Across the board mirroring most industries, alcohol sales were down in 2009, beer being no exception with a drop in sales of about 2%.  Craft beer sales fared well despite the economic slump, with a sharp sales boost of 10.3% and a volume increase of 7.2%, according to the Brewers Association.  That's in influx of 613,992 additional barrels of quality, hand produced craft beer into the beer market.  Mosey on over to their site for more detailed information. In their article, the Brewer's Association states: In 2009, craft brewers represented 4.3 percent of volume and 6.9 percent of retail dollars for the total U.S. beer category. With the total U.S. beer industry representing an estimated retail dollar value of $101 billion, the Brewers Association estimates the actual dollar sales figure from craft brewers in 2009 was $7 billion, up from $6.3 billion in 2008. In the grand scheme of things, craft beer is still the needle in the haystack, but these figures have some profound implications.  First of all, Americans are drinking considerably less beer.  A nationwide drop of two percent is no small margin.  Second, some are clearly transmigrating to different suds.  And thirdly, and most importantly to me, there is room ...

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder..." So the saying goes, right?  But is it true?  A little context before I answer... For personal reasons, for a short spell I have had to cut beer (and all alcohol, but I rarely stray from beer) out of my diet.  That's right.  That sweet and bitter nectar that makes us swoon, that divine gift of God, delicious and sustaining elixir I find myself abstaining from.  I have tried to replace it.  Ginger ale, root beer, and sparkling water fill my glass at night...and they are a disgrace. The first week wasn't too bad as I worked fervently to displace thoughts of beer with others.  But after eight days, I found my mouth moistening uncontrollably at the mere mention of anything beer related.  Tears fill my eyes as I read reviews of beers that should be filling my cup and mouth.  As I read, I shut my eyelids and swish imaginary  beer in my mouth and contemplate the mirage of flavors:  mmmm sweet taosted caramel malt, a hind of lemon grass and pine nuts...is that melon I pick up on?  Ooohhh, what a nice spicy and bitter hop finish.  But I open my eyes and it was ...

We just got our 100,000th hit.  To some of you that might not mean a lot.  In fact, people who visit this site get over 100,000 on their sites in a pretty short span of time.  My little bro regularly reminds me of how many hits Finish Line gets in in much shorter span (he does a lot with their web side).  Let me tell you now without an ounce of equivocation or disappointment that I'm thrilled about our 100,000th hit.  The first month that we were a site we saw a whopping 514 hits for the whole month.  Now, a year and a half later, we are seeing our 100,000th hit.  The information and traffic has grown immensely in that period of time.  Simply stated, we've seen a very consistent amount of growth on the site leads me to believe we will see our next 100,000 more hits over a much shorter span of time.  Obviously, we have a turtle vs. the hare approach to growth.  I'm not sure a meteoric rise would be the best thing for us.  But I would be remiss not to add a few other points. First of all, it really did take quite a ...

Frequently, I reflect on the fact that, as humans, we are recipients of a long line of trials and errors.  Whether we recognize it with tacit actions, implicit understanding, or vocal acknowledgment, most everything we take for granted is a result of failed attempts or raging successes that have gone before us.  With the increase of technologies and the results of industrialization, this fact is, at the same time, truer and more illusive than ever.  There is simply more and more for us to take for granted.  Sometimes late at night a thought like this will occur to me.  Often times, thoughts like these come home to roost when I'm doing something that involves beer. While roasting my own cocoa beans the other night, I realized that it was not an easy thing to do.  That chocolate bar that we grab is not easily processed.  I wanted to put some cocoa beans in a brew that I was making, so I heated the oven and started going.  (I read up on it, so I'm over-simplifying.)  I worked on those things for about 30 minutes or so and realized that I over-cooked them slightly.  The cocoa flavors were there but so was ...

Sorry I'm so late on posting the Saturday beer.  I've actually had the idea to do this for a while but forgot to get it up this week.  Normally, we mention a beer to try.  Sometime you can get it and sometimes you can't.  However, this Saturday is one for the gamblers.  I'm going to pick up a beer that I normally wouldn't take a chance on or wanted to try but wasn't so sure about.  It's that simple.  Just pick up a beer that is a little bit of a risk or out of the norm for you and report back to us to tell us how it went. I'll be posting my story soon.

