Human civilization has evolved alongside wheat, whose properties create a wide swath of beer’s diversity of flavor and texture—from quenching weissbier to soft, hazy IPA. Randy Mosher digs into its history and chemistry.
The diversity and creativity of the beers that come out of this small country are justifiably famous, yet often it’s the wilder side that draws all the attention. Let’s renew our friendship with the foundational ales that first put Belgium on the beer map.
By taking a step back to think more deeply about why we love fruit—and why some fruit beers really shine—we can better plan a truly great one. Randy Mosher peels back the layers and gets to the core of it.
No, it’s not boring—it’s sublime. Yes, it should be somewhat bitter—but balanced. Randy Mosher breaks down one of the beer world’s great classics and the context that makes sense of it. Ready for a session?
Now, here’s a different sort of winter warmer. The fruits and spices are up to you (every abuela has her own ponche recipe). Warm it up, mix with nog, stick a red-hot poker in it … or just enjoy in a snifter by the fireside. ¡Feliz Navidad!
Randy Mosher dissects the intricate workings of IPAs—from the malt to the hop compounds that make them special and compelling—so we can approach our brews and our sensory vocabulary with deeper thought.
Lager is made at the cellular level—and at the cultural one. How far can you push lager—with different ingredients, fermentations, sensory profiles—until it becomes something else? Randy Mosher ponders the science, the traditions, and the pragmatism.
Hard seltzers and similar flavored beverages have never been so popular. It’s worth taking a clear-eyed look at the processes and flavorings upon which they rely. Randy Mosher takes us behind the curtain.
Sour and wild beers exist on a complex plane of myriad flavors and aromas produced by bacteria, yeast, ingredients, and by-products. Randy Mosher breaks down the building blocks of what we sense, to help us identify what we enjoy.
This smooth-drinking, medium-duty stout takes advantage of the cold-brew method for using black and caramel malts.