You know how it goes. There was possibly tougher news in Bigger Ag than my aching back from Stan<\/a> this week as the forest fires in the Pacific Northwest are threatening the hop crop:<\/p>\n Monday, the Oregon Hop Growers Association issued a press release that began\u2026 \u201c\u2019After a few tough years with hop acreages declining as beer sales dipped, Oregon hop growers are especially excited about this year\u2019s hop harvest. The mild spring resulted in ideal growing conditions for the hops, meaning we\u2019re expecting great flavor and aroma,\u2019 said Michelle Palacios, executive director of the Oregon Hop Growers Association.\u201d\u00a0What could go wrong?\u00a0Smoke, as growers and\u00a0brewers learned with the 2020 harvest. Wildfires in Central and Eastern Washington triggered an air quality alert in the Yakima Valley this week. It is also higher today in Oregon\u2019s Willamette Valley, although forecasts are for more favorable conditions soon.<\/em><\/p>\n With that difference of focus, I\u2019d say Stan\u2019s concerns might not lead to the hoped for great flavour. Drew<\/a>, exercising his wag skills, suggested \u201cCelebration might have to be a rauchbier this year.<\/em>\u201d Speaking of is \/ not is,\u00a0 Pellicle<\/em>\u2018s feature this week is by Martin Dixon<\/a>, the story of one of the more venerable NA beers, Maisel\u2019s Weisse Alkoholfrei which has been produced for over twenty-five years:<\/p>\n Instead of choosing between the two commonly used methods to create alcohol-free beer\u2014removing alcohol by an industrial process, which is straightforward but can be harsh; or stopping fermentation early, which gives the beer a fuller flavour but leaves a sweet, worty taste\u2014the brewery used both approaches. Today, two beers are brewed (one a dealcoholised version, and one a lower-strength version) and blended to create Maisel\u2019s Weisse Alkoholfrei.\u00a0The beer is now roughly a third of Maisel\u2019s business, and its surprise success has given the brewery new financial freedom.<\/em><\/p>\n Relatedly perhaps, here\u2019s a new angle on beer and health \u2013 beer mats for better mental health<\/a>:<\/p>\n Man Time\u2019s Flip the Mat campaign is now under way, with the first mats being delivered to pubs, clubs and community venues across Stone and the surrounding area. Volunteer Allan has been visiting local venues with the mats, including The Poste of Stone in Granville Square, where Man Time holds its weekly meetings. One side of each mat displays the Flip the Mat campaign message. Turning it over reveals information encouraging people to talk about the difficulties they may be facing.\u00a0The reverse also carries a QR code linking directly to the Man Time website, where people can find details about the group and a range of local and national support services.<\/em><\/p>\n And on a similar theme, in the weaving back and forth on the question of booze and health, the question of merriment as health pops up as a foundational principle on the pro side. They never seem to interview the hungover** when making these arguments but it has gotten to the point that The New York Times<\/em><\/a> itself has undertaken some investigative journalism on the point sending Ginia Bellafante into the heart of Bourbon country:<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d be surprised by how many people around here don\u2019t drink,\u201d our waitress shared with us later.\u00a0My dinner companion worked for the Louisville mayor\u2019s office. She had given up drinking several years ago in the name of better sleep and general well-being, leaving her vulnerable to the joke that she was\u00a0part of the problem in a city where the national retreat from alcohol was driving a list of anxieties.\u00a0I had come to Louisville to gauge the collateral effects of this growing aversion, a reality propelled by science, supported by surveys and punctuated by my own experience as a host who had noticed that a longstanding dictum of entertaining \u2014 the allotment of a half bottle of wine per guest \u2014 no longer applied. For all the benefits of cutting back, certain rituals were vanishing\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n The Beer Nut, of course a ritualist if ever there was one, is having none of it and took the time to examine the offerings from Marks and Sparks<\/a> this week, with some observations on the claims made on the packaging:<\/p>\n First it\u2019s an extremely straight-up Helles Lager, stating what it is in large capital letters on the 33cl can. It\u2019s brewed by Cornish brewery Harbour, which does a few contractual things of this nature, as I recall. 