Our very first stop after our flight landed was Dry Dock Brewing Company, a fantastic brewery/homebrew shop combo located just outside of Denver in Aurora. I fell in love with this place pretty immediately.

Firstly, the homebrew shop rocks — extensive inventory, self-serve specialty grains, plenty of kegs and carboys, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. (Seriously, they had absinthe kits!) Now, I love my local homebrew shop dearly, but this place was just on a whole ‘nother level.

And then there’s the beer. Oh, the beer… Not sure if you guys heard, but Dry Dock won Small Brewing Company of the Year at GABF this past year. There is most certainly a reason for that.

First beer I tried was their HMS Victory ESB because the gravitational pull of ESBs is simply impossible for me to escape. And holy wow this one delivered. Smooth, toasty, bready, a hint of caramel, the perfect amount of bitterness. Really hit the spot.

There were many, many other beers on tap to choose from, but I eventually decided my next beer would be the Bismark Alt, a 2009 GABF gold medal winner. It was easy to see why it won the gold with its lovely malt character, dry finish, and perfectly balanced bitterness.

I enjoyed the atmosphere of Dry Dock as well. They don’t serve food on premises, but they do have a binder available containing menus of all the local take-out restaurants, most of which are happy to deliver right to Dry Dock. The bar overlooks the brewery, which consists of lovely copper-clad vessels.

If I lived in the Denver area, I would likely be a regular at Dry Dock. The homebrew shop would draw me in, and the beer would keep me there for hours afterward. I’ve been to many a brewery in Colorado, but this one was, without a doubt, one of the best.

Imagine for a moment that you have in front of you a big, thick, juicy steak, cooked exactly the way you like it — beautifully browned on the outside, tender and succulent on the inside. You take one blissful bite of this heavenly hunk of meat, savoring it, marveling at the fantastically mouthwatering flavor. You reach your hand out to take a sip of your delicious pint of…

Oops, sorry, I forgot to apologize to the vegetarians too. That probably sounded disgusting.

Anyway, for the rest of you: What beer are you drinking with this marvelous slab of beefy goodness? What could possibly enhance the sublime experience that is eating a steak?

The wonderful thing about pairing beer and steak is that there are so many options. Steak can be served in a number of different preparations, which should help you to decide the appropriate beer to pair it with.

Beef has a fairly robust flavor on its own, so as a general rule of thumb, you’ll want to stay away from anything too delicate.

If we’re talking about a straight-up steak, grilled or pan-seared, without any sort of sauce or seasonings (beyond salt and pepper), an ESB is my favorite pairing. The malty, caramel flavors of the ESB meld so beautifully with the flavors of the beef and its browned crust.

Really any beer with malt character that could be described as rich, robust, nutty, toasty, or caramelly would compliment a steak nicely. Brown ale, amber ale, ESB, porter, stout… Any variation of these would allow a steak to really sing.

Let’s say the steak is accompanied by a rich, red wine/butter sauce. The previous pairings would still hold, as long as the beer had enough carbonation to cut through the fatty sauce. A strong bitter backbone would also help to contrast the slick, buttery flavor of the sauce.

What about steak and IPAs? Absolutely. Especially if the IPA is on the darker, maltier side. Bitterness and hop flavor compliment steak well, as long as they are not so intense as to completely overwhelm your palate.

IPAs work particularly well with a spicier preparation. Say for example your steak is crusted with peppercorns (au poivre) or coated with some kind of spice rub. An IPA would be an excellent pairing, since the interplay of bitterness and spice is just fantastic.

Others would argue that a sweeter, maltier beer would do better to cool the fire and provide a nicer contrast to the spice. This would work as well, and it’s really a matter of personal preference. Me, I prefer the bitter/spicy combo.

And really, what it all comes down to with beer and food pairing is personal preference. To really learn how to pair beer and food, you just need to practice. Try out different combinations, see what you like. Steak is a great meal to start with since it’s pretty hard to come up with a bad pairing.

So, grill up a steak, and pick a beer you think might compliment it. Alternate between sips and bites. Take note of how each tastes on its own, and how the flavors of each affect the other. Try to find both common and contrasting flavors in the beer and the steak. Are they balanced? Do they enhance one another? And most importantly, do you like it?

