After President Carter legalized homebrewing, some homebrewers during the Reagan era fashioned this idea of starting microbreweries. Some of the survivors employ their kids today. But what about the Clinton generation who have always enjoyed craft beer? These are the people responsible for the latest wave of DIY brewing. And nary a one has kids... View Article
Pioneering beer writer Michael Jackson, the “Beer Hunter,” died at his home in London on August 30. Author of numerous books on both beer and whiskey, he wrote the column “Jackson’s Journal” in this magazine for 23 years. We can’t do credit to the volume of thoughtful tributes that memorialized Michael Jackson on our website... View Article
If you love the beers of Rogue Ales, take a moment to thank the inhospitable environment of Los Angeles. If John Maier had not found the sprawling city unbearable, he might not have left a lucrative job in the aerospace industry, might not have gravitated to brewing, and might not have made Rogue the innovative... View Article
It’s the middle of the nineteenth century, give or take a decade or two. You are an ambitious young man. James Watt’s steam engine and other inventions have already revolutionized the textile and ceramics industries. Industrialization has opened the door for ambitious young men like you to advance in the world without the traditional leverage... View Article
The anniversaries have started to come fast and furious. It’s been 40 years since Fritz Maytag tasted Anchor Steam for the first time. The Cartwright Brewery began its short life 25 years ago in Portland, OR, and it will be 20 years come April since the considerably more successful Widmer Brothers sold their first keg... View Article
The passion for porter and stout in Russia and the Baltic is due to the vigor with which London brewers exported their beers in the 18th and 19th centuries. At one time more than 10 London breweries were making strong versions of their dark beers for export. The most successful was Thrale on the south... View Article
When the Soviet Union collapsed and Winston Churchill’s famous Iron Curtain opened, observers of the brewing scene discovered that Russians drink beer as well as vodka. The country has a fascinating brewing tradition that was hidden from view for most of the 20th century.
To those of us in the rest of the country, “ the West Coast” is a world apart. Despite the vast geographical spread from California to Alaska, despite a cultural spread that brought us both the Grateful Dead and Ronald Reagan, viewed from the outside, the West is one strange singularity. It is Hollywood glitz,... View Article
Dan Carey knew early on that he wanted to be a professional brewer when he grew up. He remembers family car camping trips from their San Francisco home north to Victoria, BC. They would stop at the Olympia Brewery in Tumwater, WA, an expansive lakeside red brick brewery with church-like windows. Inside, the glistening equipment,... View Article
