Seeking Beervana Columnist Lara Lewis has been a home brewer for years and is a certified beer judge through the American Home brew Association’s Beer Judge Certification Program.
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Lara Lewis
Issue: 2018-11-21, PHOTO: Gregory McLaughlin
Not new, but still brave
What’s it like to share the heart and soul of something you’ve written? Peter Jickling, the new host of Brave New Words, said, “It’s right in the title of the event. It’s brave.” Jickling’s goal is to take what can be intimidating—the “pouring out... more
Issue: 2016-10-12, PHOTO: Rick Massie
For the love of beer
Kaori Torigai loves beer in much the same way others love baseball. Or World of Warcraft. Like baseball, there are a mind-boggling array of statistics to consider. And, like World of Warcraft, there is a huge cast of characters. And, as in both... more
Issue: 2018-05-09, PHOTO: Lara Lewis
Play it loud in the car
It’s 3:40 p.m. on November 12, 2014, and the very first track on the latest album by Manny Berlin (a.k.a. Manfred Janssen), Basement Tapes, is being recorded at Frostbite House in Whitehorse. Neither Janssen, nor his co-producer Jordy Walker. more
kschulze Getty Images/iStockphoto
Premium Suds
These days, if you live in Whitehorse and you like good beer, you will find yourself nestled into one of the cushy chairs at the T & M lounge, catching up on golf highlights; you go there because it is still the only place in town that offers a... more
Conglomeration Nation
Over the past few decades, the macrobrewing industry has been punctuated by merger after merger, forming huge brewing conglomerates. For many of you it's like a family tree of people you don't care about, but for beer genealogy geeks, it will make... more
A Beeline for the Honey Brew
During my frequent beelines to the Fat Tug IPA and other craft beers at the Whitehorse Liquor Store, my eyes catch a glimpse of the solitary bottles of Fuller's Organic Honey Dew beer, but then they move on. I'm not against honey or Fuller's, but... more
Beer in China
I wanted to write something positive about drinking beer in China. After all, they are the world`s largest consumers of beer and a major hop-growing nation. They also have the fastest-growing beer market in the world. Their beer production... more
Scottish Beer? Ay, Laddie.
The problem with being a great whiskey-producing nation like Scotland is that it becomes all you're known for, Okay, there's also bagpipes, haggis and Caber tossing. But Scottish beer? more
Thanksgiving in Haines
My friends and I spent Thanksgiving in Haines this year. We thought we would catch some fish, drink some beers and see some bears. Only one of those panned missions out. The fish weren't jumping, or running, or whatever fish do. We saw a few dead... more
A Sexy Fall Surprise
I usually wait until Christmas to lurk around the Whitehorse liquor store in search of sexy new beer products, but September brought a surprise: Guinness Black Lager. Guinness has been throwing some heavy coin into advertising this new product... more
How Pure is Your Beer?
There are the purists who believe beer should be simple. The Bavarian Purity of Law of 1516, the famous Reinheitsgebot, stated that beer could only be made with water, malt (malted barley or malted wheat) and hops. Louis Pasteur wouldn't discover... more
What's in a Name?
A Fat Tug by any other name would be just as hoppy. But the name of your beer can entice or drive your average beer drinker away. I probably wouldn't pick up a six pack of Camel Squirt if that beer even existed, but a bottle of the Belgian beer... more
Beer and Sport
It doesn't have to be an epic battle between the forces of good and evil. I believe beer can live in a symbiotic relationship with athletic pursuits. It's all about balance, expectations, pacing and choosing your sport wisely. The expats in Malay.. more
Making something illegal that used to be legal is a tricky road to manoeuvre.
Making something illegal that used to be legal is a tricky road to manoeuvre. Opium? Sure, I understand. DDT? Makes sense. But making booze illegal after being freely produced and imbibed for hundreds of years in North America — what idiot dreamed... more
Beer Memories: The good, the bad and the ugly
I've been feeling a little nostalgic about beer lately. I don't remember my first beer but I do remember my first six pack — not a pretty story. I was 15 and went to a house party — a handful of teenagers hanging out drinking and watching an old... more
No Judgement. Really.
I'm not going to tell you what you should drink. I don't care if you ferment raisins with brewers yeast in a garbage pail. I'm a laissez-faire kind of person. You can drink your Bud Light Lime, your Wildcat or your Pabst Blue Ribbon. You don't... more
USA Hops to the Lead
Humulus Lupulus = Hops. They aren't involved in the fermentation of beer. They aren't even a major component. You might have 6 kg of malt in a homebrew batch but only 30 g hops. They don't get roasted. And they occur in virtually every commercial... more
2013 Adventures at the Haines Beer Fest
We got the stern border guard at Haines customs this year. No, we're not bringing any firearms, plants or suitcases full of money, but I do have six beer entries for the homebrew competition... more
Yukoners Mastermind a Winning Homebrew
If I was a better planner, I would have made my way down to Skagway at the end of April for the annual Craft Brew Festival, but sometimes my father's genes kick in and I end up a little scattered. Luckily, I have friends who need to geek-out over... more
Beer Advertising Deconstructed
Sometimes it's hard for me to believe that beer companies spend billions of dollars each year marketing products that should sell itself. But people need to be swayed by the next best thing or conscripted back into brand loyalty after straying... more
An Evening of Delightful Beer Pairings
The number on my phone glared at me in ugly black digits: 2,020. My Fitness Pal app wasn't being very friend-like, accusing me of eating over 2,000 calories in a single sitting. I undid the top button of my jeans and decided it was worth every bit... more
IPAs explained
I'm an unapologetic hophead, and consider no beer too hoppy to drink. I love the constricting bitterness. I love the resiny, citrusy, nostril-doping snort of a good, hop-filled American-style India Pale Ale (IPA). I wasn't always this way. If you... more