is Back
Legacy drinkers and the
assault on Belgium, England and Germany
Birdboy Brewing Co.
- Phoenix Rising
in Fort Wayne
Never meet your heroes.
The death of elite beer bars?
Fortlandia
- a true nano production
in Fort Wayne
Beer Promotes Community
In Goshen, IN
An Englishman and a Scotsman walk into an American brewery
Come Into My Parlor. A chat with Chris Bryant of Parlor City Brewing
Beeradvocate more than a decade removed.
Still banning!
Dame Jeanne
Brut Sur Lie
750 mL, corked & caged, part of a recent Belgian Happiness shipment. Unfamiliar with this beer and this brewery. Looks like the beer has been around since at least 2016. Moderately aggressive pop on opening (I was expecting more). Poured into...
Gauloise
Christmas
Dark brown pour with some sumptuous, cherry red, garnet highlights. Head is decent, and fades to give nice, sticky lace and some thin, creamy foam on the surface of the beer. Looks good. Nose has some sweet raisins in the typical, BSDA tradition....
Gulden Draak
9000 Quadruple
Beautiful, deep orange-golden color. Rocky head, lace is fantastic. Obviously a ridiculous color for a "Quad" but that doesn't make it unattractive. Nose offers sweetness, and some bready malt, but it doesn't give away what's to follow. At 10.7%,...
Fantôme Refreshing
Summer Spiritus Project
Well, here we are, back to utter insanity with this Fantôme offering. A darkish, lime green pour with a decent head, some thin film lingering, and an acceptable, if not incredibly well-retained head. The green color doesn't bother me (it's Dany),...
Tre Fontane
Tripel
I'm a bit curious about the age of this bottle. Difficult to know, and other than "L17 40" printed on the label there's nothing else to go by. I'm hoping this is not a reference to 2017, but TBH with no other information to hand, who knows? Various...
Fantôme
Fantôsma Patagonia
At the very best of times Fantôme beers can be tricky to pin down, to categorize, and to understand. That's their beauty and indeed their point in many ways. Then from time to time you get one that defies even that 'logic'. This is one of those....
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’s a lot of movers and shakers in beer these days that were not 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.
Fort Wayne/NE-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.