Staff & Contributors

Liquid Candy and Robitussin DM

Jim Lundstrom

A Mystery Within a Mystery

Jim Lundstrom

Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald

Jim Lundstrom

Author incorporating tragedy into book on Lake Superior

Night Tripping

Jim Lundstrom

It pours bible black with a deep tan head that looks good enough to dive into, which I do.

A Sweet Tart and a Monstrous Wit

Jim Lundstrom

Traditional Old Ale went through a secondary fermentation with either naturally occurring or introduced wild yeast, which resulted in the pucker factor.

A Visit to Estonia with Funkadelic

Jim Lundstrom

Nothing to Get Surly About

Jim Lundstrom

Of all the assumed attitudes out there, I think surly is my least favorite.

PC Police Pick On the Wrong Skull Splitter

Jim Lundstrom

A few years back, the PC police tried to lower the boom on Skull Splitter, a big malty ale from the Orkney Brewery. It’s a beer that has been revered by beer enthusiasts for as long as I can remember.

Big Footprint to Fill

Jim Lundstrom

Getting Fruity

Jim Lundstrom

Oh, no! It’s happened again…I’ve fallen for another fruity beer.

Falling for a new fall beer

Jim Lundstrom

It hits all the right notes of a fall beer, yet it’s unlike any fall seasonal in my memory save Capital’s Autumnal Fire, which I once described as liquid candy.

Cherry Bounce and Fritz the Lawnmower Man

Jim Lundstrom

My first successful homebrew experiment was a cherry stout, using as a base one of the recipes in Charlie Papazian’s landmark homebrew book.

Tasting My Way Through Duluth

Jim Lundstrom

(and Superior, too)

Tangerine Dream

Jim Lundstrom

This is just what it says it is – Tangerine. Big tangerine nose, lovely tangerine flavor, and even a hazy tangerine color to this tangerine wheat beer from Lost Coast Brewery.

Pass the Pudding, Please!

Jim Lundstrom

When asked at what I thought was the end of my first English Sunday dinner if I wanted pudding, my first thought was to say, no, that’s OK. I’m full of roast beast and starchy tubers

Peach Tart

Jim Lundstrom

I Must Go Where the Wild Gueuze Goes!

Jim Lundstrom

In Love with Pils and Lolita

Jim Lundstrom

Making a Pig of Myself, Again

Jim Lundstrom

Here is the kind of beer story I love to hear: When Stevens Point Brewery decided the next release for its Whole Hog big beer series would be a coffee stout, they wanted to make sure it stood out from the seemingly ceaseless wave of specialty craft

An Ultra Experience

Jim Lundstrom

Yum! It comes on softer than most hop-forward American pale ales, which I’ll bet is the oat component.

Piloting a German Beer

Jim Lundstrom

Plenty of people fall in love with a particular beer, but not many fall in love so hard that they decide to become beer distributors.

Dark or Light, Weiss is Nice!

Jim Lundstrom

On the Weiss end, this beer is soft, effervescent and pert on the palate.

Cacti and Cacao

Jim Lundstrom

It’s got a tart little bite that spreads to what must be the big Texas flavor of prickly pear, and then everything settles down to beer.

Canned Fruit

Jim Lundstrom

I love a good fruit beer, so was excited when I recently found three varieties new to me in single cans.

Victory for Kirsch Gose

Jim Lundstrom

I have always been a fan of cherry beers – or, at least, well-made cherry beers, and there are many excellent versions ranging from light to dark styles.

Oaky and Brainless

Jim Lundstrom

Looking for a beer to celebrate with a homemade Mexican meal on Cinco de Mayo, I passed on the Dos Equis and margarita in a bottle, and the Mexican lager aged in tequila barrels.

Big is Good!

Jim Lundstrom

Rooting through the fridge, I find a treasure in its uncharted depths – a 2014 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barley-wine Style Ale. I had forgotten all about it. What a pleasant surprise!

