Intellectual Ferment of a Different Kind
Meeting the people who make your beer.
Tempest recently chalked up its ninth month of craft beer writing. To celebrate the occasion, I’ve been posting an annotated index of articles that I’ve written to date. The first segment listed my articles on beer and culture, followed by my regional spotlights. This segment …
If Ithaca is Gorges, it is also rapidly becoming a craft beer destination. In the first article of this series, I recounted the story of Ithaca’s first craft brewery and tasted a few of their beers. Here I introduce readers to the new breweries that …
Only four hours from New York City, but centrally isolated. Ten square miles surrounded by reality. Partly sunny. And gorges aplenty. There’s no denying that Ithaca is Gorges. Spend less than half an hour in this town cradled by rolling hills at the foot of …
In my first piece introducing this particular Tempest road trip from the southern center of the U.S. to the southwest of Canada, I posed a rhetorical question: What kinds of pleasant surprises, serendipitous finds, and outright disappointments await when you leave town on a long …
Chuckle if you will, but judging a double-header of Imperial Stouts and Barrel-Aged Beers is a taxing proposition. My friend and I were in the Dallas area for the weekend to serve as judges for the annual Bluebonnet Homebrew Competition, and this judging assignment was …
Cheyenne arrived after about fourteen hours on the road. It was Saturday evening, but the streets were still and quiet for a state capital and county seat. We threaded our way into the center of town, stopping for the night at the Plains Hotel, a …
Dennis Wehrmann brewed his first batch of beer at twelve years of age and never looked back. Many begin their brewing careers with a motley collection of pans, buckets, and hoses, and at a much older age at that. Not Wehrmann. He brewed his first …
I first met Forrest and Diane Rogness at last year’s Great American Beer Festival. I was “exploring” the less-beaten paths of the festival when a place name caught my eye: Pflugerville. I had lived on a street called Pflügerstrasse while living in the Neukölln district …
Crystal Springs Brewing Company is a veteran newcomer on Colorado’s Front Range brewing scene. Veteran because Tom Horst and family have been brewing popular beers out of their garage for the past four years in Sunshine Canyon, a scenic drive into the mountains west of …
If North by Northwest conjures up images of swooping crop dusters and dazzling chases across Mt. Rushmore, you might be confused by the name of this elegant brewpub in a city famous for South by Southwest. But fear not. After a few beers, you’ll forget …