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 [...]

Welcome to my fool’s errand. Last week in the responses to my “The business of beer” post I started a quick exchange with Alan McLeod. I made a reference to a Beer Advocate thread I didn’t have a link to at the time and Alan asked another question I started to answer off the top [...]

The OregonLive headline tells you pretty much all you need to know: Glut of hops unlikely to lower beer prices. This follows a story in Washngton’s Tri-City Herald earlier in the month: Abundant hops harvest is bittersweet. That’s agriculture or you. As I wrote in 2007 there’s nothing new about wild swings in the price [...]

A few things you might have missed last week: – The held the Iron City Brewing auction Friday and yesterday in Pittsburgh. – Granted Equity For Punks might be important to the future of BrewDog, has led to considerable discussion about the value of the company, and certainly reminds us that no matter how much [...]

“The average price of a six-pack of Oregon craft beer in Southeast Portland is $8.85. A 22-ounce bomber averages $4.90, and 16 ounces of quality draft beer will typically set you back $4.27.” From the first Portland Beer Price Index posted by It’s Pub Night. The plan is to do this quarterly. Wouldn’t you like [...]

A fine job in the Philadelphia City Paper of explaining why bars raised the price of Chimay White. Blame the weak dollar, among other things. Although the story is very well done, it contains one line that gets repeated too often: “the Trappist monks who oversee Chimay do not produce and sell beer for profit.” [...]

Oops, I missed the anniversary on this by a bit. It was thirty years ago on June 12 that New York Times wine writer Frank Prial penned a full-length and very complimentary feature on Jack McAuliffe and his New Albion brewery. You have to pay to download a pdf version of the article, but it’s [...]

People who are predisposed to spend $95 to attend a beer and food festival say “high quality” is their main priority when purchasing beer, as opposed to low price or brand recognition. Is this news? Here are excerpts from the Brewers Association press release: On Saturday, May 30, over 1,900 attendees enjoyed craft beer and [...]

A really interesting discussion between Mario at Brewed For Thought and Pete from BetterBeerBlog about paying $43 for the Mayfield Iconoclast beers at Whole Foods. (I think, I hope, this is the price of a 750ml bottle.) Go read it all. I’m too distracted to jump into this other than to suggest . . . [...]

This is my contribution to The Session: Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em, hosted by Lew Bryson. Check out his blog for links to other posts and the recap. Last night we sampled a variety of smoked meat at Cooper’s Old Time Pit Barbecue in Llano, Texas. What makes barbecue different in Llano is that [...]