The Biggest Craft Beer in Big Sky Country — KettleHouse’s Cold Smoke in Missoula-ish, Montana

There’s no smoke or Scotch in the beer, Pils says, but “the power of suggestion is pretty strong.” Mark Thomsen, who has for the past 30 years been a clerk at Worden’s Market and Deli—part of what Pils calls the “holy trinity” of Cold Smoke’s original retailers—tastes a peaty flavor with “a little kiss at the very end.” For Pils, the Scotch Ale is “basically a modernized Amber [Ale]” and a “widely approachable, malt-forward beer.” ? “I think a dirty little secret about beer is that people like it slightly sweet.”. — Al Pils, brand engagement manager, KettleHouse Brewing.

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Nothing Is Wasted, All Is Transformed — Disent-Elles in Charente-Maritime, France

Instead, at the micro-distillery Disent-Elles, what is getting distilled is beer—specifically, donated beer that would otherwise go to waste.Founded by Camille Cieplik and Luce Lepissier in the tranquil village of Pont-l’Abbé-d’Arnoult, Disent-Elles (roughly pronounced “deez-tell”) occupies a traditional stone building set amongst fields of sunflowers. At less than two years old, it has the feel of a budding business. When I pull up at the address on an overcast summer’s morning, I can see that the duo have not gotten around to painting their logo on the facade of the ancient stone barn.

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Imperial Beer Takes the Throne

A good brewer can make a beer as complex as it is easy drinking at any alcohol level, from light lagers to barleywines, but stronger beers can indeed empower big, bold flavors. Their requirement of more residual sugars means brewers can play with different ways to temper that sweetness from fruit acidity to hop bitterness. “With imperial-style beers, you’re given so much more leeway to find that balance in excess and, using that maximalist approach, lean into the intensities of higher IBUs, ABVs, SRMs, and starting/finishing gravities,” says Fred Cullin, a Brooklyn-based beertender who’s brewed at Evil Twin Brewing and Aurora Brewing Co.

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