The beer world woke up on Wednesday morning to the news that Bend, Oregon’s 10 Barrel Brewing Co. released an offbeat video—replete with outtakes—announcing it had been acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev. Editor’s Note: The video was later removed from Vimeo. But the homespun quality of the video did not soothe the hearts of many craft... View Article
Artemisia douglasiana, also known as California mugwort, grows along stream banks up and down the West Coast. Dried and—particularly—burned, it has a distinctive aroma similar to another plant famous in the region, Cannabis sativa. Perhaps for this reason, it creates a pungent, hop-like quality when added to the conditioning tank of a light ale. The... View Article
In my teen years living in Boise, ID, there was general agreement that it took fashion three years to arrive from California. (The more fashionable pegged the number at five years; while most said fashion never came to Idaho.) I am now a gray-whiskered man, but this wasn’t so long ago—the early craft brewing years,... View Article
There are a lot of fantastic beer-drinking cities in the world, and I would begrudge no one for citing Brussels, London or Munich as the best. But one city soars above even these for pure, saturated beery experience: Prague. Leave aside the fact that it’s Prague, one of the world’s most comely ancient cities (and... View Article
The contours of history are shaped by retellings, and over time, we begin to believe them. We have repeated the story of American craft brewing so many times it’s almost a mantra: “Fritz Maytag bought ailing Anchor Brewing in 1965 … Jack McAuliffe founded New Albion in 1976 … ” Beware single-origin histories, though—there’s always... View Article
Every beer-drinking country has a particular relationship to the beer it brews. Germans treat their lagers as a sacred trust, and breweries often have the text of Reinheitsgebot posted like a prayer on the wall. Italians are the quickest to think of their local ales as part of the gastronomic landscape—they brew with an eye... View Article
