BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: Read Lew Bryson's latest article or I'll disown your sorry butt.

My Monday column is out at Food & Dining Magazine: Hip Hops: One of those bucket list lager days.

For knowledgeable beer drinkers during my lifetime, lager often has constituted a Jekyll-Hyde proposition. Thirty-five years ago, the American mass-market way of doing lager (fizzy and flavorless) was the original impetus for the “craft” beer rebellion. At the same time, touring the Central European heartland always provides bountiful examples of how satisfying lager can be when traditional thought processes and methodologies are retained.

Otherwise, and as usual, Lew Bryson has the take of first (and best) resort. This truly is a must-read, with a conclusion more optimistic than you might imagine from the header.

"Brewers will be tightening their belts like the rest of us. It’s a scary future, but a little more community feel is going to help get us all through it. If everyone gives a little, fewer people will have to give a lot. After all, it just might save your favorite beers."

Did I mention this essay is a must-read?

Coronavirus Could Kill Craft Beer. Will Any Brands Survive? by Lew Bryson (Daily Beast)

I’ve been watching the craft beer industry collapse over the past few months.

After 20 years of writing about how upstart craft brewers have steadily taken customers from mainstream brands, it’s a shock to see this whole world shatter under the hammer of the coronavirus pandemic.

Given that everything is now upside down maybe I shouldn’t be shocked, but overall, things are pretty grim. The disease has broken the long growth curve of craft beer, which had outperformed the overall category for more than a decade—and it only took a month ...

BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: Take Lew Bryson's word for it and "Drink Oktoberfest Beer Right Now."

My pal Jeff at Oktoberfest in Munich, 1989.

I vowed to hold out at Pints&union this year and wait until the middle of September to tap the first keg of Oktoberfest beer, and this we managed to do. Several different brands have poured since then, and calculating collectively, Oktoberfest has by far been the fastest-moving tap for the past month.

We depleted three Sam Adams Octoberfest kegs over the weekend during Harvest Homecoming, and will be finishing the fourth this week. For us, that's great speed.

In this essay, Lew reminds us of the joys of seasonal beer consciousness. It's spot on, and you need to absorb it along with a half-liter of that Weihenstephaner Kellerbier we tapped on Sunday (Pints&union is taking Tuesday off and we'll be back Wednesday this week).

I Need You to Drink Oktoberfest Beer Right Now, by Lew Bryson (The Daily Beast)

Our columnist hopes that celebrating Oktoberfest can bring back the tradition of seasonal beer drinking.

 ... We used to enjoy seasonal beer in America, too. It was one of the things craft beer did best. We drank toothsome fest beer in the fall, winter warmers through the holidays, burly barleywine in the very depth of winter, invigorating bocks and maibocks in the spring and spritzy hefeweizens in the summer. It was so widespread, that I once wrote up a proposal for a beer-based “book of days,” a calendrical compilation of what beers would be best for each day, and why, and what foods would make a proper feast with them, and recipes.

I dropped that proposal, because seasonality doesn’t really exist in our beer world anymore except for a few disparate days.

But Oktoberfest beer might be the way back to seasonal drinking ...

It so happens the missus and I just purchased a few clips of Nürnberger-style sausages at Aldi, and mustard. There wee a few leftover HB Oktoberfests in the fridge. The weather finally had gotten cool. The meal was glorious.

 ... So, here’s what you need to do. Go get a six-pack or two and chill them. While that’s working, grill some bratwurst, roast a chicken, cook some hot dogs. Heat up some kraut, and slice up some gouda and Swiss with honey mustard and a hearty loaf of rye bread. Pour those Oktoberfest beers and chow down.

Because it’s time. It’s the right beer season.

BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: Searching for the perfect pub, among other links to educational beer fare.

"In the end, that’s what all of us long for in a pub: somewhere to go in which we can have a relaxing drink in a convivial atmosphere and perhaps meet others with a similar aim. When it’s done well then it can feel like you’re in the only place you want to be in the world at that moment. And the very best pubs are timeless places in which that moment seems like it could last forever."

Brexit and the British Public House?

Not exactly, though someone's probably already written it. Today I'm offering two items for a "thinking person's" consideration of beer. First there's an extended analysis of the state of the British pub, followed by a collection of recent links to stories far and wide.