Yeah, that’s right. We can’t buy six-packs in PA. At least, not easily.

Up until recently, PA residents could only purchase cases and kegs of beer at beer distributors. No beer sales at grocery stores. If you wanted a six-pack, you had to get it at a restaurant that serves beer on premises.

But grocery stores like Wegmans and Whole Foods have begun to find a way around this by serving beer on premises in restaurants within their stores. And I’ll tell you what, it’s been really nice being able to try new beers without the commitment of buying a full case.

But this convenience comes at a price… Six-packs are expensive. It’s pretty difficult to find anything under $9.99, and it’s not uncommon to pay $13 or more for a six-pack. And here’s the kicker — you can’t purchase more than 192 fl. oz. at a time. Yeah, seriously.

Nevertheless, I’ve been loving the fact that I can walk into Wegmans or Whole Foods and see a vast selection of craft beer in six-packs. Check out the beer section at Wegmans in Collegeville.

Craft beer at Wegmans, organized by region

The refrigerated section at Wegmans

Wegmans sells beer from around the world, separated in aisles by region. And they’re able to do this because of the pub area within the store, where they sell draft beer for on-site consumption.

The Pub at Wegmans

The new Whole Foods in Plymouth Meeting has a similar deal. They have a refrigerated room full of craft beer, adjacent to a separate bar area within the store.

The refrigerated room full of craft beer at Whole Foods

There’s a sitting area where you can bring in food from the store to eat, and they sell draft beer by the glass and in growlers.

Growler sales at Whole Foods

The eating area at Whole Foods

But it appears that grocery stores may not have to jump through such hoops in the future if this bill makes it through. Personally, I would love it if my grocery store, which is a two-minute drive from my house, started selling six-packs, rather than having to drive 20 minutes to get to Wegmans or Whole Foods.

There have been several attempts at similar legislature in the past, and nothing has worked up until this point. But State Senator Rafferty’s bill will also include a requirement that 100% of beer purchasers be carded, regardless of how old the buyer looks. Hopefully this will make it easier to get it passed.

I’ve got a good feeling about this… Or maybe it’s just my irrational optimism. Who knows? I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

For more information on the ridiculous PA beer laws and to sign the petition supporting legislation for better beer laws, check out Six Pack To Go.

The Brewer’s Plate, featuring Philadelphia’s premier local food and craft beer, is a fundraising event for Fair Food, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing locally grown food into the Philadelphia marketplace.

Fair Food promotes a humane, sustainable food system for the greater Philadelphia region, providing consulting services that foster lasting business relationships between wholesale buyers and farmers. Fair Food also supports Buy Fresh Buy Local, a national consumer marketing and education campaign to promote the benefits of locally grown food.

The restaurants and breweries participating in The Brewer’s Plate are all independently owned and operated within 150 miles of Philadelphia. Breweries and restaurants will team up to provide beer and food pairings for unlimited enjoyment by attendees.

General admission tickets cover all beer and food samples from 5:00-7:00pm. VIP admission adds an additional bonus hour beginning at 4:00pm, and will include limited edition beer from Victory and gourmet food from Di Bruno Bros., as well as tutored tastings with Marnie Old of He Said Beer, She Said Wine fame.

Some of the brewery highlights at the event include popular favorites Dogfish Head, Victory, Weyerbacher, and Troegs, as well as lesser known Philly gems like Nodding Head and Dock Street.

All proceeds from the event will benefit Fair Food, certainly a worthy cause as people become more and more aware of the benefits of buying local. I am personally thrilled to be attending the event this year, and can’t wait to see what beer and food pairings they have to offer!

Tickets are on sale now on the website. The Brewer’s Plate sells out every year, so don’t miss your chance to support Philadelphia craft beer and food!

Back in 2002, Oskar Blues had the revolutionary idea of putting all of their distributed beers in cans. The idea of putting delicious, high-quality, full-flavored craft beer in cans was ludicrous at the time.

But since this trendsetting move, many other breweries have jumped on the canning bandwagon — New Belgium, Sly Fox, Brooklyn Brewery, 21st Amendment, and Maui Brewing just to name a few. More and more breweries continue to join the revolution, some putting only a few of their beers in cans, others canning them all.

