This column first appeared in the July 2015 issue of All About Beer Magazine. Click here to subscribe. Between last September (2014) and this past April, half a dozen breweries, producing between 60,000 and 200,000 barrels in 2014, announced that they’d received investments from private equity firms. The pace of these deals hasn’t slowed. As... View Article
Wednesdays have always been an important day for us at Port Brewing. When I launched this venture (with my three other partners) back in 2005, we met every Wednesday from 4 to 7 p.m. to recap the previous week’s operations and, more importantly, agree on the long-term goals necessary to grow a brewery business. In... View Article
Here at the magazine we’ve been thinking a lot about numbers and how they relate to what we drink. Walk the aisles of a liquor store and you’ll see tags hanging from shelves, advertising numerical scores for corresponding bottles. While more prominent in the wine section, it’s becoming increasingly more commonplace with beer. But what causes... View Article
As a species it’s in our nature to explore. From the early nomadic tribes traversing continents to the first astronomers who stared into the night sky, we have the yearning to know more imprinted in our DNA. There are the adventurers and scientists who climb peaks, travel to depths of the ocean and explore the... View Article
For many working women, the decision to start a family is fraught with anxiety. Will I be physically incapacitated? Will nurturing a tiny, shrieking beast affect my ability to do my job? For a certain subset of us, that decision is made more complicated by one ineluctable fact: We built our careers around fetus poison,... View Article
Recent TV ads and other marketing for a couple of the biggest beer brands in the United States—Miller Lite and Budweiser—refocus viewers’ attention to the beer. Extreme close-ups taken inside tanks, hands rubbing hops, barley fields, liquid pouring and more. With these new spots, the companies that operate the country’s largest breweries seem to be... View Article
More than 43,000 new and re-released beers were produced and imported professionally last year in the United States. OK, I made that up, but think it’s within range of the actual number. With more than 3,200 breweries operating across the country and more than double that number interested in exporting here (and with each releasing... View Article
Twenty-two years ago, I tasted the Karl Strauss amber lager for the first time while sitting at the brewery. It was the first American example of the great German style I had ever tried, and it was where a good friend and I wondered: Can we do this in North Carolina? We launched Carolina Brewery... View Article
Last month, I took my first trip to Nebraska and visited breweries and bars, and met with local folks who are intensely proud of their heritage and the future of their beer culture. I spent a few days and nights at the Nebraska Brewing Co., where founders Kim and Paul Kavulak proudly showed off their... View Article
