As 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.
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In 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.
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Historian 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?
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This year’s Oregon Beer Award winners, plus some analysis and comments about the judging.
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A 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.
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If 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.
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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.
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Seltzers, 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.
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I 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.
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One 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.
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After 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.
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