There are dozens of reasons to choose cans over bottles. Last week, in my interview with Sly Fox brewmaster Brian O’Reilly, we talked about some of those reasons, all of which benefit the brewery, the consumer, the environment, and even the beer itself!

Cans are the perfect vessel for retaining the quality of the precious brew they contain. The double seam of the can has a better seal than the single seam of a crimped bottle cap, which protects them from oxygen. Plus, cans have less head space than bottles, which means less room for oxygen to get in at packaging time. And the aluminum material is impervious to light, preventing the resulting skunky off-flavors of light-struck beer. All of these factors result in better quality, better flavor, and longer shelf life.

Some people worry that the aluminum material can affect the flavor of the beer — not so. Modern aluminum cans contain a water-based polymer lining that eliminates any chances of a metallic taste entering the beer.

Not only do cans dispense a tastier brew than bottles, they’re also much easier for the consumer to handle. They’re lightweight and durable, there’s no need for any special opener, the tabs stay with the container unlike bottle caps, and they can be brought to places where glass is not allowed.

On the brewery side of things, cans are much easier to ship and store, both empty and full. They’re light, unbreakable, and stack like a dream.

Cans stacked a mile high on pallets

Two six-packs of cans are only slightly taller than one six-pack of bottles

Six-packs stacked four high

Single cans can be stacked, whereas single bottles cannot

But most importantly, cans are much friendlier to the environment than bottles. Because they are so lightweight, it requires less fuel to ship them. Aluminum cans are infinitely 100% recyclable. Plus, using recycled aluminum requires 95% less energy and produces 95% fewer emissions than when cans are made from raw materials. And because cans are so easy to recycle, they’re the most recycled package in the world!

Now you might be wondering, are there any drawbacks to canning? There are a few. Once the cans are ordered, the brewer is committed to the number of beers of each type they will put in those cans, since the package and the label are one in the same. And then there’s the small matter of actually purchasing a canning line… It’s a bit of a commitment.

And it’s a little easier to mistreat cans than bottles. I was at a beer store recently where I noticed cans being stored on their sides. This increases the surface area of beer that’s touching air. Now, if the cans were purged with CO2 prior to filling, this isn’t much of a problem.

Cans stored on their sides… Possibly a bad thing

And as the cashier rang up our six-packs of cans, she shook them up and bumped them onto the counter with a fair amount of force. Since she wasn’t worried about breaking the packaging, she was more willing to flail them about.

Plus, there’s the whole stigma that comes along with beer in cans. Recently, Bon Appetit published an article titled The Beer Can Revolution. The author spoke of the bad beer stigma associated with the can, and actually did a side-by-side taste test of beers that are packaged in both cans and bottles. And guess what, cans won!

The benefits of canning far outweigh the disadvantages, and more and more breweries are realizing this. Below is a short list of breweries I found that package some or all of their beer in cans. What other breweries are there that I’ve missed here? What do you think about the beer can stigma? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Yes we CAN!
21st Amendment
Big Sky Brewing Company
Bohemian Brewery
Brooklyn Brewery
Buckbean Brewing Company
Caldera Brewing
Mammoth Brewing Company
Maui Brewing
New Belgium Brewing Company
Oskar Blues Brewery
Rochester Mills Brewing Company
Sly Fox Brewery
Southern Star Brewery
Steamworks Brewing Company
Surly Brewing Company

Sly Fox, which currently packages four of their beers in cans and several more in 750 mL and 22 oz bottles, has two locations. The Royersford location houses their main brewery, which has a 25 hectoliter capacity and produces about 6400 bbl per year. The Phoenixville Brewhouse & Eatery location has a smaller 15 bbl system, producing only 300 bbl per year, mainly for beer to be consumed in the pub there.

I met up with Brian in the restaurant at the Royersford location to find out about his background as a brewer, what we can expect from Sly Fox in the future, and what his views are on canning.

Sly Fox Brewery in Royersford, PA

The path to becoming a brewmaster

Brian began his brewing career like many others, as a homebrewer. He started down the path to pro when he volunteered at two different breweries in New Hampshire, the second of which turned into an apprenticeship. After that, he joined John Harvard’s as an assistant brewer in Cambridge, MA, where he was promoted to head brewer. He then helped to open another John Harvard’s location in Long Island, NY, came back to work in Cambridge, only to move to another John Harvard’s location in Cleveland, OH.

