I was going to write about brewers as rock stars today but will save that for Monday (something to think about over the weekend, Alan) because there are so many business related stories worth considering. Start by wandering over to the Zythophile and check out a couple of posts about words for beer (here’s the [...]

German beer sales were down again in 2009, continuing a 20-year trend. I think I finally figured out why. They brew shit beer. There you have it. Pretty simple. The Rate Beer Best 2010 list is out and not a German beer made only one German beer in the top 100. Pardon my flipness. That [...]

Taken 01.23.10 at Durango Mountain Resort, still known to many of us as Purgatory Ski Area. These guys could have done better (the one on the left had his can of Pabst to the left of his chair). Several Durango beers on tap, including SKA’s Euphoria, an aromatic bomb. Euphoria’s also available in cans, 12-ouncers. [...]

Last week I mentioned that when Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi wrote the business plan for Sierra Nevada Brewing their goal was to sell 3,000 barrels of beer annually. They produced 1,500 barrels the first year (1980) and the brewery passed 3,000 in its fifth year of operation. The Brewers Association classifies breweries that make [...]

Beta Brewing. Just so they don’t forget the alpha acids.  

Marble Brewery in Albuquerque recently installed three more fermenters (above, on the left), each holding 45 barrels (almost 1,400 gallons). Marble brews mostly ales, so running 26 batches through each fermenter over the course of a year would constitute a leisurely pace and still yield more than 3,500 barrels. Now consider this. When Ken Grossman [...]

Both the beer and the details herein. The press release Deschutes Brewery sent out for Hop Henge Experimental IPA describes the beer as “our annual exercise in IBU escalation, combining several new hop processes and techniques to create a unique and unexpected beer.” Notice that although Hop Henge checks in at 8.75% and includes, according [...]

Although a few more entries may show up it seems that 183 judges at the World Beer Cup, held in Chicago in April just before the Craft Brewers Conference begins, will have more than 3,400 beers to judge over the course of two days. Does that sound like work or like fun to you? The [...]

Don Russell and Jack Curtin (twice, in fact) point out a few of the problems with “The Best 25 New Beers in America” from Maxim magazine (in pdf format). Like that some of the beers aren’t exactly new. In fact, isn’t Pyramid Haywire Hefeweizen 25 years old (new name aside)? Jack, in a wonderful turn [...]

This is the press release the Spoetzl Brewery sent out to announce the release of Shiner 101, its newest beer: The release suggests heading here for more information, mostly a video of Spoetzl brewmaster Jimmy Mauric talking about beer in Czech. At least I think it’s beer. He could be describing his pet poodle for [...]