Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Katie Carter, cheesemonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)
Cheese, simply put, is a food made from the coagulated proteins of milk. Tasty and nutritious pressed curds, basically. Throughout this column, I will show you that cheese is also more than that. Cheese is now a science, an art form, and an important culture. Every cheese is unique and every cheese tells a story.
Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)
A few weeks back while writing about the evolving craft beer market, I mentioned the growing demand for more ‘everyday’ brews; beers that friends could bring to spring/summer barbecues and throw in the cooler for any and all to enjoy. Since then I’ve had more than a few customers come into the store asking which beers I meant in particular when I wrote that, so let me give you a preview of things to come as the weather finally starts to warm up again.
Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)
Time keeps on flying — we’re already hitting St. Patrick’s Day weekend. As a Guinness drinker and an American with a drop or two of Irish blood in my makeup, I am supposed to look upon St. Patrick’s as one of the High Holidays. But if I’m honest I’ve gone a bit sour on the whole thing.
Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)
Clay Risen has the craft beer world all in a tizzy this week, though most beer geeks out there may not even be familiar with his name. With one New York Times article Risen, an author, Times editor and occasional contributor of some fine spirits articles to The Atlantic, reignited years-old arguments in the craft beer community with an article about his sudden and shocking discovery of 750mL bottles of craft beer, many of which sell at prices comparable to bottles of wine.
Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)
There are days where you roll out of bed just knowing you’re going to get into trouble somehow. You’re not spoiling for a fight, but one’s coming regardless so you know you better sharpen up.
Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)
It doesn’t happen often, but it’s been a slow week. No huge breaking news (though it’s worth looking at the restructured InBev/Modelo deal to see how they’ll get away with that). No insane once-per-year rarities to call every store in town to find. There are some cool new beers out including the new Schwarzbier from Devils Backbone, and we’ll be sampling those on Saturday at the shop. But as far as news goes it’s a little too quiet out there.
Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)
So maybe it’s the day after Valentine’s Day but I know many couples who, when it lands in the middle of the week, choose to celebrate over the weekend. While it may be more traditional to have a nice bottle of Champagne or to pair some wine with a romantic dinner, there are some beers out there that I think would be appropriate for a nice romantic evening.
Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)
As mentioned in the comments section of last week’s column, the biggest news story in the beer industry involved the U.S. Justice Department filing suit to stop the purchase of Grupo Modelo (makers of Corona, among other brands) by AB InBev (Budweiser, Stella Artois), the biggest of the big beer companies. It’s funny which stories have ‘legs’ where others don’t; I remember the InBev purchase of Anheuser-Busch gaining quite a bit of attention, but I never got any phone calls from reporters then — and I did this week when the big guys got told “no”.
Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)
Without a doubt the event of the week in our area was the yearly release of Bell’s HopSlam. We received our 25 cases at Arrowine on Monday and they sold out in under an hour, way faster than I had anticipated. Considering the madness surrounding its release, I thought of making this week’s column more an open forum where folks could discuss it, as it seems to be all anyone wants to talk about right now — but I thought that would be lazy even by my standards.
Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)
Most of the time, it works like this: I get word of an upcoming release from a brewery; the brewery starts getting word out through the press, the beer is released, and then within a certain number of weeks/months a distributor clears it for Virginia and then I get it for stock. Some of the time, a beer from a brewery popular in Virginia is made in small enough quantities that it never makes it here. Then there’s the case of Left Hand’s Milk Stout Nitro.
Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)
We’ve looked at Belgian Trappist Ales here before, but I wanted to take a quick moment this week to consider the newest member to the ranks of the official Trappist brewers. News of the addition of Austrian monastery Stift Engelszell to the list of approved Trappist breweries got a little lost last year in the wave of excitement over the impending release of Westvleteren 12. However, while Westy 12 has already come and gone (with none allocated for the District or Virginia) the first of Engelszell’s beers is reaching us now.
Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)
Now that we’re into winter, Stouts are fully in season. Every week right now there are great new and returning Stouts on the market. Just this week we will see the return of Founder’s Imperial Stout (in quantities we’ve never seen in Virginia), Southern Tier Choklat Stout, and Left Hand Barrel-Aged Wake Up Dead Imperial Stout (for the first time in a couple years); this after having received the excellent new Sierra Nevada Narwhal Imperial Stout, Dogfish Head Bitches Brew, Terrapin’s W-n-B Imperial Coffee Oatmeal Stout and Moo Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout, and Evil Twin Aun Mas A Jesus Imperial Stout over the past couple of months. For this week, I’m not going to look at the biggest, high-ABV monster Stouts out there—I’m going to look at one of my favorite styles out there: Oyster Stout.
