Category: Front Page

  KEN CARMAN IS A CERTIFIED BJCP JUDGE WITH A MEAD ENDORSEMENT. HOMEBREWER SINCE 1979, AND A CLUB MEMBER AT BOTH CLARKSVILLE CARBOYS AND MUSIC CITY HOMEBREWERS. KEN HAS BEEN WRITING ON BEER-RELATED TOPICS AND INTERVIEWING PROFESSIONAL BREWERS ALL OVER THE EAST COAST FOR OVER 30 YEARS.

 This kind of nonsense infuriates me. Apparently a small brewery made a beer with Milk Duds, and one with Jolly Ranchers. Hershey’s made them dump the brews and now wants money for how little they sold of the product.
 Stupid.
 Stupid.
 Stupid.
 OK, I understand “proprietary.” So have the brewery change the name of the brews, change how they’re promoted; but otherwise wise men and women would look upon this as a business opportunity for both companies. One they should eagerly welcome that with open arms. Mid-level management’s blindness to opportunity is legendary. So common in large companies. So this column won’t be about just beer. Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All… Giving Hersheys Holy Hell”

Beer played a vital role in early civilization’s diet, religion and daily life, and it continues to be enjoyed around the world. None of that would have been possible without women brewers.

“Women absolutely have, in all societies, throughout world history, been primarily responsible for brewing beer,” says Theresa McCulla, curator of the American Brewing History Initiative at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Women in ancient brewing

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Satire, folks, satire- PGA

HELL—A shocking new report has been released which reveals that Hell does, in fact, serve beer, but unfortunately they only serve super-hoppy IPAs that taste like soap.

Longtime sinner and atheist Erick Bowser, who authored the report, died last week wearing an “I hope they serve beer in Hell” T-shirt. Bowser remained hopeful after his death, but he soon came to realize the only beer they had on draught in Hell was of the IPA variety.

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Last night, Congress passed a $900 billion Covid relief bill in which Senators had a tucked in few extraneous goodies, including making permanent a beer tax cut passed three years ago:

Securing permanent federal excise tax recalibration for small brewers has been a top priority for the Brewers Association since 2009. The temporary lower rates were due to expire on December 31 unless Congress extended them or made them permanent. “Inclusion of the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA) in the year-end legislation is the direct result of the hard work and efforts of the Brewers Association, state guilds, and our member breweries,” said Bob Pease, president and CEO, Brewers Association. “Thank you to everyone for a true community grassroots effort, and to our legislative champions in Congress.”

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Pennsylvania’s Voodoo Brewery has, since its inception, followed a relatively non-traditional path. Despite growing in recent years to become one of the East Coast’s most buzz-worthy breweries, garnering attention for Good Vibes, their West Coast-style IPA, an assortment of Hazy IPAs, and one of the country’s most well-regarded barrel-aging programs, at one point early in their 15-year history, the Meadville, PA-based brewery nearly faced bankruptcy.

However, since brothers Curt and Matteo Rachocki joined the organization as owner-operators in December 2011, they’ve sent the brewery down a path that bucked industry standards, and are now aligned to explode by employing a new twist on a familiar business model.

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Written by Franz Hofer for A Tempest in a Tankard

I’m sure just about every one of us could do with a beercation right about now. It’s been a year like no other in recent memory. Virtual happy hours have largely replaced the comradery of the taproom, tavern, and beer garden. No Oktoberfest this year, no local brew fests either. And beer travel, a pastime that has grown in popularity with each passing year, has all but ceased.

But there’s light at the end of the tunnel. With the lightning-quick development of vaccines against Covid and their hopefully steady rollout, my optimistic bet is that we’ll be travelling again by summer or early autumn. And it just so happens to be the holiday season right now, which always lightens the mood.

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I’ve had this belief, for a long time, that it is just as possible to “know” a person from their social media posts, their work ethic, their stances on social and environmental and human rights issues, and their SENSE OF HUMOR and humility and decency, as it is to know someone we’ve met face-to-face. What we respond to, unless we’re hopelessly shallow, in those we choose to call friends, is their character, their intelligence, their humor, and their values. Maybe social media friendship is even more possible, since the first way involves a distilled version of their character, minus all the self-conscious glad-handing of most in-person interaction. In writing this, I’m testing that theory…but also saying something I really believe.

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In the comments to section of a Facebook page for my friend, Sue Kidd, former food reviewer for our local Tacoma News Tribune, she covered the closure of a Seattle brewery which opened a pub in a ritzy (well, ritzy for Tacoma, anyway) new shopping and retail center on the Commencement Bay waterfront. The center is called Point Ruston and at least aspires to be an upscale location with more in common with our neighboring Seattle than sweet ol’ blue-collar Tacoma. The brewery occupied a large retail space there which had previously been the pub for another out-of-town brewery. The new closure was significant. People noticed…and came to a Conclusion.

Hundreds of Tacomans started to call this space “cursed”.

There is nothing at all “cursed” about the location. As someone who has been actively involved in the beverage trade for 37 years, I saw what was happening with those breweries going into Point Ruston and told my wife I gave them both less than six months…and that is because of ambition exceeding their realities.

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The popular Goose Island Brewhouse in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood has permanently closed after two-and-a-half years of operation, the latest fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 10,500-square-foot brewpub announced the shuttering late Friday afternoon via its Facebook and Instagram accounts. Goose Island Beer Co. is based in Chicago, and has been owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev since 2011. The company wrote Covid-19 has had a “significant impact” on its Philadelphia business.

Goose Island Beer Co. opened its Philadelphia concept at 1002 Canal St. in spring 2018. The local brewhouse was well-trafficked by Philadelphians across the city, Fishtown residents and people attending shows at neighboring music venue Fillmore Philadelphia. The project includes indoor space as well as a large outdoor seating area.

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