Before I stick my nose back into academic papers focused on terpenoids, sesquiterpenoids and preserving hop aroma and flavor . . . a few things I’ve been reading. * The New York Times reports full-service gyms are losing members. “In the 70s, they came for community. Now they come in and disassociate themselves from everyone [...]

It was pointed out more than once yesterday in the comments to my take on how a famous wine writer sees the world of beer and beer drinkers I missed an important point. He represents the way most people think. That was even clearer this morning when Max checked in from the Czech Republic, commenting [...]

Steve Heimoff is one of the best wine writers out there. I own a couple of his books. But today’s post looks like something written in 1984 or so, although the Wine Market Council presentation was two days ago. (Before going on, because this could get ugly, I’ll remind you that the category is Beer [...]

The always generous Jack Curtin has posted the trailer to the TV show “How Beer Saved the World.” Coming Sunday. Sitting here at midday, sipping a glass of water, I’m thinking it has “spoof” written all over it. That isn’t the plan, is it? Wonder which of these shows it will most remind us of. [...]

If you’ve been to Durango, Colorado, you’ve been in love at least once in your life. We first visited Durango in 1993 because we wanted to sleep in a nearby fire lookout tower called Jersey Jim (above). Eating breakfast at a diner on Durango’s Main Street we quickly realized we were in the midst of [...]

“I am special, I am special! Please, God, please, don’t let me be normal!” — Louisa, from The Fantasticks Would you think me more special if I had tasted every particularly rare beer on the Rate Beer or Beer Advocate top howmanyever lists? Is your palate better than mine because you appreciate the subtleties of [...]

Simon Johnson at Reluctant Scooper has set the topic for The Session #48: Cask, Keg, Can, Bottle: Does dispense matter? As he writes, “The question is simple but your answer may not be.” The method of beer dispense often raises the hackles of even the most seasoned beer drinker. Some evangilise about libving, breathing cask [...]

Shame on me for being sloppy and hats off to Chad for noticing. I overlooked the addition of the American-Style Brett Ale in the 2011 Brewers Association Style Guidelines. Geez, it was in the press release. That addition led to changes in the description of American-Style Sour Ale. I’m pulling Chad’s comment from the Bock [...]

Beer 47 has posted the roundup for The Session #47: Cooking With Beer. It didn’t take long to forget about fasting away holiday excess did it? Not exactly a theme that ran through every post, but if you skip around you’ll see a bit of give and take on whether using a beer as an [...]

The Brewers Association made a few changes to its style guidelines for 2011. The most talked about likely will be renaming the beer formerly known as American-Style India Black Ale, now calling it American-Style Black Ale. The press release also notes several beer style descriptions have been significantly updated. I thought you might be curious [...]