According to Symphony IRI data, IPA has passed Pale Ale as most popular craft beer style.

In his “Craft Brewing & Mid-Year Category Sales Review” Dan Wandel of Symphony IRI told Brewers Association members that IPA sales increased 39 percent in the first half of the year, continuing an ongoing trend that moved it past Pale Ale. He also said that IRI now tracks 253 IPA brands, up 76 in the last six months. Craft beer dollar sales increased 14.3 percent in the first six months.

This is great knowledge for brewers as well as drinkers. If you’re an IPA fan, then you have a lot to look forward to as more and more craft breweries are experimenting with hoppy beer.

Modern brewing practice entails one (fuzzy) distinction between stout and porter. Stout is brewed with roasted barley; porter is not (or less commonly). The use of roasted barley means stouts, broadly speaking, have more pronounced and deeper roasted notes to the nose, as well as a more pronounced dry bitterness on the palate. Porters are commonly perceived as sweeter on the nose and palate. Furthermore, the color range for stouts is darker, ranging from dark brown to black, while porters rest more firmly in the brown spectrum.

Since it can be a fuzzy line, here is a simple explanation that most will agree with:

Stouts, specifically, dry stouts should use only 2 row malt and roasted barley, with perhaps a small amount of flaked barley or oatmeal. It should have no hop aroma or flavor whatsoever.

Porters, on the other hand, should use some crystal malts, therefore giving it some definite caramel charecter. They should also have a definite hop aroma and flavor, and can even be dry hopped.

American Pale Ale
American Pale Ale (APA), was developed around 1980. American Pale Ales are generally around 5% abv with significant quantities of American hops, typically Cascade. Although American brewed beers tend to use a cleaner yeast, and American two row malt, it is particularly the American hops that distinguish an APA from British or European pale ales.

Bière de Garde
Bière de Garde, or “keeping beer”, is a pale ale traditionally brewed in the Pas-de-Calais region of France. These beers were usually brewed by farmhouses in the winter and spring, to avoid unpredictable problems with the yeast during the summertime.

Burton Pale Ale
Later in the second half of the nineteenth century, the recipe for pale ale was put into use by the Burton upon Trent brewers, notably Bass; ales from Burton were considered of a particularly high quality due to synergy between the malt and hops in use and local water chemistry, especially the presence of gypsum.

English Bitter
Breweries would tend to designate beers as “pale ale”, though customers would commonly refer to the same beers as “bitter”. It is thought that customers used the term bitter to differentiate these pale ales from other less noticeably hopped beers such as porter and mild.

Irish Red Ale
Irish red ale, red ale, or Irish ale is a name used by brewers in Ireland; Smithwick’s is a typical Irish red ale.

IPA descends from the earliest pale ales of the 17th century. The term pale ale originally denoted an ale which had been brewed from pale malt. The pale ales of the early 18th century were lightly hopped and quite different from later pale ales.

Double India Pale Ales (abbreviated Double IPAs or DIPAs) are a strong, very hoppy style of pale beer. Also known as Imperial IPAs (or IIPAs), these beers have high amounts of malt and hops. Double IPAs typically have alcohol content above 7% by volume. IBUs are in the very high range (60+).

IPAs came about due to lack of refrigeration. Beer was going bad in hot storage conditions – whether simply being stored or during long shipping trips – so George Hodgson from the Bow Brewery in East London came to the solution by taking his Pale Ale recipe and considerably increasing the hop and alcohol content. The result was a bitter, very alcoholic Ale that survived the trip to India and was actually drinkable at the end of the trip.

Now IPAs are very popular and come in a variety of different styles. IPA fans often refer to themselves as Hopheads and can be very picky about the IPA styles they like best.

A Belgian Style ale that’s very pale and cloudy in appearance due to it being unfiltered and the high level of wheat, and sometimes oats, that’s used in the mash. Always spiced, generally with coriander, orange peel and other oddball spices or herbs in the back ground. The crispness and slight twang comes from the wheat and the lively level of carbonation.

Belgian white beers are often made with raw unmalted wheat, as opposed to the malted wheat used in other varieties.

Sometimes Wits are served with a lemon, but if you truly want to enjoy the untainted subtleties of this style you’ll ask for yours without one. Often referred to as “white beers” (witbieren) due to the cloudiness / yeast in suspension.

Ok, so the good thing about online dating is that you get to meet someone based on personality, now, don’t get me wrong, I really mean this is good. Good, that is, until you’ve spent six weeks building up a relationship with them only to realise upon meeting  that you fancy them about as much as you fancy Lazarak the local kebab shop lothario. Save yourself the time and disappointment and set up some drinks… fast.

DON’T : Call Yourself JohnnyBigCock88 (Even if you are)

Men have this thing where they think women just love massive dicks. This is not true, massive dicks are actually a bit scary, not meaning to be graphic (I’m going to be anyway) but the average length of a vagina – oh god this sounds even worse written down – is about 5 inches, so if you don’t want to terrify her with your todger before you’ve even met keep those measurements to yourself and pick a nice friendly name, like Ben, or something.

