Month: September 2021

Your Thursday Beery News Notes For The End Of Q3 2021

Do you ever find yourself on a Wednesday evening and realizing you didn’t note a lot beery news in a week? No? Me neither. No way. What’s been going on? I can tell you for sure. Because I have been attentive. Saw stuff like this:  Curtis walked into a 2005/2010 central New York beer store cosplay event this week. That was something. And I cracked a new databased to dig through for new 1700s New York brewery information as part of the work on Empire Beer. Just typing “Lispenard” gave me, like you, a rush as well as a renewed sense of purpose. I found a reference that pushed the brewing career of Mr. Leadbetter back one whole year. And Craig found Albany beer for sale in Boston in the 1730s. Inter-colonial beer shipments almost 300 years ago. Neato. Oh – and I didn’t drink beer in a graveyard. So there.

First up, I had no idea about France… keeping in mind the first thing that comes to mind with much beer industry writing is the question “is that really true?”:

It may be famous for its wine, but France is also the country with the largest number of breweries in Europe. This is how French beer changed its image from a “man’s drink” to a refined beverage worthy of an apéro… The number of microbreweries here has exploded over the past decade. The country went from having 442 active breweries in 2011, to 2,300 today, meaning no country in Europe has more breweries than France, according to the trade union Brasseurs de France. 

Next, an update on the Umqombothi situation. You will recall that in June a man took the prize for making the best Umqombothi, right? Well, now the traditional South African beer faces regulation:

With the newly-amended Liquor Products Act that came into effect last Friday, there are now strict production requirements that traditional beer merchants will have to abide by in order to stay on the right side of the law. Thembisile Ndlovu has made a name for herself as the queen of brewing umqombothi the natural way it was done by grandmothers back in the villages. The 36-year-old from Zondi in Soweto, who is owner of All Rounder Theme events that organises themed parties and provides catering, said the new law regulating the making of umqombothi would not affect her business.

Odd seeing Pellicle win second place in a “best blog” award this week. From Beer 52 which fulls wells knows what Pellicle is. It’s not that it got an award or came second. It’s that it recognized that the drinks website was a blog. There is an interesting comment hidden in the explanation of the award:

…Pellicle has stuck to a founding principle that I recall finding quite radical at the time: kindness. Next to the toxic dumping ground of rivalry and acrimony that is Beer Twitter, Pellicle has been unremittingly positive in choosing what to cover and how to cover it.

I don’t disagree but I also find it weird that the fairly barren wasteland for any beer discussion on Twitter is set up as the comparator. Having made a hobby of reading this stuff every week, beer Twitter died off a long time ago. May still be general jerk Twitter, sure. And both GHB Sightlines and Dave Infante’s  Fingers have recently seen the need to put up a paywall to make ends meet. Is “beer blog” the last phrase standing? Maybe so – if that is what Pellicle is. Speaking of which, they published an excellent piece by Will Hawkes on  hops growing in England:

Crucially, the hop gardens sit on rich, fertile Brickearth soil, windblown loam and silt, deposited during the Ice Age. The Thames Estuary is just three miles away, and the hops, which grow on a gentle east-facing slope, are frequently buffeted by wind. This proximity to the sea is part of what makes East Kent Goldings what they are, although John regards it as a mixed blessing. “They can end up a bit bashed and brown,” he says. “The German hops are always pristine! They must get no wind there.”

Speaking of which, Stan’s Hop Queries blog by email showed up this week including observations on the Colorado hop market:

MillerCoors (now MolsonCoors) subsidized Colorado’s mini-hop boom in the teens, paying much more for Colorado grown hops than the brewery would have for the same varieties from the Northwest. They were, and are, used in the Colorado Native line of beers. That includes seven year-round brands and four seasonals that are brewed with 100% Colorado-grown ingredients. However, a few years ago MolsonCoors cut back its hop contracts to “right-size” inventory. Many farmers weren’t ready to compete.