He later moved to Pennsylvania to open a brewpub called New Road Brewhouse, during which time he met the people than ran a neighboring brewery — Sly Fox. When New Road Brewhouse closed, he spent 8 months working at Victory Brewing Company in Downingtown, PA. But he again bumped into the folks at Sly Fox, who were now interested in bringing him on as a brewer. “They wanted to do some different things with beer, and so they hired me.” Sounds simple enough, right?

Fast forward seven years and Brian is still at Sly Fox, and doing great things as the head brewer. I asked him how he decided to brew beer for a living in the first place. “I’m not sure I ever did. I kind of fell into the job and just kept working.”

So how can a homebrewer interested in becoming a professional brewer follow a similar path? Brian’s advice is to first realize that brewing is a full time commitment, and it isn’t exactly a quick trip to the top. He made the comparison to becoming a professional chef. “If you talk to very successful chefs, a lot of them have traveled quite a bit to be sous chefs under very successful chefs, made very little money, and worked horrible hours; really paid their dues and then eventually got their shot.”

For those who know before college that they want to enter the brewing industry, Brian recommends getting a food science degree, which could not only open the doors to a brewing career, but also to other food-related careers as well.

The new Phoenixville location

Recently, I wrote about Sly Fox’s annual Hop Project, held at the Phoenixville location. It was announced that this year was the final Hop Project, and that the Brewhouse & Eatery would be moving across the street. So why the move? “The impetus for us to move — we just got invited.” The landlord wants Sly Fox to move to their building because it will add value to all the surrounding businesses. And so they offered Sly Fox a great deal that they couldn’t pass up!

The 2009 Hop Project

So what can we expect from the new location? Thankfully, more of the same thing! Currently they’re able to pour 12 beers in the pub, but in the new location, they’ll be able to pour 16+ beers. Plus, there will be an automated growler filler, and space to hook up more cask beer. Depending on sales, they’ll have up to three cask beers on tap every weekend. In addition to this, the new location will have more usable space to seat more people.

What about the fate of the Hop Project, will we ever see it again? Not likely, but for a good reason. The rigid monthly schedule for each varietal beer was starting to become a chore (and we all know that brewing is supposed to be fun, right?). But Brian still plans to brew a few pale ale, IPA, and pils varietals, just on a more irregular basis. (Look for US Saaz and Sorachi Ace in the future!)

Craft beer in cans

As I mentioned earlier, Sly Fox currently cans four of their beers — Pikeland Pilsner, Phoenix Pale Ale, Royal Weisse, and Dunkel Lager. Right now, about 50% of their sales are draft, 30% cans, and 20% bottles. Recently, it was announced that the Rt. 113 IPA would be joining the canned line-up. With this addition, Brian expects the can segment to continue to grow, especially with the new addition of variety 12-packs.

“Cans are just cool.”

Brian talked about the benefits of canning beer, which are many — they’re impervious to light (which means no skunked beer), the double seam has a better seal than the single seam of a crimped bottle cap, less head space means less oxygen touches the beer, they’re lighter and easy to ship, and they’re easier to handle than bottles. On the consumer side, they’re easier to chill and carry, and they’re more likely to be recycled.

“All those things are good, but when you put them all together, it doesn’t really add up to the fact that cans are just cool. I mean, it’s just cool to have craft beer in a can. So that’s really the biggest reason.”

Brian showing me the canning line

The only disadvantage according to Brian is that you lose some flexibility with cans. With bottles, the labels and glass are ordered separately, so the brewer has the ability to change their mind about how much they want to bottle. With cans, the label and the can are one entity, so the brewer is committed to what they put in them once they’re purchased. Additionally, bottle labels are cheaper and easier to store.

Despite the minor drawbacks, Sly Fox will soon release their 5th canned beer – the Rt. 113 IPA. I asked Brian if there are plans to release more canned beers in the future. “We’d like to. There are definitely things we’re working on down the line, but it’s always a moving target of when.”

