About

The Site

Collected notes, rambles, and general ideas related to beer and the intersection of brewing and science. Beer proudly stands on the shoulders of tradition, and finds rejuvenation in both innovation, and convenient failings of memory. The beverage is too easy a canvas for marketers, and yet well suited for artisans. I am fascinated by the tension between business, creative, and technological forces.

The Author

When Ben's not writing, researching, or otherwise experimenting with beer, Ben works as an engineer in the biopharmaceutical industry. His position offers some opportunity to travel to lands with diverse brewing traditions.
e-mail: ben@beerthoughts.com
Follow @Ben_Mcl

A few previously published pieces are included, and are so noted.

Greatest Hits

Nostalgia and New Ideas: Craft Beer Luminaries Find Ways To Stay Relevant

I'm not envious of the youngsters starting out in an era when good beer is available on every street corner. Yes, things have never been more exciting in US Micro brewing but I feel the grip of nostalgia. New breweries are opening almost weekly. New taprooms draw crowds to taste new, photogenic beers. Novelty, at times, seems to surpass quality in importance to today's promiscuous drinkers. Which isn't to say that we didn't get around in my day. It's just that we didn't make such an effort to make an obvious trail, or tally our conquests. Which were, admittedly, somewhat smaller in number. Might today's craft drinkers missing some great beers from great breweries, in a quest for the next big thing, and a desire to avoid drinking one of dad's many microbrews? The good news is that many are doing cool things to stay interesting, and remain in conversation. So many brewing luminaries of my youth are now ancient. Great Lakes Brewing is 30.

Fathers Day Gift Ideas for the Beer Lover

June is a busy month with graduations, the coming of summer, and the wind down of the school year. Fathers day always seems to come out of no where. No worries. Here are some ideas for the last minute father's day shopper. Beer Tour Beer tourism is a real and growing business segment. Your city probably has one or two operators guiding minibus loads of attendees to typically 3-4 craft beer destinations. It's a great way to sample a lot of new beers, and meet like minded folks. Operators are a quick google away. Consider companies like Boston City Brew Tours , The New Hampshire Beer Bus , Portland OR's BeerVana , The Chicago Beer Experience , Indy Brew Bus, the Evan Rail designed Eating in Prague Czech Craft Beer Tour , and even a Napa Valley Hop Train . Books I read a lot in the summer. If your dad does too, here are some books he may enjoy. Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out: Goose Island, Anheuser-Busch, and How Craft Beer Became Big Business b

Eaten By Its Young: The Smuttynose Story

The rise, fall and apparent resurrection of Smuttynose is the story of the craft beer industry as a whole. There's growth in the industry , as the Brewers Association reports, but the story is changing from the simple David vs. Goliath narrative of craft beer vs. big beer, of quality vs. quantity, to something else. It's also a story of complacency and change. Of new generations, looking to do things a different way. Breweries inspired by the titans of the past, are making their mark. And for some, this means eating away at the business of the firms that inspired, and even trained them. America's regional craft brewers are being eaten by their young. I can think of no place where this trend is more clear than in seacoast New Hampshire, where Smuttynose brewing plays the roll of the fallen giant, lying in a verdant field of upstarts. The seacoast raises the craft beer standards for the entire state. It's a region defined by a scant 18 miles of coastline, and a

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