Since the House of Beers opened its doors, Bangkok has seen the arrival of upscale beer bars and brewpubs with English, Belgian and German themes. Not to be outdone, Thailand’s flagship brewer Boon Rawd is leading a homegrown movement with Est. 33 – a $1 million brewpub. Would you like a Copper ale made with germinated brown rice to accompany your buffalo wings and chili lime sauce?

“Thai food goes well with Belgian white beer, with its citrus notes and subtle sweetness. I’d love to get the line of Brooklyn beers in here, or Dogfish Head, or something else that’s well-hopped and fruity, bitter and strong.”

- Jarrett Wrisley, owner of the new Soul Food Mahanakorn

In the capitol of Thailand, there’s a new kind of temple in town dedicated to matching traditional dishes with beer and food styles more common to points west. Since the House of Beers opened its doors, Bangkok has seen the arrival of upscale beer bars and brewpubs with English, Belgian and German themes. Not to be outdone, Thailand’s flagship brewer Boon Rawd is leading a homegrown movement with Est. 33 – a $1 million brewpub. Would you like a Copper ale made with germinated brown rice to accompany your buffalo wings and chili lime sauce?

We track down the Jack Kerouac of craft brew, Tony Magee for an exclusive look at how he built his beer kingdom, and press our luck with the growing number of craft breweries in Vegas, the city of neon and steel.

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AVAILABLE WEB STORIES

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Up A Notch With Emeril Lagasse
The New Orleans Chef Talks Beer, Boudin
 

Resident world traveler and Connoisseur Martin Thibault crafts an amazing journey into the top secret world of Lithaunia's Farmhouse Brewers, John Holl sits down with Sierra Nevada founder and legend Ken Grossman, and we take an early look at pale lagers, a style growing more popular by the day.

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Traveling without internet? Download the PDF HERE.

AVAILABLE WEB STORIES

FEATURES

Great novelists did not just write about strong beer. Take James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” for example, undoubtedly one of the great books of the 20th century. Here we find a name-check to Lord Ardilaun and Lord Iveagh, great-great grandsons of Arthur Guinness I, and learn how Guinness is made. At one point a character is brought:

“…a crystal cup full of the foaming ebon ale which the noble twin brothers Bungiveagh and Bungardilaun brew ever in their divine alevats, cunning as the sons of deathless Leda. For they garner the succulent berries of the hop and mass and sift and bruise and brew them and they mix therewith sour juices and bring the must to the sacred fire and cease not night or day from their toil, those cunning brothers, lords of the vat.”

Well, perhaps that’s not really how it’s done. But beer and brewing and breweries and brewers do pop up surprisingly often in the very best novels. For instance, you will discover in one of the great books of the 19th century, Thomas Hardy’s “The Mayor of Casterbridge,” an excellent recipe for homebrewed ale of the sort made in country pubs in the West County of England early in the 19th century:

The cannery building still stands, extensively remodeled and abutting rows of new houses. It’s now the home of the very up-to-date Dogfish Head Craft Brewery – the maker of extreme beers like 120 Minute IPA, Chicory Stout, Raison D’Être and Palo Santo Marron.

The brewery draws up to 800 visitors a week in summer and a smaller but steady stream the rest of the year. They come for the beer and to meet the people who make such oddities as Midas Touch, a drink akin to mead; Black & Blue, a Belgian-style ale fermented with blackberries and blueberries; Olde School, a barleywine fermented with dates and figs; and Fort, a raspberry beer with 18 percent alcohol by volume.

You may catch a glimpse of the founder and president, Sam Calagione, who turns 41 this spring. He started Dogfish Head in 1995 as a brewpub in Rehoboth Beach, 16 miles away. The name comes from a point of land on the coast of Maine near Boothbay Harbor, which Calagione, who is from western Massachusetts, used to visit with his parents. His wife, Mariah Calagione, is credited with bringing him and his ideas to Delaware, her native state.

Visitors flock to the Peach State’s oldest city in search of a connection to the genteel past of antebellum mansions, cobblestone streets, garden squares, fountains, trees draped in Spanish moss and deep Southern hospitality.