In search of the perfect pub: what makes a great British boozer?, by Andrew Anthony (The Observer)

They’re under threat – but they’re fighting back. How famous London pubs are adapting to a changing world

Milky tea, fish and chips, the local pub: these were once the enticing mainstays of British life. They’re all still there, of course, but outside the home we drink far more coffee than tea, and on the high street the curry house and chicken takeaway long ago supplanted the deep-fried attractions of the fish and chip shop. Of the traditional triumvirate only the public house remains in a primary position, but that too is under threat.

It is estimated that Britain has lost 25% of its pubs in the last 20 years. There were around 60,000 in 2000 and now the figure is about 45,000. Closing time has taken on a new meaning, with on average one pub closing down every 12 hours. Of those that remain, many are unrecognisable from the locals of the past, having been re-themed as chain bars or gastropubs.

Is this a loss to the British way of life? Has some vital part of the social fabric been neglected and left to slowly fall apart?

Now for the links.

HISTORY BY THE PINT: Dayton's Carillon Brewing Company really does do it the old-fashioned way. It's the nation's only working brewery in a museum.

A stunning revelation from my friend the beer and spirits writer Lew Bryson: "I Really Want to Hate Naturdays but I Can’t Stop Drinking It."

Michael Moeller explains Against the Grain's partnership with Pabst.

Think Indiana's beer regulations rulebook is bad? "New Jersey’s lousy craft beer rules are an affront to free speech and consumer choice."

In Scotland, "The Bridge Over the Atlantic" is quite near a pub called "The House of Trousers."

BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: "Craft is being assimilated by the mainstream, but not entirely on the mainstream’s own terms."

Three pieces to an ongoing puzzle, though still too early to glimpse the larger picture.

All shook up: When craft beer goes mainstream, by Pete Brown (Imbibe)

With craft brewers selling out to multi-nationals and global giants acting like craft brewers, it’s a confusing time in the world of beer. Pete Brown takes a look at how we got here and where we might go next

When looking at the beer market, it might be tempting to see craft beer as a discreet little niche, a bubble that operates differently and separately from the mainstream. But if you’re invested in the beer market, such thinking is dangerously wrong. Craft and mainstream are converging, and stories that look quite separate from each other are starting to intertwine. Let us explain …

Pardon a massive snip, straight to the conclusion.

... In one sense, craft is simply the latest stage in the ongoing, permanent state of evolution in beer, of consumer education and rising expectations. But crucially, unlike any other innovation in recent history, this one happened without the permission of the biggest brewers in the world, and those corporations were powerless to prevent it.

Craft is being assimilated by the mainstream, but not entirely on the mainstream’s own terms. After trying to belittle it, they have been forced to accommodate and accept it, and they’ve had to recognise the seismic difference that craft has made to what drinkers expect from any beer.

Two additional links provide informative reading about the booze and beer scenes. First, the great Lew Bryson. Feeling all shook up? Sometimes it's better stirred, not shaken.

PODCAST EP 118 – STIRRING THINGS UP – WRITER LEW BRYSON, at the Full Pint

We are joined by veteran beer and whiskey writer Lew Bryson. We share stories, laughs and hot takes on covering booze.

Items of discussion include:

– Why Danny loves Lew.
– Our admiration of tech writer John C. Dvorak.
– Lew’s approach to writing about beer and whiskey.
– Dealing with Pennsylvania liquor laws.
– Comparing to the late 2010’s craft beer boom to the 90’s.
– Well made alcohol is well made alcohol.
– Gut reactions to new styles.

And to close this session, a look at how craft pioneer Anchor Brewing is doing under a(nother) new owner.

The unanchoring of Anchor Brewing, by Esther Mobley (SF Chronicle)

Our original craft brewery has changed radically since Fritz Maytag sold it in 2010. So who is it today?

A lot has changed at Anchor Brewing Co. in the last few years, but one thing hasn’t: how it makes steam beer.

On the second floor of the Potrero Hill brewery, built as a coffee roastery in the 1930s, workers still hand-crank the valve on the copper mash cooker, half a century old and shaped like an onion dome. In an adjacent room, steam beer, Anchor’s signature product, still undergoes fermentation in big, open-top steel bins. Almost all the time, the only temperature control is that chilly San Francisco Bay breeze, on which the original Anchor brewers wisely capitalized in 1896. The process is practically anachronistic.

