Hearty thinking on a chilly morning. Why do we think beers with dark malts are “warming,” and have we slowly, sneakily replaced the standard 12-ounce can with pints?
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The Covid pandemic has forced breweries to change the beers they brew, how they market and sell those beers, and how customers find them. How will these changes affect beer long-term in a post-Covid world?
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On this awards weekend, we can celebrate some of the best beer and writing of the past year. Congrats to all the winners of the GABF and North American Guild of Beer Writers.
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Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is the most important beer brewed in the United States, and possibly the most important beer brewed since Josef Groll made a pale lager in 1842. This is its story.
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Checking in on breweries as winter approaches. Up today, Matt Van Wyk of Alesong Brewing and Lisa Allen of Heater Allen.
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One brewery accounted for three of the best fresh hop beers I had this year, including the very best example. What’s StormBreaker’s secret?
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There was a time, as hard as it is to believe, when chemical companies took out ads in consumer magazines to brag about the petrochemical layers they applied to beer cans.
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I recently spoke with Brooklyn brewmaster Garrett Oliver about his latest project, the Michael Jackson Foundation. He offers one of the best descriptions of the way racial inequities are created and sustained—even by people who want them to change—and what we can do.
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An intrepid group of four spent the evening sampling two dozen fresh hop beers, and here are the cream of that crop. Get ‘em while the gettin’s good.
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I don’t expect haze to leave IPAs anytime soon—but increasingly, the term “hazy IPA” has started to seem, well, hazier.
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Cloudburst’s hoppy ales are at once familiar yet distinctive. They shimmer with hop particulates, but don’t look hazy, exactly. They feature saturated juicy flavors, appreciable (but far from violent) bitterness, and a spectacular quenching dryness that make them dangerously drinkable.
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Now that Widmer and Redhook are dying brands in a large portfolio owned by a three-continent megabrewery, the connection to Portland fades into history.
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Using simple language is probably more important now than ever, because craft beer is mainstream. To compete with the seltzers, light beers, and Mexican lagers that appear next to them on shelves and menus, beers need to have clear descriptions. When they don’t, casual drinkers will reach for beverages they understand.
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Dry-hopping is king, especially for fresh-hop beers. Or is it? Bend Brewing’s Zach Beckwith has thoughts.
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A few Friday morning thoughts from the heart of the apocalypse.
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I often reference a particular, specific note fresh hops create. But at a recent tasting, I began to think it’s more complex than that.
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With a virus making workplaces potential sites of infection, this isn’t a great time to be a working person. For those of you who make, deliver, and serve the beer I drink, many thanks.
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People have been talking about “independence” in the beer industry for decades. A recent push by the Brewers Association to make this case seems to be gaining traction. One would therefore assume member breweries are happy. So why aren’t they?
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It is almost September, which means fresh-hop season is upon us. But as with everything Covid touches, there are a few changes in 2020.
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