4.5% ABV seems a little inauthentically low, and it poured without a proper head, which it definitely should not. There isn\u2019t much aroma, but it seems broadly on-style: a snap of cracker with a hint of lemon zest. I was thirsty, so half the glass went in one gulp\u2026 In all honesty, how it tastes was not a major concern for me, but out of respect for you, specifically, I will say that it\u2019s very plain stuff. There\u2019s a slightly hot fruitiness, suggesting the same sort of careless brewing flaw that made it headless, but you\u2019d barely notice that. I can\u2019t remember how much it cost, but I\u2019m assuming not much. Drink it cold; lie back and think of anywhere but Germany.<\/em><\/p>\n Cold is good. Are we prisoners of the archetype? Is a pub ever modern? To me a pub needs pubbiness or its a taproom, bar or gastro to one degree or another. B+B, however, have been more seriously on the case and reported back on refurbishment<\/a> and what is considered by the redevelopers as key these days:<\/p>\n \u2026 when they do try to lean into the history of their buildings, they do so without much taste or sensitivity. These days, that means whacking \u201cYe Olde Pube\u201d and \u201cGin Emporium\u201d on the walls in bad fonts that come preloaded with Microsoft Word. The other key component of a modern old-fashioned pub is, of course, decent beer. The Kings Head, The Crown Inn and The Pembury all have interesting ranges, served in great condition, often in particularly nice glassware.\u00a0The 10-sided 1930s-style pint glasses with which The Kings Head relaunched seem to have disappeared (stolen, we assume) but there are a couple of authentic 1930s half-pint glasses in the same style.<\/em><\/p>\n As you think on that, here\u2019s some notes:<\/p>\n Notes #1<\/a>:\u00a0 \u201c\u2026and commissioned by AB InBev\u2026<\/em>\u201d Ron himself as well as his sons have traveled to my fair neck of the woods \u2013 or at least he\u2019s been neck adjacent \u2013 recently and has begun to report on holidaying in a forest fire<\/a> smoke zone, wanders Toronto<\/a>, finds a diner that also sells gin<\/a> and goes to a cellar dweller\u2019s ball game where Chicago beats the hometown Blue Jays badly<\/a>:<\/p>\n It\u2019s another high-scoring game. The White Sox get five runs in one innings. Then three in another. Then four. The Blue Jays hit several home runs. But with no-one on the bases, they only get a single run\u2026 A bloke a few seats along does try to get a chant going a few times. \u201cLet\u2019s go Blue Jays.\u201d He shouts. It\u2019s not the most inspiring of calls. A couple of times he does get others to join in. Until the stadium starts blasting music out again. With the Blue Jays way behind, the crowd starts thinning out after the seventh innings. We leave during the last innings. Mostly because I wanted to be sure of getting to the\u00a0Steam Whistle Brewery\u00a0over the road before it closes.<\/em><\/p>\n Ron and Sons will report on stops further east in the coming days.<\/p>\n The Guardian<\/em> published a very handy primer on how the UK is going through a shrinkflation related to beer \u2013 now dubbed a but clumsily as \u201cdrinkflation<\/a>\u201d even though it does not relate to all drinks \u2013 and especially handy as it relates to the economics involved:<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know what that amounts to.<\/strong> For a 4.0% beer it\u2019s about 41p a pint. Whereas a 3.4% beer is subject to a duty of just \u00a39.96 per litre of pure alcohol, or about 19p a pint.<\/em> But, see, you said it, Ms. G. You can\u2019t really say \u201cdon\u2019t say it<\/em>\u201d and then go ahead and say the exactly that\u00a0 one thing you say you shouldn\u2019t say. Really. You might say there ought to be a law about these things in Britain but we also learned in that self same publication this week that<\/a>:<\/p>\n Parliament is \u201cBritain\u2019s last alcohol-soaked workplace\u201d where MPs are offered free drinks as early as midday despite alcohol-related scandals, a\u00a0report has revealed.\u00a0Drinking is commonplace and some MPs have had their stomachs pumped after consuming so much alcohol that they ended up in hospital, one disclosed.<\/em><\/p>\n Yikes! So\u2026 maybe less booze is not such a bad thing in one\u2019s glass. Is there less booze in Maryland? Michael Stein<\/a> in DC Beer<\/em> went on an interesting investigation and reported out this week on the unused 100,000 barrels of capavity left behind when Flying Dog was bought by FX Matt who shut down the Maryland brewery and moved production to Beautica\u2026 err\u2026 Utica, New York***:<\/p>\n So, did those 100,000 barrels of 2017 go to the macros? Some did, some didn\u2019t. The Brewers Association of Maryland\u2019s latest data has just under 7,500 barrels brewed in Frederick County in 2025. That\u2019s less than 10% of what Flying Dog was brewing by themselves when they left the state.\u00a0\u00a0Maryland not only lost 100,000 barrels of Flying Dog, they lost DuClaw, and much of Guinness\u2019 Baltimore Blonde production. In\u00a0The\u00a0New Brewer, DuClaw was listed in 2020 as brewing 18,250 barrels. That is a sizable amount for the majority of 9,578\u00a0craft brewers today, who annually make significantly less than that.