As beer fans, we’re constantly trying to assess the relative quality of beer. I wondered what statistics and “population distribution” might lend to the discussion.
Read More
Just a year old, Beachcrest Brewing has become a must-visit on Oregon’s central coast.
Read More
With much fanfare, including a Super Bowl ad, AB InBev is releasing the 3,943rd hard seltzer into the market. But Bud Light Seltzer? It makes no sense!
Read MoreHops have become a more central focus of modern beer, and hops themselves have been bred to express more intense flavors and aromas. That creates a new problem: how do we talk about them?
Read More
I endorse anyone making the commitment to a dry January this year, yet I wonder if it’s not actually a shadow of the unhealthy relationship Americans have with booze to begin with. As a stopgap it’s fine, but is there a better way?
Read More
Despite the tumult afflicting our politics, I had quite a nice year. Here are may favorite photos and moments along the way.
Read More
States and regions do not develop identically to the nation. When we look at Oregon in late 2019, we find a state in a substantially different place than it was in 2010, and also a different one than other regions now. Let’s take a moment to review the defining beers of the past decade in Oregon.
Read More
When we look back in the years and decades ahead, which products will we stand out in our memories as classically from the 2010s? Here are a dozen products that tell the story of the times.
Read More
When Rock Bottom closed a couple of months ago, Van Havig had the presence of mind to retrieve the brewing logs. Even in a cautious, chain brewpub, however, those 25 years of logs depict the evolution of an industry.
Read MoreAlcoholic root beer, glitter, dry-hopping, Mexican lagers, and IPAs (white, black, fruit, and hazy) all had their moment in decade of wild change.
Read More
Each year, trend-spotters identify classic lagers as the next style to pop. But the truth is, this happened a while ago. In this article from 2015, I describe how the process was already well underway.
Read More
In the past decade, there has been a veritable explosion of monastic brewing—a baker’s dozen by my count—among Trappists, Benedictine, and Cistercian monks. As I go about updating the Beer Bible, most of these need to be added. Here’s my list so far.
Read More
Now that 48 hours have passed and we know something about this deal, perhaps it’s time to ask a different question: is this a new beginning for the newly-independent San Diego brewery, or the beginning of the end?
Read More
A two-year-old Chicago concern that touts “great craft beer and golf simulators,” today announced it had purchased Ballast Point. Named Kings and Convicts in honor of its Australian and English founders, the company has 334 Instagram followers. Upon hearing the news, every living being on the planet responded: “Who?”
Read More
A hot take to keep you warm on this chilly winter week: contrary to the current narrative, beer is still a lot of fun and replete with passionate support, and hard seltzer is a fad that will—eventually—run its course.
Read More
Tomorrow we feast. Indulgence is the point, not something to be tempered, and as such beers should be hearty, intense, and boozy.
Read More
My rash persists, as does my misery, but—ray of light—beer does not seem to be one of the causes.
Read More
When Yvan De Baets and Bernard Leboucq installed their brewery in Brussels in 2010, it doubled the number in the capital city. Since then, a number of new breweries have followed, but none have focused so single-mindedly on creating hometown beers.
Read More
How East and West Coast IPAs relate, and why the bigger story isn’t their differences, but the way the American IPA tradition has changed brewing.
Read More
A subtle rewriting of American brewing history seems to be underway, and I’m hoping it doesn’t become overly fixed. Hopping beers for flavor and aroma didn’t begin in New England in the late-aughts, and the creeping suggestion they did isn’t accurate.
Read More