Jeff rang the alarm about this earlier in the week, so it's on my mind. A better internet is possible. Continuing to add useful information to it, document your beloved niche subculture, and share moments of human life is all part of (re)building it. So is refusing to use the tools that erode it.

Friday night at one of Portland’s new breweries. Tiny Giants has been open a year, but they just got this lovely taproom (next to barbecue, pizza, and Mexican, the holy trinity). Mostly hops, but they have a truly great dark lager. 🙂

Steve Luke has sold his Seattle brewery to Yakima-based Bale Breaker and is moving with his wife to New Zealand. While it may be a good move for Steve, he will leave an empty space in the Pacific Northwest when he goes.

This is going to be bad for beer writers. dcbeer.beehiiv.com

Yesterday Google announced a new era in the way they mediate web searches, using AI to scrape the internet to provide summaries rather than links, so people never have to visit the pesky websites from which Google stole the information. It is going to be very bad for the internet.

As someone who helps run an open -access online journal, I can't explain how infuriating and discouraging this update from Google makes me feel.

Spent the morning in an emergency all-hands about this and spending the afternoon making schemas for every fuckin thing based on our guesses about what this means!!!!

Yesterday Google announced a new era in the way they mediate web searches, using AI to scrape the internet to provide summaries rather than links, so people never have to visit the pesky websites from which Google stole the information. It is going to be very bad for the internet.

🍺 💪

As a follow-up to the “Speckled” news, here’s an ethnographic fragment from across the bars of Britain. “On the one hand, it sometimes feels weird, and a little empty, as if everyone is going through the motions of being interested in beer without really caring all that much.” 1/2

This is fascinating. I really don’t know what to make of Britain’s heritage ale brands. Carlsberg is quickly killing as many as it can, but here one large multinational is acquiring one. And meanwhile Bass, left for dead five years ago, is back.

People tend to claim that gruit is a kind of beer that was brewed before hops came into use, but that's wrong in several different ways. New blog post clears up the confusion, puncturing the myths: www.garshol.priv.no/blog/438.htm...

You know the history of hazy IPAs, right? It goes back to that iconic double IPA, Heady Topper. But did you know the role a flood played in the story? Or the fact that Heady is an awkward avatar for the current style? Or what Alchemist founder John Kimmich thinks about hazy IPAs? Listen and learn!

You know the history of hazy IPAs, right? It goes back to that iconic double IPA, Heady Topper. But did you know the role a flood played in the story? Or the fact that Heady is an awkward avatar for the current style? Or what Alchemist founder John Kimmich thinks about hazy IPAs? Listen and learn!

This is a mess.

Politics for those who indulge. (Dark)

This is very far off topic, but: “Dogfish Head Brewery has a hot hand these days, mostly on the strength of its Gen X-baiting Grateful Dead collaboration.” I am an old Xer, and the Dead was already a 20-year-old act when I became music conscious. Jerry died when I was 27. The Dead is pure boomer.

In case you’ve been dying for some navel-gazing about the nature of Bluesky (laudatory).

American wheat ales are among the oldest beers brewed in the craft era, and enjoy the virtue of being a largely native style. Despite garnering very little attention these days, they still sell pretty well. The best news? There’s even some signs they’re starting to evolve.

American wheat ales are among the oldest beers brewed in the craft era, and enjoy the virtue of being a largely native style. Despite garnering very little attention these days, they still sell pretty well. The best news? There’s even some signs they’re starting to evolve.

This promotion is ending at 5pm Pacific TODAY! Whether you win the tickets or not, I guarantee that if you like Oregon beer, you’ll look forward to this email every other week. Subscribe here: celebrateoregonbeer.kit.com

Been thinking about this well written from @beervana.bsky.social off and on throughout the day. He just nailed it. American Wheat stands on its own and it's great. My most raved about homebrew is my American Wheat, and I approached it much like many successful American craft brewers.

I’m just sitting here thinking about tasty hazy IPAs I have enjoyed, and how they have fallen into disrepute thanks to some over-exuberance some years ago, such that now brewers feel they have to add “I don’t even like Hazies, personally” if they happen to make one. And all of this is a shame.