Stan also noted that the Ales Through the Ages beer history conference has gone Zoomy and yet, even after scrapping the junket side, has also ditched all of the original speakers. Did ticket sales bomb for what many thought, as I observed last April, could have been called “Males on Ales Through the Ages”?

And Andy Crouch guided me to an article in Wine Enthusiast on the tepid performative solidarity craft beer is displaying in response to bigotries in the craft beer trade:

“… I keep getting messages and emails and calls, and people just stopping by the brewery, every day, just being like either this person apologized to me, or this person was fired, or the company just did this for everybody, and just letting me know all these really positive changes that people are actually sticking to and doing what they say. “It is heartwarming to know that it actually is helping people and creating lasting change.” To bring these issues to light in the customer sphere, in July, Allan announced a collaboration beer called Brave Noise. Its aim is to promote a safe and discrimination-free beer industry. At press time, fewer than 100 breweries had committed to the project.

Craft fibs category ticked. Back in England but still about forms of ticking, Mudgie guided me to the post at Real Ale, Real Music about an excellent pub crawl in Preston:

I retraced my route, passing dozens of takeways, a few restaurants, vape shops, beauty salons, and the odd pub as Saturday evening came to life. I had decided I would visit one more place before getting the train home. It was back across town, back to Fishergate, where down the side street by Barclays Bank was the Winckley Street Ale House, another recommendation from earlier in the day. There were tables outside, as there were at other spots on a pleasant side street, and as I walked in I joined a queue to the bar. It moved slowly, but finally it was my turn.

Reality. I believe what I read in that story more than I believe that France has more breweries than any other country in Europe. Or that much of craft cares. Facts! That’s what we need.

That’s it. For more check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and from Stan now apparently a regular again every Monday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast (this week… VIKINGS!!!), at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

“When Autumn Leaves Start To Fall…” Edition Of The Beery News Notes

OK – summer is done. Really. Six months to spring. We can handle this. Really. I knew autumn had come because I had a little private moment for the seventh anniversary of the release party in Albany with Craig for Upper Hudson Valley Beer where I got to meet that very nice young lady… right after we saw her go over to our box of books in the corner and then helped herself to a few. I think I bought her a beer as Craig stole our books back from behind her back. Community.

First up, Robin Leblanc wrote a very good piece on how the pandemic has unexpectedly introduced a number of positive changes in the craft beer scene:

So in looking at all of that, having to work as a professional and sum up the experiences of the beer world through its accomplishments, I began to see why this matters. Because for the first time in what feels like ever, it seems that the industry is actually trying to live up to the ideals that it set for itself. Progress has been slow-going, but something seems to have kicked in the past two years to create a newfound perspective.

I’m too much the crank to be so hopeful but it is good to see hope seen and shaped as well as Robin has in this piece.

From the science desk, Matthew reminded us of his July 2018 gaseous observations: “A few years ago, I was blamed for being excessive and causing global warming through trapping heat in the atmosphere.  But now, apparently, there’s not enough of me to go around.” Apparently  it is news again as Mr. Protz advised:

CO2 shortage impacting beer. No need to go without. In pubs drink real ale: handpump operates suction pump that draws beer from cellar to bar without applied gas. For home drinking seek out bottle conditioned beers with natural carbonation. #LiveBeer

See, that’s what I call supporting the actually traditional. The British co2 shortage is dramatic and touches on many parts of the supply chain, requiring government intervention:

Meat producers and food industry chiefs had called on the government to step in and warned that if they didn’t then food shortages would soon follow. Ian Wright, the chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, warned on Tuesday that consumers would start seeing shortages in poultry, pork and bakery products within days.

At least one UK pub lad seemed to be on Team Protz as far as letting the beer supply its own gas:

Colin Keatley, of the Fat Cat pub and brewery group, said the shortage was yet to bite but that it would have a significant impact should it hit. “It’s amazing how so many businesses do rely on this one product and we rely on CO2 both in some of the beers we make and dispensing some. We do still have beers on gravity and pork scratchings – so if we have to just rely on them we will.”

