Some travel notes, a weather report, and an open invitation
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I was recently served a bottle of Corona at a Mexican restaurant. Instead of the familiar blue-and-white label, this giant bottle had a brown one. It was a great beer, and I’ve been trying to figure out what it was ever since.
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As Portland mayor/bar owner Bud Clark once told me, “A lot of stuff happens in taverns, you know!” I do, Bud, and here’s an example.
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A little more than a year ago, Rodney Williams became the North American President of Diageo Beer Company. I was curious how he thinks about the Guinness brand, the beer industry more generally, and what the future holds.
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Is it possible that the most unusual brewery in America is the one that just makes two beers? Brienne Allan and Michael Fava are certainly making a compelling case with Sacred Profane, their year-old project in Biddeford, Maine.
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A modest proposal.
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No one human can pretend to have enjoyed a represented sample of the beers out there, even the new ones, but such a human might find, poring over a year’s notes, some exceptional discoveries, along with a trend or two. Here’s mine.
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That one post every year when I silence myself and let the pictures do the talking. With these amazing little cameras we keep in our pockets, even a hack like me can make the world look beautiful.
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As the year comes to a close, I have an update on the health of the Beervana blog, including what the most popular posts tell us about the year. I even meditate briefly on the state of beer writing more broadly in this confusing post-Covid period.
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We can’t help looking back at the end of a year, and 2023 was definitely a challenging one for beer. But there was a lot of latent good news if you know where to look—along with a return to the untroubled fun beer offered before the pandemic.
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This blog looks like a one-man job. It’s not; far from it. It’s true that I am the one who writes it, but I couldn’t do what I do without support, and I wouldn’t do it without the folks who come here to read and engage. Please accept these thanks to a bunch of wonderful people
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‘Tis the season, which means time for gifts! I have some excellent suggestions.
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Next month, the Central Europe Brewers Conference kicks off in Budapest. I’ll be giving the keynote speech, and I’m encouraging breweries in the region to register and join me.
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It seemed like such an unlikely, almost perverse idea—right there at ground zero of the biggest craze in the 21st century, where people were spending hours in lines to buy thick, very sweet, intense ales, here was a brewery making elegant, clear, crisp lagers.
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It’s only looking back that we realize lives hinge on the smallest decisions.
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There aren’t too many bright spots in the beer industry right now, but I discovered two projects in Chicago that have the capacity to expand the market for craft beer. They involve unusual business models and entrepreneurs targeting communities who haven’t yet discovered good, locally-brewed beer.
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A lawsuit filed last week against Tree House Brewing suggests some pretty dubious behavior. Meanwhile, one of the most interesting breweries in the world is hanging on by a thread.
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On this Thanksgiving week I mention what fills me with gratitude. (Are your ears burning?)
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In the spring, Dan and others from the brewery head off to a forest just west of town. The trees must be a certain height to harvest, and they can’t pick too much of the new growth. “We bring a load of grain bags out with us—it’s beautiful,” he said. “I love it.” It takes more than one visit to collect 200 pounds of tips.
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If you are an average human—I was, it turned out—you will stop dead in your tracks and goggle at the massive abstract harp sculpture that floats over the central bar. It has churchy swoops and rises, recalling a pipe organ, and, like a cathedral, draws the eyes up.
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