<\/em><\/p>\n That\u2019s it for now. Not a big week, I gotta get back out to the yard. As I struggle, please check out Boak and Bailey posting on Saturday<\/a>\u00a0and adding to their fabulously entertaining footnotes week after week at\u00a0Patreon<\/a>. And do look out for more of Stan\u2019s \u201cOne Link, One Paragraph<\/a>\u201d format. \u00a0Then hunt out something in someone\u2019s archives! Leave oblique comments on someone\u2019s post from 2009!! Listen to a few of\u00a0Lew\u2019s podcasts<\/a>\u00a0and get your emailed issue of\u00a0Episodes of my Pub Life<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by David Jesudason on certain Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the\u00a0BritishBeerBreaks<\/em><\/a>. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his\u00a0London Beer City<\/em><\/a>\u00a0newsletter. Do sign up for Katie\u2019s wonderful self-governing totes autonomous website featuring\u00a0The Gulp<\/em><\/a>, too. \u00a0Ben\u2019s\u00a0Beer and Badword<\/a><\/em>\u00a0remains on pause but there is reading at\u00a0The Glass<\/a>\u00a0which is going back to being\u00a0a blog<\/a>. Any more? We have\u00a0Ontario\u2019s own\u00a0A Quick Beer<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0All About Beer<\/em>\u00a0is still offering a range of\u00a0podcasts<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and there\u2019s also Mike Seay\u2019s\u00a0The Perfect Pour<\/a>. Plus follow the venerable\u00a0Full Pint<\/em>\u00a0podcast<\/a>! And there\u2019s the\u00a0Craft Beer Channel<\/a>\u00a0on Youtube as well as the archives of the\u00a0Beer Ladies Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n *So you know what that means? Yup, extended quotes. Cut and past. That\u2019s my game. Anything to nudge the weekly work past 2300 words. There, 1322 words to Tuesday at 7:45 am. It\u2019s all on track.\u00a0<\/small> You know how it goes. August means guests. So I have not been as idle as it relates to the beer reading and the beer writing. These are pastimes which demand a special type of slacking. One cannot succeed as a dedicated beer scribbler without setting aside the time to be inordinately idle, what in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7035750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[198626,104566,12167,102378,96771,179977,100356,98908,104564,104565],"tags":[37325,3171,13054,3767,1837,1416,1114,1820,388,15777],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7035749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer-shopping","category-diners-and-restaurants","category-economics","category-england","category-health","category-hops","category-maryland","category-oregon","category-pubs","category-tavs","tag-abbreviated","tag-beer","tag-beery","tag-blog","tag-edition","tag-good","tag-kitchen","tag-news","tag-notes","tag-whos"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/abetterbeerblog427.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/TomGreens.jpg\")
<\/a>August means guests. So I have not been as idle as it relates to the beer reading and the beer writing. These are pastimes which demand a special type of slacking. One cannot succeed as a dedicated beer scribbler without setting aside the time to be inordinately idle, what in any other pursuit appears to be the disfunctions of a wastetrel.* Plus, when not hosting I have spent much of the week working with the twine and the secaturs. That right there? That was my view Wednesday morning. A deeply woven mess of tomato plants stuck on hands and knees<\/a> in the patch where I had poured four year old kitchen compost. Lordy, how it grew. Now the tangle has been untanged and all they need to do is produce fruit. Let\u2019s go bees!<\/p>\n
Notes #2<\/a>: Half price beer with a Mitch obit.
Note #3<\/a>: A beer drinking elk?!?!<\/p>\n
That\u2019s quite a difference, but what if people don\u2019t like Carling\u2019s new weak beer?<\/strong> The company claims\u00a0the 3.4% version actually ranked \u201chigher for overall taste\u201d in consumer tests. It also\u00a0laid the groundwork\u00a0for the reduction by introducing a stronger and more expensive Black Label version in February, at 4.7%, creating a \u201cvalue-premium price ladder\u201d within the brand.<\/em>
Do say:<\/strong> \u201cAlcohol duty must strike a difficult balance between raising revenue and improving health.\u201d<\/em>
Don\u2019t say:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201c3.4%? My urine is stronger than that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
**As I tell the kids, one borrows joy from the future to have boozy joy in the present. With diminishing effect over time.<\/small>
***I keep telling them that I have the perfect slogan for the city!<\/small><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"