This article is a long one but I think it’s worth your eyeballs. There’s a lot of stories that go into the craft beer world and not a few of them are sidling riiiight up to mythology-and usually the kind of myth that tells everyone just how awesome they are.
Or the industry is. Or how very badly they want to be crusaders of the “little guy” against corporate beer.
But there’s a lot more to the story, and like anything, some reflection is due.
Every city is a beer city now, despite this article’s question.
There is almost assuredly more than one applicable phrase to our times at large from this story about trying to change antiquated liquor laws, but that’s almost certainly the best one.
Housing? Things are bad on purpose. Policing? Things are bad on purpose. Climate policy? Things are-
Well, you get the idea.
However, the flipside of that is that a group of people coming together can make changes. But the effort to make that change is one that needs constant assistance, from what I can tell.
I’ve known for a long time that initially, women were the ones who brewed beer: a family staple, brewing often fell to them.
Some, as you might expect, got good enough at it that they started selling it at markets.
And I’d always figured that, with the industrial revolution, men just muscled their way into the field and pushed women out.
Buuuuut…no, No of course it’s a little worse than that.
I always wondered about this.
There’s a new tax being proposed on alcohol makers in Oregon and Jeff at Beervana has the rundown.
I don’t know why prohibition is making another comeback-I guess people figured fascism was making a run for it, so why not prohibition?
When I started this story on Notch brewing-a really neat one about the vision of the brewers and the significance of changing tastes and community-I was afraid that it was going to end with the brewery closing.
But it doesn’t-just has the usual pandemic concerns. Which, I’ll take, because this year has been hard enough.
The Merriam-Webster blog did a fun beer-related post. Just something fun given…uh, all this.
Piggybacking (a little) off of the “most influential beers” post, we have a history of the Sierra Nevada pale ale, which is one of the most important beers of the American craft beer movement.
And just as a reminder, if you haven’t had a beer that got you into craft brewing, maybe give them a go again. You might find yourself surprised about how good they still are.
A neat interview with a brewer who is interested in using sustainable systems for brewing and the farm he’s got to help him do just that.
One thing I find amusing is that his brewery became the first one since Prohibition to grow, malt, and brew all their own ingredients.
Everything old really is new again…but hopefully with more wisdom to it.
