Fuz sent me this story, which was brand new to me, unfortunately. Apparently the lawsuit in question goes back to August 22 and got some attention back then, but clearly not nearly what it should have.
And while the first action is pretty easy for me; no more drinking Founders ale, until they’ve cleaned up their act, there is always the next question: What else can the consumer do?
We can share that story. Because I didn’t know about it for six months but if I had, I would’ve stopped drinking their beer long before. Others probably didn’t know about it either; it’s on us to help make these problems visible so that they can be fixed.
This is a pretty lengthy article discussing the conditions that many people who work in the craft brew industry find themselves in. It’s definitely worth a read though.
As a microcosm of employment in America-where most of us are overworked and vastly underpaid, dealing with few or no benefits but somebody is making money, right?- I am reminded that me paying $6 for a pint isn’t going to solve that problem.
People organizing to demand their fair share is going to solve that problem.
On the upside, the beer lasts longer. That’s not something that I feel should be easily dismissed, alongside the benefits of reduced weight for easier shipping, and less fuel being used to get product to market.
The downside is that plastics just aren’t as renewable as metal is. While the company claims that these new kegs are recyclable, I can’t help but feel dubious.
Still, it’s a pretty interesting innovation and if the net benefit is positive, then that’s pretty cool.
Just another reason to love science: They’ve discovered that adding hops to the beer after fermentation is apparently complete, can lead to some further fermentation process!
This news is more interesting, admittedly, for brewers and homebrewers (like myself) than it might be for the lay person but as a homebrewer, I might be able to use this information to plan how my beer might turn out or what might result because I’ve added hops to the beer in secondary.
Carlsberg has replaced the plastic rings that keep cans together with glue. Which is both really neat and the kind of problem that a large brewery could just throw money at to solve, as I mentioned in last week’s post.
But it’s a cool way to solve that pollution problem and as cans become more and more prominent as a vehicle to deliver beer, this is a clever way to solve the problem. Props were due: this is a good thing and we need more of these kinds of good things.
Of the things I thought I’d ever have to worry about, exploding beer cans is not one of them.
But the linked article provides an interesting overview of the subject and is a reminder that with all the innovation that’s coming through the brewing industry, caution is also warranted. Not just because of off flavors, but because of what I can only think of as unforeseen consequences.
Consumers just do not have a reference for beer exploding, even if there are warnings on the can. That’s a whole new pickle to try and solve-and I have to ask: Is it even worth trying to retrain customers like this?
They’ve found new ways to uncover evidence of brewing in Mesopotamia.
Longtime readers of the blog know that I have a thing for science and the use of this science to see how people made beer so long ago is absolutely fascinating to me.
