Beervana Blog Posts

The American Beer Deserts Are Disappearing

The growth of new breweries has happened unevenly across the country in recent years. The reason for this is obvious once you see where new breweries are opening the fastest.

Jeff AlworthJanuary 10, 2019 Comments

Buyouts, Poverty, and Sexual Harrassment; Welcome to 2019!

We greet the new year with three depressing stories. If 2019 continues like this, we’re all going to be in trouble.

Jeff AlworthJanuary 7, 2019 Comments

Making the Beer People Buy

A local-interest story in the Chicago Tribune about a small brewery serves as a perfect case to explain brewing in America in 2019.

Jeff AlworthJanuary 4, 2019 Comments

Five Reasons to Look Forward to 2019

Sure, it’s the dead of winter and the holidays are finished. But fear not! Here are five good reasons to get excited about the new year.

Jeff AlworthJanuary 2, 2019

The Year in Pictures

The title says it all.

Jeff AlworthDecember 28, 2018Comment

Best Beer of the Year (Satori 2018)

Riffing on the name Beervana, I have traditionally identified the best new beer of the year with the Satori award. It honors the beer that in a single instant, through the force of tastiness and elan, produces a similar flash of insight into the nature of beer.

Beer Sherpa RecommendsJeff AlworthDecember 27, 2018 Comments

Choice Cuts for the Holiday

I will have written about 175 posts by the time 2018 is over. These are the best, and if you’re looking for something to read in front of the fire, have a look and see if you missed anything important.

Jeff AlworthDecember 24, 2018 Comment

The Year in Review

Brut IPAs, glitter beer, and mixed-fermentation saisons—2018 had them all and more. It was a lively, anxious, and ultimately rewarding year in beer.

Jeff AlworthDecember 21, 2018

“Craft Brewer” Definition Changed to Accommodate Sam Adams’ Shift Away From Beer

For the second time in twelve years, the Brewers Association has changed its definition to accommodate Boston Beer. The change ensures Sam Adams, which is increasingly the maker of flavored malt beverages and cider, may still be a “craft brewery” in good standing.

Jeff AlworthDecember 18, 2018 Comments

And Now, a Word For Our Sponsor

Media outlets are closing down by the week, and it can seem like a grim time for content-producers. But not everyone is suffering. Things are great here at Beervana, and I’d like to tell you why.

MeditationJeff AlworthDecember 17, 2018 Comments

Case Study: How Trillium (Temporarily?) Lost the Plot

Following a viral scandal that revealed Boston’s Trillium Brewing, one of the country’s hottest hazy IPA-makers, was cutting wages, I spoke with four current and former employees as well as co-founder/owner JC Tetreault to try to understand the story behind this story.

Jeff AlworthDecember 17, 2018 Comments

No Country For Old Breweries

As the year-end reports come out, there seems to be lots of great news for breweries. Sales up! Brewery numbers up! Jobs up! But a closer look reveals some warning signs.

Jeff AlworthDecember 11, 2018 Comment

When Winter Warmers Were a Thing

Jeff AlworthDecember 7, 2018 Comments

Vignette 35: Dan Kleban (Maine Beer Co)

Americans developed techniques to make hoppy ales unprecedented in the thousand-year period of hop use. Maine Beer Company’s Dan Kleban offers an insightful look at how Americans “hop backward.”

VignetteJeff AlworthDecember 6, 2018

Maine Beer Co: New England Before New England Was Cool

Maine Beer Company’s most exotic beer style is a coffee stout, and it is not regularly considered among the fraternity of white-hot New England breweries. It has nevertheless quietly built a reputation for making some of the best beer in the region.

American StoriesJeff AlworthDecember 4, 2018

Hazy IPAs May Finally Kill Off the IBU

The measurement for hop bitterness in beer, the international bitterness unit (IBU), has always been problematic, but hazy IPAs may have broken it for good.

Jeff AlworthNovember 30, 2018 Comments

The Quality of Beer in America is Exceptional

Human experience requires constant recalibration, and mine occurred about halfway through my dry-hopped pilsner, Impersonator. I was focused on the overly American hop character and lack of assertive malt flavor when it hit me: I am in a brewpub in Norway, Maine.

Jeff AlworthNovember 27, 2018 Comments

Business Practices and Optics

A Trillium worker revealed that his pay had been cut from $8 to $5 an hour. That was only the start of the brewery’s trouble. How owner JC Tetreault responded was a case study in bad crisis management.

Jeff AlworthNovember 22, 2018 Comments

Something to be Thankful For

Something to be thankful for on this 🦃 day.

Jeff AlworthNovember 22, 2018 Comment

Oregon’s Beer Tax Increase Dies a Quick Death

Two weeks ago, rumors circulated that the Oregon legislature was considering raising beer taxes. The Governor just killed that plan.

Jeff AlworthNovember 16, 2018

June 22, 2026

A Few Words on Beer Commercials

Once upon a time, beer commercials were so salient in American life that they sparked merchandise—and everybody repeated them to each other. Today they’re mostly bland in that corporate way, sometimes entertaining, but wholly disconnected from the drinker or the product. What happened?

June 17, 2026

An Incredible Story Well Told

Bass Pale Ale is one of the most important three or five or ten beers ever brewed (please debate), and in telling its story, we also trace the contours of British brewing. Helping us tell this story are illustrious writer Pete Brown and Dr. Harry White, who worked at Bass from 1977-’07. It’s White, Brown, and Bass on One Iconic Beer.

June 11, 2026

Despite Reports, Oregon Hops Are Doing Fine

How do hot Springs affect a hop crop? After an alarming story by local TV station KGW about Oregon’s crop this year, I reached out to several hop growers to get the lowdown. Fortunately, they painted a happier picture.