Today at Grantland, Michael Kruse examines how those wild and wacky uniforms have helped turn the University of Oregon into a national college football power. . . . the head of a think tank and a visiting scholar at Berkeley’s Center for Research on Social Change gave a wonky talk at a conference in Cambridge, [...]

“Those were the times when I thought ALL Czech beer was great. That slowly started to change, but I would still drink pretty much anything that was brewed in this country.” – Max Bahnson There is much more to Prague than beer, but for a beer oriented visitor there never seems to be enough time [...]

Can you imagine two wine drinkers sitting in a cafe arguing about monoterpenes1 and asking the bartender to drag a copy of The Oxford Companion to Wine from the the bookshelf to settle a bet? Me either. However, I can envision The Oxford Companion to Beer on top of a bar, it’s otherwise elegant cover [...]

Think you know where in the beer world this photo was taken? Please leave your answer as a comment.

I’m not sure if “A Practical Treatise on Brewing, and on Storing of Beer; Deduced from Forty Years Experience” by William Black, published in London in 1835 will make the bibliography for “For the Love of Hops,” so I am passing along this little story now. It comes from a short chapter called, “The Flavour [...]

The Tettnang hop growing in the southwest of Germany. (And the photo that has replaced one taken along the Beartooth Highway leading into Yellowstone as my desktop background.) More next week, but if you’re of a mood to consider terroir Zac Early has a “new, looser interpretation” (music included).

Sales of IPA (known as India Pale Ale in some parts, but quite often simply called I-P-A) in the United States surpassed those of Pale Ale for the first time this year, according Symphony IRI. The data is primarily for packaged goods sold in supermarkets, convenience stores and big box stores but there’s no reason [...]

Did I mention the Edelstoff from Augustiner was from the wood, and a lot cheaper than beer at Oktoberfest in Munich? Last week Veronika Springer was crowned Hallertau Hop Queen (Hopfenkönigin) for 2011-2012. I didn’t vote for her, but she received 62 percent (1,478) of the votes. The Wolnzach Volkfest tent was rocking, packed with [...]

A phrase that simply rolls off the tongue. Partisans of nouveau American beer chauvinism. As the author discovers “that people get much more excited about who has the best beer than about the role of the brewing industry in late capitalism and the fate of organized labour.” More than a hundred comments follow.

Curtis at HopHeadSaid has asked us all to write about “fabulous world of beer art found on coasters, labels and caps” for The Session #55. The basics: Choose your favorite label, coaster or cap art. Scan, download or take a picture of your label, coaster or cap art. Write a paragraph that explains your affinity [...]