When writing this column, it is my habit to focus on beers you can buy in Birmingham. Once in a while I deviate from that practice when there’s an interesting story involved. The story surrounding the recent release of BrewDog’s The End of History, a beer with 55% alcohol by volume, definitely merits a mention in Hopped Up.

This column is titled “Hopped Up,” a play on words involving one of the main ingredients in beer. I consider myself a “hop head”, someone who loves intensely hoppy beers above all others. But it occurs to me that not everyone reading this understands exactly what hops are, or what they do for beer.

The 1990s were a good decade for craft beer. After early pioneers like Anchor and Sierra Nevada blazed a difficult trail in the 70s and 80s and proved small American brewers could thrive in a market dominated by giant corporations, a large wave of homebrewers decided to go pro in the 90’s.

As we suffer through the sweltering, humid summertime here in the Southeast, it’s time to think about lighter, thirst-quenching brews. An intense stout may be a nice companion on a cold winter evening but it’s less appealing when the temperature is 95° and sweat is dripping from your brow.

Consider this quote from 2006: “Gallup has asked Americans about their drinking habits since 1939, and over the course of those 60 plus years, an average of 63% of Americans have said they drink alcohol.” That’s a solid majority. Sadly, some in our midst have not learned any lessons from the failure of Prohibition. History is clear that during the Noble Experiment, alcohol consumption did not decrease; its main effect was to increase disdain for the law as otherwise law-abiding and productive members of society were forced to obtain illicit alcohol through illegal channels. It was Prohibition that imprinted the image of gangsters with Tommy guns in the popular consciousness. While any student of history understands why and how Prohibition failed to achieve a single goal sought by its proponents, Prohibition’s ideological descendants do not.

This weekend, on Friday, June 4 and Saturday, June 5, Sloss Furnaces will once again play host to Magic City Brewfest (MCBF), the Southeast’s premier beer festival (that is, if we pretend North Carolina doesn’t exist).

Jolly Pumpkin could have been just another brewery that bottles all of its beer in packages that exceed Alabama’s 16-oz. container limit, prompting it to stay far away from our state. And without one

Another session of the Alabama legislature has come and gone. After a grand victory in 2009—the passage of the Gourmet Beer Bill, which allowed high gravity beers to be sold in Alabama—Free the Hops d

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Craft Brewers Conference in Chicago. The CBC is an annual event organized by the Brewers Association. It consists of numerous seminars designed to further

This is the final installment in my short series focusing on sour beers. Sadly, there aren’t many suitable possibilities in Alabama for me to review. The first column in the series covered De Dolle Oe