Guest Contributor - Beer and Sports, a match made in Heaven!

I am happy to present to you our latest guest contributor, Blake. A home brewer from upstate New York, Blake writes about two of his favorite things and how well they go together! Thank you Blake, and enjoy!


Beer and Sports, a match made in Heaven!
Fall is my favorite time of year for many different reasons, but when the leaves start changing and the air gets crisp, there’s one thing that I’m most excited about: sports. With football season kicking off and the MLB playoffs right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to get together with friends and enjoy some good old-fashioned American competition. Going to the game certainly has its perks, but what about bringing the game home, right into your living room?

There are a lot of things you’ll want to take care of before you get everyone together to watch the game, but the number one necessity for your party is beer. Besides being a great time of year for sports fans, fall also brings the release of some unique seasonal brews, so you’ll have plenty of choices when it comes to stocking up for the party. You can’t go wrong with a nice, malty Märzen to ring in the start of the new season. This is a good “entry-level” option for guests that might be intimidated by trying new beers, but will satisfy craft beer veterans as well. Another style that tends to be a crowd-pleaser during this time of year is pumpkin beer and you could stock your entire party with the choices available within that category alone!

Another great way to pick out beer for the event is to choose something that’s tied to the team/city/state that you support. So, if you’re rooting for the Patriots or Red Sox, embrace the spirit of Boston by picking up some Sam Adams and your guests will immediately get into the Boston groove. If you’re hoping that the Pirates will make a deep playoff run or that the Steelers will get back to their winning ways, shows your Pittsburgh pride by picking up some Iron City Beer. When getting your place ready for all of this beer, look for useful but festive accessories, like growlers, pint glasses or even some MLB baseball bat bottle openers. You’ll keep the theme of the day going, while giving your guests the right tools to enjoy their brews.

 At this point you’ve got the beer situation pretty much under control, but you can’t leave your guests’  stomachs empty. Baseball and football games are usually synonymous with eating greasy stadium food and abandoning any and all health-consciousness for the duration of the game. You can bring this tradition into your own home, by taking typical ballpark eats and making them more party appropriate.

Everyone’s favorite first course at the stadium is nachos, and there’s no reason why your guests can’t enjoy this too. Give your nachos a beer-infused twist by making some Beer Queso to put on top. You should be able to find a decent variety of tortilla chip options at your local grocery store, so grab some colors that show your team pride and drizzle on the cheese!

 Craving something else to go with those nachos? Take the all-time favorite ballpark franks and give them your own unique twist. Cut up some hotdogs, wrap them in cheese and biscuit dough, and after a few minutes in the oven you’ll have your very own pigs in a blanket. You can go with traditional dipping sauces like ketchup and mustard, but why not make some extra Beer Queso and serve that alongside the dogs as well? After all, if you’re going to do some damage to your cholesterol level, you might as well make it worth it.

In case anyone needs a pick-me-up after halftime or once the 7th inning stretch rolls around, you might want to have something a little sweeter on hand. At one of my recent get-togethers my wife was nice enough to make us some cake pops, and got creative by shaping them into footballs. I left the baking to her and don’t have the play-by-play details for this one, but I found a great step-by-step guide that shows how you can easily make some football-shaped treats of your own.


Hopefully these tips will give you some inspiration if you’re planning on having a sports-related party in the near future. Just remember that you can have a great time while keeping it simple and most importantly of all: don’t forget the beer!

Blake Daniels

Blake Daniels is a stay-at-home dad from Upstate NY that likes to keep things simple. You'll most likely find him brewing and enjoying beer, mowing his lawn or spending quality time with his family (but not necessarily in that order).








Thank you so much Blake, good stuff! Please help me in welcoming Blake to the Beer Czar. We hope to hear a lot more from Blake very soon, on a  regular basis!

Until next time
Bottoms up my friends

The Beer Czar

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Fall Beers

It’s that time of year again! One of the greatest seasons for beer lovers if you ask me. Autumn beers are fast becoming some of the most popular seasonal beer offerings in America. I think part of this has to do with the wide range of styles that seem to work themselves into the fall seasonal beer line ups. Personally, these seasonal brews are among some of my favorite styles, they tend to be fuller bodied, dark, rich beers that are perfect while sipping in the cool outdoors of autumn. Some of the beers below are meant as a sort of tribute to the season, and brewed and marketed as such. Some are year round brews that just happen to fit the sort of feel and taste of fall, and have also been included. So light a fire, warm your hands and enjoy.




The Bruery "Autumn Maple"

This is “The Bruery’s” take on the popular fall pumpkin ale. This is Belgian style brown ale, brewed with a cornucopia of fall flavors! Yams, maple syrup, allspice, vanilla, molasses, cinnamon and nutmeg are all included in this beer, making this beer a very complex, flavorful take on a fall beer. At 10% ABV, it will also keep you warm on those chilly October evenings! A very good, albeit a little more expensive fall option.



