First, a bit of disclosure. I own the domain name www.beerterroir.com (you don’t need to go look; you’ll just end up back here). Collecting domain names is cheaper than owning pets. DRAFT Magazine has posted the story I wrote for the July-August issues they call “The dirt on terroir.” A little science, a little history, [...]

Did you hear the one about the newspaper columnist who got tossed in jail in Hungary for criticizing wine from a state-owned winery? Fortunately, the European Court of Human Rights sprung him. From the original story: Péter Uj trashed the celebrated TF1/LCI Sour wine, produced by the state-owned T. Zrt, in a column for Hungary’s [...]

You have to live in the UK to participate and you’d have to sign up via Facebook but Budweiser Budvar’s “Judgement Day” taste off with “The Other” Budweiser, but here are the basics . . . Budweiser Budvar will choose 200 participants who have signed up as Facebook fans by July 29. “Successful applicants will [...]

The good First we’ve got the Chicago Tribune update: “The world of Chicago-made beer is expanding so quickly — at a rate unseen in the lives of modern-day beer lovers — that new entries arrive almost monthly.” A complete rundown. There’s there’s the Boston Globe: “Region awash in new wave of niche breweries.” Includes the [...]

. . . what beer might the resulting aromas make you think of? For extra credit consider some or all of these options: Campers in the forest ate garlic pesto pizza last night; had mango ice cream for dessert; grapefruit at breakfast . . . Now what beer?  

Jon Abernathy has announced the topic for The Session #54: Sour Beer. A little hard to believe that this many rounds into The Session that the theme of the month has not focused specifically on sour beers, isn’t it? I’ll leave the implementation up to you, but here are some suggestions: seek out and review [...]

From Shanken News Daily: Tenth & Blake, the MillerCoors craft beer unit, has begun testing Blue Moon Vintage Blonde Ale, a wheat beer produced with Chardonnay grape juice, in five markets. Tenth & Blake president Tom Cardella told Shanken News Daily that Vintage Blonde, which is packaged in 750-ml. bottles, is expected to be one [...]

On the heals of a conversation about record-store clerks and beer zealots, Building International Coalitions Through Beer and Pavement gives us: “(T)en things geeks, nerds, snobs, and connoisseurs do that makes it hard to take their advice and opinions on beer and indie rock seriously.’ (The link, in case you hadn’t figured it out.) I [...]

How do you review a bottle opener? It works. Or it doesn’t. This one works. But $19.95 for a bottle opener? That must be a political statement. Really. I don’t think you buy a “Beers not Bombs” bottle opener unless you want to make a political statement or are enthralled by the story about how [...]

Has the craft-beer revolution gone too far? Its beverages are delicious, but its culture can be oppressive. And its most outspoken creators, servers and consumers have become a new generation’s record-store clerks: If a record-store clerk is someone who knows everything about music except how to dance to it, then the craft-beer connoisseur is someone [...]