Category: Birmingham-area brewery

  • Calories in beer

    With the recent announcement from the regulating authorities that brewers may, if they wish, provide calorie information, how will that affect craft breweries when consumers see the calorie count? These figures are calculated by Beersmith, and are subject to natural variations in ingredients, but let’s take a look at a standard 12 oz serving, shall…

  • Curry and beer

    Although many people find it strange to pair anything other than a traditional lager/pilsner with a curry, there are many different options available to the more adventurous. Just remember: making the wrong choice won’t lead to disaster! (They lead to a subpar pairing, which is just as bad.) If you get the pairing wrong, just…

  • Video review: Beer Engineers Peanut Butter Porter

    Video review of BE Peanut Butter Porter Changing things up a bit by doing a thoroughly irreverent video review with my buddy Joseph Baker wherein we touch on a little of the BS that breweries go through to get their beer onto the shelves. In post-review conversation we kicked around food pairings and decided that…

  • Pairing beer and cheese

    I love being asked unexpected questions about pairing beer and food, so when I got a request from a distributor to put together some pairings for a segment on a local TV station (ABC 33/40) I jumped at the challenge: The request Cheese pairings for Straight to Ale Lily Flagg (milk stout) Straight to Ale…

  • Breweries making a difference

    Avondale Brewing, in Birmingham, has already transformed its neighborhood. First they converted an old firehouse to become their brewery and taproom, and then they offered 6 months of free rent to a local business which would both complement and augment the local area, with the aim of recreating a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood. No longer an abandoned,…

  • Cheesecake and beer

    When I mention pairing dessert and beer to people, I get some very weird looks. Once I explain that dark beers – porters and stouts – have a flavour profile that is very much like coffee, the same people become curious and willing to try something new. Guinness, despite being the name everyone recognises, is…