Craft has an economics, and therefore it has an ethics, and those ethics are grounded in the economy of means. So what to make of a craft beer that feels like a triumph of rigmarole over substance?
Lambic
Brew Day!… “My Cherry Amour”
My first attempt at a fruit beer had me grappling with a mathematical formula and a lot of questions.
“Memento Mori”: Another Lesson in Serendipity
If you stumble blindly and incompetently into your brewing masterpiece, will you ever be able to revisit that triumph?
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.
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"?
The Fruits of Our Labour
The focus on a single ingredient - American hops - is the top of a slippery slope. It encourages an ever-narrowing focus on certain elements of that ingredient, which sends us sliding towards a place where fizzy, alcoholic fruit juice can be mistaken for beer.
Time: the Secret Ingredient
With Vintage Beer, Patrick Dawson has given us a handy, easy-to-use book on a topic that is attracting more and more attention from beer drinkers.