The headline alone suggests much hand wringing ahead: “Marston’s redefines Cask Ale.”
Pete Brown has an exclusive about the roll out of Fast Cask by Marston’s, one of Great Britain’s most highly regarded breweries.
Without going into too much technical detail, Fast Cask is still cask ale because it has live yeast working in the barrel, conditioning [...]

A post headlined “Less is More? Are There Too Many Beers?” has provoked quite a conversation about beer distribution on the World Class Beverages blog.
But only one of the comments I noticed addressed what jumped out at me.
Right now, the Brewer’s Association will tell you that there are almost 600 breweries in the United [...]

Thanks to all of those who chimed in on the meaning of the word “phenolic.”
Your answers prove it’s not a useful word for a drinking note.
This is where it started. When I sat in for the Sunday Session on The Brewing Network a question came up: What’s the difference between phenols and esters? I blew [...]

“When we lost the local ownership of our breweries, we lost something very dear to our community. I’ve been striving to bring back that heritage.”
- Greg Hardman, Cincinnati native seeking to reclaim the city’s brewing past
This strikes me as a far better way to spend your time than standing in line for the latest rare [...]

Hey, regular gal and guy beer drinkers, if I wrote a tasting note and described a beer as phenolic, what would that mean to you?
This is a serious question and I’d appreciate any comments off the top of your head (no Googling) — remembering that a sentence is better than a treatise.
(I promise to explain [...]

This kind of brings new meaning to the concept of a “brews cruise,” doesn’t it?
The 827-foot long cruise ship AIDAblu is outfitted with a complete brewery. The brewhouse on deck 10 (of 14 decks) is made of glass and can produce 5 hectoliters a day (132 gallons, about 4 U.S. beer barrels). Copper fermentation and [...]

Truth is sometimes I turn these lists into a post so I have the links saved for more careful reading later.
Why Should Terroir Matter . . . from a speech by Randall Grahm. I don’t care about “saving” high end wines, but thought provoking. I suspect most of the time we should be happy [...]

You can buy used spirit barrels from Port Brewing (aka The Lost Abbey).
Cheap. Until you try to figure out how to get one home. Particularly when home is Vermont or Florida or another place not San Diego.
 

Watch to the end. Think about it.
 

In case you missed these blog posts last week . . .
Can you make money blogging about drinks? That was one topic of discussion at the Wine Writers Symposium last week in northern California. (You could have taken many of the panel topics, plugged in “beer” instead of “wine” and it would have [...]