Stan Hieronymus
One link, one paragraph
First up, the paragraph, because the link doesn’t go directly to the story.
“If you want to know whether your relationship is built to last, forget the pros-and-cons list, skip the astrology compatibility charts, and go straight for a bottle of saison.”
That’s the lead to “Saison as Relationship Barometer: Dating. Farmhouse ale. Saving yourself six months of disappointment.” A clever way to present a field guide to an elusive style. The story is only available in print in Final Gravity 10, and here’s a link to get it.
Rogue Ales: What the numbers show us
You may have heard that all the doors at Rogue Ales turned up shut last week. Jeff Alworth wrote an obituary, and reminded us how influential Rogue was. I agree. We first met Jack Joyce during the Oregon Brewers Festival in 1995. And I remember XS Russian Imperial Stout vividly. It paved the way for other intense beers.
Alworth mentioned that Rogue remained one of the largest craft brewers (50th in 2024) in the United States, which made me wonder when Rogue first made the list and how it had moved up and down through the years. As I was looking through the numbers, my goal changed. At one point, I thought about comparing Rogue and Anchor through the years, but that turn out to be particularly interesting. Instead, I charted Rogue and New Glarus Brewing, and added in Brewers Association defined Craft as well.
Two thoughts before I leave you to consider the numbers. First, comparing almost any brewery to New Glarus is not fair. Too bad. Also, the Craft numbers underwent some adjustments through the years for a variety of reasons (most notably to account for breweries that were once consider Craft and then were not). So there is a chance that I grabbed the 2017 number in 2018 and it has since been revised.
| Year | Rogue Ales | Domestic Craft | New Glarus Brewing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 25,000 barrels | 5,307,057 barrels | 9,406 barrels |
| 2001 | 27,458 | 5,352,580 | 10,478 |
| 2022 | 29,817 | 5,460,742 | 13,700 |
| 2003 | 28,503 | 5,532,031 | 18,700 |
| 2004 | 38,084 | 5,922,272 | 26,113 |
| 2005 | 43,150 | 6,409,290 | 39,622 |
| 2006 | 51,985 | 7,172,536 | 54,261 |
| 2007 | 67,737 | 8,018,237 | 64,953 |
| 2008 | 69,642 | 8,483,659 | 75,137 |
| 2009 | 76,342 | 9,064,629 | 78,733 |
| 2010 | 81,958 | 10,133,977 | 91,937 |
| 2011 | 92,110 | 11,467,337 | 108,690 |
| 2012 | 113,209 | 13,246,390 | 126,727 |
| 2013 | 104,000 | 15,504,850 | 146,310 |
| 2014 | 117,000 | 22,133,379 | 162,287 |
| 2015 | 105,961 | 24,335,413 | 194,894 |
| 2016 | 105,000 | 24,302,549 | 214,006 |
| 2017 | 98,000 | 24,958,560 | 226,328 |
| 2018 | 88,000 | 25,457,429 | 231,875 |
| 2019 | 89,000 | 26,320,151 | 236,161 |
| 2020 | 75,000 | 22,842,008 | 206,302 |
| 2021 | 88,000 | 24,746,826 | 232,539 |
| 2022 | 67,000 | 24,179,853 | 231,395 |
| 2023 | 55,881 | 24,048,217 | 228,132 |
| 2024 | 45,602 | 23,103,985 | 232,171 |
One link, one paragraph
You really should read the whole thing, which means sticking around for this paragraph.
“I am none the wiser as to what I, the beer drinker, am expected to expect from the use of a Burton union. These beers are both lovely, but very much in the way Thornbridge already operates. With luck, one of England’s many fine beer writers will be able to explain what difference the equipment actually makes to the product, beyond the press releases and collaborations.”
Feel seen?
Going, going, gone . . . I hope not
Earlier this month at he Great American Beer Festival, Banded Oak Brewing collected a bronze medal in the Contemporary American-Style category with their Mexican lager. That may or may not seem appropriate, but that’s not what this short post is about. Banded Oak closed its doors in Denver in September, that is before the festival. They are moving to the suburbs and into a restaurant that is also a bowling establishment and a bike shop.
In a story posted before the brewery closed, founder Will Curtin said the brewing landscape has changed significantly over the years, and believes that the traditional “garage brewery” model may be waning.
“I think sort of the age of a garage brewery is sort of, if not gone, going,” he said.
I hope that’s not true, because when I read that I thought immediately of a conversation with the late Greg Noonan, the pioneering founder of the Vermont Pub and Brewery.
“When the homebrewers stop entering the profession, and the backyard breweries are squeezed out, then it will become stagnant. You gotta keep getting the guys who say, ‘Cool, I can sell the beer I make. I can do it,’ ” he said.