“Starting with wheat as an ingredient rather than a tradition, breweries intuitively found their way to a similar kind of beer…. Drinkers also found it intuitive: It was familiar enough to pass for beer but different enough to seem daring—a perfect envoy for the early craft era.”

Craft Beer and Brewing went six months without posting my Style School columns to the web, and now they’re catching up. Two weeks ago it was grodziskie, and today it’s American wheat.

Politics for those who enjoy such things. (And as the pull quote demonstrates, this one is highly partisan.)

Non-beer stuff for those who care.

While I do my civic duty and sit in the Multnomah County Courthouse waiting to be called to serve on a jury, I have another interesting case of civic life in America in 2026. It involves a clandestine political event, a Latino brewery, and Cinco de Mayo.

While I do my civic duty and sit in the Multnomah County Courthouse waiting to be called to serve on a jury, I have another interesting case of civic life in America in 2026. It involves a clandestine political event, a Latino brewery, and Cinco de Mayo.

I like Jeff’s take on the health of the industry being more than just sales. Have never needed to have my own preferences validated by it being the popular beverage. As long as I can keep getting good lagers I am happy - and I can get them everywhere now.

Great read. Well put, @alworth.bsky.social

Super interesting profile of the danger of using "growth" as a measure of success. What else could we use? 🧵1/6 @beervana.bsky.social is correct, breweries in PDX are increasingly serving as (delicious) social hubs and there's so much potential for more. 🍺

Craft beer has bumped up against a volume ceiling in recent years, topping out at about 15% of the market. Hidden within that bad news is an opportunity. Are there customers breweries just aren’t attracting? pFriem’s new Tropical Hazy IPA is an attempt to find out.

Craft beer has bumped up against a volume ceiling in recent years, topping out at about 15% of the market. Hidden within that bad news is an opportunity. Are there customers breweries just aren’t attracting? pFriem’s new Tropical Hazy IPA is an attempt to find out.

This is great, and I agree. Shifting the scope of success away from market share could play to craft's strengths. Focus more on vibes. By vibes I mean the cultural intangibles that *can* make craft breweries great for their communities. The BA could help integrate outreach and business models. 1/

ICYMI

At the Craft Brewers Conference, people were talking about good vibes. Yet the industry’s performance, measured by dollars, anyway, is pretty grim. Is this a contradiction, or should the Brewers Association just be measuring different stats?

I have tremendous respect for Bart and the difficulty of his task. Please don't interpret this in any other way. But I also feel Jeff's take is spot on. I'm a numbers guy myself, but there are more ways to gauge impact than numbers alone.

Speaking of beer… a terrific analysis from @beervana.bsky.social

This is a quality take. The conclusion on changing our benchmarks on success is spot on.

At the Craft Brewers Conference, people were talking about good vibes. Yet the industry’s performance, measured by dollars, anyway, is pretty grim. Is this a contradiction, or should the Brewers Association just be measuring different stats?

Politics for those who indulge (and this one is VERY political).

Politics for those who indulge (and this one is VERY political).

Portland’s Great Notion Brewing is turning ten, and we are celebrating by giving out two free tickets to their anniversary party in June. In addition to the usual music and fun, they’ll be offering more than three dozen special beers, most of which you won’t find anywhere else.

Politics for those who indulge (election analysis, not particularly partisan).

Monday's Lightshow. 831pm this evening during a storm in downtown Chicago.

More of these, please. We’re partial to Live Oak’s version, and locally, Henceforth.

“In the event, it’s a can of Hamm’s and something water-clear that smells of grain alcohol. (Which turned out to be a kamikaze.) Mark ordered one each for the three of us to sample on our little ethnographic exploration. Tab: $12. “*For all three.*”

“In the event, it’s a can of Hamm’s and something water-clear that smells of grain alcohol. (Which turned out to be a kamikaze.) Mark ordered one each for the three of us to sample on our little ethnographic exploration. Tab: $12. “*For all three.*”

“We always say that the balance of all qualities is the key. Since the beer is low-ABV, it’s quite easy to overpower something. Malt backbone should be light, also because of the 100 percent wheat grist….” [Quote continues below]