Anachronism has always been part of Anchor Brewing’s appeal. It was the brewery oblivious to the beer zeitgeist, known for old-fashioned styles like barleywine, porter and, quaintest of all, steam. Steam is balanced, clean, refreshing; it’s timeless, and it’s never been cool. When craft beer exploded in the nineties and early aughts with its insatiably hoppy IPAs, Anchor stayed true to its old ways. It felt like home.

Which is why, to those who grew up on the local institution, these can feel like bewildering times. Anchor was Fritz Maytag’s, it was San Francisco’s. Now, as of 2017, California’s oldest brewery is owned by Japanese beer corporation Sapporo. Anchor was always touted as the nation’s first craft brewery. Now the Brewers Association says it can’t be called “craft” at all. In lieu of having a brew pub, Anchor always just offered a free tour, with beer samples. Now it charges for tours, and it has a trendy taproom, Public Taps, complete with a Skee-Ball machine and limited-edition beers like Boys ‘N’ Blood, a fruited kettle sour.

Suddenly it looks as if Anchor has jumped on every possible bandwagon, making beer styles you could never imagine Maytag endorsing. Meyer lemon lager? Blackberry IPA? Brut IPA? In the 45 years that Maytag owned Anchor, the brewery released just 10 beer styles. In the nine years since he sold it, it’s put 30 new styles into distribution — and that’s not counting the 60-plus beers that have shown up on the taproom menu since launching a pilot brewery in 2017.

Has Anchor lost touch with its own identity?

By modernizing, does it risk alienating the people who love it most?

And, in an era when this city worries about these things, what part of San Francisco’s identity hangs in the balance?

Lew Bryson on the Louisville rebirth of Michter's, one of America's oldest whiskey brands.

I'll read anything Lew Bryson writes, including grocery lists, and this isn't an idle compliment just because he's a pal. Lew educates and entertains whether writing about bourbon, beer or tiddlywinks. He's the Father of Session Beer Consciousness and a jolly good fellow.

As a spirits novice, I'd have assumed that Michter's American Whiskeys always were a Kentucky article, recently revived along with so many others. To the contrary, Michter's traces its lineage back to a distillery in Lew's Pennsylvania backyard.

And his article explains the connection, so click through and read all about it.

Left for Dead: The Comeback Story of Michter’s Whiskey, by Lew Bryson (The Daily Beast)

The rebirth of one of America’s oldest whiskey brands is complete with a new tasting room and distillery in Louisville.

On the unseasonably warm last weekend of 1983, I took a spin through the Pennsylvania countryside with my buddy Bob. We had no goal in mind, no plan other than heading north out of Lancaster. After several crossroads decided on the flip of a coin, we were running north on Rt. 501 near Schaefferstown, when we saw a sign: Distillery Road. It was quickly followed by another sign: To Michter’s Jug House–America’s Oldest Distillery. Tours.

How could we say no? So, we hung a left on Distillery Road and soon found the place, a cluster of brick-and-glass buildings, one surmounted with a big water tank in the shape of a whiskey jug, around a white wood-frame house. It was busy, with at least 20 other cars in the lot. We got out and took the tour. We were told that distilling had been going on there since 1753, and the site had gained recognition as a National Historic Landmark in 1980.

Okay, I had to look those facts up, and I’d be lying if I said I remembered much else from our visit. I know there was talk of corn and yeast, and I do remember seeing a small pair of squat copper pot stills. Bobby bought a little bottle of whiskey, and we got back in the car and headed north again. It was a good day: we wound up at the Yuengling brewery, and didn’t even realize that we’d just been to both America’s oldest distillery and brewery all in one afternoon.

Michter’s closed about seven years later, on Valentine’s Day, 1990. In 1997, I went to pay my respects to the abandoned buildings. It was a depressing day: cold, rainy, gray, as sad as the buildings slowly crumbled into the Pennsylvania countryside ...

"Death to Chain Restaurants!!" -- in which Lew Bryson's pioneering essay is joyfully reprised.

Civilizations in decline are consistently characterized by a tendency towards standardization and uniformity.
--Arnold Toynbee, historian (1889-1975)

There was a time when I'd always point to Lew Bryson's pioneering essay as my inspiration for the "Death to Chains" mantra.  It's been more than a decade since Lew wrote this stirring call to arms, and at some point I stopped giving him a bow, but let's give credit where credit's due.

Ladies and gentlemen, Lew Bryson breaks it down: Follow. The. Money. -- and reject monoculture.

---

Death to Chain Restaurants!!

Applebee's: A sign that the End Times are near.

