Author: Tom Acitelli
-
Acitelli on History - Blogs - Web Only -
Acitelli on History - Blogs - Web OnlyTurning on the Lite: The Origins of Miller Lite and Light Beer
June 9, 2014 - Tom Acitelli At the end of this summer, MillerCoors plans to roll out bottles of Miller Lite with the original white labels. The last time such plans were under way was 40 years ago, right before the early 1975 launch of the iconic brand, with that same white label on the bottles, which created a niche that... View Article -
Acitelli on History - Blogs - Web OnlyRemembering the First Great American Beer Festival
June 4, 2014 - Tom Acitelli There is a story, at least partly apocryphal, of Charlie Papazian, co-founder of the American Homebrewers Association, telling the great English beer critic Michael Jackson that he and some other Yanks were thinking of launching something called the Great American Beer Festival. “That’s a great idea, Charlie,” Jackson said. “Only what will you serve for... View Article -
Acitelli on History - Blogs - Web OnlyThrowing That First Harpoon: The First Kegs of Harpoon Ale
June 2, 2014 - Tom Acitelli On Tuesday, June 2, 1987, two bars in Boston tapped the first kegs of Harpoon Ale. Commercial breweries had returned to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Rich Doyle and Dan Kenary delivered the kegs tapped at Doyle’s Café in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood and at the Sevens Ale House in Beacon Hill. The pair, along with... View Article -
Brewing Features - Full PintsCanned Mythology
August 1, 2013 - Tom Acitelli Chief Oshkosh Red Lager was about to go national. It had found a distribution and marketing partner, and was ready to bust out of Wisconsin. Jeff Fulbright, the founder and president of the brewing company behind Chief Oshkosh, Mid-Coast Brewing, excitedly placed the beer in a spectrum that showed both his ambition and confidence. “The... View Article -
Full Pints - HistoryDrafting A Revolution
July 1, 2013 - Tom Acitelli One day in August, 1965, a 27-year-old former graduate student in Japanese studies at Stanford walked into his favorite bar, the Old Spaghetti Factory in San Francisco’s trendy North Beach neighborhood. He ordered his usual: an Anchor Steam. The bar’s owner, a World War II veteran and local eccentric named Fred Kuh, ambled over. “You... View Article -
Book Reviews - Full PintsAmerica Walks Into a Bar: A Spirited History of Taverns and Saloons, Speakeasies and Grog Shops
January 1, 2012 - Tom Acitelli The evolution of the American bar has been analogous to the evolution of American civic life. Both started as primarily the domain of straight, white, Protestant males of means and British descent; and then both gradually—and grudgingly—expanded to include anybody who wanted in. That is the deliciously clever undercurrent of Ryerson University English professor Christine... View Article -
What's BrewingThe Trials and Tribulations of Trappist Ale Distribution
June 14, 2011 - Tom Acitelli Bierkraft in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn is the sort of place most beer lovers would step over their mothers to spend time—and money—in regularly.