And the best brewery in the country is . . .

PASTE magazine, cool enough to have struck a free music download deal with Oskar Blues, made “The 25 Best American Breweries of the Decade (2000-2009)” its list of the day Saturday.

And Sunday they gave us “The 10 Best Fashion Designers of the Decade (2000-2009).”

I won’t spoil it and tell you who top designer might be. But, what the heck, Josh Jackson taps Dogfish Head Craft Brewery as his top brewery. I’ll pass on repeating why I’m not keen on these lists but if you want to look here are all 25.

 

Weekend reading: AB InBev anniversary

Drastic changes, no apologies.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has an in-depth look at Anheuser-Busch InBev one year later.

Scientists discover that mormons like beer.
Just go read it. It’ll make you smile.

Best after.
Deschutes Brewery founder Gary Fish talks about why the brewery decided to put a “best after” date on beers in its reserve series, like The Abyss.

Why wine ratings are badly flawed.
Mostly stuff already reported but the Wall Street Journal put it on top of the first page of the print version of its weekend edition and it will be news to a lot of people.

 

Brewing with corn and potatos

Thank goodness for Google books. Otherwise if you wanted to read The theory and practice of brewing, from malted and unmalted corn, and from potatos it would cost you $602.75 plus shipping.

But you can read this argument for brewing with potatoes, apparently spelled “potatos” in 1829, for the price of your Internet connection. Author John Ham (not that John Hamm) makes an elegant case for the spud.

“This root contains, intermixed with its fibrous part, a juice which is not pleasant to taste, (although a great detergent or substitute for soap) and also a large quantity of fecula, or starchy matter, a great part of it to no degree inferior to the finest arrow-root. It is this fecula alone that constitutes the value of the potato in brewing . . .”

Time to add another category at the Great American Beer Festival?

The business of beer

Perhaps it’s because stories about how beer is made and the people who make it are so interesting but if mosey on over to Rate Beer or Beer Advocate you’ll find plenty of enthusiasts discussing the business of beer. Quite often pricing, to the understandable chagrin of brewers since some participants don’t bother with facts.

In that spirit a couple of links this morning.

First, from Neal Stewart, ex of Flying Dog Ales and before that central to the revival of the Pabst brand: 10 Key Ingredients for Craft Beer Success.

Second, from Harry Schumacher of Beer Business Daily: Beer Veterans Speak On Big and Small Brands. (The second link courtesy of Jack Curtin.)

One quick quote, from JB Shireman, formerly in sales at New Belgium brewing and now a bar owner in Fort Collins, Colorado: “Bud Light Golden Wheat has been on fire. The other day there were six totally different types of customers in the bar, and all were drinking Golden Wheat. I don’t know if mega-brand strategy is a good or a bad thing, but if they’re trading Bud Light drinkers up to Golden Wheat, at least they’re drinking higher priced beers. It’s across the board: The young guys who were drinking Bud Light on tap are drinking it, the ladies who normally drink margaritas are trying it, two guys playing darts, even bikers are drinking it, but they’re the type of bikers who trailer their bikes to Sturgis and wear Rolexes.”

There’s an image for a Tuesday morning.