Aside from science, the politics of the drink continued to be top of the discourse. I saw this bit of solidarity bruvvah! news last week and thought to myself “…wouldn’t that be nice if craft beer bars were like this…”

Employees at one of the country’s largest distillers have been striking since Monday after 96% of union members agreed to a strike.  “I’ll be out here however long it takes to get what we deserve,” union member Katie Gaffney said… Workers gained support from a local restaurant. Buffalo Wings and Rings will stop selling Heaven Hill products until an agreement is reached. “What were asking Heaven Hill to do is nothing short of what we do for our customers,” Buffalo Wings and Rings District Manager Jessica Raikes said. 

Somewhat along the same general lines, the essay of the week was definitely this excellent set of facts and opinions presented by Ruvani de Silva on the forms of gratitude expected from the historically marginalized:

Quebec-based beer blogger and influencer Amrita Kaur Virk, who also works in the baking and restaurant industries, has had similar experiences. “When diversity became cool… I felt like there were a lot of white beer advertisers that were creeping up on my profile and following me, but also expecting me to fully embrace them and be grateful that they finally noticed me,” she says. “I remember being approached by them like they were some kind of knight in shining armor and them asking for my experiences… I really feel like there are some white folks who are looking to just harvest my own personal experiences to appear to be ‘woke’ and virtue signal. Even the act of approaching/following me seems very performative. Like I should feel grateful for even being considered and approached”.

Boom. That is really particularly boomtastic. Boomeriffic. Like you, I’ve seen a fair few non-marginalized majoritarian pasty scribbly folk like me in beer (no doubt out of a sense variously mixed of story FOMO, cultural guilt and good intention) taking it upon themselves to elbow into view or play that knight over the last couple of years but that quote above nails it. Gratitude like this relates to manufactured passion in craft beer which sets itself apart from the Buffalo Wings and Rings approach mentioned above. Fabulous.

Perhaps relatedly, historian Doug Hoverson (whose book on Minnesota Land of Amber Waters sits in view every night) wrote about the idealized images of Indigenous North Americans in beer branding over the years:

How prevalent has the use of American Indian imagery in beer advertising been? An extensive though by no means exhaustive survey of labels, coasters, signs, newspaper ads, and other “breweriana” (any item with a brewery’s name or a beer brand name on it) shows that nearly half the states (and all the major brewing states) had at least one brewery that used Native imagery for identification or advertising. Nearly 100 breweries portrayed American Indians in logos or other illustrative contexts—mostly in the pre-Prohibition era, and almost exclusively in the pre-craft era.

Appropriation and pre-Disney Disneyfication abounded and was not limited to brewing. But did extend well past pre-craft as it was used by “Leinenkugel Brewing Co. of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin from 1933 to 2020.” I do wish there was more than one Indigenous view included as well as a little standardization and modernization of the terminology in the piece as using “Indian” as a stand alone or “vanquished” for Chief Abraham Meshigaud or “Mishicott” who died in old age on his own people’s lands is a bit uncomfortable – but it is a welcome survey.

Speaking of questions of appropriation, a wonderful debate broke out between Martyn and The Beer Nut over Irish Red Ale as being a 40 year old US marketing term or a far older organic term from the Gaels themselves:

Fact is, Smithwick’s was an ale, Irish and red, prior to 1981. I remember it. I was there.

Beer business law? You got it. A wonderful procedural legal situation is setting up as Brendan P. Esq. explained this week as Boston Beer Company has sued NY distributors over its efforts to terminate Dogfish Head distribution deals. Wonderful unpacking:

The rub is that if a brewery terminates a distribution agreement in this manner, it still has to pay the distributor the “fair market value” of the distribution rights that are being terminated… Big money time. Counsel for distributors Boening, Oak, Dana, and Dutchess claimed to Boston Beer that the FMV of the distribution rights as $56 million, and that if the agreements were terminated in violation of ABC law, Boston Beer’s liability could be $100 million… This will be fascinating because FMV is almost never calculated in public view; it’s usually subject to a NDA or calculated behind closed doors.

