We've been discussing how to taste beer but this week at Beer Hawk University we'll be going over how a great taproom properly serves a beer so that we can get the most of its fantastic flavour. Serving temperature, glassware and even the pour itself counts!

This week at Beer Hawk University we're going to get prepped to homebrew last week's recipe for the Mosaic golden ale. The time has come!

This week at Beer Hawk University, we're going to take a closer look at the BeerSmith software. This software is vital in creating a fantastic homebrew recipe.

Now that we know what basic ingredients and kit we need to make a beer, it's now onto the fun stuff! Since most of the brewers we've "met" along this trip probably started as homebrewers, it makes sense that we plan our first homebrewing recipe. It's almost brew day!

Week 27: Basic Brewing Equipment

No matter whether you're the head brewer in one of the world's biggest breweries or the head brewer in your kitchen, the basic brewing process remains the same. Welcome back to BHU as we take you on a brewery tour to discuss the basic brewing equipment needed to brew beer!

Out of all the buzzwords in the beer world, the different names for different types breweries are among the most bewildering. So let's clarify what makes a brewery a micro or a mega, once and for all.

Welcome to Unit 3 of Beer Hawk University. It's time to see things from grain to glass! This unit will focus on the brewing process, ingredients, homebrewing and breweries. Before we get stuck in, let's take a look around at some of our favourite breweries we've toured.

We like ourselves a proper quiz--don't you? Let's end Beer Hawk University Unit Two by looking over the answers from last week's quiz. We're sure you did well, so we'll see you at the pub for a quick one to celebrate?

Between all the sipping and the tasting, we've finally made it to the end of Unit 2 at Beer Hawk University. Let's test our knowledge; we'll cover the answers next week but we're sure you'll all do great!

Unit 2 Review

Ok, Unit 2 was a lot of fun! Who doesn't like "studying" about beer festivals? That was pretty intense reading. Ok, it wasn't, but let's do a quick recap on all we've learned in this unit's lessons anyways. We're almost done with BHU Unit 2!

This week we're wrapping up Unit 2 of Beer Hawk University. We've been enjoying our favourite beer festivals this unit but before we head off we should have a taste of our favourite saison and Belgian quadrupel from the ever-popular Belgian bar. Not a bad way to end a good time!

During Unit 2, we've been discussing international beer cultures as well as tasting beer and starting to identify styles a bit more in-depth. Before we leave this unit--and our favourite beer festivals--let's have a good look at a couple of the most popular Belgian beer styles. The saison and quadrupel (or sometimes called a strong dark ale) are firm favourites among brewers and drinkers alike. Since we celebrated international beer this time, we'd be remiss if we didn't give the Belgians their own time in the sun.

By the end of this lesson you should be able to identify and recommend these two beer styles. 

Saison Dupont

Volunteering at a beer festival gets you so much more than just a free t-shirt and beer tokens. Not only are you somebody everybody loves--because you're serving them beer--but you have the power of suggestion. This week at Beer Hawk University, let's learn about which beer styles you should suggest to those thirsty punters.

As we've been off enjoying the beer festivals here at Beer Hawk University, there's one thing we should talk more about: what's the difference between cask and keg?

We've discussed some major beer producing countries--UK, USA, Germany, Belgium and the Czech Republic. This week at Beer Hawk University, we'll discuss the differences between major beer styles so you can pick out a witbier from your Weissbier!

Beer is fascinating for so many reasons not least of which is how beer styles have come to be and how they have adapted and evolved. We'll save the specifics with regards to ingredients for a later date but, for now, let's take some of the world's most popular beer styles and take a deeper look at them. We'll do a cheeky tasting at the end!

There's a lot of beer to be tasted at a beer festival and we like to keep notes! Welcome to Week 17 of Beer Hawk University where we'll discuss how to make some proper tasting notes and offer up some helpful tasting terminology.

A beer festival is a great place to try amazing beers from all around the world. Here in Week 16 of Beer Hawk University, we'll discuss some more of the world's most prominent beer cultures--so we all can have a better understanding of that next international tipple!