I used to grab a burger lunch at McDonald's frequently, two or three times a week. That's frequently for me; I like to cook and I'm too cheap to go out much. I'd take the family to Chi Chi's and Red Lobster and Pizza Hut and never think twice about it.

Then I interviewed Don Feinberg, half of the brains behind Brewery Ommegang and beer importers Vanberg & De Wulf. Don walked me all over Ommegang's territory by the Susquehanna River in upstate New York, took me on a wild brewery tour, and fed me local apples and cheese sliced with a pocketknife while we sampled his delicious beers outside in a beautiful summer's day. Then he gave me a ride into Cooperstown and started talking about monoculture.

Monoculture

"The real problem," he said, "and this is politics, not just beer, it’s monoculture versus diversity. That's what we are fighting the fight for, for good beer and for better food against McDonald’s and Monsanto.

"Look, monoculture actually means two things," he said, waving one arm wildly as he navigated the small road. "It means a lack of diversity. We’re only here for 60, 70, 80 years, I’d like to try as many things as I can, with as many peoples’ input, creativity, and fulfillment expressed as possible. The other thing: 99 times out of 100, you’re not giving me one choice because it’s better for me. It’s because it’s better for you.

"Having said that," he said, calming a bit, "the reason monoculture is so successful in the world is because it’s predictable, and predictability leads to efficiency, and efficiency leads to profitability, and that leads people to get involved in it.

The Seductive Key: It's Easier

"Why did everyone in America in the 1950s want to have a franchise for McDonald’s?" He posed the question, and here was the nut that would knock my noggin and make me realize exactly why chain restaurants are a blight upon our land.

"Because the chances of you coming up with an idea for a restaurant that would be that successful… there aren’t that many creative people. It was easier for you to take this person’s formula and make money off of it, and most of us have to pay the rent and put the kids through college. So it’s easier to adapt things, especially if what you’re adapting has proven to be successful.

"Monoculture is very powerful," he said in conclusion. "But powerful and better are not always the same thing."

No Chains On Me

I stepped out of that car a changed man. Today I shun McDonald's and chain restaurants -- not entirely, because sometimes it's all you got -- and go out of my way to try new local places, wherever I am. It's one of the reasons I love upstate PA and NY; lots of local eateries and stores left up there, and out on Long Island, too.

I get questions about that, and I've got some answers.

Do all chains suck?
No! John Harvard's Brew House doesn't suck, Rock Bottom (despite what beer snobs say) emphatically doesn't suck. Regional chains like Quaker Steak & Lube don't suck. Why? Because they all allow their local operations a lot of flexibility. They don't always impose a menu, a beer list, or (most importantly) suppliers. Besides, when does an expansion become a chain? When the second place opens? The fourth? The tenth? It's like pornography: I know it when I see it.

If local people own a franchise restaurant, isn't that a local business?
Yeah, like a Toyota made in Indiana is an American car. Follow the money. Money's leaving the area, and what comes in? Orders, ideas, and supplies. Headquarters doesn't care about supporting local suppliers, or serving local beers, or making allowances for regional tastes.

Why is a successful chain restaurant bad for my town?
Because it sucks up loan money that local, unique businesses could be using. A banker will always loan money to a guy with a chain restaurant franchise over a guy with a new idea: the chain idea is safe, proven, and bankable. It's also boring, leveling, and is never going to make your town a destination. Sure, it's convenient, it's popular, it's reliable. But what kind of great new food is going to come from a place that gets its potatoes pre-peeled and pre-sliced in 100 lb. plastic bags from a depot 500 miles away? Will people from far away come to your town, shop in the other stores in your town, and tell other people where they live to go to your town...because of your local Ruby Tuesday's? No, but I've done all of that for the Miss Albany Diner in Albany, NY, and it's worth the trip.

Eat Local

So the next time you're away from home, don't do that stupid, cow-consistent thing and go to Applebee's, Shoney's, Denny's, or Wendy's! Take just a little more time and ask around till you find a place, a local place, a one of a kind place. Chances are good that you'll get lucky and find a place like the Academy Dinor in Erie, and you won't find bumbleberry pie at Applebee's!

Needless to say, this goes for beer, too. Chains hardly ever carry any decent beer, and when they do, they don't know a damned thing about it. Local chains are often exceptions, of course, like The Winking Lizard's outstanding beer program in Cleveland. I'd still stack Augusta's Winking Judge in Hamilton, ON up against the Winking Lizard, though! (And you can find some outstandingly fantastic local foods at the Hamilton Farmer's Market.)

