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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

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

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

Some more thoughts on Lagunitas…

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 [...]

By | July 13th, 2013|0 Comments

Locals show in U.S. Open Beer Championships

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 [...]

By | July 12th, 2013|0 Comments

Tussle over 420 name leads to changes at Lagunitas

  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 [...]

By | July 10th, 2013|2 Comments

Breastfest 2013 hits San Francisco

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 [...]

By | July 10th, 2013|0 Comments

Smithsonian’s Find the Beer project hits NorCal

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 [...]

By | July 7th, 2013|0 Comments

California Beer Festival this weekend

Marin County will host the California Beer Festival on Saturday in Novato, with 70 beers on tap, music and a BBQ cookoff. It will run from 12:30-5 p.m. in Stafford Lake Park. Tickets are $40 in advance and $45 at the door. There is a shuttle to the site from [...]

By | June 28th, 2013|0 Comments

North Bay dominates Best Of list

Sonoma County brewers made a powerful showing on the top 50 beers of 2013 list in the latest issue of the American Homebrewers Association magazine Zymurgy (that’s the fancy name for brewing). Number 1 was, for the fifth straight year, Russian River’s Pliny the Elder, which already sits [...]

By | June 26th, 2013|2 Comments