WhiskyFest Recap, San Francisco

A few highlights from the big brown booze celebration.

Why I Would Spend $200 on Dinner

Because I love local farmers and the produce they grow, I love the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, and I love Bay Area chefs.

Veal Variety Meats

veal variety meats

NOVA Wine-Geek Meet-Up (Plus: Eartha "Goes HAL")

Editor’s note: Jim meets up with his wine-aesthete friends for a memorable meal in Arlington. Dine along with the podcasts!

A national meeting of a group with which I work will be in Seattle next month and I just got a call from an organizer who wants to know what "organic restaurants" are in town. It is without animosity toward my organic brethren...

I read an article in a non food magazine recently which probed the issue of the ever increasing popularity of organic foods. Obviously, there are spinoff threads which could develop, like what constitutes "organic" and -what is...

Bacteria-infected beer in the former beer capital of the world.

I lived in Bavaria for 3 year, and in my opinion, Schneider-Weisse is the barometer by which all other Weissen beers are measured. If you can find it, by all means get it. You will not be disappointed. I current have a case of...

it skanky, but there’s nothing in it to “go bad”. Micro-filtered beer still has some organisms, and raw beer has lots of living cultures – they change with age, and the raw, unfiltered stuff, really has to...

If it’s silence you seek then Burp Castle might meet your needs – the staff there actually shushes the patrons when the noise level starts rising to preserve the monastic vibe they’re trying to manufacture. If...

craft beer festivals, our Toronto festival sucks. I lay no blame with the craft brewers but with the organizers and the ridiculous rules that patrons and brewers must follow (many most likely dictated by the LCBO and AGCO.)

Any suggestions as to what beers to pair with cheese? Cheese platters

stout, I don’t think. (MA/VT) Victory Storm King—very very complex beer, coffee, chocolate, very malty—it can hit you pretty hard with 9% alcohol (PA) Otter Creek Organic Oatmeal Stout—very malty beer, and a...

While there is historic precedent for using pumpkin to brew beer in Colonial times, it was used as an adjunct, to replace or supplement the barley malt (costly and in short supply) rather than as a flavoring. The...

Lately I’ve been drinking Lammsbrau organic dunkel and pilsner. Both strike me as extremely and unusually good, but I am not particularly a beer aficionado, and I don’t have entire confidence in my own judgment. Are...