DO: Use A Picture That Actually Looks Like You, Not You Ten Years Ago

So she’s standing at the train station (train stations always seem like such a romantic place to meet) and you can see her scanning the crowd and then comes that look on her face, is it recognition? No, it’s not, because your photos look absolutely nothing like you. They were taken in 2002 when you actually had hair and a six pack (I’m not talking about tins of lager), I mean imagine if you were expecting Cameron Diaz and you ended up with David Cameron you’d be more than a little bit pissed off wouldn’t you? So, update those pictures. Now.

DON’T: Lie About Your Hobbies/Job/Height/Drinking Habits

How many fighter pilots do you know? Or how about 6ft2 models with a difficulty pulling? Because, I don’t know about you but I know oh wait, none. If you want the girl to fancy you, to be impressed by YOU, you might want to start by doing that novel thing we like to call telling the truth. Because whilst your made up career may seem like a great idea at the time when she sees you stacking shelfs down at the local Iceland she’s going to be more disappointed than, well, an extremely disappointed person.

DO: Cancel Your Membership If You’ve Met Someone

So you’re there just scanning through (perving) the best the Plenty Of Fish has to offer and there she is, your new girlfriend. Wow. This is, um, fucking shit, you think. Well yes, it is pretty shit so it’s probably best for all parties involved that if you actually do find someone online or anywhere else you take your profile down. Or you know, strategically “hide” it for the first few weeks, I mean you’ve always got to have a back up plan haven’t you.

DON’T: Use Text Language. Ever.

If u wnt sum1 who cn spk Engleesh it’s probs better nt 2 write lyk dis. There is literally nothing hot about this, nothing. It’s like a 15 year old has snuck onto Mysinglefriend in an attempt to get a date with an older woman and the only thing that has given them away is their inability to speak like a normal human being. Maybe you’re trying to cling onto your youth, maybe you’re just really lazy and therefore can’t be bothered to use vowels but the only type of women this will attract is the socially retarded variety and you don’t want that now do you?

This is a great article, check it the rest here: http://www.sabotagetimes.com/life/the-dos-and-donts-of-online-dating/

It’s called When Strangers Click and is about the online search for human connection. The doc “about the way we woo in a wired world” is investigating whether online dating sites have actually made it easier to find love.

You can check out the film’s Facebook Page and submit your own online dating stories. The doc “about the way we woo in a wired world” is investigating whether online dating sites have actually made it easier to find love.

Here’s a taste of what the doc has in store:

“Kim packed a wedding gown and flew to Prague to marry a man she had only met online. Dave met scores of women before having to reveal a physical shortcoming. At 30, Beth had given up on love before going online. Ryan Googled “gay” to figure out who he was. And Jonas literally found a new life through his Second Life avatar. When these strangers clicked, their lives changed forever.”

Check out the full article and get the Facebook Page link here: http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2011/01/26/when_strangers_click_hbos_doc_on_looking_for_love_online_premieres_valentin/

“The norms are changing for seniors meeting online,” says Oakland University professor Terri Orbuch.

“Now technology is becoming more central to our lives. It is becoming more acceptable.”

The number of seniors using the Internet has risen to 17.5 million in November 2009 from 11.3 million in November 2004, according to Nielsen data.

“For the over-50s, attitudes, values and stability are much more important than for 20-somethings,” Orbuch says.

Seniors are more likely to have had a long-term, significant relationship in their past, Orbuch says, which affects the way they approach online dating. They’ll often know exactly what they are looking for, she adds, and put a lot of value on spending time together.

For those over 55 looking for a long-term relationship, a senior focused online dating community can afford you what you’re looking for. Read more here: http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/Seniors+finding+love+online/4118933/story.html

For those not yet ready to take the plunge (so to speak) or are waiting due to beliefs this is a great way to meet others they can date without feeling pressured. It’s also good because those who might try to stalk virgins or perceive them as “prey” will have a more difficult time on a site like this. It could be a safe place which is always a good thing when it comes to dating.

Online dating sites are beginning to look at their demographics differently. Great news for those that don’t fit in with the “accepted” way of being. The media’s acceptance of homosexual and lesbian relationships have had an impact on how online dating works.

Some of the trends we are now seeing are additions for men seeking men and women seeking women. This is something that only a few online dating communities offered until fairly recently.

Another large trend in emerging online dating sites is the option for those interested in the polygamist lifestyle.  This is where one can seeks multiple wives or multiple husbands.

This is stirring up controversy as these lifestyles are not accepted by everyone. But the fact that they are starting to become included is a major plus for those who are looking to online dating to form these types of relationships.

Online dating is making it possible to live the way in which you want to live and even more so now that many are including lifestyle choices that were once deemed “unacceptable”.

Read more here: http://www.adi-news.com/online-dating-leading-the-way-in-lifestyle-acceptance/25834/