Craft beer

Thursday

August 31, 2023

Tim Rice

Yes, it’s too early for pumpkin beer

The biggest purveyor of misinformation at the moment isn’t a podcast host or a foreign adversary. It’s a brewery. Since announcing the release of its flagship Pumpkinhead Ale on August 1, Shipyard Brewing has commenced a cheeky ad campaign declaring that the dog days of summer are actually the perfect time to enjoy a fall beer. As Americans battle oppressive heat and humidity, the Portland, Maine, brewery has flooded its Instagram with photos of people sipping pumpkin ale on boats, and posts boldly declaring “Pumpkinhead Season is HERE!” It shouldn’t be. Dropping pumpkin beers in the summer is a big mistake, and not because fall beers are inherently bad — quite the contrary.

Friday

January 18, 2019

Rob Crilly

The shutdown is hitting the craft beer industry hard. Isn’t that for the best?

So now we know the real victims of the federal shutdown: hipsters and their First Amendment right to put fruit in their beer. With the impasse over Donald Trump’s border wall already reaching the five-week mark, it turns out that the nation’s craft beer taps are being squeezed because the agency that approves new labels is closed. And even if the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau re-opened tomorrow, the industry is likely to face weeks of delays as it sifts through a backlog of applications for formulae for new beers, as well as permits for breweries. Cue legal action. Atlas Brew Works is suing the federal government because it says its new apricot-infused seasonal IPA is caught in limbo.