Welcome to Unit 2 of Beer Hawk University. Let's move over to one of the best places to do some beery learning: the beer festival! This unit will focus on more beer-tasting terminology, more international beer styles and even the difference between keg and cask dispensing. But first, let's talk about our favourite beer festivals and how to make the best of it. Grab your festival glass, and let's go!

Well done! Let's end Beer Hawk University Unit One with a quick recap of the answers from last week's quiz (we're confident you did well--great teachers, you know?)

It's all come down to this: weeks of drinking, reading and dreaming about beer and we've finally reached the end of Unit 1 at Beer Hawk University. Answers to this quiz will be revealed next week but we're sure you've got this. You're ready, we're ready, let's do this!

Whew, we've made it to the end of Beer Hawk University Unit 1. That's been a lot of delicious reading, hasn't it? Let's do a quick recap summarising all we've learned in this unit's lessons. We've got to make sure all this tasty information sticks!

Here we are in the final weeks of Unit 1 at Beer Hawk University. Before we leave the taproom for some of our favourite beer festivals, our Week 10 lesson is an in-depth look at two of the world's favourite styles--the American IPA and the Munich Helles. Let's take everything we've learned from the taproom and have a final taste! (Hint: it'll help on the quiz!)

Most of us don't think twice about the package that a beer comes in, so long as it gets safely into our glass. For Week 9 of Beer Hawk University, however, we'll take a look at some of the things your favourite taproom considers when it comes to choosing bottle or can.

All the hard work of the brewer will be lost if a beer isn't properly stored before it gets to your glass. In Week 8 of Beer Hawk University we'll discuss how your favourite taproom stores all of that delicious bottled and canned beer before serving it to you.

Week 6 of Beer Hawk University will focus on the widely varied and mostly undefineable ale. Most brewing cultures have their own version of an ale and, today, you won't find a taproom in all the land that won't have at least 10 on the bar. But what, exactly, is an ale?

For Week 5 of Beer Hawk University we'll be discussing the gorgeously refreshing and sparkling clean lager. What it lacks in pizzaz it makes up for in precision and there are many fine examples to be found in taprooms the world over. Long live the lager!

We're here. We're in the taproom, we've picked our beer and we're settling in to our seats. Now here's where things get interesting at Beer Hawk University because, this week, we learn how to taste beer! We'll be discussing some best-practices in order to make sure you're appreciating all you can. Cheers!

Welcome back! Hope you enjoyed last week's overview of what's in that glass of beer you've been waiting to have. You all did very well and have now earned a proper drink. (Oh wait, you have been already?). This week we're crossing the threshold of one of beer's most sacred spaces: the taproom. You can now officially enjoy this amazing beverage.

Welcome class! We're going to begin our beery adventure in earnest this week. Unit 1 will be set in most people's first stop on the path to beer greatness: The taproom. Yet, before you pull up a stool at the bar there are four very important things you should know before taking a sip: what's in my glass?

Hello! Welcome to Beer Hawk University. We’re going to spend the next umpteen weeks getting really geeky about beer. We’re going to learn about each little bit that goes into a glass, how to evaluate beer, what to eat with it, how to store it, pour it and enjoy it. We’ll also delve into current events, modern trends and even give a shout-out to some of our favourite breweries, taprooms and beer festivals.

Every Thursday we're releasing a fun lesson that covers everything you need to know about beer. From what you're drinking to where you should be drinking.

The future of beer?

Perhaps, perhaps not – but we’ll certainly see a lot of super-smooth nitro beers over the next year. We chat to pioneers Left Hand Brewing to find out exactly why the nitro process makes beer taste amazing

Adnams was established 1872, but it wasn’t until 2008 when they announced they were installing a distillery. A few eyes blinked, but they went onto win a cocktail of awards, including the World’s Best Gin. Yet Adnams’ foray into the spirit world isn’t unprecedented. Across in the US, Rogue, Ballast Point, Dogfish Head, Ska and Anchor have all been distilling, and now BrewDog is getting in on the act with Lone Wolf. Hoptical caught up with a couple of brewers-turned-distillers who rank among the best. Make ours a double...

