Great Lakes Brewing Co., Cleveland, OH
I am a 52 year old guy, husband, father, graphic designer, librarian, lover of good beer, good books and good conversation. My experience with beer includes 33 years of drinking it and 19 years of homebrewing it, not all of them good experiences for sure. I do know what I like and think I can steer people toward a beer that they will like. I’m a big fan of trying new things and not getting stuck in a beer rut. As Ben Franklin said…
beerbliographer 
I love your site. Keep it up !
Have I missed it somewhere or is it correct that you can’t find a Rhinelander review on this site?
I wish Rheinlander was still brewed like it was the night we drank it in your unoccupied co-op in Park Forest. That was good.
Hey Bill, love your site! Its hard work but someone has to do it right? Keep it up!
Cheers,
Scott
Thanks Scott. Giving people access to useful information is important to me. (nice woodworking site, by the way! It makes the projects I used to be pleased with look sad.)
Hi Billy,
I realized something was missing from my daily life and thought hard what it was. It was your posts on Facebook. I looked you up to see where you had gone and I saw your last post. I miss you there.
We tried a beer the other night that I am not sure I would recommend. It was a Tulsa wheat beer called Sundown by Marshall Brewing Co.
http://marshallbrewing.com/index.asp
It was almost perfumey tasting. There were a lot of herbs in it. I didn’t analyze much more closely than that as I was eating pizza and I just wanted to enjoy it. It came in what I think was a one liter size bottle and the top was dipped in wax over the cap. Interesting packaging, unremarkable beer.
Love,
Dawn
I see you have reviewed Mad Hatter by New Holland…I need to know about their other beers. I have a couple of hop heads and a couple of wheat beer lovers coming for the holidays and I am wondering if New Holland beers would be right for them. Mad Hatter for the hop heads,huh? Have you tried any of their other beers? What is the BEST wheat beer you have tried?
Big Kiss
Dawn
I have reviewed Pilgrim’s Dole and Dragon’s Milk on this site, and have tried their Full Circle Kolsch. All are good. For the hop head who likes wheat beer, try Gumball Head if it’s available in your area. For less hoppy wheat beers, there are always plenty of German weissbiers, such as Hacker Pschorr Weisse, which is very good and easy to find. A good domestic is Sam Adams Hefe Weizen, and a impressive import is La Fin Du Mond by Quebec’s Unibroue. It’s a Belgian-style wheat beer. All of the above are reviewed on this site.
One last thing: I don’t drink a lot of traditional weiss beers because it’s not my favorite style, so my reviews are less numerous here, but the ones mentioned are good.
Hello Mein Onkel, Das bier ist sehr gut fur meine gesundheit!! 🙂
Dutch says “Let off some steam Bennett!!!!!”
Dear Mr. Beerbliographer,
Do you have any beers to recommend? I am not much of a beer drinker, but I am willing to try almost anything once. I have access to beer which is brewed in France and Germany, particularly in the eastern France/western Germany areas near Strasbourg. They many many tasty wines there, which I can attest to, but I just don’t know about the beer. Please help! Merci!
Dearest Madame M.
I am quite tickled to know that I have an international following. My advice to you is to drink Mo beer on a Daley basis in order to fit in with the natives and learn of the wonders of french beer. The French brewing industry is mainly in Alscase-Lorraine and you may be familiar with Kronenbourg 1664 already. It is a standard pale lager which I would compare with Beck’s lager. Fischer Gold is similar to 1664 but a bit stronger in flavor and alcohol. The Bier de Garde style of beer may be available as well, and it is produced by most of the French brewers. It is what is also referred to as a Farmhouse Ale, generally brewed in the winter and bottle conditioned, and often the bottles are sealed with a cork. These tend to be stronger (8 or 8% ABV) but are very flavorful. Get a bottle for you birthday and share it with Jeff de Bruges. Bon Nuit!
Oh la la and merci! I have tried Fischer Gold and Kronenbourg 1664 already. I’ve also had some corked stuff, but I can’t remember what it was (wait, I wonder if there is some kind of crazy connection there?). My husband seems to like the beer he has tried here, but his complaint is that the bottles are often so tiny. We will continue to look for the best beer in the region.
I heard via the hop vine that the Yarsons (Erickson/Yarbroughs)
have grown their own hops and made a drinkable porter from them!
Mmmm! I used to grow hops but they are very invasive. I hope they have plenty of room.
Here are the beers we tried….http://www.wasatchbeers.com/apricot.html (you could definitely taste the apricot in this one…I really liked it..) and http://www.wasatchbeers.com/whitelabel.html also very nice. At the north rim of the Grand Canyon we tried Arizona beers… http://www.lumberyardbrewingcompany.com/BeersOnTap.html#HEFE
I had the Hefeweizen and Ron had the Canyon Pilsner…I liked both of them as well. They aren’t really strong or overly hoppy/bitter but neither are we! 🙂
Sounds like a good vacation for a number of reasons!
Bill,
New Beer Lobvers iphone app: http://www.chicagobeergeeks.com/2013/01/chicago-beer-geeks-iphone-application/
Haven’t tried it yet though…
-Montague Montego
Bill,
Being that you’re both a designer and beer lover, I thought you’d enjoy this post that my business partner did today.
http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2013/7/10/matthew-dunn-what-makes-an-infographic-cool.html
Cool indeed! Thanks Jordan!