Archive for 'Musings'

Socially Responsible Beer

It is fairly common these days for all sorts of businesses to maintain that they include a “socially responsible mission” as a part of doing business with the rest of the world. Beer brewing businesses, of course, are among those which participate in this and some provide outstanding examples of companies altering their business [...]

The Great Drinking Age Debate

I guess that I was not surprised to read this week that the Vermont Legislature had, again, taken up the volatile question of whether the legal drinking age should be changed from the current 21 years back to 18. The reason that I was not that surprised was that this highly polarizing issue has simmered (raged?) in the background of society, occasionally flaring up into the spotlight of the media, for many years.

Back to the Future of Organic Beer

There are in today’s marketplace many examples of beer being sold as “organic”. Today we will look at what it means to be organic, examine a brief history of the organic beer movement and a look at how this type of beer may be fairing among beer drinkers.

2010 Resolutions and Beer

We are at that time of the year when nearly everyone makes some sort of a resolution, pledge or promise for the New Year. These typically are changes that we want or need to make going into the New Year. If you are like me, then some of these resolutions tend to repeat from year to year and, generally, I am not all that successful at keeping these sometimes hastily made affirmations. In this article, I will not be bearing my soul to share all of the resolutions that I have made for 2010, but instead will take a brief look at the history of resolutions and the New Year celebration and then talk more about how your choice of beer can significantly affect one of the more commonly held resolutions.

Hangovers 101

With Thanksgiving over and now Christmas past, everyone’s attention turns to planning for their New Year’s celebration. I don’t really have a regular plan for the New Year’s Eve. Some years it is out with friends to party it up and other years it is a quiet affair at home. This year is probably going to be the latter. Regardless of what the plan for the evening might be, something that has played a part in a few too many of my New Year Day’s rituals has been dealing with a hangover. As stated succinctly on the MayoClinic.com Web site, “Hangovers are caused by drinking too much alcohol”. Yep, I got it… the root cause of the problem has never really been in doubt, but let’s look a little closer at this “dreaded” phenomenon.

2009 in a Nutshell

As 2009 winds down in a big holiday rush, I thought that I would take a look back at a few of the things that were important to me during my 54th year. Perhaps this last year could best be described using the Charles Dickens’ saying, “It was the best of times and it was the worst of times”, for it was a very eventful year.

The Economics of Beer

Practically all of us know someone that has been severely impacted by the downturn in the world’s economy… layoffs, spending cutbacks, company closures and the like are just all too common. But what about beer (a favorite question of mine)? How has the weakened economy affected the parent industry of my favorite beverage? [...]

Hail the Green Brewer

Just so that you know up front, this article is *not* about that green “stuff” that is dispensed to the masses by your local beer purveyor on Saint Patrick’s Day.  At the risk of adding to a somewhat overwhelming daily barrage of sound bites and statistics concerning the deleterious effects of human-driven climate change on [...]