Let me just say that it has been over a year since I did my last beer review. Have I not been drinking beer? Of course I’ve been drinking beer. Have I not sampled Continue reading
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The Self Hating Hipster’s Guide to Session Beers
20 Aug
In honor of the Self Hating Hipster’s first birthday, I asked the SHH himself what the topic of the first style guide in almost a year should be. If you’re not familiar with some of the other ones I’ve written, what I like to do is talk about a style of beer, it’s background, and offer some suggestions to help you navigate the beer store so you don’t have to ask the guy at the counter, who is busy doing scratchers. Continue reading
Southern Tier Oat
7 MarAmerican Double/Imperial Stout
Rating: A-
Poured from bottle to pint glass.
Opaque, dark chocolate (near black) in color with a thin, khaki head that Continue reading
Third Annual Pizza & Beer Pairing at Chelsea’s Co. With Sixpoint Brewery
27 Feb
230 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY 10001
My ticket to this event was another Valentine’s Day gift to me this year (gurl done good!). We arrived just as the event was starting at noon. I didn’t take any pictures because I left my cell phone behind to charge, but to give you an idea of what Co. looks like…
That’s almost the entire restaurant right there with a bit of bench seating along the left wall not pictured. The event, which ran from noon until 4pm, was extremely crowded at the beginning and so my girlfriend and I posted up on the bench and acted as hybrid consumers/coat-check station. The pizza and beer was served buffet style: a quesadilla-sized slice and 4 0z. of beer served out of continuously refilled growlers. Continue reading
Bud Light Platinum
29 Jan
Somewhere, likely in Missouri, someone decided that Bud Light just wasn’t getting America’s college students and off-duty bus drivers drunk fast enough. Why sell it in a brown beer bottle, when it can be blue? Let’s pretend there is somehow a premium clientele for our high selling, beer-flavored enhanced water beverage. The end result, is Bud Light Platinum.
Anheuser-Busch’s newest creation boasts a 6 percent alcohol by volume, (up from 4.2%) and a special blue bottle normally reserved for over priced mineral water sold to women in funny hats at the race courses. Bud Light Platinum is even stronger than Continue reading
The SHH Guide to Porters
15 Jan
IT FINALLY SNOWED! After what seemed like forever, there is snow on the ground where I live. It is officially winter. The holidays are over and there is nothing but the grey sky and shoveling for two/three months. Refreshment be damned; it’s about staying warm. Stouts get all the love, and I’ve been on a porter kick lately [Ed’s note – not a euphemism] so I decided to crack an egg of knowledge all on all ya’ll. Porter: the other dark beer. Wikipedia’s got a whole bunch of facts that you can read if you want, but since I already did that just sit tight. Anyways, you know the band Joy Division? Yeah, Love Will Tear Us Apart and all that. Porter is what all their dad’s drank after a hard day at a Manchester textile factory. Your son would be depressed enough to write “The Eternal,” too. Continue reading
ON NOTICE! Brewery Edition
3 JanHello and welcome to the inaugural edition of ON NOTICE! The idea here is a really bastardized and far more serious version of what Stephen Colbert does on his television program. We’ll look at people, places, things, organizations, or whatever needs to be documented to let you know who’s peddling bullshit. This week, we’ll look at a few breweries that need to get their act together and quit skating by. All too often people fall into traps with some blind devotion to a brewery that really just wants to get as much of your money as possible. I’ve mentioned a few of these companies before, and not in a particularly flattering light. While this isn’t intended necessarily to accomplish anything, perhaps I can help you make more informed choices for your beer purchasing dollar. We’ll get right down to it and work our way from five to the number one.
5. Fort Collins Brewery – Fort Collins, CO: 
The beer scene in the state of Colorado is one that I’m pretty jealous of. While their distribution can vary, (No Lagunitas!) a few good friends live out that way and Continue reading
Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale
29 DecSome breweries just get it. Every distributed brewery has a marketing department of some kind. Judging by the amount of beer available at any given beverage center (back in Buffalo, they call them party stores) it’s no easy task to make sure you stand out from the crowd. I mean, I’ll occasionally buy a beer because its label looks cool. I’m no more oblivious to bright colors and fancy scripts as the next guy. I’ll buy based on style of beer more than anything, but breweries have to know I’m spending upwards of a half hour looking up and down at the same shelves hoping I’ll notice their brand. There’s always a different school of thought in how they get you to look their way. There is the big-swinging-dick approach, where places like Stone Brewery more or less question your manhood by daring you to try one of their beers. There’s the fancy swirling art motif employed by Continue reading
2011 Winter Seasonal Beer Guide
17 Dec
About a month or so ago, I ran down a list of some of my favorite pumpkin beers for the Fall brewing season. Since that was a lot of fun, I decided that the Winter brews deserve some love too. Generally, most winter brewed beers are going to be heavier in style, as well as higher in alcohol percentage (for them cold, cold nights). There are gimmicky beers brewed with all kinds of fruit, champagne beers, spicy winter warmers, and other beers not themed so specifically for Christmas, and will sell late into the season.
Hibernator by Long Trail Brewing Co. (Bridgewater Corners, VT) – We start this list with one of my favorite beers for winter. I am a completely biased, unabashed devotee to Long Trail for their session beers. Hibernator is Continue reading
The SHH Guide to India Pale Ales
30 NovThe India Pale Ale, or IPA, is a polarizing style of beer. To some, it’s a go-to style and is considered great test of a particular brewer’s ability. To others, it can be an overwhelming and otherwise bitter experience. Some people Continue reading
the self-hating hipster 