A Brown, a green and a white

Jim Lundstrom

So many breweries, so little time…

Liquid Sunshine

Jim Lundstrom

Asked again to name my favorite beer, I had to pull out the pat answer to any leaky old question, “Depends.”

CanYou Fly?

Jim Lundstrom

My first sip of the eagerly anticipated Wee Heavy Scotch-Style Ale from Alesmith was a disappointment, not on their part, but on my own.

An Artfully Simple Beer

Jim Lundstrom

It is said to rival Maris Otter, the traditional English ale malt base. Mosaic hops came on the scene in 2012, according to the variety manual of the Hops Growers of America.

Some Still Like It Hot

Jim Lundstrom

The big red bottle is a hoot. It comes with a triangular warning: Don’t shake. The first sip was like being sucked into a time warp. Suddenly it’s 1991 again and I’m drinking my own chile-infused holiday brew

Give me a beer!

Jim Lundstrom

If you like to drink grapefruit juice

Bock Talk

Jim Lundstrom

With winter dragging on, I felt like giving spring a kickstart with the traditional harbinger of spring – bock.

Boogie Shoes Not Necessary for Wisco Disco

Jim Lundstrom

When I first heard of the beer Wisco Disco, I wondered, do I need boogie shoes to drink this beer? I thought it was a joke.

Two Big and Happy Brews

Jim Lundstrom

If you are looking for a special celebratory beer, you need look no further than the Bourbon County line.

Bottoms Up to a Questionable Saint

Jim Lundstrom

I don’t dig holidays. They just interrupt the work schedule. But if I had to pick a favorite holiday I guess it would be Guy Fawkes Day. As John Lennon once sang, “Remember the 5th of November.”

There’s a Crueller in My Beer!

Jim Lundstrom

As your brain tries to comprehend what is going on in your mouth, you read the label and confirm that, yes, those are lemons and marshmallows pushing your palate buttons

Lager Fans, There is Reason to Rejoice!

Jim Lundstrom

I love a good lager, and they are so rare. But Guinness choosing to make an American lager? What the…?

Get Frambozened!

Jim Lundstrom

Frambozen is from the fine folks at New Belgium Brewing of Fort Collins, Colorado. They pair a malty brown ale base with juice from Pacific Northwest raspberries

Choklat, good!

Jim Lundstrom

Hey, live free or die!

Let’s Get Muddy

Jim Lundstrom

The most dangerous brewing mishap involved a batch of root beer that I was brewing for my kids. I just didn’t believe the ridiculously small amount of sugar called for in the recipe to give the root beer its carbonation, so I doubled the amount

Christmas Cheer

Jim Lundstrom

The Courage Brewery, founded in 1787, bounced around between many owners since 1970 when a British tobacco company bought it.

A Truly Luscious Beer

Jim Lundstrom

It pours deep black with a thick, brown head. The aroma is berries.

Nectar of the Gods in a Can

Jim Lundstrom

There is a warning on the side of the can: “Charged nitro widget may cause unchilled cans to overflow.”

The Unicorn of Beers?

Jim Lundstrom

My first impression of this week’s beer was that I had taken a big swig of a liquid, alcohol-infused Oreo cookie, and, I should add, that was a very pleasant experience indeed.

How About a Little Chocolate in Your Beer?

Jim Lundstrom

It has character and body that is absent from other gluten-free beers I’ve tried. It has a beautiful and resilient head that clings to the glass to the very bottom.

America’s good food movement

Jim Lundstrom

These two interests began to find each other and to create an alternative way of thinking about food. Today, more than 16,500 organic farmers produce everything from wheat to meat, and organic sales top nearly $35 billion a year.

A Curmudgeon Possibly Named Gaspar

Jim Lundstrom

This one had been catching my eye for a while, and on the evening of a recent mid-November day that never got warmer than 20 degrees

A Lusty Pumpkin Wheat and Volcanic Stout

Jim Lundstrom

This beer called to me for weeks before I finally broke down and bought a sixer. It just seemed a little too forward for my tastes – Pumpkin Pie Lust? Really?