In the brewery

As a homebrewer, I know that there are certain beers I love to brew, and others… not as much. I asked Brian what his favorite beer to brew at Sly Fox is. His answer: the Helles. “It’s a single-decocted beer so we get to boil the mash, and the brewhouse is really made for a 12 °P beer, so it’s just nice, everything about it. So it’s got that extra step, but it’s not too long a brew.” On the other end of the spectrum, “I’d love to say our Instigator Doppelbock is a wonderful brew, but it’s a 12-hour day; it’s 3 decoctions.”

Brian walking me around the brewery

But brewing is a different matter from drinking, so I asked what his favorite beer to drink at Sly Fox is. “I don’t have one. Whatever’s brand new I end up drinking more of, and whatever’s almost gone.” A good answer to the always-impossible “favorite beer” question!

I asked Brian if there are any new beers on the horizon that Sly Fox fans should keep an eye out for. Aside from the obvious answer that we should always keep an eye out for everything, there’s a rye pale ale currently in the fermenter called “Terryedactale” (not sure if I got the spelling of that right) which will be available in the pubs soon!

The 14 fermenters at Sly Fox

And finally, I wanted to find out if Brian had ever experienced any brewing disasters. He certainly had! At Brian’s second brewing job, he was kegging beer from a serving tank. He mistakenly disconnected the fitting from the bottom of the tank without closing the valve. Keep in mind that this was a high pressure tank held at 30 psi! “The beer hit my chest and knocked me backwards, then hit my chin.”

About 10 gallons of beer sprayed out before he took control. “I got up and closed the valve once the shock was gone. The whole cooler was filled with beer.” And as luck would have it, the beer was a bock, so it was a dark, sticky mess. “I expected my boss to come by and see the mess, and then ask me about it. But I didn’t want to go get him and say, ‘There’s a mess!’” He was able to clean up the entire disaster before his boss even noticed, but being a stand-up guy, owned up to his mistake.

With that, I’d like to thank Brian for spending the time to chat with me and show me around the brewery. Brian and the other brewers at Sly Fox make excellent beer, and I plan to continue supporting this local craft brewery! (And really, I can’t help that. I just love to drink their beer.) Cheers!

I find the idea of vertical tastings interesting — to discover how a beer evolves over time, how the flavors mellow, meld, and change… It shows that beer is a living, breathing entity with a natural life cycle, adding to the mystique of the magical beverage we all know and love.

However, like most other living, breathing entities, beer that is no longer in its prime gets old and crusty, and eventually dies.

Now that you know how I really feel, let’s get on with this vertical tasting of Dogfish Head Immort Ale!

The commercial description reads:

Vast in character, luscious & complex. Brewed with peat-smoked barley, Immort is brewed with organic juniper berries, vanilla & maple syrup. It’s aged on oak and fermented with a blend of English & Belgian yeasts.

Juniper berries, vanilla, maple syrup, and oak… Leave it to Dogfish Head, right?

Somehow I managed to get my hands on a bottle from 2006. The other bottle was from 2009. Let’s see what 3 years of aging does to a beer!

Appearance. Both are a rich reddish-brown-mahogany color with a thin off-white head. The 2006 is murky and opaque, while the 2009 is brilliantly clear.

Aroma. The aroma on the 2009 is malty, the alcohol is pretty noticeable, and maple, vanilla, oak aromas are bright and quite apparent. The 2006 aroma is dominated by malt and fruit in the form of raisins, plums, and cherries. It smells deep and rich, and no alcohol aroma is detectable.

Flavor. The 2009 tastes woody, malty, and sweet, with a touch of vanilla, maple, and a little oak. The finish is moderately sweet with a bright, fruity touch. The 2006 is majorly malty. The maple/vanilla/oak flavors are much less apparent. The finish is rich and deeply malty with hints of plums and raisins.

Mouthfeel. The 2009 is definitely full-bodied. The 2006 is not only full-bodied, but rich, thick, full, and viscous.

Overall. Both are amazing. They taste like two completely different beers, possibly distant cousins in a former life. I really enjoyed the subtle maple, vanilla, and oak flavors of the 2009. The 2006 loses some of that subtlety, but the rich, unctuous, malty wonderfulness does make up for it. The carbonation didn’t last on the 2006, and seemed more like port than beer in the end.

