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!["Poland Brews the Best Baltic Porters, [but] We Don't Need to Call Them Polish Porters"](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5876279bbebafb82a7c81c00/1737040278243-FWWJ98RFW4TF6XE19P8M/IMG_4016.jpeg)
Let’s say the cost of aluminum cans rises to the equivalent of five cents a pint. Does the brewer simply raise prices five cents a pint and pass this cost along? Brewer and onetime economist Van Havig has the answer.
In the event, the snow did come, and a bit early. By the time I was strolling back across still-deserted Burnside an hour later, the wind was whipping pinprick flakes in my face, and white whorls were forming on the asphalt. The snow had arrived, more or less on schedule, and the city held its breath.
A lot of news to kick off this February, including two very exciting reincarnations, some eye-popping figures on beer’s economic impact, and the announcement of new tariffs on aluminum and steel.
Herein lies one of the more interesting ironies of our times: there is a distinctive New England school of IPA. It is characterized by strength, sweetness, lack of bitterness, and high residual sugar. But maybe the haze is negotiable.
On Saturday, President Trump authorized 25% tariffs on our neighbors and close allies Mexico and Canada. This was just one move in a hurricane of activity that has destabilized the US economy and federal government.
Culmination Brewing, one of those little-breweries-that-could, finally couldn’t. A reminiscence, along with a consideration of Culmination’s place in Portland’s history.
The best thing about beer always relates to people, so of course that’s where our gaze settles in this revival of the blog-discussion group called “The Session.”
Last week the American Homebrewers Association announced it was becoming an independent nonprofit. In this post I explain how the AHA became part of the Brewers Association and why this change should lead to quick revitalization of an important hobby.
Guinness 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:
Tillamook’s de Garde Brewing is throwing a huge party with some amazing breweries (local, national, and international) for their 12th anniversary. Info on that, plus how you can score two free VIP tickets.
This Saturday is the annual Baltic Porter Day, a celebration that has spread from its roots in Poland all the way to Oregon, and Threshold Brewing will be hosting a fest for the style. Since it’s become a major beer in Poland, it seemed time to do a big ‘ol post about Baltic porters.
Most of those old “great” fires had burn areas measured in blocks. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the nation’s worst, burned a staggering 3.3 miles of the city. Los Angeles has already massively outpaced that figure, however, with around sixty square miles burned.
I’ve been an infrequent user of Midjourney, an AI image generator. Yesterday writer Eoghan Walsh kicked off a discussion about whether this is a good thing, and nearly everyone agreed it’s not. The discussion definitely shifted my own thinking.
An update 25% into Pub January, with an eye-opening range of activities breweries are offering.
Today we travel to a time where cars sail overhead and money has lost all meaning as we luxuriate in worlds of leisure. And beer? The year is 2050, and if you want to know what beer looks like, click on through.
Responding to a recent overproduction of hops, U.S. growers scaled back the acres they cultivated in 2024 in dramatic fashion. Here’s a summary of how that affected the states and individual varieties—with graphs and tables.
2024 was a year of mixed signals and confusing trends. In this year-end post, I review the major themes, positive, negative, and just weird. And then I finish with a flourish of almost certainly bad predictions!
In recent years, many people have decided, post-holidays, to spend the first month of the year on an alcohol hiatus. That’s not great for breweries—and honestly, holing up isn’t great for people, either. So this year, whether you’re drinking or not, try #PubJanuary instead.
In the 18th and 19th century, Brits started using “merry” as a synonym for “drunk.” The state of merriment was considered base and vulgar by the upper classes. So as a matter of cultural conditioning, the King, beginning with George V in 1932, started wishing his subjects “Happy Christmas.”
In lieu of a year-end best-photos post, today I’m mixing it up. Here are nine photographs from 2024 with a mini-essay describing why I chose it. Maybe a picture with a hundred words is worth more than a picture with none at all.
Unexpected news—real, hard news—broke this week. Each one of three items was interesting, but they seem to have an even greater force when lined up together. Perhaps, if we look at them in just the right way, we can even discern a lesson.
They start filling up before five and buzz with the chatter of conversation, the clack of cue balls, and the clink of glassware until long after my bed time. Brewery taprooms are struggling, but my local dive bars are flourishing. Why is this?
Our little science elves here at Beervana Amalgamated Sentences have been busy crunching the numbers to determine the very best winter beers. Consult now to make yours a happy holiday!
Molson Coors recently purchased a small Chicago brewpub called Cruz Blanca. This is a little counter-intuitive, since they have been getting out of the craft beer market. But to understand the move, look at a (domestic) Spanish lager killing it in Britain.
You are no doubt aware of how listicles and other clickbait articles degrade the internet. But you might not be aware of services that generate these stories AND sneak paid advertising into them. A cautionary tale.
Yesterday, Fintech and the National Beer Wholesalers Association presented numbers of beer’s sales performance for 2024 to date, and things were actually not terrible. Here is an overview, along with the key findings.
One of the most interesting historical figures in all of brewing history is Antoine Joseph Santerre, a Parisian brewer in the latter decades of the 18th century. He came from a line of brewers, married a brewer’s daughter, and bought a brewery with his brother. He is far more famous for his politics, however.
A Thanksgiving Day tale stuffed, roasted, and served piping hot.
The magazine for which I write, Craft Beer & Brewing, has an annual round-up of writers discussing the best beers and experiences they had that year. I didn’t submit one to the mag, which means you can only find it here.
Last week, a new nonprofit announced the inductees into the American Craft Beer Hall of Fame. They will be familiar to anyone who reads this site, and left me feeling ambivalent. In overlooking less-heralded names, the Hall missed the opportunity to reshape the narrative of American brewing.