It never ends, the quest for the rare, the local, the different, the best. "Powerful and better are not always the same thing." Reject the chains, and make your life more exciting at every turn.

BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: When Old Mister Lew tells a story, you're advised to listen closely.

It's an American "craft" (microbrew?) history lesson from Professor Bryson, but don't panic. Think corrections, not catastrophe. The scene may seem to be in upheaval, but as Lew entertainingly points out, we've all been here before -- in the late 1990s.

As an aside, which may or may not be relevant to Lew's thoughts, I've finally started reading a book previously only skimmed: Michael Jackson's Great Beers of Belgium, first published around 1992.

My copy is the revised hardback edition from 2006, which was given to me as a gift. Jackson updated the text one last time in 2007, just before his death, and it came out in paperback form the following year. The book is wonderful, and Jackson's prose styling remains elegant and informative.

I miss his writing tremendously.

Whether good, bad or indifferent, the past few years for me have been a period of reckoning. Chronology afflicts me; so many deaths, so much change. Outside the walls of our house, where Diana and I constantly remind each other of how fortunate we are to be together and to live rich, loving lives, the chaos seems unceasing.

I'm a realist, and while circumstances differ, it's all happened before. When I look back on periods of my life that seem wonderful in retrospect, most of them were just as chaotic and uncertain as now. Perhaps one aspect was fantastic, and that's the part I've chosen to remember, and the way to keep the dissonance at bay.

There isn't one answer to a multiplicity of life's questions, but we can do as Lew advises -- and in his own unique voice, Jackson surely would have seconded -- by filling a glass, breathing deeply and embracing the narrative. Put down your phones, and have a conversation. Tell stories. Teach and be taught.

In a universal context, time's always running out for each one of us. The trick is to address those diminishing sands in the hourglass by slowing down, not speeding up. 

THERE ARE REASONS FOR CONCERN, BUT THE SKY ISN’T FALLING, by Lew Bryson (All About Beer Magazine)

 ... The sky is falling!

Breathe, brothers and sisters. Grab a can, fill a glass, take a seat at the bar … and breathe, while Old Mister Lew tells a story.

THE BEER BEAT: Everybody wants to rule the world -- maybe "craft" beer will, too.

Lew Bryson's column is linked below, but first: Beer with a Socialist.

If you missed it earlier at Facebook, my friend Jonathan Kiviniemi had the best idea ever:

"An event popped into my feed, 'Beer with a Scientist' at Against the Grain and I misread it as 'Beer with a Socialist' and instantly wondered what you were doing with ATG."

This is exactly what the world of beer commentary is sorely lacking: Beer with a Socialist. I'm grateful to Jonathan for the idea, and will owe him a beer of three is this goes anyplace.

Now, give it up for Lew Bryson and another thought-provoking (and fun) column at The Daily Beast.

Has American Craft Beer Taken Over the World?

 ... It should come as no surprise that American brewers are now finding jobs across Europe, Asia, and Africa. But they’re not going around the world to learn from locals but to make the same beers they’ve made at home, and they’re a hit.

That’s quite a reversal. When the craft beer movement began in America in the 1970s, there were already lots of small breweries in countries like Germany, Belgium, and the UK. Many of them made great beer, fantastic beer. But they made the traditional beers of their respective lands and cultures: lagers and wheat beers in Germany, a relatively narrow variety of malt-forward ales in the UK, and an eccentric but consistent array of ales in Belgium.

Just as in the U.S., there were some new small brewers that opened in Europe, Scandinavia and Japan. But unlike their American counterparts, they made beer using the national template, perhaps gently tweaked. I remember going to several “house” breweries in the Czech Republic that served a variety of pilsners, some flavored with herbs, some unfiltered. British brewers made porters, pale ales, summer ale, and mild.

American craft brewers on the other hand, impatiently floored it and blew the doors off brewing. (What else would you have expected?) Not only did this approach work but over the past 15 years these upstarts have been able to claim an ever increasing chunk out of the very profitable U.S. beer market. Their wildly different beers—IPAs running on overdrive, “imperial” everything, “session” this and that, big barrel-aged beers, and crazy, hazy New England IPA—have become best-sellers.

The world’s next generation of brewers was intently watching this beer revolution and soon began emulating their American counterparts ...

