A Lviv brewery shifted production from beer to Molotov cocktails over the weekend, as columns of Russian soldiers marched toward Ukraine’s cities. War, in an instant, changes everything.
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A chance discovery of an old homebrew book takes me back to 1971. Man, things were bleak.
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Portland’s Von Ebert pulled off the singular trick of winning gold at both the GABF and Oregon Beer Awards for Volatile Substance, their IPA. A year earlier, their IPA Nothing Noble took bronze at GABF. It was high time I spent some time at the brewery to figure out their secrets.
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A few hours apart, longtime stalwart Hair of the Dog and relative newcomer Modern Times announced they would close the respective breweries that sat a quarter mile apart in industrial Southeast Portland.
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In the 1990s, American brewers discovered Belgian beer and developed a new consciousness around yeast. A similar process went into overdrive a decade later with hops. Malts remain sadly under the radar. But with dozens of small malthouses popping up, are we due for an era of malt consciousness?
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Bud Clark died last week. He was one of Portland's most popular mayors, and sneakily famous for his “Expose Yourself to Art” fundraiser. In a city famous for beer, however, the old publican was also the city's most iconic figure.
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Culture is often something observed in small gestures or when no one is looking. Here are a few observation from my visit to Dublin in 2016.
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Seltzer is made with buckets of highly processed “natural” flavor, which doesn’t seem very crafted. But that same flavor is used in some beer—does that mean it’s not crafted, either?
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