We were supposed to form an arch. Just prior to the start of the 3.2 Run In Remembrance, one of the many events Virginia Tech conducts each year to commemorate the tragic shootings of April 16, 2007, participants line up on the massive green space known as the Drillfied to form a symbol photographed from…
HB 541 is a simple bill. It would raise the production limits to allow Montana’s breweries that produce up to 60,000 bbl/year to sell beer in an on-premise taproom. The cutoff is currently 10,000 bbl. The net effect? Big Sky Brewing Co., Montana’s largest and most recognized, could finally sell beer for consumption in its…
This month’s Session is hosted by Oliver Gray of Literature and Libation. To refresh your recollection, the Session is a long running project where beer bloggers and writers from around the world write about a common topic on the first Friday of each month. One writer serves as host, presents a topic, and prepares a…
The 2015 Beer Bloggers & Writers Conference provided a long desired opportunity to explore Asheville, North Carolina, this past weekend with friends old and new. What follows is not a recap, but an articulation of three takeaways searching for a place on this digital paper. Asheville Lives Up to the Hype I am fortunate to…
A version of this article appears in the current June/July issue of the Rocky Mountain Brewing News, along with my regular Montana New column. Unfortunately for me, the Brewing News inadvertently listed the wrong author in the byline. Thus, I am reprinting it here. _____________________________________________ Drink Local. It’s a short, easy phrase that conjures up…
This month’s Session* is a momentous one, being the 100th since the Session began more than 8 years ago. It is rather impressive this collective writing effort persists in the face of so many other social media/blogging directions one can take. A testament, too, to the continued importance of recognizing a diversity of opinions available…
I wish I was kidding, but this is the current state of alcohol related legislation in Montana. When HB 326 and HB 336 died in Committee in February, it may have seemed like the end of significant alcohol related legislation for 2015. But two other bills quietly percolated beneath the surface. House Bill 619, sponsored…
In the waning days of the 2013 Montana Legislative Session, the House of Representatives took up a joint House/Senate resolution that made practical sense. House Joint Resolution No. 18 would have created a legislative interim study committee to review Montana’s system of alcohol licensing and make recommendations for change to the 2015 Montana Legislature. The…
This month’s Session asked what beer book we’d like to see published that hasn’t been written yet. I picked “What’s Really Going on in Craft Beer,” a comprehensive look at the entire system, warts and all. Lo and behold, while the book hasn’t been written yet, several articles hit the beer world this week which…
This month’s Session* topic doubles as my first post for 2015. If you’ve not yet read my 2014 year-end post highlighting the stories and discussion that appeared in Growler Fills during the past year, you’ll find it here. For January, the Session is hosted by Alan McLeod, long-time blogger at A Good Beer Blog and…