Look at that. A good mix this week. A veritable 1974-era ABC Wide World of Sports… of beer.  And not one newbie style guide to drag it down! For more check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and from Stan now apparently a regular again every Monday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday (again the talk was of awards this week) and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

The Middle Of September 2021 Edition of Your Beery News Notes

Where to begin? It’s been a good week in my hometown. CHeery even. The summer is lingering and the backyard crop of tomatoes and grapes has been coming in. Eighteen months in, it is one of the most normal weeks so far even if we see elsewhere things are returning to other more difficult norms. I was reminded of even a third norm by the wonderful image above of the lonely pub by John Bulmer from 1964 that passed by on social media this week. Lovely and evocative. It reminded me of me. Or at least mine. That empty space? Space like that was where my people lived. Or did before they move up and/or away. This norm of today shall also pass.

Update! Lisa Grimm on new bad stouts in Ireland:

…with Heineken recently releasing Island’s Edge, and Guinness rolling out their new Guinness 0.0. Island’s Edge has been expressly positioned as a stout for people who don’t typically drink stout, and to that end, it includes tea and basil in the recipe to make it, to paraphrase, less bitter and more refreshing, though none of the flavours of tea or basil are noticeable in the resulting beer. So, having had a pint of it recently, I can confirm that it does, indeed, lack those flavours…along with most other elements of flavour.

Next, I had to grab a screen shot of this image to the left from Stan‘s weekly round up. You can open it in a new tab for the full size. It’s super tiny because it’s a huge image from the Craft Brewers Conference on an indoctrination education session on lager brewing. These images always make me scratch my head year after year. It was all about hazy beer education a few years ago and massive barrel ales a few years before that. Beyond clubby. Chasing the tail in lock step with every other brewery in attendance. That once again is the business plan for these fiercely independent and sometimes off center breweries. That’s weird.

The same idea is bouncing about in Kate Bernot‘s excellent, subtle and perhaps surreptitious piece on Oregon’s Full Sail Brewing’s perhaps last chance effort to regain some reputation in the craft beer marketplace. The plan? A fantasy of chasing and copying Boston Beer’s now decade or more and well established run as far away from actual beer as possible. There are three references spread across the article to that strategy. It’s like a plan to marry rich. Plus look at this:

… Full Sail’s beers weren’t being placed on shelves in desirable places, primarily because low prices on the Session line of beers led them to be shelved next to light beers, while the drinker Full Sail wants to attract might only be shopping in the craft section… To correct this, Full Sail raised prices on June 1 on most of its beers by a couple dollars per pack to bring them more in line with other regional and national craft breweries. Though it goes against the laws of supply and demand, the switch led to an +11.5% boost in sales on Session beer in Oregon and Washington markets three months after the price change… Tiernan says part of the boost for Session is shelf placement next to other craft breweries, and part of it is a more strategic approach to the idea of “value.”

Entirely anti-beer consumer initiatives like that might be described as the “premiumization of old craft”… or perhaps lipstick on a pig. Time will tell if the bait and switch has a lasting effect with the beer buying public. It’s probably far too late. As Jeff on the ground both tweeted and was quoted: “I suppose a few folks are still kicking around who feel warmly about [Full Sail], but not many…” Dead cat bounce?*

Ian McKellen helps out on quiz nights at his pub.

There was an interesting hour of radio provided by the CBC’s new season of Tapestry and its interview of Edward Slingerland, academic and author of Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization. He also confirms or at least bolsters my suspicions or at least speculations that alcohol pre-dates community discussed here four years ago.

