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Russian River, Lagunitas retain Best Of status

Is there any craft beer list left in the universe that doesn't rank Lagunitas and Russian River somewhere near the top? Anyone? I didn't think so. Website The Daily Meal recently quizzed its readers on the best American craft brew outfits and, perhaps unsurprisingly, our two locals showed up on [...]

By | July 31st, 2013|0 Comments

Pot harshes on beer’s mellow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H8Cz9woC2A Hey, Pot People - kind of a cheap shot here, don't you think? The Marijuana Policy Project has rolled out (rolled up?) a new ad campaign, debuting at the Brickyard 400 NASCAR event in Indianapolis last weekend touting the virtues of pot and calling for its legalization. All fine [...]

By | July 30th, 2013|0 Comments

Homebrew pioneer speaks at Woodruff beer dinner

Homebrewing legend Byron Burch, co-founder of Santa Rosa's The Beverage People store, will offer a lecture on the history of various beer styles and lessons on food pairings at a dinner Aug. 23 at Woodruff's Artisan Foods & Café in Sebastopol at 7 p.m. Tickets are $50 each, plus tax [...]

By | July 28th, 2013|0 Comments

Bear Republic previews GABF offerings

Bear Republic will preview its entries for October's Great American Beer Festival in Denver at its 5th Annual Cellar Party on Sept. 15 at the brewpub in Healdsburg. They will be tasting at least 20 beers, the same batches that have been sent off for judging at the festival, and [...]

By | July 26th, 2013|0 Comments

Ukiah named to Best Small Beer City list

Since everyone seems to be into ranking things on the Internet  these days, it was only a matter of time until someone went so far as to decide on the "Best Small Cities for Beer Lovers." A website known as Credit Donkey decided to compare various factors, including population, bars [...]

By | July 24th, 2013|0 Comments

Lagunitas owner confirms: no fight over 420

Last we heard, Lagunitas was rethinking their decision to give in to Atlanta brewer Sweetwater, which demanded that the Petaluma brewery drop any use of the term "420" on their labels. But I talked to owner Tony Magee this morning and he says he will follow his first instinct and [...]

By | July 23rd, 2013|0 Comments

Farm to Barrel brews?

Beer is a tough thing to drag into the whole "Farm to Table" artisan food scene. It is pretty easy to grow your own hops, at least in this area, though they are finicky. And it is theoretically possible to grow your own barley and malt it yourself - the [...]

By | July 22nd, 2013|2 Comments

Calistoga Inn brings fresh beer back to upper Napa Valley

Good news for fresh beer fans in Napa Valley - after almost a year of repairs and upgrades following a fire last summer, the Calistoga Inn will reopen its bar and restaurant in the first week in August. That means fresh brewed beer in the area for the first time [...]

By | July 21st, 2013|0 Comments

Is Craft Beer light?

Beer won't necessarily make you fat, but there is no arguing with the fact that it adds calories to your diet, from 100 or so per bottle for the lightest of beers, to 400 or more for the big thick monsters that the extreme beer craze of the late '90s [...]

By | July 19th, 2013|0 Comments

California State Fair beer results

The California State Fair is on in Sacramento this week and one of the big features is the Craft Beer competition, a judging all the more important for the fair since the popular home winemaking competition is suspended for a second straight year because of budget cuts. About 700 beers [...]

By | July 18th, 2013|0 Comments

One man’s trash is another man’s art

  As beer drinkers, we probably don't pay much attention to bottle caps - it's usually nothing but the last barrier between our lips and the liquid we want. At best, the caps wind up in the trash, at worst, they tossed out on the ground to rust. Many brewers, [...]

By | July 18th, 2013|0 Comments

It’s just flavored water after all

For all the talk about malts and hops and yeast in beer, the truth remains that it is mostly plain old water (someone once called it "flavored water." But what a flavor it is). So perhaps it isn't surprising that there has been a fair bit of talk in the [...]

By | July 17th, 2013|1 Comment

Russian River to join Sierra Nevada project

Russian River Brewing is among a dozen smaller craft brewers nationwide chosen by craft big-boy Sierra Nevada for a collaboration in 2014 to celebrate the Chico-based brewery's planned opening of a new East Coast plant. The idea is that the 12 brewers will come to Chico to work with Sierra [...]

By | July 16th, 2013|0 Comments

Wine and beer do mix after all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbPD5BLqMRk&feature=youtu.be Wine and beer are pretty close cousins, from a production point of view, but they tend not to mix all that much in real life, either socially or physically. "Beer Bar" and "Wine Bar," for example, tend not to conjure the same mental images. Nor do you find a [...]

By | July 15th, 2013|1 Comment

Do not let hops go to the dogs

Here's a weird one: Fox 31 in Denver reports that a local dog named Q died after eating spent hops from her humans' experiment in homebrewing. Turns out that spent hops are quite toxic to dogs, causing a dangerous spike in body temperature. Poor Q's body temperature shot up to [...]

By | July 14th, 2013|0 Comments