Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Six headlines in one day.

Powered by solar panels and the combined efforts of three highly accomplished homebrewers, Apocalypse Brew Works opens on Friday, May 11.

Meanwhile, largely ignored, a familiar chain brewpub is slated to open downtown -- and yes, they'll actually be brewing some of their beers there: Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant to open May 21 in Louisville’s Fourth Street Live! (Steve Coomes; Insider Louisville)

Other prime Louisville locations for better beer appreciation get a look-see at Hoosier Beer Geek in "The Louisville Beer Trail," with proper emphasis on the role of localism hereabouts.

Are you "Building International Coalitions Through Beer and Pavement?" If so, I was happy to be interviewed there, and the results are here: Indie-Craft Interview #8: New Albanian’s Roger Baylor.

From humble beginnings as an offshoot of Alltech, the Lexington (KY) Brewing and Distilling Company sees its Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale going national, international and even lunar.

Last, perhaps the clearest explication ever of the reason why macro vs. craft is in fact an evolutionary/revolutionary struggle, one that demands we espouse principled positions and just plain take sides, is offered by the author David Sirota. Unfortunately, some beer geeks are choosing to focus on Sirota's simplified  descriptions of flavor components rather than accepting the veracity of the larger argument. It's the forest, guys -- not the trees.

Can beer save America? The redemption of the economy may start with the type of brew you keep in your fridge, by David Sirota (Salon)

 ... Nowhere, though, is the battle between the low-price/quantity business model and the higher-price/quality business model more clear than in the world of beer. In the fevered battle between the macrobrew behemoths and the craftbrew insurgents, both sides are digging in for an epic confrontation ...

... A Macrobrew Economy — a high-volume, low-price model — asks us to compete with other such economies throughout the world, and the problem is that countries like China will always have lower-priced labor, more lax environmental regulations and lower production standards to win a battle that rewards more and cheaper for more’s and cheaper’s sake. By contrast, a Craft Brew Economy — a high-quality, lower-volume model — is a different proposition. It follows the German model, which, as Time magazine notes, is all about being “committed to making the sort of high-quality, high-performance, innovative products for which the world will pay extra.”

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