Category: Front Page

Brits can take their watering holes very seriously. I was once scolded for asking how long a “pub crawl” would be. “This is a heritage walk!” our guide scoffed as he ushered us into our third pub for what was probably my fifth pint. He wasn’t joking: Entire groups are dedicated to documenting and maintaining the history of British pubs—the kind of thing that happens when many of these establishments predate the entire history of America. And these positions can be very serious, including one currently hiring that pays up to $40,000 for the year.

The Lincolnshire County Council has recently posted a job listing for a Heritage Project Officer. (If you’re noticing a pattern in how Brits use the term “heritage,” you’re not entirely wrong.) The ideal candidate will be “enthusiastic and creative”—which shouldn’t be too hard seeing as the one-year gig will require “researching and recording the architectural and social history of public houses along a 50 mile stretch of the Lincolnshire Coast from Grimsby to Boston.” (Lincolnshire is about three hours north of London along England’s eastern coast.)

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Crux Fermentation Project…Mouthful, right? And that’s just the name, which is why everybody just calls ’em Crux.

I call ’em “one of America’s Best breweries” and I have seen nothing to alter that judgment a millimeter since they opened, back in the summer of 2012. Led by the lone remaining original partner, former Deschutes brewmaster Larry Sidor, they have followed a measured, steady, unfailing curve to what can now only be called greatness and, during my self-imposed health/home hiatus, I abused their generosity and kindness greatly. They kept sending me beers I kept not writing.

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This article is by Greg Kitsock and originally appeared in the Novemeber/December 2006 issue of Zymurgy magazine.

In the Washington, D.C. area, every 17th spring belongs to the cicadas.

We’re not talking about your garden-variety annual cicadas whose chirruping can be heard on sultry July and August evenings. No, these cicadas belong to a species nicknamed Brood X. Most of their existence is spent underneath the earth, sucking the sap from tree roots. In the 17th year of their lives, they emerge in immense hordes—as many as a million insects per acre—and metamorphose into adults: inch-and-a-half long black bugs with red eyes and gold-laced veins in their wings.

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Mergers keep happening – this time between two Bend power houses. What to make of it? Pirates? Mummies? And Denny talks to Ryan Farrell, the director of the AHA and, well, the tables might get turned!

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Written by Stephen Body

This is a story happening right down the road from where I live…and that is not a figure of speech. The road is Washington Route 16, connecting the South Puget Sound with the Kitsap Peninsula, and the drive is 21.7 miles, door to door. The destination takes some searching or a good GPS, because the name of the destination is not in a lot of less comprehensive GPS databases…yet. That, I predict, is about to change.

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BOONVILLE — By the late fall of 2019, Fal Allen had about enough as the brewmaster at Anderson Valley Brewing Co. in Mendocino County since 2000.

He was no longer working full-time there since the Boonville brewery had fallen on hard times, under management that could not chart a new course after nine years of ownership.

Founded in 1987, the craft beer pioneer had become an afterthought in the marketplace with a massive drop in production. Plus, its beers were not a topic of conversation among beer geeks who craved the latest hoppy versions of the India pale ale style. Its bucolic taproom situated on the sunny west end of Anderson Valley off Highway 128 became less and less of a destination.

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PUBS AND THE SCOTTISH LITERARY TRADITION

Edinburgh’s classic pubs are legion, and most have a lyrical quality about them — hardly surprising given that Edinburgh was once an eminently literary city, home to the likes of Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, and the bard of the barleycorn himself, Robert Burns. Burns is widely known for his Auld Lang Syne. He’s also known to a narrower circle of beer enthusiasts as the composer of a variation of a popular ballad about the suffering, death, and resurrection of the famous cereal crop that provides the lifeblood for ale and whisky.*

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Good news and bad news, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is releasing a new lower alcohol seasonal with Summer Break Hazy IPA, but the classic beer ‘Summerfest’ lager has been discontinued. Hitting store shelves in mid-April, the national roll-out of the new session hazy IPA is targeted to deliver hoppy mango and passionfruit flavors, over a smooth malt note and very low 4.6% ABV. It will debut in draft, and 12oz cans in six-packs, 12-packs, and 24-packs.

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San Diego-based Ballast Point Brewing tried to make a statement three years ago when it opened its brewpub in the West Loop. The venue — with a rooftop deck offering scenic views of the skyline — was meant as a declaration that Ballast Point was ready to court Chicago beer drinkers on their competitive home turf, to give the California company more credence as a national brand. Now, three years later, the brewery — under new ownership— has announced that brewpub’s closure.

The shutter of the officially named Ballast Point Tasting Room and Kitchen.

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