It’s been two months to the day since I had a pint of beer in a pub. In that time, alternately feeling like ten years or ten minutes, we’ve inherited a new world.
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So much in life has become politicized that it’s hard for any domain to resist being pulled into the culture wars. Craft beer seems to be an exception.
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Anchor Steam forms the connective tissue binding the older American tradition of European brewing and the inventive era of craft brewing that followed. The processes used to make Steam Beer cast backward, but the formulation created the blueprint craft breweries would use when they emerged a decade later.
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In the latest edition of the Coronavirus Diaries, Old Town’s Adam Milne tells us how big banks let him down—but a little, local brewery came to the rescue. Meanwhile, Van Havig offers a typically trenchant take on the current situation, along with an update about the second taproom in planning when the virus hit.
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In the latest edition of the Coronavirus Diaries, Lisa Allen updates us on Heater Allen (and offers a touching personal aside), Ben Parsons gives great analysis of the Baerlic’s actions of late, and Matt Van Wyk describes the challenges and opportunities at Alesong.
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A story Fritz Maytag told in 2010 would seem to complicate the narrative about the “first American IPA.”
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When things are dire, seek safety and comfort of the familiar, which salves our frazzled temperaments. That classic flagship reaches a different part of our consciousness, the place hankering some reassurance amid a world with too much change.
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Even though many of us are cooped up inside our little pockets of stasis, the world continues to move forward. Here are a few interesting things underway.
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During this time of pandemic, when we have more time for reading than exploring new beers, I thought it would be a great time to explore some classic, much imitated (but rarely equaled) beers and what makes them tick.
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I’ve been joking that it’s been slightly deflating to learn that your site is less a place of intrinsic interest than one where bored workers rest their eyes as they avoid work, but this pandemic has brought hard truths to us all.
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“The decision was easy: get that beer into bottles as soon as possible and get it into the hands of our supporters who would hopefully like to enjoy it. If Rosenstadt had any chance of survival, this would have to be it.” (Tobias Hahn, Rosenstadt)
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Today’s wonderful document from this moment in history is a long account from Gigantic’s Van Havig. It perfectly captures the nearly universal twin reality we’re all living in right now: one of hard realities and forced behavior on the one hand and the deeply emotional reaction this moment creates.
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Most of the city’s activity, once focused on commercial hubs, has moved to residential streets. What’s happening with the breweries? I decided to take a tour and have a look.
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If the name or ingredients in a beer change over the century, is it a different beer? How do we contend with “style” in the historical record when beers evolve?
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On Friday, afternoon of April 10, between 2:15 and 3pm, I took a bike ride through the most densely-populated parts of Portland, Oregon, a city of 650,000. This is what things looked like.
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In the latest update from Baerlic, Gigantic, Heater Allen, Old Town, and Reverend Nat’s, we hear how things are going with production schedules, home delivery, and government assistance as the ongoing COVID-19 crisis continues.
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This week we started to get the first data points on the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. The consequences have been uneven, and they begin to suggest big changes may be in store. What will a post-COVID world look like? A picture may be emerging.
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We’re trying to decide if it’s better to patronize a business because someone needs a job even though we know many will get sick, or staying home and letting the businesses shutter and forcing the workers fend for their financial lives.
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Yesterday I turned in the manuscript for The Beer Bible. Allow me to share a few things I discovered while writing it.
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In this ongoing series, I have been posting the reflections of brewers and cidermakers as they deal with the unfolding COVID-19 coronavirus. In today’s post, Van Havig of Gigantic Brewing offers an entertaining and revealing report on how they’re managing.
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