We’ve got turkey brining for tomorrow, using one of many recipes The Homebrew Chef Sean Paxton has generously posted at his web site. If you’ve been procrastinating and are still looking for ideas about what to cook for Thanksgiving then you’ll find some different ones here — although in some cases you needed to start [...]

Melisa Cole offers a brilliant post today regarding the news that beer sales in UK pubs have slumped to their lowest level since the 1930s. I’m a bit confused and bemused by this announcement and what it’s trying to achieve; because, to my mind, all this proclamation is going to generate is stories about beer [...]

A Bell’s beer by any other name is probably still a Bell’s beer, right? That’s why there’s excitement in Chicago that Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo, Mich., plans to start selling three brands of Kalamazoo beer in Illinois. Rumors that this would happen have appeared on several Internet discussion boards (I first read it in the [...]

An interesting exchange of comments at the Portland Beer Blog regarding the Widmer-Redhook merger. Summarizing the two views: One side: “The ruin of the American Beer revolution may be paved by over sizing, takeovers and greed.” The other: (From Vasilios Gletsos of BJ’s Brewery) “I feel this is a short cut to thinking, and promotes [...]

Hey, I think this barrel-aged beer thing has some traction. Festivals earlier this month in Chicago and the Bay Area and judging that accompanied them give us a shopping list . . . of sorts. Looking for these beers, many of which are sold only on draft and all of which are packaged in small [...]

Patrick Emerson has been kind enough to the work of Vic and Carol Tremblay in analyzing the merge of Widmer Brothers Brewing and Redhook Ale Brewery, giving me an excuse to mention that and also offer something of a review of their book, The U.S. Brewing Industry: Data and Economic Analysis . Please start by [...]

The easiest way to understand how malt and barley proved over several millennia that they are the best grains for brewing is to drink a gluten-free beer (no barley, wheat or rye). That sounds harsh, but it’s hard to imagine choosing to drink a beer brewed for the gluten intolerant, most often celiacs, unless you [...]

A few things to read this evening instead of watching “Dancing with the Stars” or “Two Dudes Catering” (even though cheese is involved) and perhaps while doing research for The Session #10: – Andrew Jefford, multi-purpose UK drinks writer, asks a question. One day, fortunes will be made with fine beer. Why not one day [...]

Researchers are reporting (I like the National Geographic version) that chocolate was discovered by accident by Central American Indians who were making beer. “In the course of beer brewing, you discover that if you ferment the seeds of the plant you get this chocolate taste,” said John Henderson, an anthropologist at Cornell University. “It may [...]

Apologies, because I really don’t plan to make this site all Southampton-Pabst all the time. But since the question was asked and I obviously did not make it clear before . . . Strategic alliance means just that. Pabst did not buy Southampton Brewing or an portion of the company. Southampton owner Donald Sullivan explained [...]