Adventures in Small Batch Brewing

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Women, The 'First Brewers,' Lean Into Craft Beer-Making

Thousands of beer aficionados are in Denver this weekend for the Great American Beer Festival. Some 600 breweries from around the country are represented at the marquee event for the craft-brewing industry.

And while this annual competition has long been male-dominated, that's starting to change.

Take, for example, Meg Gill, a 28-year-old Yale grad and the president and co-founder of Golden Road Brewing in Los Angeles. LA sets many trends, but it was a bit late to the game in the country's booming craft beer scene. But Gill is helping LA to make its mark.

Read more here

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Sixth-Grader Creates Microbrewery for Space Station

(NEWSER) – A Colorado 11-year-old is boldly going where no sixth-grader has ever gone before. He’s building a microbrewery for the International Space Station—you know, for science. Michal Bodzianowski's project, which explores the medicinal properties of the drink, is set to blast off in December.

Sixth-Grader Creates Microbrewery for Space Station

Monday, September 16, 2013

Draft Dodging: Why Big Beer Is Going Flat

The industry's biggest players, Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors, whose mega-brands have dominated America's tap handles and supermarket shelves for decades, are being battered by a new wave of competition from inside and outside the beer market and starting to lose their grip.

Read More Here: http://adage.com/article/news/a-b-inbev-millercoors-losing-share-fix/244178/

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

The photo I didn't take

September 11, 2001, what a gorgeous day it was.

I was in Cleveland, a young second class petty officer, just beginning my day. I had just finished my news clip search and it was going to be a light day. There were officer-in-charge boards going on in our conference room down the hall. We had the television bank on as we always did.

I remember hearing it and it barely registering, "A plane has struck the World Trade Center." I looked up and saw the images that will always be ingrained in the mind of anyone who saw them that day.

I remember trying to get news on CNN.com and the website not working. When I did get on I printed out whatever news was the latest and posted it on our bulletin board in the hallway.

I remember being glued to the TV and wondering between the command center and our office gathering information about what was happening and passing it on to others.

I remember calling my mom and checking on her in Chicago and worrying about friends in New York.

I remember the photo I wish I had taken but couldn't bring myself to. In the grand scheme of things it wouldn't have mattered much, just a moment in time. We had people from other offices coming in to watch the news, not many, only three or four besides us. Our lieutenant was standing in his doorway and the chief in his. The bright, beautiful day was silhouetting them there as we all watched. This small group of Coast Guardsmen, paused in a moment of time watching our world change before our eyes.

On that day the service I joined changed forever, my country changed. I don't know what was going through everyone's mind that day, I can barely remember what went through mine.

I will never forget the silence as we evacuated our building, one plane was still flying, coming very close to our building before turning back towards Washington, and no one knew what was going to happen with it.

I will never forget that gathering of Coast Guardsmen, pausing to observe a moment in history, around a public affairs office and a 13-inch television. A photo I have seared in my mind if not on film.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Pumpkin Beer...yes or no?

Without realizing there was a major debate going on about it I threw out this question on Twitter and Facebook, "Pumpkin beer...yes, no, where, when and why?"

In general, most people said yes, it's fall and football is on...duh.

Some, like me, said no, don't care for the taste.

I threw it out there because I noticed that there were pumpkin beers hitting the shelves already in early-mid August. I was more wondering aloud if, much like Christmas decorations in stores, we were going to skip completely over the Oktoberfest and festival beers and just jump straight to Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Then I saw this and realized...it's not just me.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

When my day job and hobby collide

I always find it interesting when my day job and my hobby collide on my news feed. Thus it peeked my interest when I saw that Bell's Brewery is suing Enbridge Energy in relation to their 2010 oil spill in the Kalamazoo River.

You heard about that one, right? In case you missed it or were too focused on another major oil spill happening at the same time in a different area of the country, here is a reminder.

In this case Bell's is suing over the possible release of contamination during an upcoming EPA directed dredging operation related to the spill.

Read more here

Friday, July 19, 2013

Beer News

This is what I'd like to do when I retire:

Breweries Not Too Big for Their Barrels
Every other Friday at 2 a.m., Rich Castagna walks out to the one-car garage behind his home in Maspeth, Queens, and fills a 55-gallon stainless-steel barrel with water. While his wife and three daughters are asleep inside the house, he fires up a burner and slowly brings the water to a boil, turning the 150-square-foot room into a sauna.

Read more here

A celebration of recent legislation:

Hops and change
Finally, government loves you and wants you to be happy
MOST Americans may not realise it, but their country is a little freer, and perhaps slightly tipsier than it was last month. On July 1st it became legal to make beer at home in Mississippi. Alabama lifted the threat of prosecution for homebrewers in May. It is now legal to craft your own suds in all 50 states.