As part of the run up to the Great American Beer Festival Denver’s Westword features the relatively new Cheeky Monk Belgian Beer Cafe. Co-owner James Pachorek comes across a little, well, cheeky. One particular paragraph got me thinking. In fact, Pachorek was amazed at how quickly craft brewers had been able to make beers that [...]

If you followed Ray Daniels’ tweets earlier today you know that a presentation by Symphony IRI to members of the Brewers Association confirmed that “craft beer” sales are kicking butt, that mainstream beer sales are in the dumps and that IPAs seem destined to rule the world. You also know that Blue Moon Belgian White [...]

I was tempted to type the headline, add (eom) and see what happened . . . I understand the concept of nano brewery (or nanobrewery). But if we are going to have a rule about when a brewery is too big to be called micro shouldn’t there be one for nano? I ask because the [...]

So MillerCoors has launched a separate company to manage its portfolio of (existential warning) craft beers and imports, calling it “Tenth and Blake Beer Company.” Is this different than what America’s megabreweries breweries tried in the mid 1990s? On the surface, but maybe not that different. Will Tenth & Blake prove more successful? We’d be [...]

The bathrooms at Sam’s Tap Room and Kitchen, which is the tap room for Red Lodge Ales Brewing Co. in the Montana town of Red Lodge, has glass holders like this one in both the men’s and women’s bathrooms. The holders — set beside the toilets, the urinals and the sink — hold both large [...]

This week New Orleans hosts Tales of the Cocktail. We went last week. Not because we have anything against cocktails, but because that’s when the birthdays fall. In fact, we drank hurricanes at Pat O’Brien’s and cocktails at the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone. We also had pretty good wine with dinner at Irene’s [...]

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) [...]

I’m finding all sorts of fun things to read when I should be finishing a “real” post here and two lengthy stories for print publications. So some quick bits before I get back to work. Please make sure to read the last item. Best line from the National Homebrewers Conference. About two hours into Club [...]

You know you are at the National Homebrewers Conference when you get on an elevator at 5 o’clock in the morning (I had an early flight home) and there’s a guy who still hasn’t been to bed. He is holding a glass full of beer. I came home from the conference in Minnesota with a [...]

If you, like I, think fresh Anchor Liberty is still one of the best beers on earth then the announcement that Anchor Brewing has been sold makes a difference on a very personal level. In terms of the Future of Craft Brewing overall? Not so much. Not like it would have between 1965 and 1978, [...]