A few links before an upcoming hiatus that will continue until after the Great American Beer Festival. If you find yourself missing me, I’ll be there Oct. 11.
Were I inclined to take the time, which I am not, I would explain how the following links relate to a question I’ve been trying to make sense of for too long now. First I have to figure out how to properly phrase that question. Call it a work in progress.
– Tilray lays off 10 Barrel Brewing’s entire Innovation Brewing Team and Carnage at 10 Barrel. The usually wise Ron Pattinson once wrote, “I don’t want innovative beer.” I do.
– Craft Beer Can’t Afford to Be Local Anymore. Ahem, and not just because I wrote a book called “Brewing Local.” Local is still part of the DNA for, like, 90 percent of the small breweries in the country. Not 90 percent of the volume of craft beer sold, which is what this story is about.
Soon 30 years ago, Daria and I were standing on the former “killing floor” of a sausage factory that had become Left Hand Brewing with co-founder Eric Wallace (this was one of those times when you remember exactly where you were when you heard something). Wallace, who figures prominently in this VinePair story, said: “The large brewers are not tooled to do what we do. They’ll have to build less-than-efficient breweries to make beer like we do.”
I should, and will, maybe even at GABF, talk with Wallace about just what he meant when he said, “We can make your beer more efficiently.” I’m not prepared to abandon the thought embracing efficiency means abandoning inefficiency altogether. Or that innovation does not include what Tonya Cornett has been doing for so long in Oregon.
That’s already more than I meant to write this week. There are dots to be connected, but not now. Instead, a reminder that should you be jonesing for beer links between now and well into October visit A Good Beer Blog on Thursdays and Boak & Bailey on Saturdays.