THE BEER BEAT: Let's review a few headlines, from Louisville (and Indy) Lager to Brimstone Big.

I had a lunch meeting on Friday, and the three of us met at the recently re-refashioned Bank Street Brewhouse for some Taco Steve treats and NABC libations.

Now cast irrevocably as a member of the "former owner" camp, it still feels a bit weird for me to return as a civilian. This said, everything was fine. Taco Steve is impeccable, and the four beer samples all were solid.

Not everyone will agree, but I like what Josh Hill has done with Elector, fattening the malt and to my palate, rebooting a throwback closer to the way it tasted back in 2002 when Michael and Joey first accidentally invented it.

As a side note: Tuesday, March 13 is the ninth anniversary of BSB's opening day in 2009. Today's segue has concluded, and we turn to the latest from the NABC alumni contingent.

Schlafly’s Jared Williamson Talks IPA Fads, Keeps Things Fresh, by Emily Saladino (Eugene Daily News)

Jared Williamson is no slouch. The Indiana native got turned on to brewing while working at New Albanian Brewing Company in New Albany, Indiana in 2005. “One day they finally taught me how to use the keg washer, and the rest is history,” he told STL Beer Bulletin. At NABC, he learned everything from brewing to marketing to distribution to tax and TTB.

As lead brewer at Schlafly, where he’s worked since 2011, Williamson manages operations at both the Taproom and Bottleworks locations. His innovative brews include Schlafly’s Single Malt Scottish Ale, painstakingly blended and aged in Scotch casks, and The Variant, an imperial stout-based beer aged in port barrels. Somehow he also found time to pose for Schlafly’s 2016 Beard Calendar. (Williamson shared an umbrella with fellow brewer and co-Mister April, Charles Stockstrom.)

We caught up with Williamson to learn what he thinks about IPA fads, and how his life motto might just be “drink it fresh.”

Rock on, Jared.

Back here in Louisville, it may finally be time to roll out the barrels of lager. I persist in thinking that a firmly hopped, youthful lager with a trendy sheen of haze would do well in these parts. BSB probably has some tank space ...

The year of the lager? by Kevin Gibson (LEO)

... Well-crafted lagers in Louisville have been making a comeback, coming full circle since the dawn of Prohibition. Goodwood Brewing was on the fore of this slowly-moving trend when it brought Louisville Lager to the market a couple of years ago. It was a more flavorful version of the stuff you would normally buy from a vendor at a ballgame.

Recently, in casual conversation, I mentioned the growing lager prevalence in craft beer, to which a friend said, “It’s the year of the lager.”

Goodwood's Louisville Lager is a delicious local example, as is Kyle's Bavarian-style Helles at Mile Wide. This might be an appropriate juncture to tout (yet again) the excellent lagers being brewed at Daredevil in Indianapolis, which will be staging another Indy Lagerfest in May.

Road trip, anyone? I really want to attend this one. Back here in the Ville, Business First recently asked and answered a question.

COVER STORY: How many more breweries can Louisville support? by Bridgett Weaver (Louisville Business First)

Adam Watson, one of the owners of Against the Grain Brewery, has seen a steady number of competitors start brewing beer in Louisville since his East Main Street facility opened in 2011. And he welcomes all new brewers to town — with one caveat.

“The only new breweries that I fear are ones that make bad beer,” he said with a laugh.

Weaver's article is lengthy and well researched, and the conclusion? More of them.

Bart Watson, chief economist for the national Brewers Association, said that when craft breweries first started opening in other states, laws in Kentucky and Louisville made it harder for breweries to open here, and then to operate and scale up — like zoning classifications that didn’t account for breweries. That’s likely what caused Louisville and the rest of the state to fall behind the curve.

But now with those laws changing to better accommodate the industry, Louisville is catching up and there’s far more space for the industry to run wild here than say, in Colorado, which has more than 330 breweries.

California ranks first in number of breweries, with 623 in 2016. Kentucky ranked 35th out of the 50 states in 2016, with 34 breweries in the state.

“It’s been a market that’s lagged behind others, but Louisville has a lot of untapped potential and it’s starting to sort of catch up and meet that potential,” Watson said. “I think the reason that you’re seeing such tremendous growth in Louisville is that it’s a little behind other cities so there’s a little more run room.”

With new age local "craft" beer running amok, all the more reason to slow down and cherish the classic stylistic yardsticks of the past.

