beers of conviction

One link, one paragraph

The link.

The paragraph this week is actually a quote from within a listicle (you’ve been warned). It is one that may make saison lovers smile and wipe a tear from their eye at the same moment. Looking at you, @beervanana.

“There comes a time in every brewer’s career where they finally convince the brewery owners they should be allowed to brew a saison. They pour everything they have into it. They do deep research, talk to everyone they know who has brewed one, and end up crafting an incredibly drinkable and complex beer with real depth and nuance. And then it inevitably sits on that draft line for the next eight months until the bar manager convinces the aforementioned owners that they should dump the rest of it to make room for an overly spiced pumpkin beer.”

—Richie Tevlin, owner and brewmaster, Space Cadet Brewing Co., Philadelphia

My kinda beer

Bottom of beer can -- packaged 12.01.25 with "Terroir Matters" message

Some words about the beer inside this can coming . . . eventually, but certainly not the next few weeks.

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

The New Brewer magazine Industry Review issues

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.

YearRogue AlesDomestic CraftNew Glarus Brewing
200025,000 barrels5,307,057 barrels9,406 barrels
200127,4585,352,58010,478
202229,8175,460,74213,700
200328,5035,532,03118,700
200438,0845,922,27226,113
200543,1506,409,29039,622
200651,9857,172,53654,261
200767,7378,018,23764,953
200869,6428,483,65975,137
200976,3429,064,62978,733
201081,95810,133,97791,937
201192,11011,467,337108,690
2012113,20913,246,390126,727
2013104,00015,504,850146,310
2014117,00022,133,379162,287
2015105,96124,335,413194,894
2016105,00024,302,549214,006
201798,00024,958,560226,328
201888,00025,457,429231,875
201989,00026,320,151236,161
202075,00022,842,008206,302
202188,00024,746,826232,539
202267,00024,179,853231,395
202355,88124,048,217228,132
202445,60223,103,985232,171