A Place to Gather and Talk
You have to admire a city where the rhythms of life revolve around excuses to tap a keg and raise a mug of good cheer.
Munich is one such city where the seasons are marked by festivities that involve a healthy amount of imbibing. Most of these beer festivals have their roots in Catholicism and are, more often than not, bound up with the arrival of spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
Want to read more? Please click…
Just a little less than two years ago, I posted a thing called “Murderer’s Rowâ€, a list of breweries that was intended to let visitors to the Pacific Northwest find some truly great breweries to work into their itineraries. Happily, this did exactly what I hoped: it got a TON of people from the rest of America interested in NW breweries and those people asked questions…Boy, did they ask questions.
Want to read more? Please click…
Okay, I’m calling BS on this asinine list.
I’m not even going to link to the post which spawned this (alleged) listlet. I don’t want to give them any more free clicks, since the list is obviously blatant bait for that species of scaly, slimy little internet reptile. But you go ahead and google the name shown in the next paragraph and you’ll find it. Not that anyone needs to see it. This is called “Top 10 American Stouts Brewed in the USA†– not “in 2016†or “This Year†but BEST, period…which is bullshit. Oh, it says in the copy underneath that the results come from 2016 and from their three sources but that is the very definition of click-bait: write a provocative headline that will get people to come to your site and then – back-peddle furiously, so you can’t be accused of click-baiting.
Want to read more? Please click…
This may be the shortest post in the history of The Pour Fool…because there is just absolutely nothing (well, okay, one tiny thing) I have to say that in any way contradicts the two previous posts I’ve done on the amazing DrinkTanks thermal growler. It remains the ONLY thermal growler out of the six others I’ve been asked to review that does everything it’s supposed to and even a bit more. And in this disposable age, when people routinely toss TVs and computers and even cars onto the scrap heap in far less than two years, what other product can make that claim?
Want to read more? Please click…
It’s been awhile. Blame Vienna. It’s not the first time I’ve done so over the course of the past eighteen months. Rather than sit here and tell you about all the cool stuff I’ve got in the works, I thought I’d dash off a quick post about my recent visit to Salzburg en route to the mountains around Zell am See. I’ll save Salzburg’s rich history for another day and head straight for the Wirtshäuser (taverns) and beer gardens.
Want to read more? Please click…
It’s been awhile. Blame Vienna. It’s not the first time I’ve done so over the course of the past eighteen months. Rather than sit here and tell you about all the cool stuff I’ve got in the works, I thought I’d dash off a quick post about my recent visit to Salzburg en route to the mountains around Zell am See. I’ll save Salzburg’s rich history for another day and head straight for the Wirtshäuser (taverns) and beer gardens.
Want to read more? Please click…
I’ll probably take some static about this…and I deserve to…
From this day forth, what we now call “craft brewing†and “craft beer†will no longer be referred to by that label, here. For a couple of years, now, I’ve been regularly harangued by people who claimed that “craft†is dead, as though that sort of thing happens summarily and closes the subject. It does neither. Millions of people call it “craft brewing†and will go on doing that. And I don’t care if random groups of trendies or even old farts like me decide “craft†is passé. I’m not calling it that anymore and it was not because somebody(s) argued me off it.
In fact, I was spooked off it…in the most direct possible way.
Want to read more? Please click…
The rumors started days ago have ended in the last 48 hours with confirmation direct from Northern Brewer and Midwest Supplies today that indeed, they were acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev, the multi-national super conglomerate that owns Budweiser and Miller. More precise the deal was announced as being completed by ‘ZX Ventures’, the disruptive growth unit of AB InBev. Anheuser-Busch InBev now has market share of 70% of beer sales in the United States after getting Justice Department approval of a merger.
Want to read more? Please click…
Since I started The Pour Fool, back in late 2008, Best of The Northwest has been arguably the most popular feature of every calendar year. People love lists and I’m not even going to try to be modest: when I do a list, I work, like a freakin’ Trojan, to make sure it’s complete and fair and intelligent. Not everybody will agree with what’s in it, of course, but I have never once looked back and thought, “Damn, son, ya really half-assed it that time.”
BUT…over the past five years or so, I’ve argued the point that lists are inherently irrelevant; that crowd-sourced lists are suspect because the acumen of each rater is unknowable. That panels of experts are subject to peer pressure and personal prejudices and the insidious group-think that’s rife in almost every enclosed culture. That, worst of all, MOST lists labeled “Best Of” are, in fact, compiled by just whomever was around that day, whether they have any more qualifications than, “Uh, yeah, I visit breweries, occasionally.”
Want to read more? Please click…
Okay, so you have these two beer styles, one of which has been tweaked and yanked and messed with and grafted upon more than Dr. Frankenstein’s patchwork freakzazoid and you feel that there’s nothing at all that anybody could do to either one that would surprise you. The Red/Amber ale has been notable for all the multitude of things that have NOT been done to it, flopping out of breweries everywhere as almost an afterthought, give or take gems like Troeg’s Nugget Nectar and Bear Republic Rocket Red and Cigar City Tocobaga. It’s safe and predictable and a crowd-pleaser and, apart from a Mac & Jack’s African Amber and those previously mentioned…kinda, uh, b-o-r-i-n-g…
Want to read more? Please click…
You must be logged in to post a comment.