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 [...]

“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 [...]

I went to high school with a guy who wanted to be a sheep herder when he grew up (this was central Illinois, not Wales). He carried different varieties of wool in each pocket. He liked to pull a batch out and start telling you stories about the breed of sheep it came from. It [...]

My favorite paragraph of the week, and I think you can connect the dots to beer: “Robert Parker is no dictator. He is a storyteller. The magnetism of his prose is that of J.K. Rowling’s, too: you’re first presented with a set of familiar facts and situations, and then, slowly, you’re seduced into suspending reason [...]

According to Outside magazine, “Like wine, beer mellows with age.”  

Or beer and roots music. Or beer and alt.country (“whatever that is,” at the late, great No Depression magazine said on its cove). Truth is we like wine in our family. We like all manner of jazz. Still I was surprised to see Wine and Jazz magazine today at the book store. Turns out it [...]

Just last year in Great Britain, Procter & Gamble argued in court that Pringles are not potato chips (and hence not subject to tax rules) because they do not contain enough potato to have the “essence of potato.” The court rejected the argument. In his new book “How Pleasure Works” author Paul Bloom uses this [...]

So let’s get right to this World Cup football thing. Story in Yahoo! Sports (thanks to Neal Stewart) points out the financial benefits for sports bars and large breweries. This video from Freetail Brewing in San Antonio (which is approaching 50,000 views on YouTube) indicates they are more widespread. My local brewpub (Turtle Mountain Brewing) [...]

Thank you Alder Yarrow, for a post that takes us quite nicely into the weekend. In a wine culture obsessed with the idea of pairing, far too few people talk about the best complement to a nice glass of wine: sex. Yep, I’m thinking beer belongs in this conversation. (As the people filming those commercials [...]