Savannah holds a quirky, eccentric charm that quickly endears itself to almost anyone, and its popular downtown historic district – now more beautiful than ever thanks to the restoration of countless historic homes and businesses over the last 20 years – provides an extremely pedestrian-friendly locale. Just over four hours by car from sprawling Atlanta, the city offers its guests an inviting, tranquil environment where life seems unhurried. Whether pausing in a coffee shop, relaxing on a park bench, enjoying a plate of local seafood, or admiring the architecture on a leisurely walk through its 21 squares, Savannah never fails to please. And for lovers of great beer, the city also boasts a variety of personable, Old World-style pubs and restaurants in which to imbibe, eat and relax.

San Diego’s perfect weather, sun-soaked beaches and laidback lifestyle draw a year-round influx of tourists in search of the ideal getaway. Last November, those lures took a backseat to San Diego Beer Week, a 10-day extravaganza celebrating one of the area’s most prized exports. This new event provided opportunities for tourists and locals alike to see, sip and savor the brewing mecca’s burgeoning beer culture through more than 300 events at breweries, bars, restaurants, hotels and a host of other venues throughout the namesake county.

“San Diego Beer Week further solidified our place on the map as the Napa Valley of U.S. beers,” said Chris Cramer, the co-founder of Karl Strauss Brewing Company, which was the first brewery established in San Diego post-Prohibition. “Across the board, people were wowed.”

Such a hearty inaugural effort is to be expected from an area that is home to 35 brewhouses and some of the most revered brewers in the American craft beer industry. Today, San Diego is well known as a hotbed of brewing innovation and a haven for all things imperialized, but a peek a mere 15 years in the rearview reveals a county that led the nation in Coors Light accounts, ran scarlet with ubiquitous uninspired “red ales” and was home to thankfully long-departed brewers who employed fruit juices as flavoring ingredients and used weed whackers to mix their mash.

There’s something special about passing an afternoon gazing lazily out over an emerald field with a brew in hand. For quite some time, though, beer lovers have been left with few options at their favorite team’s ballpark.

Not anymore. In recent years, parks around the country have begun tilting their selections in favor of craft and local beers. From perennial contenders for the title of best beer selection, like Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Miller Park in Milwaukee, AT&T Park in San Francisco and Safeco Field in Seattle, to stadiums with up-and-coming lineups, like Citi Field in New York and Nationals Park in Washington, good beer has arrived at the ballgame. You might have to trek a bit to find it – or have access to high-end suites and club seating areas – but more often than not the beers you crave are there.

Things are hopping for farmers in the state of New York these days, because legislation has been introduced to allow those who raise hops to also brew and sell beer in the same location. The governor’s office, it seems, has noticed a 400 percent increase in the state’s acreage dedicated to hops in the past two years and is looking to create a “hop trail” to foster tourism as well as encourage the agricultural boom already under way.

Meanwhile, in Petaluma, California, the founder of Lagunitas Brewing, Tony Magee, has been tweeting that he’s about to start buying his brewer’s malt directly from farmers under contract – much like the movement he helped start by purchasing hops directly from the source instead of going through a dealer. The farmers talking with Magee will be able to count on steady prices and dedicate more land to the high quality barley needed for brewing.

In the city of San Francisco, there’s also a focus on leveraging the use of land in a manner directly related to the growth of the beer culture, although in this case it’s all about “airable” land. Beer gardens are starting to show up in what are known as stalled development sites – places that have been cleared but are still awaiting new construction as a result of the economic slowdown.

Our story begins as a beer writer – let’s call him Stephen – and his soon-to-be bride enter a tip-of-everyone’s-tongue kind of restaurant in Miami for the lady’s birthday dinner.

Refugees from the Canadian winter, they have discovered that Miami weather even in January can raise a significant thirst, and so our humble scribe is hoping, although not necessarily expecting, that he might find something interesting and refreshing on the restaurant’s beer list.

And lo and behold, he does! To Stephen’s delight and surprise, Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink, a critically applauded spot in Miami’s Design District, boasts a beer menu that marches from the pedestrian (PBR, presumably for would-be hipsters) to the interesting (Köstritzer Schwarzbier and Lakefront Organic ESB) and all the way to the altogether remarkable (Avery Maharaja and Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout). Even more astounding in a well-regarded culinary oasis such as this, the list covers a wide range of styles and tastes – from German pilsner to English bitter and Belgian Trappist – and contains something complementary to most of the restaurant’s main dishes. 

Of course, that was then and this is now. Two years and one global economic meltdown later, and what was then practically ground-breaking is today hardly worth mentioning. Yes, it took the near-complete decimation of the economy to do it, but beer is now more than ever a fixture at North American fine-dining restaurants.