We have recently concluded the holiday season, a time in which special bottles of ale are removed from the cellar and shared with friends. Before all that sharing can begin, however, one must engage in the Trials of Wax. Why?
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Tom Cook has ended the franchise he had with Fat Head's Brewery so that his brewpub in the Pearl can be reborn as Von Ebert. But it's not just a simple reboot; Cook has very aggressive plans to make it an "all-around, world-class brewery." Can such a thing be engineered?
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The New York Times' occasional beer critic has managed eleven beer reviews in the past eight years--three of them on sour ales. Last week he posted his first since mid-2016, a piece on brown ales--his second since 2007. Why does the Times treat beer with such disinterest?
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Reading the tea leaves, should we take the current trends in brewing, particularly drinker promiscuity, as a danger or a boon to brewers? A few brewers weigh in on that question and, as is so often the case, have interesting perspectives.
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"In Franconian vernacular when you limp and you dangle your arms, this dangling is called schlenken. So a schlenkerla is a diminutive or the nickname for a person who dangles, who walks like that—very much like a drunk person would walk."
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Late last year, Pabst Brewing, which owns the Ballantine brand, decided to do another recreation--this time of what we might call the original whale, Ballantine Burton Ale. It follows the brewery's recreation of Ballantine IPA and, like that beer, is a careful evocation of one of America's legendary beers.
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It is an annual tradition: the Satori Award, which honors the best new Oregon beer. That beer will be revealed in due course, but not before I survey the year in beer, not just in Oregon but beyond.
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The end of the year means, of course, Jeff's old-timey picture show! Pull up a folding chair while I get out the carousel and begin loading in the slides and we'll get started. I promise beer and brief comments.
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You may not realize this, but it there is an unwritten rule that between Dec 26 and Jan 1, publications (blogs inlcuded) must publish a year-end review. Look, I don't make the rules. If you want me to stop this practice, you have to take it up with the Deep State.
Read MoreAs I was thinking about the year just ending, memory of one of my favorite posts came to mind--one not on the "best posts" list. A little scouring revealed three more. If you'll excuse some navel gazing (or solipsism, depending on how critical you're feeling), I'd like to direct you to these four further posts in case you missed them.
Read MoreTis the season ... for retrospectives. On this eve of Christmas Eve--or more properly because it's a long holiday weekend--I offer you the best posts that appeared here over the past calendar year.
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--Post updated with revised figures-- When the GOP pushed through tax cuts this week, they included a tax cut for breweries. It's a bipartisan proposal that's been kicking around with broad support that will actually benefit the little guy--in this case craft breweries. But is it good policy?
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A report on day two and breweries 5-8 in our lightning tour of Seattle breweries. Reuben's was the day's focal point, but we also popped into Old Stove and an Elysian outpost. My report, plus a comment on where Seattle stands now.
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Patrick and I are about to embark on our last day in Seattle. I'll post a follow-up to this one tomorrow. Thus far, we've stopped in at five breweries, with three on tap for today. A longer discussion will follow, but our first impressions are these.
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Yesterday, the Brewers Association released some rosy numbers about the craft beer segment. The organization highlighted the continued rapid growth in the number of US breweries, which hit six thousand this year. But did these numbers provide the complete picture?
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Companies occasionally send out press releases with an "embargo" attached--that is, a stipulation that the reporter not post the information until a designated date and time. What are the ethics of embargoes, especially in the case of commercial/promotional information?
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Last week, I asked hive mind to tell me which breweries, if respondents were forced to choose only three, to visit in Seattle. I kept seeing a lot of the same names, and it made me wonder--would I get more diversity if I asked hive mind the same question for Portland?
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The beer world is a largely masculine one, populated by a majority of men, operating under the rules of men. Sexual harassment is an issue that has touched nearly every workplace in the country, so it seems unlikely the beer world is exempt.
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The book is a ramble through the recent adventures of Pete Brown, probably the most entertaining beer writer working today. In each chapter, he's off to the Žatec hop fields, or getting trapped in a cellar in Munich during a shooting, or standing in a field where the seeds for Maris Otter barley come from.
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Butch Heilshorn is a co-founder of Earth Eagle in Portsmouth, NH, a brewery just a hair over five years old. The brewery specializes in foraged, herbal, historical, and just plain weird beers. Heilshorn has collected his experiences into a slim volume called, provocatively, Against All Hops.
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