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Homebrew History: The American Beer Renaissance

Written by Bennett Gordon for utne.com

In 1979 there were 44 beer breweries operating inside the United States, and the American palate was dominated by Budweiser, Pabst, and other colored water masquerading as beer. Today there are more than 1,400 breweries pumping out new chocolate stouts, double bocks, and other craft brews. Greg Beato writes for Reason that this renaissance in beer makingwas made possible by the repeal of some prohibition-era laws that regulated home brewing.
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A Beer Book Review

Reviewed by Tom Becham

Beer is Proof God Loves Us

by Charles W. Bamforth

I recently received this book as a gift from my wife. And after reading it, more than once, I’m still not sure if I like this book or not.

To be sure, it is filled with useful information regarding recent mergers and acquisitions in the large-scale beer business. And the technical qualifications of the author are peerless; Mr. Bamforth has been in brewing for 32 years, including 13 in research, and 11 as a Professor of Brewing Sciences at University of California, Davis.
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Brew Biz: Werts and All

Written by Ken Carman for Professorgoodales.net

Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Escambia Bay and Music City Homebrewers, who has been interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast for over 10 years.

One of the most difficult things regarding judging beer is not all the categories, or assessing the style vs. the beer you’re judging at the time. Not even sensitizing you palate to defects you sometimes have to suffer through, or beers you must give lower scores simply because they are so bloody out of category.

(I mean, really, how can you even think of submitting a Pale Ale in Oatmeal Stout category? But I’ve seen worse.)

The hardest thing is something no course in the exam, or study effort, can teach you. Think of it like CSI: putting a “team” together that works well and finds common ground.

I came to this realization last competition…
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