Another busy week in podcasting. Patrick and I offer you the latest Beervana Podcast, wherein we discuss canning with Hopworks' Trever Bass, and I appear on Experimental Brewing with Drew Beechum and OPB's The Four Top.
Read MoreIt is the third most-brewed beer in the US and yet has no significant best-sellers. It is called "rustic" but is prized for its sophistication. It is the broadest style in the world--if you can even call it a style--and yet most of the tradition traces itself pretty directly back to a single beer.
Read MoreYesterday Patrick and I sat down for a marathon of tasting, assessing, and discussing this phenomenon. We walked through their history, mentioned all the different ways breweries are making them, trotted through a list of characteristic features, and then, importantly, tasted them.
Read MoreAmerican IPAs have to date passed through three discrete eras. The first, which constitutes examples generally made before the new millennium (with a few exceptions), existed mainly after the mid-1990s. From the late 70s until then, there really weren't many examples to speak of. This seems impossible given their ubiquity now, and a few years ago I had to do a bit of research to confirm that it was true. I consulted a couple books I had that rounded up all the available beers at the time they were written.
Read MoreWe have a new podcast for your listening pleasure. The main subject is Mexican craft beer, featuring an interview with Enrique Aceves-Vincent Ramirez ofGuadalajara’s Loba Brewing. We talk about the Mexican market, what it's like getting started there, and where things may be headed. A great primer for those of you interested in our southern neighbor.
Read MoreOne of the pleasures of doing a podcast with an economist is that occasionally he surprises you. We have long planned to do an episode on the the value of superstar brewers--those folks who have created some of the indelible beers that sell hundreds of thousands of barrels of beer each year. We used local legend John Harris as our example, who brewed some of the first beers at the McMenamins empire, then the classic line at Deschutes, went on to elevate Full Sail, and finally founded his own brewery Ecliptic. How would we calculate his value?
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