We like beer. We like food. We LOVE to put them together. On a weekend evening there's nothing better than grilling a steak and cracking open something dark. Our Beer Sommelier Maggie Cubbler talks to a top chef for advice

The India Pale Ale: this is the flagship beer for craft beer. The history of the IPA is rooted in England in the 19th century (but it's notoriously hard to find out how it first started). What is clear, is that the IPA is stronger and more bitter than a pale ale. The US version, that has become wildly popular, was brewed with local hops that gave it grapefruit, pine, and citrus flavours that we love so much. Here are a few we love at the moment. 

Summer is just ending, but there's still time to crack open a Pilsner. But just how did it become the most popular style in the world?

Pilsner is the beer that took over the planet. Its light, crisp, clear taste, with an earthy hint of Saaz hops, has become the most common style of beer worldwide. And on a hot summer’s day, nothing on Earth beats a world-class Pilsner. Pilsner traditionally comes from the town of Pilsen, located in what is in the Bohemia region of the Czech Republic, an area renowned for its brewing quality since the late 1200s. Like Burton- up-Trent, it was the quality of water that initially made it such a great place for brewing, although it wasn’t until the 18th century that brewers began to record the use of bottom-fermenting yeasts – one of the two defining factors of a lager. The other is that it has been ‘lagered’, which literally means ‘cold-stored’, and refers to a method of making beer rather than a specific style. It was on Oct

There’s been an abundance of beautiful beer books recently. Here’s some of our favourites, plus a classic.

Oh Beautiful Beer

Tasting beer is a very personal experience – we’re all different after all – but here at Beer Hawk we have our opinions. Here’s some of our favourite beers right now...

Here at Beer Hawk, we drink a LOT of British Beers.

And for your benefit, we've narrowed down our 11 Best New British Beers! Ooooh, you lucky lot!

I am a cult beer.

I am a beer you will scrape and save and queue and turn blue for; I am a beer for which anticipation, impatience, hysteria and fear mix and match within the soul when thought of. I am a beer you will swoon over, fall in love with and give out signals to the universe that this is why you drink beer. 

Belgium is the fatherland of quality beer-brewing. The country has a huge variety of beer styles, from well-established pale ales, saisons, tripels and dubbels to the more unusual Flemish sours, lambics and gueuzes. It is also, of course, the spiritual home of Trappist beer, claiming six of the eleven breweries in the world where Trappist monks oversee the beer making (and usually cheese too) to support the charitable works of their monastery.

There’s never been a better time to drink British beer.

Adrian Tierney-Jones talks to the key players in the new wave of the new wave.

Now is the time of our content when it comes to the British beer scene. Whether it’s a deep and soul-devouring hop narcissistic IPA, a porter or stout whose darkness the truly devout can get lost in, or a ringing, chiming, zinging, thrilling sour, we are living through perhaps the most exciting time for drinking beer since the end of the 19th century (and don’t let any self-appointed beer historian tell you otherwise).

Brewdog's founders James Watt & Martin Dickie on the future of craft beer and their all-time picks

What drives the beer world’s most important ambassadors? Hoptical met with Steve Hindy, president of Brooklyn Brewery, one of the best and most influential breweries in the world

That Germany is a great beer country is indisputable. This is the country of Pilsners and Kellerbiers, Kolschs and Weissebiers. It’s where beer is served in foaming steins at tables of thirsty drinkers. The cornerstone of brewing is the Reinheitsgebot, a Purity law that celebrates its 500th birthday in 2016. It dictated that only water, barley and hops could be used - yeast was added when we knew what it was. But far from being restrictive, the variety of German beers is astonishing and occasionally bizarre. Here are the most important...

It’s the big one - the competition that every brewer of real ale wants to win. Every year at CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festival, the Champion Bottled Beer of Britain is announced.