December 2020 is turning out to be a bleak affair. Take a break from the news and enjoy something that offers a bit of warmth and hope.
Read More
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?
Read More
Five years ago I spent an afternoon with Dave McLean of Magnolia Brewery. Since then, the beer industry, San Francisco, and Magnolia—later purchased by New Belgium, which was itself purchased by Kirin—have all gone through major changes.
Read More
Great 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 More
As I was preparing to leave for a month in Europe, Portland passed an important anniversary that may hold lessons both about the city’s current condition and also the state of the beer market. On September 1, 1999, the Blitz-Weinhard brewery turned off the lights for the last time.
Read More
Lithuania has one of the most interesting and unusual brewing traditions in the world, and should be on your short list for foreign travel. Here’s a primer.
Read More
Few countries have extant brewing traditions as old as Austria’s, or contain the fixtures of historic brewing countries. It’s also one of only three countries where the standard mass market lager is equivalent in quality and flavor to so-called craft beers elsewhere.
Read More
The state of cask is not good—and hasn’t been for decades. Craft brewing was originally seen as the latest threat, but does it offer the means to salvation?
Read More
What causes us to like certain beers, certain styles? What force guides your hand to one product at the store and not another? We think we are the masters of these choices, but something deeper is at play.
Read More
At first glance, Michael Kora’s vision to make his brewery the mainstay of an outer eastside neighborhood doesn’t seem very ambitious. A second look tells a different story.
Read More
This morning, London’s last Victorian-era cask brewery announced it had sold its beer business to Asahi. That news should alarm anyone interested in the health of cask beer in Great Britain.
Read More
All About Beer magazine was founded in 1979 and documented the entire history of craft brewing in America. Sadly, it looks like it will never reach its 40th anniversary.
Read More
It seems like breweries that are spark a trend or capture the zeitgeist of the moment are doing everything right. But history hasn’t been particularly kind to those breweries when fashions change.
Read More
Two centuries ago, Americans drank all day long. Two generations ago, they toasted each other with three-martini lunches. Today the median drinker sips just a couple drinks a week. What happens if these trends continue?
Read More
Over the weekend, I was visiting Brewery Ommegang for an annual event I found unusual and intriguing. On Saturday, I had a moment to sit down and reflect on what I was seeing.
Read More
Homebrew Con is upon us! The annual conference of the American Homebrewers Association begins towmorrow in Portland. Today, in the final installment of my profiles of local brewers, we get to know Tracy Hensley.
Read More
The annual national homebrewers conference, Homebrew Con, happens next month in Portland. To gear up, I have been speaking to local homebrewers about their approach and philosophy. Today we have one of the most decorated brewers in America, Rodney Kibzey.
Read More
In the final installment of this ongoing series, some forward-looking advice on what we can do to hasten the change toward more equal workplaces.
Read More
In part three of this ongoing series, brewer Allison Higi reflects on her experiences at a ten-year veteran of the brewing industry and offers advice on making things better.
Read More