Jeff Alworth

News, nuggets and longreads 2 August 2025: Lionesses Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got Covid flashbacks, village pubs, and Bass fans.

GOOD MORNING! Here's our regular round up of good writing about beer and pubs. Hopefully lots to think about and maybe even argue with (in a sensible way) this morning. 🍻🍺

boakandbailey.com/2025/08/news...

Those heavy rings on the side evoke the brew pots in Norway, where brewers suspend the cauldron over open fires.

It is demoralizing to me and I am very embarrassed to live in what is quickly becoming a pariah state. I apologize on behalf of those of us here who oppose this cancer in our body politic. I wish we could do more to restore the country’s former values and laws, but it will take time. Bear with us.

As an erstwhile major power, these actions affect your counties directly. The tariffs are the most visible sign, but the new very antagonistic relationship to visitors, our exit from international agreements, and abandonment of foreign aid are all results of a new xenophobia.

I think the following comments make more sense as a social media 🧵 than a blog post, so here goes.

Thanks to the wonderful nature of the beer world, I have friends and connections around the globe. As our country descends into madness, I feel increasingly implicated by what Trump is doing.

They may make a case for some germination to happen along the way—I can’t recall. But it’s a fanciful scenario. You need malt, as @merryn02.bsky.social demonstrated in her work.

Seven may not be as clear as I intended, but it’s not beer from bread—it’s beer from raw barley. In the literature, scholars once proposed that the first beer came from this process: raw barley got wet and somehow the resulting barley-water fermented into a thin gruel.

In the spirit of this, can we please stop referring to Budvar, as much as I love them, and the "original" Budweiser.

They are not, never have been, and never will be.

1895 is a good hundred years later than 1795 when Bürgerliches Brauhaus Budweis was founded, known today as Samson.

I got linked by @beervana.bsky.social - I've finally made it, mum! ...

Ha! You made it a long time ago!

The Ten Wrongest Myths / “Romantic Facts” About Beer — Beervana For centuries, people have repeated myths or “romantic facts” about beer, misinforming the public about its history and science. But which of these are the biggest whoppers? Our crack team of research...

For centuries, people have repeated myths or “romantic facts” about beer, misinforming the public about its history and science. But which of these are the biggest whoppers? Our crack team of researchers has put together the definitive list.

I did try to include that observation—that the stories we tell about other people tell more about us than the stories’ subjects. It’s why I like “romantic fact”—that romance is so suggestive! What we find interesting says a lot about us. (And true—we like beer. We don’t create myths about shoes.)

In which I learn that famous Ben Franklin quote was really about wine:

“Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards; there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy.”

All very good, even if it will make you miss Martyn Cornell all over again.

I absolutely love this sort of stuff!
Especially happy to see @merryn02.bsky.social get the mention she deserves. She's done a huge amount of work on the history of malting, it's absolutely fascinating.

Although it is possible that beer could have been made without the maltings process. Early...

The Ten Wrongest Myths / “Romantic Facts” About Beer — Beervana For centuries, people have repeated myths or “romantic facts” about beer, misinforming the public about its history and science. But which of these are the biggest whoppers? Our crack team of research...

For centuries, people have repeated myths or “romantic facts” about beer, misinforming the public about its history and science. But which of these are the biggest whoppers? Our crack team of researchers has put together the definitive list.

If you click through and read my CB&B post, I mentioned Yvan’s chapter (and I also quote him from personal interviews).

In any case, farmers were not conducting mixed ferm with lab cultures. There’s no connections between the beers 19th c. farmers made and modern techniques.

Jeff makes the case that the only saisons we have definite evidence for are the "clean" saisons.

Were the stored saisons of old funky? Quite possibly. In what way? Nobody knows. The association between funkiness and farmhouse ale is mostly made up, particularly as stored farmhouse ale was rare.

The second part of this series examines the mixed-ferm beers some breweries call saisons. They are really cool beers, and the interesting thing is that they’re a recent development. In an industry that venerates “innovation,” they are truly new. That’s a great story! No need to call ‘em saisons.

In case you missed it.

The Curious Case of the "Clean" Saison — Beervana As a follow-up to my Craft Beer & Brewing column on “clean” saisons, here’s a fuller discussion of the style, along with a lot more description and advice from Upright’s Alex Ganum than I was ab...

As a follow-up to my Craft Beer & Brewing column on “clean” saisons, here’s a fuller discussion of the style, along with a lot more description and advice from Upright’s Alex Ganum than I was able to fit into the print column.

If you have to go back 200 years for a cultural precedent to excuse this outrage, I think you’ve proven the outrage. (And “Oktoberfest” beer is pure culture.)

In monstrous times, monstrous behavior.

(I will forgive Port City a great deal, but I have to draw the line at July Oktoberfests.)

I would happily take a ready supply of Taras Boulba!

Wow—thanks so much for telling me! Makes my day!

The Curious Case of the "Clean" Saison — Beervana As a follow-up to my Craft Beer & Brewing column on “clean” saisons, here’s a fuller discussion of the style, along with a lot more description and advice from Upright’s Alex Ganum than I was ab...

“When I think of Belgian ales, my mind breaks them up into abbey-esque, farmhouse/saison, and wild/acid driven beers. All three of these have their own enormous range but are mostly distinct from one another by yeast or whatever is doing the fermenting in the case of the wild beers.”

The Curious Case of the "Clean" Saison — Beervana As a follow-up to my Craft Beer & Brewing column on “clean” saisons, here’s a fuller discussion of the style, along with a lot more description and advice from Upright’s Alex Ganum than I was ab...

As a follow-up to my Craft Beer & Brewing column on “clean” saisons, here’s a fuller discussion of the style, along with a lot more description and advice from Upright’s Alex Ganum than I was able to fit into the print column.

Axios is hardly the first org to recognize this. The MSM has for decades recognized the conservative/GOP views on foreign policy, the military, markets and business, “entitlements,” labor, religion, and more as normative and authoritative. It’s a main reason they were so hamstrung by Trump.

I’m curious to see what will happen with 1019 when it gets its name soon. It’s pure, piña colada tropicality. Will consumers find it too candyish, or will it send us down a different IPA road?

I know I wouldn’t be comfortable spending a decade developing a hop and hoping the timing was right.

I’m not sure about that. Sabro is quickly going the way of Summit, and the biggest trend in the U.S. are West Coast IPAs, which are usually characterized by a dank/savory/piney note. The drinkers left after the hazy days don’t want tropical ice cream beer.