The small town of Bend, Oregon produces about a third of all the beer made in the state and has a remarkable two dozen breweries. But there’s more to assessing a town’s heft than counting mash tuns. Bend is one of the few places that has developed a unique culture and is a fascinating case study.
Read MoreThis post has something for everyone: local intrigue, bare-knuckle politics, and a discussion of one of the most popular beers of summer.
Read MoreSeveral thousand words for you this morning—in the form of photos from yesterday’s adventures.
Read MoreCo-podcaster Patrick and I going on the road! A note about how to follow our adventures.
Read MoreEverything’s terrible: brewery failures are up, major brands are down, and the kids ain’t drinkin’ like they used to. The future is grim. Or is it? One economist sees a silver lining.
Read MoreWe casually refer to Brettanomyces as “wild” yeast, despite the fact that most of it is prepared by a technician in a sterile laboratory. But for some brewers, wild means wild.
Read MoreWhere choices exist between two ways of writing something, the result will be political. The use of pronouns has been an especially fraught choice, and my writing has evolved over the years I’ve been writing this blog.
Read MoreAn extraordinary brewing archive is carefully stored and catalogued at Oregon State University. It almost ended up in a landfill.
Read MoreOne of the newer breweries in Portland features accomplished, balanced, and delicious barrel-aged saisons and fruited ales. But while the brewery may be new, co-founder Chuck Porter is an old hand with these beers, and it shows.
Read MoreHow does a brewery like Firestone Walker become Firestone Walker? A major factor is being situated in the remote town of Paso Robles, California.
Read MoreEvery decade or so, design trends in beer branding shift and can be seen throughout the industry. We’re currently at the apex of one of those moments—a good time to consider where we are and where we’ve been.
Read MoreLike many large multinational corporations, Carlsberg is trying to figure out how to sell beer in the craft era. Unlike most, it has unique Scandinavian challenges.
Read MoreAnother monastery has decided to start brewing in Belgium again. But in a narrative twist, this one is not Trappist.
Read MoreTwo entirely disconnected topics, paired here because I can’t stop thinking about them.
Read MoreOne brewery model seems to guarantee an avid crowd willing to pay top dollar for new releases: a blend of hazy IPAs and pastry beers supported by a youthful-urban brand of bright colors and hand-drawn art, whimsical names, and a business approach of single-release beers sold in cans. So why aren’t more new breweries replicating it?
Read MoreI spent one of my days in New York on a tour of Brooklyn breweries. Here are some descriptions and photos.
Read MoreYesterday, Dogfish Head and Boston Beer announced they were planning to merge. How will a legacy brewery with an old flagship, one increasingly focused on non-beer products, integrate with a company that has for two decades defined experimentation and reinvention for American beer? I guess we’re about to find out.
Read MoreMy words are generally prettier than my photos, but let’s start with a batch of the latter to document my time in New York.
Read MoreMcSorley’s Old Ale House has aged so little in its 165 years that it functions as a time machine for New Yorkers. And those who stop in for a visit.
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