DRINK

Hip Hops: Moscow in 1989, with beer, zakuski, vodka and ice cream

As I have noted previously in this space, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that in 1989, I occupied a seat in the same large room (Radeberger Keller, Dresden) as Vladimir Putin. I couldn’t have known, because while Putin was a lower-echelon KGB operative, his cohort was privileged in the context of the […]

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Hip Hops: My ACBHoF nominations, the Indiana GABF winners, and Marxist “hi skool” memories

You’d like to think that a lifetime of experience counts for something, and consequently I’m thankful for the opportunity to continue serving on the board of advisors at the American Craft Beer Hall of Fame. Founded with the mission of honoring and remembering those who have contributed to the growth and success of the country’s […]

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Hip Hops: Louisville Beer Week, Wetherspoon’s silence, Holy Grale’s Kölsch and s’more-infested ale

October 16 – 24 marks Louisville Beer Week‘s ninth iteration since returning to life in 2018 following a hiatus of indeterminate length, although I know with certainty that Louisville Craft Beer Week was launched in 2010 because forensic internet evidence cannot be dismissed, as demonstrated here: Louisville Craft Beer Week — Sept. 24 – Oct. […]

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Hip Hops: Culture shock in ME, NH, VT and MA (and Kentuckiana too)

Last week I observed that in 2025… Maine, with only 1,414,874 residents (42nd) had 157 breweries (21st), or 14.2 per capita (2nd). That’s right. Second ― to Vermont nearby, which has 15.4 breweries per capita. When I wrote these words prior to our vacation departure, I knew we’d be visiting Maine. However, Vermont wasn’t on […]

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Hip Hops: Alan Pugsley, Peter Austin and that pre-NEIPA, NE state of mind (and brewing)

In 2025, Indiana was home to 185 breweries, good for 18th in the United States, which works out to 3.7 breweries per capita (defined as “breweries per 100,000 adults over the age of 21”). That’s a ranking of 28th. Indiana’s population in 2015 was 6,973,333, or 17th in the country. Meanwhile Maine, with only 1,414,874 […]

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Hip Hops: Those first-ever draft Pilsner Urquells in Prague, 1987

Do I often write about European reveries? Yes, I do. As Archie Bunker once sang, “those were the daze.”  One afternoon in August, 1987 an archaic device affixed to the wall started ringing. I lifted the plasticized receiver from its cradle, gently brushing against the numerical rotary dial. Kindly recall that we lived in caves […]

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Hip Hops: “A Potable Cynic’s Word Book,” and what’s to come

Wikipedia provides a convenient definition to get these balls rolling. Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposing or shaming the perceived flaws of […]

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Hip Hops: ACBHoF’s 2026 Landmark Craft Beers and CAMRA’s “you’re being lied to” push

The American Craft Beer Hall of Fame’s inaugural class of “Landmark Beers” was announced in August, 2025: Anchor Liberty Ale, Anchor Steam Beer, Celis White (Witbier), Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Landmark Beers: This page is dedicated to individual beers that have left a lasting mark on American brewing and drinking […]

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Hip Hops: An unseasonal Oktoberfest (beer style) three-way, plus grudging pumpkin ale

(Your attention is directed to this week’s installment of “40 Years in Beer”: Part 93: Beer, circus, and the Great NABC vs. Big Red Liquors War of 2003.) As our schoolteachers gladly will attest, repetition is an inescapable element of their working lives. Students in second grade this year may comprise different faces, but the […]

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Hip Hops: In search of lost time

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” ― Ferris Bueller Slow down, you move too fast You got to make the morning last ― Simon and Garfunkel, “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)” Either you’re pumping the brake, or flooring the accelerator, […]

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Hip Hops: Beers by the light of day, but no longer at German rail platforms

“Day drinking” is a familiar concept. Beer tends to be my libation of choice, and the act of “drinking” is understood; after all, we’re not here to gaze lovingly at unopened containers as we contemplate the potential ramifications of Instagram trendsetting, but rather to enjoy their contents. Consequently, to me it’s all about daytime beers, […]

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Hip Hops: A philosophy of beer — and goodbye Alan “Hair of the Dog” Sprints

My beer column today is sponsored by me, and why not?: The 40 Years in Beer Compendium: links, previews, and coming attractions. Eleven years ago, as I began to seriously contemplate departing the beer business I helped to found, there came an opportunity to visit Transylvania University in Lexington and chat with some of the […]

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Hip Hops: “Curating” beer? Just stop it. Try “thinking” beer instead

Among the beer-related buzzwords that I’d like to see dumped from the top of the Burj Khalifa, then stomped, incinerated, drawn, quartered and dowsed with a flagon of Michelob Ultra fresh from heating to a low boil in the microwave, is the word “curated” in all its varied and chronically over-used tenses. “Curated” is making […]

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Hip Hops: Old Louisville Brewery, Feed Louisville — and chef-crafted Zest bowls

As usual, let’s preface today’s pint of Kentucky Common with a shot of local history. In the beginning, “craft” beer was accompanied by platters of food ― and I’m not referring to “The Peasant Wedding,” that famous painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Beginning in the 1990s, when small, independent breweries first introduced brought freshly […]

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Hip Hops: I drank a Shock Top, and other tales of mystery and imagination

Words have meaning ― most of the time. Um, much of the time? I keep forgetting that it’s 2026, and the advent of the post-literate era. Words with meaning comprise beer style definitions, even if many of the definitions we now accept as fixed and immutable have existed only since the 1970s, when the pioneering […]

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