A bitter Englishman records his beer journey of more than 40 years, the last 23 of which have been in the USA
Beers in the database:
Here’s one …
Mayflower IPA
Mayflower Brewing Company
04/06/2008
Sensible Beer Talk is Back
Ding’s Rants
Recent and/or Popular Posts
Two Bandits Brewing - A 'Regional' Brewer across Two States
Things I'm just not going to do, in 2023, as a legacy beer drinker
Legacy drinkers and the assault on Belgium, England and Germany
Purity, skin in the game, and when Capitalism spits on you
An Englishman and a Scotsman walk into a US brewery
Session Beer - an amalgamation of years and years of thoughts
Never meet your heroes. The death of elite beer bars in the USA?
How Beer is Promoting Community in Goshen, Indiana
Shipping beer from Belgium to the USA. Recent experiences
Fortlandia - a true nano production in Fort Wayne, Indiana
More than a decade removed, beeradvocate still banning!
Come Into My Parlor. A chat with Chris Bryant of Parlor City
Ding’s Six Pack
The 6 Most Recent Reviews
Spencer
Trappist Ale
With the demise of the brewery, probably my last bottle of this. 11.2oz, 7/22/23 which is likely a...
Parabola
2022
I'm a long time over FWs blends, and barrel program, there's just too much sameness about a...
Spencer
Vienna Style Lager
Best before 03/03/23, so I appreciate where we are with this 5.5%, relatively delicate beer in...
Fantôme Blondinette
de Printemps
lot 04 02 23 Best Before end of 2027. Lightly hazed, orange creamsicle body with a high, rocky and...
Hacker Pschorr
Oktoberfest Märzen
I must have drunk this a million time before writing these notes in August of 2023. Classic copper...
Zinne
Des Flanders
It's a beautiful color. A fantastic golden hue. A lovely white head, some lace and decent...
The Past. The Present. The Future.
Here’s the complete blog archive with all of the posts from 2011 until today. In addition, you’ll see posts broken down into more specific categories in the Blog Menu. What kind of content can you expect here at Ding’s Beer Blog going forward? What’s the newer content likely to look like? What kind of opinions and writing can you reasonably expect? Here’s a heads-up.
The Past.
No BS please, frankly I’ve seen it all before
I am not a kid either in terms of my chronological age or my beer experience. There are a lot of movers and shakers in beer these days who weren’t born when I was drinking Bass from the wood with my dad, that were in elementary school when I was traveling to Belgium twice a year for beer, and that were only just starting puberty when I was critiquing the fledgling US craft beer scene two decades ago. (Don’t worry, I know that most of you don’t care). So what? Just don’t bother me with your BS.
The Present.
I’ll drink (almost) any beer at least once, but …
Drinking something that you know that you probably won’t like just because it’s there, or just because it’s the current flavor of the month is frankly, dumb. What does that mean for me and DBB? Well, likely that I’m going to come down hard against hazy ‘IPAs’, that I’ll be ultra-critical of the non-descript, lazy ‘fruited sours’, that I’ll be hating on milkshake ‘IPAs’, and more often than not pissing all over pastry stouts. I’m a traditionalist, a defender of classic styles, and not a fickle, Johnny-come-lately.
The Future.
The Fort Wayne & North-East IN beer scene critiqued
With the re-launch of the website you’ll likely find an emphasis on the beer scene in and around Fort Wayne and north-east Indiana, as I get back to reviewing and commenting on the beer (and the beer scene) that’s close to me. Expect to read my opinions about what’s going on here, but don’t expect blanket praise. If you’re a local brewery or brewer you’ll need to earn the kudos. Local beer is most definitely not necessarily good beer, and expect no punches to be pulled; no beer given a pass.