We love good beer, finding good beer, talking about good beer. But identifying what that “good” is in beer—that’s a lot harder. Truly great beers are defined by subjective, often subtle elements of a beer. Yet they aren’t unknowable. Here’s a proposal for how to identify them.
Read MoreLet’s spend a moment celebrating the unusual, quirky, and visionary breweries that drive beer culture.
Read MoreA vignette that illustrates how the ordinary becomes extraordinary.
Read MorepFriem recognizes the importance of educating their customers, particularly about unusual styles of beer like lambic. I’m happy to have helped with the current series of videos that describe what they’re supposed to taste like, how they’re made, and the foods they complement.
Read MoreFollowing each new disruption, I keep looking for a return. Normalcy can’t be that hard to restore. Yet each disruption carries darker connotations than the event itself. I feel the need to publicly acknowledge that sense of danger the small animal feels. It has been growing in me for years now.
Read MoreAs our beer journey unfolds, our sense of flavor changes. That can cause our memories to drift as well. Fortunately, we can turn to “calibration” beers to remind us what the past was actually like.
Read MoreBits and bobs as Portlanders brace for a heat wave that may well melt half of us.
Read MoreIn the final post of Teri Fahrendorf’s remarkable career, we hear how she created the Pink Boots Society, the nonprofit that has given thousands of women support and connections in their professional lives.
Read MoreIn the second of three posts about pioneering brewer Teri Fahrendorf’s remarkable career, we hear how it was to enter the brewing world in the late 1980s, and how she built Steelhead into a regional chain.
Read MoreWith her sterling career as a professional brewer and groundbreaking work in bringing women into the industry through the Pink Boots Society, no American has had a greater impact on brewing than Teri Fahrendorf. Here’s part one of her oral history.
Read MoreLast night, former employees charged BrewDog with creating a workplace fueled by fear. This follows charges of transphobia in March. It’s an important moment of accountability for BrewDog—and craft brewing.
Read MoreA comment by the Beeronomist highlights where craft beer is headed in a post-pandemic era in which large companies have abandoned beer for seltzers and FMBs as more reliable vehicles for national sales. Depending on how and where you look at that situation, it paints an alternatingly comforting or alarming picture.
Read MoreA provocative piece in this month’s Atlantic argues that “America has a drinking problem.” But does it? The evidence paints a fuller, more prosaic picture: things have been very stable for a decade now.
Read MoreAs an echo to Martin Luther’s famous 95 Theses, nailed to a church wall 500 years ago, I offer 9.5 theses on the essence of beer.
Read MoreIn the last two weeks we have learned about the crisis of sexism in beer. Today I repost one of four pieces on the subject from 2014. The stories are at turns illuminating, painful, and harrowing, and with each story reveal what it's like to be a woman working in the beer industry.
Read MoreHistorian and archaeologist Alexander Langlands has a new book called Cræft, the purpose of which is to reclaim the meaning of "craft" as it existed before it became a marketing slogan or an expensive item available at boutiques. How might this apply to beer?
Read MoreThis year’s Oregon Beer Award winners, plus some analysis and comments about the judging.
Read MoreA brave woman in Massachusetts exposed an enormous amount of sexual misconduct in the industry last week, including accusations of a high profile OR/WA brewery. That plus a personal note.
Read MoreIf we think of normal as the way we lived in February 2020, we have a long way to go. And yet last week something changed. For the first time in 15 months, many of us can safely sit together in a pub drinking beer.
Read More
