Did I ever mention that my father was a professor of agricultural economics and wrote a textbook called The Economics of Futures Trading? I’m not saying that much of his brilliance rubbed off on me, but I grew up in an Illinois household where commodities were discussed almost every day. He always knew a range [...]

It’s time to bid a fond farewell to Great American Beer Festival coverage, so a few notes from the tattered pieces of paper I found in the pockets of my jeans after their official post-GABF washing: No, it won’t be GABF East: Ten years after the Great American Beer Festival on the road didn’t play [...]

If a picture is worth a thousand words then 27 photos (at flickr) might be worth a million. The Interstellar Galactic Brewery team carved one pumpkin to create a mash tun, then fermented in another. What could be cooler? A three-tier pumpkin system, I guess. And maybe one in which the lid didn’t collapse into [...]

We all know that the best beers in the world cost less than the best wines. However you can buy a quality wine for less than a quality beer. Why? I didn’t really get an answer following a presentation by Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione and wine maven Marnie Old at the Great American Beer [...]

25,000 gallons of beer, 1884 beers on the festival floor, 39,000 bottles and cans to be recycled, etc. etc. That’s the Great American Beer Festival by the numbers, according to the Brewers Association, which has even more figures for you to read at the GABF site. So how much do you think all that beer [...]

Week 2 of the [Edited to reflect the point of order Stonch makes below: U.S. operations] merger between Molson Coors and SABMiller — both themselves the results of mergers and acquisitions — and you probably just want to know if this is going to make it harder or easier to buy your favorite beer. Which, [...]

Put a quarter in the jukebox and have a beer with Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey Brewing. The reigning Small Brewing Company Brewmaster of the Year will host The Session #9 and he’s calling it “Beer and Music – The Message in a Bottle.” (Pardon me for a moment – there’s a ringing in my [...]

Today’s post was inspired by Blog Action Day. During one of the terms I served as a newspaper sportswriter, I would sometimes gather with other newspaper types after work (late at night, in fact, early in the morning) at a bar that was literally around the corner from the Pabst Brewery in Peoria Heights, Ill. [...]

Looking at the number of posts some people manage from the Great American Beer Festival — sometimes directly from the festival floor — I sure feel like a slacker. Strangely, you’ll find more me in some of these blogs than you did here. Offered for your consideration: – Rick Sellers at Pacific Brew News Blog. [...]

Just south of Raton pass, heading into New Mexico Whew, what a Great American Beer Festival. Remembering the size of the crowd — sold out every session, scalpers galore (although it looked like it wasn’t hard to find a ticket at face value) — will make it easier not to regret missing next year. It [...]