An invisible hand guides Adam Smith to the shade of Saint Sixtus Abbey.
Belgium
On Clones, Colour and Cassonade
One of my Pursuit of Abbeyness XII brew-day posts received a spike of traffic from the Homebrew Talk forum. I went and eavesdropped on the discussion.
Sais Who? (Part Two)
A Saison controversy reminds us that there is a difference between oral history and oral tradition, that there is power in both induction and deduction, and that absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence.
Store in a Quiet Place, or Tweeting in Tynt Meadow
This summer, England got its first certified Trappist ale. While not yet perfect, it already shows signs that it will honour Belgian abbey ale traditions in an authentically English accent – confident in its own quiet authority.
La Lune Sous L’Eau
Why Au Poêle de la Bête in Toulouse might just be one of the best beer bars in the world.
Strength in Numbers: at the Mikkeller Beer Celebration Copenhagen 2018
Showcasing almost 800 beers from 100 breweries, the MBCC invites us to mash, sparge, boil and ferment its wealth of statistics to see what flavour comes out the other side.
Sais Who?
An encounter with Mark Tranter, founder of the Saison-specialist Burning Sky Brewery, coincides with a homebrewed Grisette, inspiring some reflections on these rough-and-ready, Belgian workers’ ales.
Misogynistic Beer Imagery: Aesthetic, Narratives, Contexts
Sexist beer marketing does not use a set of recognisable aesthetics. It deploys a set of recognisable narratives, and it originates in recognisable contexts. Men owe it to women to learn to read these narratives critically and acknowledge, and seek to change, the context in which they are produced and consumed. This post includes sexual content.
The Price of Everything
How much art can 113 million bottles of Orval buy? Why is Achel Bruin so undervalued? And why should Brasserie Cantillon read Richard Cantillon's "Essai"?
Munich, Nuremberg and a Darker Side to Beer
The Reichsparteitage schedule of drinking, communal singing, political speeches and celebration of the Volksgemeinschaft was an amplified version of an evening in Munich’s beerhalls in the 1920s and 30s.
Pursuit of Abbeyness 