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Once upon a time not so long ago, the word "beer" prompted mental images of frat boys chugging Miller Lites. It did not, traditionally, scream "mother."

But times, they are a-changin', and more and more women are drinking beer these days. And despite the lingering stereotype of a "mom drink" as a chilled glass of chardonnay (not that there's anything wrong with that), some moms are definitely sipping suds. Heck, Carol Stoudt, mother of five, has adopted the moniker of "Queen of Hops" since opening Stoudt's Brewing with her hubby in 1987.

Asked about the perfect Mother's Day brew, Matt Barclay of Brooklyn (N.Y.)'s Bierkraft says, "most of our women customers drink the Belgian Tripel [style]." With fruit and candy flavors, Tripels can be sweet but also incredibly complex. If mom is a fan of sweet wines or desserts, try pouring her a Belgian ale after dinner, like an aromatic raspberry Lindemans Framboise lambic. If she's a chocolate freak, proffer a Chocolate Stout.

Or maybe your mom does sling back Miller Lite with the best of them. School us! Does your ma drink beer? What's her favorite brew? (Moms, don't feel shy about speaking out on your behalf!)

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Beer cocktails are especially refreshing during warm weather months. They boast a lower alcohol content than mixed drinks with hard alcohol, and with so many great summer beers available, creating unique concoctions for the season is a breeze.

If you're not up to the heft and tequila of a margarita tomorrow (viva Cinco de Mayo!), consider the Michelada, which has been gaining some traction as a spicy summer alternative to the Bloody Mary. Order it at a bar or mix one up at home but give blah pre-packaged products like Budweiser Chelada a pass; make it yourself and spice it to taste.

Shandys (which generally consist of half pale ale or lager and half lemonade, ginger ale or lemon-lime soda) are a refreshing low alcohol substitute if you're looking to enjoy the sun without immediate inebriation. Using quality ingredients like homemade lemonade and a pale ale with natural citrus notes can produce amazing results.

Ty Fugimura, owner of The Small Bar in Chicago, believes his bar's unique list of six beer cocktails is a major draw. As the Windy City warms up, Fugimura knows "sidewalk sitters want something a little bit lighter," so Small Bar offers a "Beergarita," a twist on the classic tequila drink. In addition to adding white ale, they top it off with Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale and Lindeman's fruity Framboise. Sounds pretty great to us. Got a beer cocktail recipe up your sleeve? Let us know. We're thirsty.

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A religious epiphany is sometimes known as "seeing the light." In the beer world, however, it's all about seeing past the light -- Bud Light, that is. Though Budweiser's low-calorie brew is America's most frequently slung beer, now that craft breweries make up our country's fastest growing suds sector, pint-sized prophets are creating converts.

This Slashfoodie's brew-piphany occurred in the late '90s on a tour of Berkeley, Calif.'s Pyramid Brewery, where a Hefeweizen opened our eyes to the world Beyond Bud. Back in Los Angeles, we began frequenting beer-centric bars like Barney's Beanery, attempting to sample all the beers on their extensive list.

We're not alone in our new faith: Middle school teacher turned beer connoisseur Damico Ponzio was first moved by a Belgian (Triple Karmeliet), but Ommegang's Three Philosophers was the first American craft creation that knocked him out: "It had a boatload of flavor and [was served in] a wine bottle with a cork! I was completely blown away." Since then, Ponzio's become one of millions of people who regularly visit online beer communities like RateBeer.com where beer nerds congregate happily.

Some converts even go on to become apostles. Asked about his "Ah-ha!" moment with beer, Marty Jones' response is immediate: Ballantine India Pale Ale. "My cousin married a member of the Ballantine family and we would have bottles of their IPA," he recalls fondly. Now, as marketing man for the Oskar Blues Brewery (source of beloved canned microbrew Dale's Pale Ale), Jones travels the country "seeking out the unredeemed."

Got a beer that put you on the path to superior suds?

"They're the food police and their patron saints -- Alice Waters and Michael Pollan, chief among them -- are on a crusade to tell you not just what you should eat, but how you should eat it.

Like an exclusive clique of anorexic cheerleaders, they think they're better than you."

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Your favorite beer may have just gotten a makeover. To those wandering the suds store in vain searching for those classic pyramid-sporting, Tintin-esque brews, listen up: Pyramid Hefeweizen will henceforth be known as Haywire Hefeweizen (above left), and Pyramid Apricot Ale is now Audacious Apricot Ale. Pyramid Breweries, America's 11th largest brewing company and fifth largest craft brewer, just announced this "revitalized brand positioning," and we're pretty surprised by the assertive redesign.

We're not alone. "Do they make beer or energy drinks?" quipped one BeerAdvocate user. Others, however, are more blasé: At Charlotte, N.C.'s Flying Saucer Draught Emporium, which stocks over 200 beers, general manager Daniel Parks remarked, "I don't think it will change [sales] one bit."

Typically reserved brewers have been shaking it up a bit of late: Sierra Nevada named a new year-round brew Torpedo IPA, a step up from their unadorned line of Pale Ale, Porter, Stout and Wheat. In Pyramid's case, this may be due to a recent buyout by flamboyantly designed Magic Hat's parent company, Independent Brewers United. (Pyramid did not return several requests for comment). To us, Haywire and Audacious sound like sheer marketing, uh, audacity.

Will you miss the Pyramids of the past the way we will?

I posted recently about FOUR wine, a premium wine-in-a-tube from California that boasts eco-friendliness and value. If you follow the trends, you know just how important these two factors are right now for any business. I finally got a chance to try the wine so wanted to do a follow-up post on it, since so many people are still skeptical of boxed wine.

FOUR wine is a Cabernet Sauvignon from Monterey, Paso Robles and Lodi, and I have to admit, the packaging is pretty snazzy. It's something I'd put out at a party for sure, because it's pretty and unusual enough to get questions, and it goes down easy, a full-bodied, deeply fruity wine with dark cherries, stewed plums and lots of sweet vanilla spice. I also think it would be fun to grab a tube of FOUR and take it into a BYOB restaurant, if nothing else than for the look on our server's face as we plunk down a tube of wine with a spigot to go with our dinner.

Retail price is $40 a tube (the equivalent of 4 bottles) and the company says it's worth $100. What's worth $100 to me? Knowing the tube and its contents are 100 percent recyclable, and that the inexpensiveness of the wine is due to a lower production cost and carbon footprint.

A perennial problem with wine is reading about something yummy and not knowing where to buy it, but FOUR has a list of distributors on its Web site. Call the one in your state and they'll let you know where it's sold.

Utah became the first state in the past 10 years to legalize the homebrewing of beer, leaving just four states where the practice is still illegal, according to the Brewers Association. Governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. of Utah signed the "Exemption for Alcoholic Beverage Manufacturing License" into law Tuesday.

The new legislation might seem like small potatoes to those not close to the beer industry, but for the development of microbreweries and brewpubs, it's important to have a thriving homebrew culture.

Though not a well-known fact outside of beer circles, as Jennifer Talley, a brewmaster in Salt Lake City, states, "Most professional brewers I know were once homebrewing." Additionally, as I reported earlier this month, topflight homebrewers are often major industry contributors, whether it be by passing on innovative product ideas to their professional counterparts or participating as beer judges at major brewing events.

Homebrewing has been legal on a federal level since 1978, and the American Homebrewers Association estimates that there are approximately 750,000 homebrewers in the United States today.

Let's hope we can get those last four states on board and make it legal for every American to brew their own beer. Alabama already has an active legalization movement. Something tells me this latest development in Utah will help spur movements in Kentucky, Mississippi and Oklahoma as well.

[Via beertown.org]