 2 a.m. text. In fact, you’ve probably said it a…
Attention, citizens of Springfield! This is an announcement from Charles Montgomery Burns: You are hereby forbidden to attend Nerd Night: Simpsons Edition at Bragg’s Factory Diner on Saturday, July 26. The first time this trivia event was held last year, there was simply too much joy and frivolity about. Oh,…
It’s been just about two years since Arizona’s lawmakers made the first set of commonsense changes to the state’s laws concerning growlers — large jugs that can be filled with draft beer and taken home. Their updates enabled bars and breweries to fill growlers with any beer they had on…
Beer: Open Road Brewery: Mother Road Brewing Co. Style: English Summer Ale ABV: 5.8 percent Critiquing a beer’s appearance, aroma and flavor can tell you much about that particular brew, but little else. No, to truly know a beer, one must travel to the place it was brewed, see the…
The Hell Ride, as the name suggests, is not fun. You will not enjoy the 45-minute ride to the top of Phoenix’s South Mountain. You will not smile as you pedal your fixed-gear bike across nearly eight miles of terrain that rises 1,300 feet in elevation. With a forecast temperature…
Beers: Belo Ipe & Belo Sao Francisco Brewery: Cervejaria Wals Style: Quadrupel & Dubbel ABV: 11 percent & 7.5 percent I’d like to kick this week’s review off with a few contrasting images of Brazilians. The first is brought to you by the 7-1 blitzkrieg the German national squad delivered…
If your last library visit was a few presidential administrations ago, it’s time to dust off that old plastic card and check out all that today’s biblioteca has to offer. The Burton Barr Central Library has much more than just books — it’s also the place to be for free,…
Contrary to what Miley Cyrus would tell you, Jay-Z and Britney songs are not the best way to have a party in the USA. Apollo’s Lounge has the formula right. First, they call the shindig America, Fu*k Yeah! Then they pack it with everything that makes our country great: flags,…
Beer: Oude Zuipers Brewery: Papago Brewing Co. Style: Tripel ABV: 11 percent “Daar zun meer oude zuipers dan oude dokters.” Translation: There are more old drunks than old doctors. It’s an old Flemish phrase you’re likely to find hanging on a sign or printed on a stained glass window in…
Anyone who saw Honey, I Shrunk the Kids knows scorpions are absolutely terrifying. Eight legs? Check. Giant spiky claws? Check. A long, stabby tail full of venom? Check. You couldn’t design a scarier creature in a laboratory. A dozen of them are probably living in your backyard RIGHT NOW, and…
Beer: Xingu Black Beer Brewery: Cervejaria Sul Brasileira Style: Schwarzbier ABV: 4.7 percent I’m not sure how it happened, but somewhere along the line casual beer drinkers got the wrong idea about dark beer. Every day, all across the land, you’ll find drinkers turning down black-colored brews because they think…
Of all the guys we know whose last name sounds like a Toyota model, Adam Carolla is definitely the most impressive. Just check out these bona fides: Loveline (very useful sex info). The Man Show (genius). Crank Yankers (hilarious, if you’re into that kind of thing). Catch a Contractor (like…
Beer: Sarcosuchus Brewery: Dragoon Brewing Co. Style: Imperial IPA ABV: 10.5 percent Hanging on a wall in Dragoon Brewing Co.’s Tucson tap room is a small chalkboard, and on this chalkboard employees have drawn a pair of animals: a hippopotamus and a crocodile. These creatures were drawn out of boredom,…
Beer: IPA Brewery: Lagunitas Brewing Co. Style: American IPA ABV: 6.2 percent When you work around craft beer, the most common question people ask is, “So, what’s your favorite beer?” I’m never able to answer — I freeze up like I’ve been stumped at the spelling bee and usually mumble…
Rarely does being good at drinking games pay dividends in the real world. Oh, you may occasionally get the chance to show off your mad beer pong skillz by throwing a balled-up piece of paper into a trash can, but what’s the reward — not needing to walk five feet…
Beer: Mexas Ranger Brewery: Mikkeller Style: Spiced Beer ABV: 6.6 percent You may have heard that Mikkeller, renowned Denmarkian gypsy brewer, is making his way to Arizona this week to cook up a beer in collaboration with the best new brewery in the world. Arizona Wilderness has been discussed at…
Garrison Keillor has fantastic eyebrows. Big, bushy, salt-and-pepper-flaked numbers that seem purpose-chosen for his expressions, as if he has a variety of them in a drawer at home and grabs a pair before leaving the house each morning. Of course, you’d never know this if you hadn’t seen him in…
On May 18, sensing a major change was needed to turn around a baseball season going quickly south, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ upper management named Hall of Famer Tony La Russa to the newly created position of chief baseball officer. On the same day, the D-Backs teed off on the Los…
Beer: Sock Knocker Brewery: Coronado Brewing Co. Style: Imperial IPA ABV: 8.5 percent In this bottle of Coronado Sock Knocker, there are assembled the world’s four greatest hop varieties, created from the cosmic legends of the universe (and, you know, hop farmers): Amarillo: a hop discovered growing wild in a…
In the previous decade, brewers pushed the envelope farther than it had ever gone in terms of alcohol content, barrel-aging and experimental yeast strains — and beer geeks loved them for it. To peruse a list of the top-rated beers in the world was to see a list of the…
