GOOD MORNING! This week's round up has zombie brands, dead pubs, cask beer in Italy, and more. 🍺🍻 boakandbailey.com/2025/09/news...

My thoughts on young people and cask beer wb.camra.org.uk/2025/09/15/m...

Researching cask beer in Italy, I noticed countless places around the country using Tübinger mugs for lager and British-style dimple mugs for ale. They don’t seem to have the confusion that we do here in the US. Here’s a pub with a Tüb in Napoli: #italiansdoitbetter

The well established use of the word “stein” for a glass mug continues this year in the US. But in an odd turn of events, I’ve been seeing lots of posts of actual steins where they’re referred to as stone mugs and things like that. No mention of them actually being a stein. 🤦‍♂️

Here we are. Six months and a handful of days to spring 2026. Gather ye your whatevers while you can, if you know what I mean. Meantime, here’s the meandering beery news notes for a Thursday.

It would not surprise me to discover there were more bars serving cask ale in Italy than in one of its supposed homelands, Scotland. Though even that probably wouldn’t be enough to shame Scottish pub operators into offering it.

Having been to Italy a few times before, I was kinda embarrassed when I recently realized there are hand pumps scattered all over the country. Making it back there this summer, I made sure to do a little investigating and wrote about it on the blog. www.casketbeer.com/home/2025/9/...

Oktoberfest beers are starting to hit shelves. Who’s excited?

Though I’m looking forward to drinking amazing wine in Tuscany and cask ale in Rome in a few weeks, I can’t stop thinking about Ichnusa Non Filtrata. Maybe it’s the heat.

This week’s beery news notes were brought to you by many including @boakandbailey.bsky.social @amethystheels.bsky.social @stanhieronymus.bsky.social @thebeernut.bsky.social @totalcurtis.bsky.social @casketbeer.bsky.social @velkyal.bsky.social and a whole lotta stinking humid heat!

I’m doing research for a post and I’m kinda stunned by the amount of hand pumps found all over Italy. If you know anything about this, I’d love to hear about it.

This may be beyond ridiculous, but coming from a culture that doesn’t reg service size for beer, I don’t have a strong opinion on that issue. But, to me, certain glass styles suggest a certain measure. I don’t like a “pint glass” that is not a pint. Esp when it’s made in that new textured style. 🤮

Jeff's blog post inspired me to write about how I think that the "Reinheitsgebot" and its effects are deeply misunderstood, making it one of these "romantic facts" that don't really hold up to closer scrutiny. dafteejit.com/2025/07/why-... #beerhistory

I think this is a great minimalist list for if you want to have sets of glassware for guests, but at least one Tübinger for the cook (me) is needed simply because I'm going to break (and have broken) any of those other ones while entertaining, defeating the value of minimalism.

I would say for 90% of my at-home beers I use a Willi Becher or a tulip of some kind while the rest of my ridiculous glassware collection scoffs at me from the cupboard.

This is my at-home drinking glass, which took an immense amount of effort to get. Feels nice in the hand, you know.

I love mugs with handles - they are so nice to hold and they look damn cool 😎 🍻 also love stem glasses (all types) - I could probably streamline to just those two styles if necessary (as someone who often serves wine and cocktails in stem beer glasses!) Also, shaker glasses in the bin Discuss!

Let’s quibble! A sturdy mug should in your repertoire. (I am not picky about the type.) It will handle most of your ale and lager needs. Give me a mug, a goblet, and either a snifter or tulip—both is overly fussy—and I am good.

New post up about glassware. Originally pitched around to publications for a wider audience. So, it’s written a little bit differently than it would be for most readers of my blog, who are well-informed! Regardless, my 2¢ on a streamlined glassware selection. www.casketbeer.com/home/2025/7/...

I guess bc it’s summer, I keep getting travel posts in my IG feed. One of the most annoying things that keeps popping up is “how not to look like a tourist in…” So dumb. First, locals will always know you’re not local. Second, be yourself, FFS!

Collab beer to generate transit revenue. Interesting. cities-today.com/vancouver-tu...

I need to stop getting distracted by glassware posts and finish my writing on pitch. I have a few chapters drafted. I swear.

Great piece, cheers! This Irish Carling BL glass has always reminded me of those glasses. They taper in and are bigger but have a similar 'feel' ...

Great article. I'm a huge fan of Altbier, and I agree, we should see more of it. Drinking Alt from a Stange is what started my obsession with beer. My own homebrew recipes and methods were helped along thanks to a brewer from just outside Düsseldorf.

In the mid 20th century, there were a few brewers, including Diebels that did in fact use a similar glass. Frankenhiem and Schlösser Alt have also been known to use them. Somewhere in storage, I have a Schlösser glass with that design I got during a Formula One event around the turn of the century.

Glassware is an underrated component of beer culture, and this is a fascinating example of its deep roots in the drinking experience.

The glasses traditionally used for Altbier and Kölsch are very similar, but have subtle differences. Read about them in my latest post. www.casketbeer.com/home/2025/6/...

Serious question. What does “proper glassware” mean to you?

Good read

Come for the adorable little Chewbacca. Stay for the great round up.

Really enjoying having access to Black Sheep beer once again. It’s been a while. Welcome back!

And now, our beer menu, as prepared by a 15 year old boy.

And why don’t we question if something is necessary when it runs the risk of reinforcing stereotypes and cultural appropriation? The absurdity is apparent when you look at the list of adjunct lager categories side by side.

How many is too many styles? In a year of exuberance, the Brewers Association has added seven new styles to the OED-sized compendium kept under glass in a corner of Bart Watson’s office. Plus one temporary style. I have thoughts.

This is a great piece by @casketbeer.bsky.social on the role breweries play in community gentrification. As with all issues of public policy, the upshot is … it’s complicated.

Some thoughts on breweries and gentrification: www.casketbeer.com/home/2025/6/...

Been ages since I’ve had this beer.

Well put, Jeff. And I think, aside from the excellent detail and knowledge he shared, perhaps the most important thing left behind is teaching us to question the stories. If we learn that, we’ll debunk the other myths. RIP, Martyn.

I see it’s the Mikkeller Beer Celebration in Copenhagen again this weekend. I just want to say if you’re a brewery pouring at that event I think it’s really embarrassing for you. Workers rights now and forever. ✊

IMHO, a chop cheese goes on a wedge (or sub, hero, whatever you call it).

While the pedant in me cringes a little by this, TBF, SNPA called an “ESB” seems less dramatic than the evolution of IPA in the last 20 years. And as the 1980s pop group Exposé once said, “seasons change. Feelings change.”

Not in Chicago, obviously.

Beer In Ads #4967: Prescribed For Spring Fever tinyurl.com/mna88bxd

Happy Mother's Day! Here's an anti-feminist Christian pamphlet from the 1960s tinyurl.com/yd3t6rop

Kinda baffles me that ppl still hail Arthur Ave as the real authentic Little Italy in NYC. The Italian population in the neighborhood has been on the decline for decades. Anyone walking around the neighborhood that is paying attention should see there’s a vibrant Albanian community there. 1/2

Perfect way to kill some time while my daughter does back to back swim lessons. www.beantobarstool.com/final-gravit...

When takeout Peruvian gets too $…

What do we call this style of beer glass? We know it as a ‘Camden ashtray’ but presumably it has a more official name.