Billings has six. Missoula four. Bozeman, Helena and Great Falls have two each. Butte is soon to get its second one. Heck, even Philipsburg and Wibaux have one. For some reason, Kalispell has long remained the only one of Montana’s seven “large” cities without a brewery. Missoula’s Bayern Brewing Co. kicked things off in the…
This month’s Session* topic is hosted by John at Homebrew Manual. He raises the topic of brewers and drinkers and writes: Brewers and Drinkers is about your relationship with beer and how it’s made. Do you brew? If so why? If not, why not? How does that affect your enjoyment of drinking beer? Here are some…
When we look back on 2012, no story will better define the year-in-beer from a big picture perspective better than the “craft versus crafty” debate. Though it reached a full boil in December, the story has been bubbling steadily throughout the year. In a nutshell, it is a story about distinctions. About distinguishing between craft…
Food industry consulting and research firm Technomic, Inc. recently released its top ten trends in adult beverages and beer makes the list in several spots. Technomic used its ongoing research and surveys, interviews and discussions with brand marketers, on-premise and retail operators, bartenders and consumers to determine the major developments influencing adult beverages for 2013.…
Blogging friend Rob Fulmer of Beer PHXation had an interesting post yesterday taking great issue with what he calls the “Two Ounce Culture.” Stan Hieronymus was so enamored with the phrase that he implored Rob to run out and protect it. The premise stems from an New Yorker article on art. More specifically, an article…
It’s one of the biggest stories in the beer world these days and it’s not going away any time soon. Big Beer can’t ignore craft beer anymore and is getting into the game. Last week we pointed to two articles, both from craft beer with – in some ways – opposite messages about related issues. …
What’s more important to AB-InBev and MillerCoors, taste, or image? Even the most casual craft beer consumer knows the answer. Big Beer spends gagillions of dollars a year making sure you know their brands. Bud Light, Coors, Miller Light – their advertising is iconic to the point of being a part of our culture (Tastes…
Not surprisingly, with the meteoric rise in the number of craft breweries over the past several years comes concerns about there being a craft beer bubble on the horizon. That was the subject of a recent article about San Diego’s craft beer scene in the San Diego Union Tribune. San Diego County now has about…
The winners of the 2012 Great American Beer Festival Competition were announced during the Festival on Saturday, October 13 and, as always, there were some surprises. Or maybe the fact that numerous awards were won by breweries even the seasoned beer fan hasn’t heard of is no longer any surprise at all? For 2012, the…
An article published in the The Atlantic’s online site yesterday is making the rounds in the beer world with the provocative headline “Light Beer: You Don’t Have to Like It, but Respect It.” The Atlantic’s partner site mentalfloss.com published the story the day before with the less provocative and potentially more palatable headline “Scientific Reasons…