For this vertical tasting, I think I’m gonna have to call 2009 the winner. A lot of the subtleties from the adjuncts were lost with age, and to me, these flavors were the best part of this beer.

Once again, fresher was better for me. I’m sure that many would disagree with me here, but that’s the wonderful thing about beer, isn’t it? We can all have different opinions, but who cares? We drink what we like, and no one can take that away from us!

I wanted that same subtle, mild heat with a nice, slow burn in the finish. I definitely didn’t want a ruthless, barely drinkable ball of fire. I knew I had to be careful, so when formulating the recipe the first time around, I primarily stuck to mild chiles.

I love the subtle heat from poblano chiles, so I like to use fresh poblanos, along with anchos, which are actually dried poblanos. For a 5-gallon batch, I use 20 oz poblanos (about eight chiles) for a bright, green chile flavor and a little heat. The dried anchos have a richer, sweeter chile flavor than their fresh counterpart. I use only 12 g dried anchos (about 2 dried chiles). I give both types of chiles a rough chop, place them in a large grain bag, and put them in for the last 10 minutes of the boil (seeds, stems, and all!).

The first time my husband and I brewed this beer last year, we decided to err on the side of caution and just stick with the poblanos and anchos at first. After fermentation was complete, we tasted it to check for heat. It had a great green chile flavor and a very mild spice, but needed just a touch more of an up-front kick.

For this, I decided to make a chile tea using five dried chiles de arbol. I roughly chopped the chiles, placed them in 1 cup of water, brought it to a boil in the microwave, then let it steep for about 10 minutes. After straining the tea, I added it directly to the secondary.

I was shooting in the dark a bit with the whole chile-de-arbol-tea thing… But thankfully, it worked like a charm! It came out so good that we decided to brew it exactly the same way the second time around this year. The only difference is that this time, we used poblanos grown in our very own garden! We picked them this summer, froze them whole, then defrosted and chopped them before use.

If you’re interested in brewing a chile beer, I would suggest going with the same guess-and-check method I used. Start with mild chiles and work your way up in the secondary. A chile tea is a great way to add heat without the risk of ruining your whole batch, since you can add a little at a time, stir, take a sample, and adjust as necessary.

Another great thing about chile beer is that there are so many varieties of chiles out there — endless experimentation! Plus, you can use homegrown chiles, and judging from the number of people that like to grow their own hops, I imagine this is an appealing idea to many.

Who else has brewed a chile beer? What kind of chiles do you like to use? Have your experiments resulted in a potable beer or something downright dangerous? I’d love to hear all about it!

Let’s go back to our simple pizza and beer example. The pizza/beer combo (and the pizza/soda combo for that matter) works because of the scrubbing action the bubbles have on the palate. And because most pizzerias make a really rich pie, loaded with sauce, fatty cheese, and spicy toppings, carbonation is a welcome palate cleanser in between bites.

But there’s more to pizza than just pepperoni and cheese. My favorite pizzeria in college was Peace A Pizza, boasting an abundance of gourmet pizzas, which awakened me to how wonderfully varied pizza can be.

And so, I decided to illustrate this idea with a little pizza and beer tasting of my own. I made a batch of pizza dough and split it in four. Four different pizzas paired with four different beers.

First up, your standard pepperoni pizza, which I made to mimic what you would get from the pizzeria around the corner, complete with seasoned tomato sauce, loads of shredded mozzarella, and thin slices of spicy pepperoni. Like I said, carbonation has the power to cut through all that cheese, so a highly carbonated pilsner would work great here.

A better option, which is the pairing that I went for, is a bright, hoppy IPA. The pepperoni I used was quite spicy, and the strong bitterness of the IPA matched the intensity of the spice, while providing a nice contrasting flavor as well.

Pepperoni pizza and IPA

Switching gears, I made a classic margherita pizza with San Marzano tomatoes, slices of fresh mozzarella, sprinkled with a little sea salt, and topped with fresh basil. This, being a much more delicate pie, needs a delicate beer to match. Here’s where a pilsner can work its magic.

I chose to pair my margherita pizza with a Bohemian pilsener. Bohemian pilseners are soft, subtle, and balanced. The gentle sweetness went beautifully with the sweet San Marzano tomatoes and fresh basil, and the spritzy carbonation was perfect for cutting through the slices of melted fresh mozzarella.

