Pay close attention to what pours from the cask engines of English pubs, and you’ll notice the beer has gotten juicer and more daring. Even old-school breweries have tuned up their ales. This change owes a lot to today’s classic, Thornbridge Jaipur IPA.
Read MoreSeltzers, canned cocktails, hard teas, flavored malt beverages: these represent a complex regulatory stew of products but may in many cases be called “beer.” Once a small enough market it didn’t matter, they are now such big business they may destabilize the entire alcohol industry.
Read MoreI went on a secret mission at Sean Burke’s new brewery, ForeLand, in McMinnville yesterday. Since I wasn’t there for a proper tour and full story on the brewery, I will save that for another time. I did snap a few pictures, however, and they constitute a decent nickel tour. Have a look.
Read MoreOne of the country's best breweries continues to turn out incredible beer in relative obscurity. Taste Midnight Reflection, however, and you'll see why Portland's Upright really is that good.
Read MoreAfter revolutions in hop breeding and product development and micromalting, yeast is getting its moment in the sun. A proliferating number of yeast labs offer organic and genetically-modified strains that do things like ferment without diacetyl or finish in half the time.
Read MoreCelebrating the breweries owned and operated by underrepresented groups in no way diminishes the accomplishment of White, male brewers. Our celebration of Tonya Cornett does not come at Ken Grossman’s expense.
Read MoreThe past year has been so tough because it forced us into bubbles of stasis. We are creative, social beings who crave the way new experiences rewire our brains. We hunger to mix our minds with others. Few places are as good as breweries in delivering that charge of electricity we need to live.
Read MoreIntroducing the embryonic version of a resource for finding breweries owned or led by underrepresented groups. (Please help it grow!)
Read MoreHazy IPAs are the style that launched a thousand breweries. Yet their fusty old predecessors haven’t been banished entirely, and Fremont’s new release, Ollie, shows why.
Read MoreBreweries managed to survive the pandemic far more ably than anyone expected a year ago. They did it by retrenching and focusing on core fans rather than chasing those tantalizing customer just beyond reach. The “fan service” approach may be Covid’s greatest legacy.
Read MoreA chance encounter with Fort George co-founder Chris Nemlowill at the pub led to a tour of their new production space. It’s quite a thing, and here’s a photographic tour.
Read MoreWhat can we learn from Hopworks’ new beer, Beestly? It’s a porter, it’s organic, and it’s made with honey in an effort to help save the bees. In all ways, it seems like a project out of step with current trends—or maybe that makes it ahead of its time? Plus, look how Germans are appealing to the Yanks.
Read MoreA new documentary looks at craft brewing through a familiar lens—scrappy, unorthodox risk-takers setting out to make their mark. The movie brings in founding figures and places their story in a familiar narrative. It’s a fun movie and well-told. But what if the story is all wrong?
Read MoreHammer and Stitch has been open seven months, but debuted in October, just as the pandemic entered its most debilitating phase. For most people venturing out with the spring sunshine, it is a brand new brewery. Here’s a first look.
Read MoreReinheitsgebot is one of the most famous laws in the world—and surely the most famous in beer—but also the most misunderstood. On the occasion of its 505th anniversary, here’s a full account of its history and impact.
Read MoreToday I offer three beers that really impressed me. But they also made me aware of the trajectory their breweries are traveling. With Squeezy Rider, Neon Lights, and Bird-Day #1, we have liquid metaphors for where Deschutes, Ommegang, and Pelican are heading.
Read MoreGuinness is treated as if it is one beer, not a brewery. Like Pacifico or Heineken, naming the company names the beer. Yet the beer we think of when we name the brewery doesn't date to 1759, but two hundred years later. Here's its story:
Read MoreThey’re fruity, expressive, and fun to drink, yet thanks to poor style-branding, people avoid them. A modest proposal: just call saisons IPAs. Okay, maybe “farmhouse” IPAs.
Read MoreWith the release of two new stouts, Breakside debuts a new approach to barrel-aging. Borrowing a page from the wild ale playbook, they blend not just different vintages, but different beers to create more integrated, subtle beers than the standard approach of single-batch blends.
Read MoreWe learned over the weekend that the proposed beer tax hike in Oregon, the one that would have given us a tax twice as expensive as any other state’s, has been pulled. Now backers want to set up a task force, but there are many reasons to think they’re not acting in good faith.
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