Know Your Craft News Today

Editor’s Note: much of this story was originally published in the Aug. 8, 2020 Robesonian.

The last time I heard the mention of something called “G13” I was in a Saratoga parking lot at a Further Festival show in 1997. Jerry Garcia departed a couple of summers prior and this was what was left of the Grateful Dead in various instrumental iterations, along with the remaining scene dedicated to following them around. As we meandered lazily through this makeshift community of touring vendors — something resembling a cross between a Renaissance Festival, what I envisioned commune li...

Few beers ignite the kind of excitement in the real beer and lager fans this time of year like a  “double” Bock.

India pale ales. Maybe you’re tired of hearing about them. To today’s world of beer, they can seem like stars to the galaxy or grains of sand to the beach. But, this does not bother the hophead as there is no apparent end to their craving for beers infused with this not quite ancient ingredient known as Humulus lupulus, or hops. Even if most of the new IPAs flooding the market seldom reach anything resembling the glimmer of a constellation, over the past few weeks beer companies have been ...

Whether you call it a black IPA, a Cascadian dark ale, or an India black ale, this hop-forward, dark, now niche beer has been popping back up on the scene over the past year or so, but it is definitely choosing its spots carefully. Once, on the verge of becoming a staple — it stirred up controversy from the start over its name, origin, and classification as a distinct style since some argued it was only a hopped-up Porter or Brown Ale — for a few years this hoppy black ale could be sampled ...

Did you know that there is a Trappist brewery just a short drive west of Boston? Chances are, in this modern wild world of breweries everywhere you look, you may not be familiar with the beers produced by St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts. But, if you do know about these brewing monks then you certainly know how exceptional the beers from Spencer Trappist Brewery are. Founded in 1950, St. Joseph’s originally got into the grocery stores with a brand of tasty preserves you’d prob...

They’re at it again — giant, corporate, conglomerates trying to make a mockery out of great beers with a story behind them. First, it was AB-InBev a couple of years ago during the Super Bowl. Now Beam-Suntory has released a commercial attempting to make craft beer look pretentious, silly, distasteful and ultimately lame. And, just like Budweiser’s disingenuous swipe at smaller breweries known for creativity and flavor, Jim Beam now asks the viewer if they too need something different —...

Around the globe, and across the span of history, any intrepid explorer can discover countless unique cultural and religious customs inspiring everything from intrigue and excitement to bewilderment. One of the more interesting holiday traditions of western civilization hails from old England where a medieval Christmas included a drinking ritual known as wassail or wassailing. Some scholars believe it was initially practiced to ensure a good apple harvest, a practice with long roots perhaps rea...