Margherita pizza and Bohemian pilsener

Next, it was time to step away from tomato-based sauces. I made a veggie pizza, slathered with pesto, topped with broccoli, spinach, roasted red peppers, black olives, and sprinkled with a little shredded mozzarella and tangy feta cheese — a veggie-lover’s dream.

Once again, a pilsner would work well here, but the light, fresh aspect of this pizza calls more for a light, Belgian-style beer. The perfect pairing in my eyes was a Belgian wit. The gentle sweetness of the wit balanced the slight tanginess of the feta cheese. Both the pizza and the beer had a light, fresh quality to them, and the combination was heavenly.

Veggie pizza and Belgian wit

And finally for something completely different, barbecue chicken pizza. I topped this pie with a sweet, tangy, slightly spicy barbecue sauce, barbecue chicken, caramelized onions, and shredded mozzarella. Hell yes.

Now, there are quite a few options here. A malty, sweet brown or amber ale would go wonderfully with the rich sweetness of these toppings. But an IPA would also be great to match the strong, slightly spicy flavors. Or you could have the best of both worlds with a hoppy amber or hoppy brown ale.

But my choice for this pairing was ESB, and it was absolutely perfect. The malty sweetness went fantastically with the barbecue sauce, while the hint of caramel malt complimented the caramelized onions nicely. The solid bitter backbone was enough to stand up to the spiciness of the sauce. Each bite of pizza made me want a sip of ESB, and each sip of ESB made me want a bite of pizza. It doesn’t get much better than that, folks.

Barbecue chicken pizza and ESB

This clearly shows that there’s so much more beyond the pizza and macro pairing. Pizza can be just as varied as craft beer, and there are endless combinations to explore.

I hope this article helped to show the kind of possibilities that are out there, and I hope this inspires you to come up with your own pizza and beer pairings. If you do, I’d love to hear about them!

But boy am I glad I discovered it, because TJ’s is fantastic. The food, the beer, the setting… just fantastic.

Though TJ’s isn’t a big place, they’ve got a nice sized dining room on one side, and a great bar area on the other. The bar area is packed full of tables, bar stools, and comfy couches. Oh, and people. Lots of people.

The dining room at TJ’s

Patrons relaxing on the couch

The bar at TJ’s

There’s a reason so many people come to such a small, hidden restaurant. Let’s start with the beer. They have 24 taps, loaded with phenomenal craft beer from all around the country, nay, the world! Their website, which is continually updated, lists all the beers currently on tap, plus the dozens of beers on deck, just waiting for their turn! And that’s not to mention their bottle list, which boasts well over 100 different beers at any given time!

Not sure what to order? Simply write down the name of any draft beer on the sheets provided at each table to buy a sampler.

For the indecisive — order a sampler!

Every beer served at TJ’s is top notch. On one visit, I tasted beers from Avery, Cigar City, Allagash, and Founders, all in one trip! Just last month, at TJ’s 6th anniversary party, I was able to try the much sought-after collaboration between Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada, Life & Limb and Limb & Life. That same night, I tried Great Divide 15th Anniversary Wood Aged Double IPA, BrewDog Bashah, and Ithaca Excelsior! Brute.

Life & Limb and Limb & Life

And then there’s the food! TJ’s serves in the style of what I’d call upscale pub food, and all at a reasonable price. Choose from appetizers, small plates, big plates, frittatas, paninis, and so much more. Almost every menu choice is shown with a suggested beer style to pair with, and many of the dishes are actually cooked with beer.

I’ve had a lot of the dishes from this menu, and everything is good. Trust me. Order anything.

Top: Stout & Onion Soup, bottom: Wild Mushroom Mac-n-Cheese

Mojo Chicken Quesadillas

Clockwise from top: Rauchbier Burger, Fried Mozzarella, and Mini Short Rib Sandwich

I wish I still lived only a few minutes away from TJ’s. Now that it’s a 30+ minute rush hour drive, I don’t get there as frequently as I’d like. But I look forward to my next visit, whenever that may be, for a great atmosphere, incredible food, and of course, a crap load of craft beer!