…in the standard account, alcohol’s this kind of byproduct of agriculture, and it happened after agriculture. But once I started doing the research for the book, if you dig into the archaeological record, what it looks like is hunter-gatherers were making alcohol in a serious way, way before agriculture. Probably this goes back 20,000 years or so, but we certainly have direct evidence 13,000 years ago that people were making beer in what’s now Israel. And then we have sites like the site in Turkey called Göbekli Tepe, where hunter-gatherers — this site’s probably 12,000 years old — were coming together, building these massive ritual complexes.

He does unfortunately use the word “myth” to describe the idea how alcohol makes people aggressive suggesting those people were already aggressive before describing how alcohol just dampens control. That, to me, is describing removing the guard against bad behaviour that would otherwise be left in place. Odd argument. Also uses “neo-prohibition” while advocating for measured control. As in temperance. Which is pretty close to what people mean by “neo-prohibition”…But a good listen nonetheless.

Question: is Matt suggesting that Boursin spreadable cheeses are his perfect hangover cure?

Ron shared a few thoughts on him being compulsive which he believes is the basis for his success as a beer historian:

I realise my head isn’t like everyone else’s. Compulsive behaviour. It’s part of me. When I looked out of my office window and saw someone touching every sign along the road, I didn’t think “What a weirdo”. No. That’s just like me, I thought. A bit more public and odder looking, but basically just like me. Being compulsive has its advantages as a researcher. It means I go through material fully. Really fully. Whenever I see beer analyses or price lists, I have to record them. It’s a pain in the arse, quite a lot of work, but I can’t help myself. Thirty years of such compulsive behaviour has left me with some amazing datasets.

Mostly unrelated, making beer can sometimes remind me of the consequences of drinking beer.

Finally, this quotation from the CBC and Dr. J Nikol Jackson-Beckham gave me pause:

“If you weed out a bad actor but do not change the culture, when the next bad actor comes along, they will thrive in the same environment.” Dr. J, “The unthinkable has happened, finding your way after harassment, discrimination, or abuse has changed everything.”

I paused for the message itself as well as the long haul Dr J. is on. I wrote about her thoughts in 2017 in a post titled “Peter Pan As Craft Beer’s Archetype” and it may well be that not much has changed. Fight!

That’s it. As you start at the bottom of the glass or at the floor before you, for more check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and from Stan now apparently a regular again every Monday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday (the talk was of awards this week) and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

*Investment concept referring to a late final brief upturn of a plummeting stock. Refers to the fact that even a dead cat will bounce on the sidewalk if dropped from great enough a height. Not sure this is actually true but the image is effective.

The New And Improved Beery News Notes For A Thursday

Take a week off and you get all sorts of ideas. Like packing it in. Like… really… why do I do this? Then, after I read this “see you later, blog!” post from The Kitchenista I remembered – I do this because it is easy! No one picks on me or gives me crap like she had to put up with. Sure, playing the role of an irritated grump helps with that but, really, this is a doddle. Why? Because beer does not matter. Sure – if you are in the trade, it’s your investment or your career but that’s maybe 1% of all the people who encounter beer. There is a whole whack of beer writing aimed at that audience, little of which gets noted here given it’s a yawner. That being said, what is up?

Speaking of not yawner, I like this bit of a major culture backstroking from Dogfish Head on Tuesday. Click on the thumbnail. It’s the response they had to put out after someone had the bright idea to repost Sam’s Big Lie that craft beer is only 1% asshole. It’s not like it’s an apology as that would be admitting how stupid the statement is but still…

Speaking of dinosaurs, I also noted this comment on Tuesday by brewer Jenny Pfäfflin which goes off in another direction:

There’s a huge lack of self-awareness from an older generation of established brewers who have obviously failed to look beyond their own success—but still get a pass because of who they are. 5 yrs ago, I would have killed to work at certain breweries, today I’m relieved I don’t!

There is a whole lot of presentism in the discussion that ensued. Older being five years ago is a bit weird but also weird is the idea that the present is some sort of stasis. 2027? All that you see around you in beer will be like wide leg jeans and 8-track cassette decks. Have a brown ale and think about that for a mo. As the wise Chrissie Hynde once put it, time is the avenger.

