Seltzer is made with buckets of highly processed “natural” flavor, which doesn’t seem very crafted. But that same flavor is used in some beer—does that mean it’s not crafted, either?
Read MoreI’m trying to create a roadmap that captures all the various IPAs a drinker will encounter in the wild as a part of my Beer Bible reboot, and I’d love your help.
Read MoreExactly one decade ago I went into writing full-time. It’s funny, but looking back, I see I had no idea what that entailed.
Read More“Pig is ragged, like a two-a.m. buzz. Pig is dangerous. But most of all, Pig is a whiff of nostalgia, the yearning for our more badass years. That younger me drank them in fours and fives, loving the thrill.”
Read MoreA very sad announcement today that Czechia’s Pivovar Kout na Šumavě has closed. It was one of the most interesting breweries in the world.
Read MoreGreat Notion is a polarizing brewery, but for an unusual and—for some—unsettling reason. Both fans and critics of the brewery agree they make beers that taste uncannily like a blueberry muffin, stack of pancakes, or scoop of sherbet. Where they disagree: whether the beer should taste like those things.
Read MoreCraft beer has sparked an amazing wave of hop breeding, both among private companies and government-supported agencies. It started in the US but has now spread around the world. Here is a list of all the new hops you might encounter, from home and abroad.
Read MoreAs 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 MoreJust a year old, Beachcrest Brewing has become a must-visit on Oregon’s central coast.
Read MoreWith 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 MoreI 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 MoreDespite the tumult afflicting our politics, I had quite a nice year. Here are may favorite photos and moments along the way.
Read MoreStates 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 MoreWhen 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 MoreWhen 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 MoreEach 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 MoreIn 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 MoreNow 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?
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