Eyeing a Return to Growth, Sierra Nevada Refocuses on Pale Ale, by Justin Kendall (Brewbound)

After two consecutive years of single-digit sales declines, Sierra Nevada Brewing is refocusing its efforts on selling its flagship Pale Ale while also telling its story to consumers.

Speaking to Brewbound, Sierra Nevada chief commercial officer Joe Whitney said the company’s sales were down more than 7 percent last year following declines of more than 6 percent in 2016 ...

Is any of this sounding familiar?

Whitney added that some on-premise wounds have come as decades-old Pale Ale draft placements were swapped out for special release offerings that only lasted until the kegs ran dry. And once they did, competing breweries could more easily commandeer the draft lines.

“[When] you see some of our distributors switch out Pale Ale for a special beer that they think is really exciting, that only stays on tap for a month, it’s like, ‘Wow, you gave up a 20-year-old handle in an account for a feature for the month, and then we lost a 20-year-old account? How can you do that?’” he said. “I think there’s so much emphasis on new that it’s kind of gotten irrational.”

So this year, Sierra Nevada is scaling back its focus on innovation in an effort to refocus on Pale Ale, which accounts for half of the company’s volume, Whitney said. In the process, the company hopes to win back some of those surrendered tap handles and re-engage with consumers on “a deeper, louder level.”

That's right; it's the crazed former brewery owner's (me) basic theory for Pints & Union, and while Sierra Nevada Pale Ale probably won't be among the permanent taps, it should be pouring from a tap somewhere downtown, all of the time.

Who wants to speak some retro truth? It'd taste mighty good with fish. Just saying.

In closing, an example of classicist beer writing that places narcissistic beer selfie culture in the reeking dumpster with the fish bones, where it belongs. It's a two-decade-old barleywine -- and as a bonus, some fine Belgian-style eating.

This is BIG, by Lew Bryson (Seen Through a Glass)

Hi there.

I know, I know: nothing for years. The blog is dead, long live Twitter.

But you know? Some things deserve more space.

And this...is BIG.

No, literally, look at the label. I was digging in my Beer Fridge today, looking for two bottles of proper beer to make carbonades Flamandes (more on that later) on this disappointing snow day, when I found two bottles of Brimstone Big, a Maryland-brewed barleywine from the 1990s that we cherished back in the day. The brewed date on the label: October 1998.

THE BEER BEAT: The beer and whiskey that Lew Bryson wants to drink in 2017.

One beery ideal, near Cork, Ireland (1987)

Many of you know that Lew is a friend of mine, and so my touts aren't entirely unbiased. I'm not a whiskey drinker, and so cannot take a substantive position on Lew's distilled thoughts. However, his beer observations are spot on, mirroring my own.

I've included just one as a teaser, primarily because I find it sensuous ... or maybe sensual.

No matter.

Session Beer Day 2017 isn't that far away: April 7, a Friday. Last year I celebrated it with a brewery crawl in Louisville. This year, I'm hoping a few downtown establishments (both breweries and bars) will have a sub-5% beer on tap, enough to keep the crawl local -- and maybe a few of you can join me.

More on that as we get closer.

The Whiskey & Beer I Want to Drink in 2017, by Lew Bryson (The Daily Beast)

What one drinks expert would like to see more of and less of in 2017.

Lagers. No, I’m not jumping on the bandwagon. I’ve been pushing the damned category for almost 20 years! But the problem with most of the cool new lagers is that they are whopper-hopped and cold-matured for IPA freaks who want to take over this style of beer. Brewers: Don’t monoculture another entire classification of beer. Give us Dortmunders, helles, long-cellared bocks and soft, beautiful, Czech-type pilsners.

Obama and beer ... by Lew Bryson.

Verbatim from my Philly-based beer-'n'-whisky writing friend Lew Bryson, at his Seen Through a Glass blog.

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Obama to Congress: Drinks, my place, tonight; we'll talk (1/28/09)

President Obama continues to bring an adult attitude about drinking to the public eye. According to the New York Post, he invited 24 Senators and Representatives -- from both parties -- to the White House for cocktails tonight. They're going to have a few drinks and talk about the stimulus package.

That's great, I love a chief executive who isn't afraid to openly say "come over for a few drinks," but the very best part is that all the pictures accompanying the story at the Post and in the blog post about it at The Huffington Post show Obama drinking... BEER! Ha ha! Suck it, wine people.

Oh, my. Fun to relax at the end of the day.