While you do that, consider how fine a thing an endorsement from NHS Martin is. He recommended a very minimalist blog with the URL of evoboozyscribbler.co.uk this week and I might just add it to the bookmarks if only for its rather earthy tone:

With Liam working yesterday and needing to head off early we moved onto The Royal George. Bit of history as this is the first pub that I ever fell asleep in. Not through booze, a secondary school friend lived here and I stayed over a few times back in the 80’s. Nice cool pint here, sat outside in the impressive seating area with Euro 2020 bunting flags still in position flapping around merrily. And there is a Dyson Airblade in the toilet so it’s win win here.

Perhaps conversely, an interesting set of arguments were made by Courtney Iseman during my brief sabbatical which I think is worth noting even though it is a reflection on something I avoid – fests:

People, Kimberley and I both express in our conversation, seem to have forgotten whatever sense of social etiquette and what’s right they may have had during the pandemic. Now that some events are happening again and folx have been getting back to gathering at bars and pubs and breweries, it’s been a rude awakening: it’s like some people have pent up energy that they’re letting out in problematic, discriminatory, even dangerous ways. With this in mind and certain big festivals, in particular, looming on the horizon, Women of the Bevolution founder Ash Eliot reached out to me a couple of weeks ago with the idea to take a deep dive into the current state of safety at festivals…or the lack thereof.

See, I am one of those guys who also find drunk guys piggish and fests often a bit of a flaming mess so, you know, I agree but I don’t seek to make them safer. I just avoid them like the sensible avoid anti-vaxxer rallies.

I would also be remiss and a false friend to Lew Bryson if I didn’t link to the story of the white hot, a upstate NY phenomenon he introduced to me via a side bar in his book New York Breweries a decade and a half ago.

Few food items are more synonymous with summertime in Rochester than the White Hot. Though Zweigle’s is the most famous manufacturer of the local delicacy, it was first produced by a lesser-known company. The details of the White Hot’s origin story lie largely with the recollections of Frederick Tobin, the first president of the Tobin Packing Company (formerly the Rochester Packing Company). According to the meat magnate, the iconic tubular treat was first dispensed at the Front Street establishment of the Ottman Brothers.

From the archives I would note that fifteen years ago I posted about an early encounter with a Tobin’s hot. The comments from old employees and feuding family members are charming.

Beer styles: genres, agreements, important or just unimaginative puffery? As a means to that end, consider the meaninglessness of IPA as you think about that question and this newbie guide:

Safe to say, IPAs are a beer universe unto themselves. Brewers are continuing to push the limits of what this style can encompass, both in terms of the ingredients and the techniques used to brew them. But there is one unifying factor to IPAs: hops.

See, I think that is another sustaining fib of this present framework, as sustaining as the 99% crap was for the big craft set. Me, I got suckered into drinking an IPA the other day and, there it was, another Sunny D clone. Nothing hoppy about it. It could have been labeled a fruit beer – which would have been most truthful. It even had “sour” on the can even though it was all sweet and sugary fruit candy. Cloying gak. But it also had the magic three letter I-P-A and that was all the buyer, a pal, needed to know when he bought it to proudly hand to me one evening in his back yard.  If that is the present that Jenny Pfäfflin is happy about, well, call me Dino.

Update: compare and contrast with Ron’s guide to IPAs:

I’ve been thinking a lot about beer styles as I pound the local streets two or three times a day. Dodging dogs as much as possible. IPA is incredibly popular. But what is IPA? After much thought, I think I’ve cracked. It might be a bit too prescriptive so I may have to loosen it up a little.

That’s it for now. We can benchmark this week’s roundup with the observation that good beer seems overdue for the next big thing. Perhaps it will be something other than beer. Perhaps it already is. Should we care? Not really. It’s just not that important.

As you start at the bottom of the glass or at the floor before you, for more check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and (if I dare say) from Stan mostly every Monday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.