A brave woman in Massachusetts exposed an enormous amount of sexual misconduct in the industry last week, including accusations of a high profile OR/WA brewery. That plus a personal note.
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One of the more remarkable stories in the beer world is the incredibly long process of developing a viable commercial hop variety, and the long odds any single seed has of becoming a winner. In the first of the Sightglass articles, we examine HBC 1019 to see how it all works.
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Oregon legislators have introduced a new beer tax that would make the state’s beer the most-taxed in the country—at a level nearly twice as high as the next state, and more than ten times the national median. Worse, the rhetoric suggests an explicit goal is to cripple Oregon breweries.
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Mass market lagers aren’t, let’s be honest, especially interesting beers. They are often made by giant corporations in equally giant plants. That doesn’t mean they don’t have their moments.
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The sense about craft beer right now, with assaults from a global pandemic and hard seltzer, is often morose. In purely financial terms, beer seems to be sputtering. But as a cultural force, it has never been stronger.
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On February 5, 2021, Portland Brewing will close its doors for the last time. The brewery’s closure marks the end of that scrappy, DIY era of craft brewing. And while it’s sad, a review of what Portland Brewing accomplished also reveals what a success its 35-year run was.
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Each year I do a wrap-up of the photos that characterized my year. In 2020, beer was less a focus than any year of my lifetime.
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December 2020 is turning out to be a bleak affair. Take a break from the news and enjoy something that offers a bit of warmth and hope.
Read MoreThe Covid pandemic has forced breweries to change the beers they brew, how they market and sell those beers, and how customers find them. How will these changes affect beer long-term in a post-Covid world?
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Five years ago I spent an afternoon with Dave McLean of Magnolia Brewery. Since then, the beer industry, San Francisco, and Magnolia—later purchased by New Belgium, which was itself purchased by Kirin—have all gone through major changes.
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Great Notion is a polarizing brewery, but for an unusual and—for some—unsettling reason. Both fans and critics of the brewery agree they make beers that taste uncannily like a blueberry muffin, stack of pancakes, or scoop of sherbet. Where they disagree: whether the beer should taste like those things.
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As I was preparing to leave for a month in Europe, Portland passed an important anniversary that may hold lessons both about the city’s current condition and also the state of the beer market. On September 1, 1999, the Blitz-Weinhard brewery turned off the lights for the last time.
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Lithuania has one of the most interesting and unusual brewing traditions in the world, and should be on your short list for foreign travel. Here’s a primer.
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Few countries have extant brewing traditions as old as Austria’s, or contain the fixtures of historic brewing countries. It’s also one of only three countries where the standard mass market lager is equivalent in quality and flavor to so-called craft beers elsewhere.
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The state of cask is not good—and hasn’t been for decades. Craft brewing was originally seen as the latest threat, but does it offer the means to salvation?
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What causes us to like certain beers, certain styles? What force guides your hand to one product at the store and not another? We think we are the masters of these choices, but something deeper is at play.
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At first glance, Michael Kora’s vision to make his brewery the mainstay of an outer eastside neighborhood doesn’t seem very ambitious. A second look tells a different story.
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This morning, London’s last Victorian-era cask brewery announced it had sold its beer business to Asahi. That news should alarm anyone interested in the health of cask beer in Great Britain.
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All About Beer magazine was founded in 1979 and documented the entire history of craft brewing in America. Sadly, it looks like it will never reach its 40th anniversary.
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