Buffalo Bill's Brewery "Original Pumpkin Ale"

I really only included this one for one reason. It claims to be “the original” pumpkin ale. I have no idea if it is or not, but if it is, it is a perfect example of someone coming up with a great idea, but failing to follow through to its full potential. I love pumpkin ales, and this is not a bad one, it is not however, the best one, far from it. It is pretty light on the pumpkin flavor, which isn’t always a bad thing; it is however, because there isn’t much else to back up the flavor. No real spice notes or anything, it does smell great however. A decent option if it’s all there is, but there are far better pumpkin ales on the market.



Dogfish Heads Punkin Ale.

I think this is the best pumpkin ale on the market. There is a subtle pumpkin note, but there is so much else in this beer, the slight pumpkin taste works well. There is brown sugar, and other fall spices that make this a well rounded, very drinkable fall offering.






Aecht Schlenkerla "Rauchbier-Märzen"

I wrote recently of my first experience with Rauchbiers not long ago. I’ve since found this one. Probably the most well known, easy to find Rauchbier here in the states. A very traditional Rauchbier with tons of smoke and a rich malty body that grows stronger as you get closer and closer to the bottom of your glass, and the beer as a chance to warm. This beer made me want light a fire and enjoy some cooler temperatures.





Chimay Grand Reserve

One of the best!

One of the greatest beers in the world, if you ask me. It also works well in the fall. This beer is a Trappist Ale that offers up rich, caramel malts, with a hint of sort of a raisin, fig tastes. This bottle conditioned ale is a very strong (9%, but drinks a little stronger) but at the same time, drinkable. It does tend to be a little more expensive but it is also fairly easy to find, and well worth a few extra bucks.

Sam Adams Bonfire Rauchbier

When I first started this blog, I didn’t want it to be like most every beer blog I’ve read. Most Beer Blogs (and books for that matter) are made up mostly of beer reviews, which I don’t mind, and in fact, enjoy and read quite often. However, I wanted my beer blog to be more about beer in our everyday life, and especially how to get the most enjoyment out of beer. So, I figure, what better way to help everyone enjoy beer more, then to do at least the occasional review. I did decide to do reviews of mostly just rare or unique beers, beers I feel are exceptionally good, or beers that represent the best of a particular style. And, on occasion hopefully, beers that fit all of those criteria.

Look for it!

Well, last night, I found a beer that may do just that. I picked up a Sam Adams Harvest Classic’s 12 pack last night, mostly because I love the Harvest Pumpkin Ale. There are normally a few other solid offerings in the pack as well. This year, they have added a new one, Bonfire Rauchbier (pronounced row-ch-beer).

Now Rauchbiers have been around for quite some time, since the mid 1500’s in fact, and trace their origins to the town of Bamberg and the district of Franconia. This style is normally mid to dark brown to ruby red, looking much like a Marzan or Oktoberfest styles we are more use to. What sets these beers apart is that the raw (green) malts are dried over open fire pits of (normally) beech wood. This imparts a very unique “smokiness”, hence the name “Rauchbier” (rauch is German for smoke). This is the way all malts were roasted prior to the advent of kilns drying and roasting came into place.

Before last night, I have only heard of this style, and new very little about it. So, I was eager to give it a try, plus I thought it had a great label (as most of the Limited Run seasonal from Sam Adams offerings often do; such as. Old Fezziwig and Holiday Porter). So I poured the bottle into my favorite globe glass and took a look. Right away I noticed the lack of a thick head, and the beautiful ruby brown color. The smell was about what I expected as well, smoky, with a nice malty sweet balance. Nothing too exciting at this point. The taste however, was a new experience for me. This is going to be hard to explain, without sounding like I didn’t enjoy this beer, but it had the flavor of, well, a campfire. Sort of like the same smoky sweetness you get from letting your marshmallow catch fire when roasting it at the campfire (something I love to do!). There was the great smoke flavor, which was balanced out very nicely by a malty, caramel sweetness that worked really well together. The further into the beer I got, the more the smoke flavors became more and more prevalent, while the malt flavors quietly slipped slowly into the back ground.

Even though I was sitting in my living room, while it was still over 103 degrees at 9:30 at night, this beer still made me remember the many a times staring into the soft orange glow of a campfire, letting the dancing flames lull me into a state of near hypnosis. I am not sure I have ever had a beer that says autumn quite like this one does. If you like to try new, unique beers, by all means, get yourself a one of these verity packs.

A few tips I would offer you if/when you get your hands on one of these gems. First, don’t drink this one right out of the bottle; get a proper glass to drink it out of, in fact, an large bulb wine glass would work perfectly (I’ll be writing more about proper glassware at a later date). One of the most defining features of this beer is its aroma, and you won’t get to experience most of that drinking it right out of the glass. Second, open the bottle, pour it in the glass, and let it sit for a few minutes. This beer is at its best at about 50 degrees.