Think you know where in the beer world this photo was taken? Please leave your answer as a comment. I’m not sure if I expect anybody to come up with the correct answer, but I like this because it is a piece of history. That’s one hint. If you look carefully you’ll find at least [...]

Back when you could crack wise when discussing The Oxford Companion to Beer I casually mentioned that it would be nice to find the tasting notes written more than 400 years ago by Heinrich Knaust. His book — Fünff Bucher, von der Göttlichen und Edleen Gabe, der Philosphischen, hochtewren and wunderbaren Kunt Bier zu brawen, [...]

Amazon tells me I should be reading You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You’re Deluding Yourself, a title so long you can’t tweet it. It’s not published yet, but I put my request in at our local library [...]

You have any idea how many books Oxford University Press published in its “companion” series before it got around to beer? A lot. Heck, The Oxford Companion to the Brontës is 640 pages. There’s The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television and The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the [...]

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

First a few words from Simon Johnson. Sometimes, I’m not interested in the moving target, the hope and expectation, the thrill of the chase. I’m in it for the moment. I want to get my hands round the blighter. I’m in it for the kill. Now go drink some beer. I’ll be working on this [...]

If you thought Jeff Alworth was unimpressed with the Oxford Companion to Beer yesterday then read what Martyn Cornell has written today. No summarizing from me. You must go read it. (Then go buy Amber, Gold & Black: The History of Britain’s Great Beers. Support proper research. Beer: The Story of the Pint also belongs [...]

Things I learned reading Advertising Age coverage of the National Beer Wholesalers Association meeting in Las Vegas: * Beer Industry Looks to Rebuild ‘Brand Beer’ I would not apply for that job. * The “Here’s to Beer” website still works, although the copyright is 2009 and the third of three Twitter posts is date 02.25.2009 [...]

As Ron Pattinson is fond of pointing out, there’s little if anything truly new in beer. Not even “fresh hop” beers. This weekend in St. Louis, 15 or so breweries will serve various beers at the Schlafly Fresh Hop Festival. We’re not Portland or Seattle (see this account), but Schlafly (otherwise known as The Saint [...]

Reuben Gray has posted the roundup for The Session #56: “Thanks to the Big Boys.” A pretty good turnout for a topic Reuben feared wouldn’t generate much interest. Not everybody was inclined to actually thank the “Big Boys” (a category not everybody viewed the same way), at least without sarcasm dripping of their posts. But [...]