In the final installment on my report about Guinness’s new $80 million Baltimore brewery, I look at the brewers and their approach in creating “American Guinness”—and how reproducing the way beer used to be made at St. James Gate might point one path to the future.
Read MoreThe brewers who formed the vanguard of what would one day be called “craft brewing” did so as a way of returning beer to its traditional, no-additives roots. Let’s check in on where it is today.
Read MoreHow many breweries are there out there, further than an hour and a half from a major population center, that have beer that would be buzz-worthy in a large city? My visit to Astoria, Oregon and Reach Break Brewing made me wonder how many others we’re missing.
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Friday marked the anniversary of the biggest deal in the history of beer—InBev’s purchase of Anheuser-Busch. But in terms of impact, a different acquisition caused a bigger earthquake.
Read MoreOne of the best guide books on any subject, and even in its eighth edition and featuring a new co-writer, it hasn’t lost a step.
Read MoreConstellation Brands has purchased its third American craft brewery yesterday. The distance between the purchase of Four Corners and the initial acquisition of Ballast Point, however, illustrates just how much beer has changed in two and a half years.
Read MoreHistorian and archaeologist Alexander Langlands has a new book called Cræft, the purpose of which is to reclaim the meaning of "craft" as it existed before it became a marketing slogan or an expensive item available at boutiques. How might this apply to beer?
Read MoreOregon has perhaps the most robust local market for cider in the country. A large amount of the credit goes to Bushwhackers, the first ciderhouse in Portland, which closes tomorrow. A few words on how important the pub has been.
Read MoreThe headwinds blowing at independents in terms of structural disadvantage, long hours, modest profits, and generational change make their long-term existences tenuous. So to those scrappy, determined, offbeat, and traditional independent breweries out there, I salute you.
Read MorePeter Bouckaert is one of the most celebrated brewers in the world. He got his start at Rodenbach and then came to the US and New Belgium Brewing where he started the wild program. I interviewed him about that project in 2012; he has since gone on to found Purpose Brewing.
Read MoreMost breweries have jumped on the hazy IPA train, and many breweries offer several different versions. This means more mediocre hazies are flooding the market, diluting the trend. Will matters stabilize, or are hazy IPAs about to suffer a fall?
Read MoreBrewers leave breweries all the time, and the news doesn’t generally warrant much comment. But rarely is a brewer’s personality so entwined with the beer as Gansberg’s is with Cascade—for all practical purposes, he is Cascade.
Read MoreHomebrew Con is upon us! The annual conference of the American Homebrewers Association begins towmorrow in Portland. Today, in the final installment of my profiles of local brewers, we get to know Tracy Hensley.
Read MoreEvery large brewery in the world is attempting to adjust to the disruption caused by craft beer. The challenge is moving into new categories without damaging the currency of the flagship brand. Guinness is trying an entirely novel approach in the United States.
Read MoreSomething slightly different today—a book that touches only tangentially on beer, but which may leave you feeling better about the country: Our Towns by James and Deborah Fallows.
Read MoreBaltimore’s Union Collective is another example of the way breweries can inject life and community into neighborhoods waiting to blossom.
Read MoreOn June 21, Oregon will become the first state offering breweries refillable beer bottles. The not-for-profit cooperative that oversees Oregon’s bottle bill will run the project, collecting and redistributing bottles for refilling. If the program succeeds, it could become a model for the nation.
Read MoreTwo of the world’s leading beer writers have new books out. Here are reviews of Joshua Bernstein’s Homebrew World and Stephen Beaumont’s Will Travel for Beer.
Read MoreOne of the best new breweries in the Pacific Northwest isn’t in Portland or Seattle, but way down the Columbia Gorge in Goldendale, WA. To get a full sense of the range of the beers on offer, you may have to go visit yourself.
Read MorePortland’s drinking culture is female-friendly, and when you walk into a pub in the city, you see what the numbers reflect--a crowd evenly split between men and women. In Portland, women are becoming increasingly visible as authorities here--as brewers, business owners, and writers.
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