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

The Post-Malt Era of American Craft Brewing

Once seen as a key differentiation between better and mass marketed beer, the 2-row barley malt may now be the least important ingredient in a brewery. Malt has disappeared from our beer conversations. There are still palettes stacked high with 50 lb bags, and fork lifts. By weight, it's still beer's second largest ingredient, after water of course. However it's lost our attention, and its contributions intentionally minimized to better showcase on the other players - most typically hops and Yeast (or other microflora). The mighty hop has always been a lead character in American craft beer. There's something in our soil that makes hops express pungent aromas and aggressive flavors. European brewers traditionally considered these hops too vulgar to feature prominently in a beer's finish. They kept quiet about cost savings from the use of american hops to bitter. American craft brewers found ways to feature these piney, resinous flavors as virtues and birthe

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

Beer Destinations: Prague

Beneath a fairy tale skyline of spires, domes, and towers, a modern city of industry and commerce sits upon cobblestone streets and ancient bridges. Prague is a maddening riddle. Brilliant minds like Franz Kafka and Bohumil Hrabal relied upon surrealistic visions to make sense of it. Despite the city’s complex and frankly tumultuous history, there’s a millennia of brilliantly preserved architecture, miraculously spared the devastation of fire, war, and tasteless modernizations that have continuously reshaped many European cities. Located between the noble hop fields of Žatec (Saaz in German) and Moravia’s cascading barley fields, Prague is within easy reach of the ingredients to needed to sustain a vital brewing scene. However, the city was not spared the 20 th century’s assault on local beer culture. In the early 1990s, international breweries monopolized the city’s tap handles. Brewpubs were mostly forgotten, a novelty for tourists, at best. This Prague earned a reput

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