The paragraph:

Of all the (non-alcholic) beers in our panel tasting, Sierra Nevada Trail Pass Hazy IPA was the most divisive. That’s because, quite simply, it smells like a glass full of weed and tastes a bit like chewing on a weed gummy. That’s not an experience for everyone, but for the right kind of hophead, it’s heaven. (It contains no THC.)

The paragraph:

At other times we think it’s a sort of miracle. That altered landscape we mentioned has, in fact, ended up just about where we need and want it to be, and we’re more often spoiled for choice than disappointed these days. Even bog standard pubs often have something we can get excited about and enjoy, which was rarely the case in 2010.

My apologies, because I don’t usually link to the last paragraph of a post, spoiling the ending, so to speak. It’s been more than 40 years since Vince Cottone used the phrase “craft brewery” to describe the dozens of small breweries that were about to alter the US landscape. Most of them are “microbreweries,” making fewer than 15,000 barrels a year.

The taplist from King of Wings in Golden, Colorado, is not quite up to date but it represents what is on hand every time we go in. The beers are all brewed in Colorado, and except for the ones from Coors (which occupies more land than you can imagine only a few blocks away) they all come from “microbreweries.” The board displaying beers on tap at the King of Wings in Wheat Ridge is from Saturday.

Things are pretty good here among the trees.

The paragraph:

Amid these waves of profound transformation (in Vietnam), the Bia hoi côc (beer glass) has remained unchanged. Cheap and easy to acquire, the glasses continue to be made by hand with recycled glass in small village factories near Hanoi. Conceived in the midst of socialist austerity, it has persisted in the face of imported glassware, shifting design trends, changing tastes, economic reforms, and globalisation. China’s mass-produced crystal products now flood the Vietnamese market. But, no manufacturer, at home or abroad, has yet successfully replicated or replaced the low-priced, unprofitable, “unpretty,” côc.

The paragraph:

“I’ve been to many breweries where there’s two numbers [on the menu]. It’s just 8 and 5, and you’re like, ‘How much volume am I getting in a $5 pour?’ I have no idea,” (Eric Larkin of Cohesion Brewing in Denver) says. “I’ve ordered canned or bottled products, and I get a 16-ounce can instead of a 12-ounce can. I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ I’ve seen it work both ways, but there’s definitely a lack of labeling and understanding.”

The first link.

Leads to this paragraph:

Starting twenty years ago, just after the Association of Brewers merged with the Brewers’ Association of America to create the BA, Craft beer went on a tear. Each year brought stories of growth, and naturally the BA touted that success. It was a seductively potent story. Craft beer is growing. It validated everything breweries and the BA were doing. Because of the message’s potency, it became part of craft beer’s brand. In an overall beer industry of flat or declining sales, one segment sparkles with success. Over time, growth became a bigger and bigger part of the messaging strategy. (No shade: there’s not a comms pro alive who wouldn’t jump on the story of 10% growth.)

The second link.

Leads to this thread, which begins by Maureen Ogle asking, “What is the most notable/significant event in U.S. beer in the past decade?”

The third (gift) link.

You don’t have time this morning to read “But What If We’re Wrong? — Thinking About the Present as if It Were the Past,” but this review adds context to ongoing discussions.