Are GMO yeasts that eliminate diacetyl production a good thing? There’s no “right” answer to this question, but listening to brewers from different generations wrestle with the question turns out to be enlightening in other ways.| Beervana
Last week, VinePair published an article about the birthplaces of famous beer styles. It included some hinky information—offering me the opportunity to explore an important topic: the “romantic fact.” That is, a story shot through with fascinating, possibly nostalgic details that turn out to be hogw| Beervana
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.| Beervana
For the better part of a decade, non-alcoholic beer has been the Next Big Thing. But is it, really? No.| Beervana
Founded by Jeff Alworth in 2006, the award-winning Beervana Blog has been the leading source for beer news, insights about brewing, beer culture, and opinion in thw woeld of beer. Alworth is the author of books and columns, co-host of the Beervana Podcast, and an instructor at Portland State Univers| Beervana
Industries in trouble aren’t very silly. Silliness arises amid bounty. We could even advance a measure—call it the “silliness quotient”—to discern how healthy an industry is. By that measure, things may be looking up.| Beervana
Tilray may not be the cuddly, half-baked owner 10 Barrel thought it was getting when the cannabis firm took ownership from Anheuser-Busch last year. Today we learned Tilray had fired 10 Barrel's entire, award-winning innovation brewing team.| Beervana
Two recent news items point to a phenomenon that will reshape the beer industry over the next decade. Call it the reset, when the perceived value of breweries comes in line with their actual sales.| Beervana
No top ten breweries list this year. But I can’t leave you entirely in the lurch, so here’s Portland’s brewery of the year. As a fun factoid, it has never appeared on one of my top-ten lists, either. Who says beer isn’t exciting anymore?| Beervana
Winning awards and accolades isn’t enough to make a beer a classic, like Harvey’s Sussex Best or Saison Dupont or Schneider Weisse or Pliny the Elder. It takes decades of time, thought, and refinement. pFriem’s Pilsner is a case study in that unfolding process, and why it’s such a long journey.| Beervana
Many products are untethered to place. Where was your car built? Where did that orange come from? No one cares. But in beer, “local” still matters. The question is, how near or far can you push the concept?| Beervana
FH Steinbart, the 106-year-old Portland institution, has been sold. This should ensure that the nation’s oldest homebrew shop will carry on for years to come.| Beervana
I am compiling a database of breweries in Oregon for a website that will launch soon. It needs to be up-to-date and comprehensive, which means I’ve been poring through websites and social media accounts to find out which breweries still exist. The result? A lot fewer than I expected.| Beervana
Douglas Lager got a soft launch last fall, but an unexpected shortage of draft Rainier in Seattle offered a rare opportunity to expand this spring. I check in with this new project to create a domestic lager in the long lineage of the Northwest’s old breweries.| Beervana
How many tanks are sitting empty in the brewing industry? Excess capacity is one way to assess the health of a market, and looking at figures from the Brewers Association, things don’t look good.| Beervana
In an ambitious new enterprise of Beervana Amalgamated Sentences, researchers have been assembled to identify the superlatives of the beer world. In today’s inaugural edition, they list the finest hops in the world.| Beervana
