Being called an expert reminds me of a story. There was an American who had studied all he could find about bull fighting, he’d read everything and examined all the videos, so he wrote a book and declared himself an “expert” on bull fighting. Soon, he traveled off to Spain to reap the rewards of... View Article
In the little town of Leon Springs, TX, alongside a dry creek and nestled behind a grove of oak trees off Interstate 10, there used to stand a cinder block tavern called the Silver Fox. This little dive was not visible from the highway. It’s like that little shack in the movie A River Runs... View Article
New York’s Rheingold Brewery produced the first light beer, Gablinger’s Diet Beer, in 1967, but it was a failure (didn’t sell). It had an original gravity* of 9 degrees Plato (1036 British), 4.6 percent ABV (alcohol by volume), but with almost no dextrin sugars at all (0.1 percent), which are what gives beer its flavor.
I’m a middle-aged beer industry writer. It’s better than being an old beer writer, because old beer writers are always uncomfortably close to their final beer column. And it’s better than being a young beer writer, because I got here first and got the best things.
Beer, Wine and Spirits: Beverage Differences and Public Policy in Canada. The Report of the Alcohol Study Committee, 1973. Edell, Dean, MD., Eat, Drink & Be Merry. 1999 New York: Harper, Collins. Ford, Gene, The Benefits of Moderate Drinking, Alcohol, Health & Society. 1988 San Francisco, CA: Wine Appreciation Guild. Ford, Gene, Ford’s ABCs of... View Article
I’m getting sick and tired of taking the flack for the All-American standard drunk and those who blame it all on beer. I could just scream. I’m tired of the MADD mothers, I’m tired of that outfit in Washington, DC, who wants to raise the taxes on all beer, and not just the yellow industrial... View Article
We’re heading into 30 years after the craft brewing revolution crystallized. It all really began in 1965, when Fritz Maytag bought the failing Anchor Brewery in San Francisco. His success with that brewery was an inspiration, but other forces were at work, too.
Wait! Wait! There seem to be quite a few of them in my fridge and another two dozen in my cellar. And I’m getting thirsty! Thirsty, I tell ya!
Recently, I attended what may have been my eighth brewery blessing. A long time back, I had observed Catholic and Episcopalian brewery blessings. They were interesting ceremonies. Christians have been blessing breweries and wineries for well over a thousand years. Most Christians take a relaxed view of modest drinking; blessing an alcohol production establishment is... View Article
