My colleague Chris Coursey has some interesting reflections on Lagunitas founder/guru Tony Magee in his column this week, spurred by our article earlier this week about the stink over the pot-slang term 420 with a brewer in Georgia. Incidentally, I spoke with a another senior official at the brewery on [...]
Reuters had a most interesting story this week that is getting some attention in the beer world, talking about the dangers of the brewing industry. Between 2009 and 2012, four brewery workers died in craft operations, compared with just two deaths in the mass market breweries like Bud and Coors, [...]
For some reason, California breweries didn't do all that well in the recent U.S. Open Beer Championships, a big beer judging competition in Atlanta last weekend - no California brewery placed in the top 10 and there were only a scattering of individual winners from around here. But that having [...]
As wide open as California's beer market may be, for brew fans in our Great Neighbor to the South, life is very different. The Wall Street Journal reports this week on the pervasive culture of pay-to-play in the Mexican beer market, with distributors and brewers cutting exclusive deals with restaurants [...]
Lagunitas Brewing is rarely in a position to get kicked around, partly because of its size and partly because of the larger-than-life personality of founder Tony Magee, but the brewery had to back down this week after an Atlanta-based brewery demanded that it stop using the term "420" on [...]
As you have certainly noticed, beer companies have a long and not entirely dignified history of employing (or exploiting) breasts to sell their products in ads. Since 2000, however, some breweries have turned this partnership to a more noble cause, this time exploiting beer to help breasts, or at least [...]
The somewhat-hard-to-describe website io9 has an interesting gallery today of photos from the era of Prohibition, including some priceless images, like the iconic one above, of pro-beer, anti-Prohibition rallies. That is a cause we can get behind. -Sean Scully
It's no secret that beer tourism is a serious and growing thing, but CNN's website has an interesting report this week on the new high end of the market, with resorts and breweries trying to offer the kind of high-touch, luxury experiences that wine lovers have long expected from pricey [...]
If this is true, it would be very good news for California beer drinkers. Shanken News Daily, a beverage industry trade publication, says that Michigan-based Bell's Brewing is considering expanding to California, at least to Southern California (which presumably could mean we beer drinkers in northern California might follow some [...]
The New Yorker is not a magazine one might normally associate with beer. Martinis before dinner, perhaps, but not beer. So it is a mark of craft beer's increasing cultural significance that the mighty literary journal recently spent some its considerable graphical power on a most interesting interactive map, showing [...]
Not sure quite what to make of this one, but here it is anyway. Smithsonian magazine's food and beverage columnist Alastair Bland has launched "Find the Beer! A California Trail of Ales," a game wherein he leaves a beer stashed at various locations around northern California. Your job is to [...]
California is Number 1 in overall beer beer production and shipment among the 50 states, based on 2012 numbers, but the state's 27 million drinking-age residents lag behind 43 others states in per capita consumption, according to a new analysis by industry organization The Beer Institute. California brewers produced and [...]
Happy, Fourth of July. Even on a holiday, we have beer news. The staff of Napa Smith Brewery will be on hand at the Napa County Fair tonight from 8:30-9:30 p.m., pouring their pilsner and amber ale, paired with some sausage. It's part of the fair's Chef Showcase series that [...]
A small but significant blow for freedom was struck earlier this week, when Alabama became the last state in the Union to legalize the art of Homebrewing, after several years of pressure from the American Homebrewers Association and other beer fans. The bill passed and was signed by the governor [...]
The guys at the irreverent sports website Deadspin decided to rank 36 cheap beers and came up with an amusing list, starting with the bottom. Coming in at 36 was what they deemed "the worst beer currently sold on American soil," Keystone (not Keystone Light, curiously, which weighs in at [...]
A resident of Santa Rosa for most of his life, Peter Lopez Jr., 34, has taken over the duties of beer blogger for the Press Democrat. He has been a part of the beer and wine industry for almost his entire adult life and brings a wealth of knowledge. Currently Peter is a partner at the Healdsburg Emporium where he does the beer and wine purchasing. He is also the wine 
buyer at Fircrest Market in Sebastopol and the administrator of the NorCal Beer Geeks group on Facebook.
Beer is a big business in this part of the world, with some of the best and most sought-after brews made right in our own back yard. But too often that beer culture is hidden behind the iconic wine industry that defines the region. The Beer Country blog will bring you news and notes about our local brew scene, and maybe a little about cider while we’re at it. Have news, ideas, or questions that need answering? Drop a line in the comments section of the blog or email us at info@pressdemocrat.com