As I was going through old files on my computer I found this gem hidden below the dust and rubble of computers past, go ahead and click "play" as you read on: [audio:http://thankheavenforbeer.com/Audio/The%20%c5nswer%20%28Is%20Beer%29.mp3] Music and beer have gone together for ages.  In fact, many of the old hymns you may sing in your churches actually credit their music to old pub and drinking songs of the middle ages and earlier. And how many epic love songs were written after a few beers got the artist thinking introspectively? The song you are listening to right now (which just oozes of pure awesomeness) I actually downloaded from some random MySpace music page back before the mighty empire of myspace tumbled.  I wish I could attribute some credit to the artists, whose names are "Scott and Jimmy," but the MySpace page has long since vanished. It's too bad. Many a time I have sat down at my guitar and tried to compose a sonnet as lovely as "The Answer Is Beer," but have always come up short. I hope to someday compose a song of such beauty. When I do, you will be the first to know? Do you like the song? Have ...

By now, I'm sure many of us have seen that there has been a sort of call to arms to purchase, rent, or peddle the Beer Wars movie.  So, what are we waiting for?  Look, there are aspects of the movie that we could all site as being selective, whatever other criticisms we might have.  But I think the thing that we can all agree on is that monopolies are bad unless you are playing the Parker Brothers version and land on a fully loaded Free Parking spot. Here's the thing: the basic message deals with the fact the all aspects of the market place are dominated by the big boys. Distribution independence is a rare commodity, and everyone is in bed with the big players.  I wish that I was simply being hyperbolic like I love to be, but the issue is real.  I remember a while back that a certain other website was grousing about not being able to get Stone while they were planning a new facility in Europe.  But maybe the fingers could have been better spent pointing right down the street at Budweiser.  Either way, fair distribution and a level playing field are veritable impossibility. Have you ...

Not too long ago I turned on a dog show on Animal Planet to indulge my 3 year old daughter who is a huge dog lover.  It was interesting listening to the judges rant and rave over these dogs.  I mean, you'd think they thought this Cocker Spaniel's slobbery mouth with it's tongue hanging out rivaled the Mona Lisa's smile by the way they talked.  Don't get me wrong.   The dog was cute.  Very cute.  But it wasn't the Mona Lisa. Which brings me to beer ratings... I've discussed in the past how at times, certain beers achieve cult status, simply because in a viral sort of way, the herd deems one beer "the best," and the intrepid reviewer would hate to disseminate a contrary opinion.  Now, some beers are the best, because they simply are, "the best."  I have had plenty of top rated beers achieved beer God status on their own merit.  From time to time, however, I stumble across a beer that makes me wonder why it is so coveted by the craft community. Yes I have a beer in mind.  It is Hopslam. Before I go further, let me silence the haters.  I LOVE Hopslam.  I think it is delicious.  ...

Some beers are very complex.  Occasionally, I'll have difficulty pinning down a flavor or putting a brew into words. However, beer is always accessible and approachable in ways that many parts of life are not.  Something that happened the other day really got me thinking of how simple the pleasure of beer really is, and I wondered if a degree of my sanity is maintained by the ostensibly innocuous act of slaking my gullet with a beer or two.  There's really no caveat that can lead me to what I'm about to write, so I'm going to launch into it. Andrea and I run.  We try to exercise and take good care of ourselves, so we find ourselves running around town.  Often times, when we are not running at the Rose Bowl, we jog to the park where I can do pull-ups and the like.  I never thought that I'd see some abstract and somewhat ridiculous art while running--but there I was. Lap 1:  I see what looks like an old guy in a diaper with wings on his back standing behind a woman in a dress, who is sitting on a bench with a man beside her and a dog on ...

I suppose it is only human nature to want to outdo your neighbor, at least in a survival of the fittest mentality.  However, in this world capitalist economy we lose our way.  Case in point, within seconds of my father putting his mower away his next door neighbor hastily makes sure to remove his retired self from the lazy boy and mow his pristine yard.  Heaven forbid his yard not be the best trimmed in the neighborhood, if even for a moment.  I love visiting every summer just to observe this asinine behavior. Of course, a beer analogy ensues. In 2002 Samuel Adams wowed the world with it's release of a monster of a beer, Utopias, which boasted an ABV of 27%.  Go ahead and search around online for it.  A quick google search revealed a several year old bottle for $599.99.  Sam Adam's spends years making this beverage, aging it in used liquor barrels. Sam Adam's inadvertently started the big beer race, and it seems to have picked up speed in recent months.  First off, let me state that there is an overwhelming trend of bigger beers.  It seems the higher the ABV, the more interest a beer generates.  Remember The Bruery?  ...