Announcing my new blog, Focus on the Beer, about beer in the Pikes Peak and Colorado Springs area.
15 Nov
Posted by ericmsteen as Beer (Oregon), Travels
Calum Cragie, president of the Scottish Craft Brewers, reviews my social art project The Market Gallery Pub.
12 Nov
Posted by ericmsteen as Beer (Oregon), Travels
Recap on my project in Glasgow called Pub School, which included a temporary pub that served homebrewed beer.
Greg Koch responds via video to my previous concern about Stone opening a brewery in Europe and not aligning with Slow Foods.
07 Nov
Posted by ericmsteen as Beer (Oregon)
Thoughts on Greg Koch’s presentation about Stone Brewing at the Beer Blogger’s Conference. Information about the conference, pictures, some links.
Art & Beer combines beer, one of Portland’s most well known crafts, with experiencing art. For one night only, you can sample three new beers from Coaltion Brewery, Hopworks Urban Brewery, and Rock Bottom Brewery at the Portland Art Museum.
23 Aug
Posted by ericmsteen as Beer (Oregon)
Response to the Daily Pull’s question of whether it’s craft if a beer is brewed by someone else.
There is a nice post about Beer-Evangelism over at the New School Beer Blog. It is about Ben’s attempt to show some of Portland’s finest beer offerings to people who did not necessarily like or care to drink beer. My comments are a nice anecdote to the blog post, but I’ll also copy and past [...]
Inspired by the beers history, Slow Beers is making Heather Ale for the Mythical State of Jefferson exhibition and Open Engagement Conference in portland.
As an observer of the craft beer industry and a consumer of their wonderful products I have very much felt the collaborative nature of these businesses. It often seems like local brewers aren’t out to get each other and steal the market; they just want to make quality products and share them. This collaborative economy makes customers feel a part of the community and it grows interest so that no market stealing is necessary.
Today I saw an interesting post over at A Good Beer Blog. Taking a quote from Zythophile, he thought through it’s meaning and wrote a few nice paragraphs. Go check it out. Here’s the quote:
“It’s not said often enough in this argument: we drink because we enjoy it, and the overall happiness that brings to society, I would suggest, vastly outweighs any disbenefits.”
And in reply:
“…If we are thinking about good beer we should also take an interesting in increasing and sharing the benefits while reducing easily identifiable harm – including those harms short of full bore alcoholism. When I think about this blog writing and the thousand of you who I am told read my posts every day I sometime wonder if I have encouraged anyone into a habit that is harmful rather than convivial. I am not satisfied to think of the statistics…”
25 Jan
Posted by ericmsteen as Beer (Oregon), Neighborhood, Portland, Portland Fun, Utopian Visions
Last night I attended the Scottish Pub Sing, led by the Portland Revels, at Lucky Lab in Portland, Oregon. It was beautiful hearing everyone sing songs and while we all drank together. Having a group of people sing together like this reminded me very much of church and just further solidified in my mind that the pub is really a wonderful social center, and good beer is an important element in bringing people together.
This is a video from Hot Knives, a group of bloggers devoted to elevating vegetables and drinking good beer. They’ve put together a book that has 21 or so of their favorite writings from their blog. It looks like a pretty nicely packaged book and it comes with a URL where you get a mixtape of music that “goes well with the beers.” A pretty exciting package I think, combining good design, craft, and beer. They even have a review of the 20th anniversary Heather Ale from Williams Brothers on their site (which is one of the beers I most look forward to on an upcoming art trip to Glasgow), and it seems like their logo was inspired by Scotland’s BrewDog Micro Brewery.
Where can I find good beer in New York City? On my last trip I made a few stops that served local microbrews including Sixpoint Craft, Captain Lawrence and Kelso of Brooklyn. I even visited Sixpoint, in the Red Hook district.