Pivní Filosof - Beer Philosopher

Birraire posted today a very insightful analysis (in SP) of the situation in the "micro" segment of the Spanish brewing industry, and I couldn't agree more. Like in many other countries, there is micro brewing bubble in Spain. Unlike the Czech bubble, where the predominant model is the brewpub, the Spanish one has fed mainly from homebrewers, who (likely) trying to find a way out of the crisis, and encouraged by the growing interest in the so (falsely) called "Artisan Beer", have set up small brewing enterprises with much illusion, passion, no little sacrifice and loads of hope. The thing is that passion, illusion and enthusiasm are not usually the best sources of advice, specially if we are speaking about establishing a company. All this is related to what I said the other day : "If you are a homebrewer who's planning to go commercial in 2013, before you brew your first batch, leave the homebrewer at home. Making beer won't be your hobby an

The idea that I announced the other day, writing a book on "beer thoughts" , has evolved in an unexpected fashion. It turned out that Alan McLeod had also been thinking about writing something along those lines and he figured out we could write it together. I loved the thought. Alan writes some of the most interesting stuff about beer and we have a rather similar way to see things. It sounded like a great plan. I must say we are both very excited with this. We've been exchanging e-mails like two long distance lovers (minus the raunchy pics, fortunately) in order to give a shape to this project. It's still too soon to say how long it'll be or when it'll be ready. What we are sure of, though, is that it will be something completely different to anything that's so far been written about beer. The topics we are going to deal with, well, I guess those that follow our blogs can pretty much figure them out, and they will all be wrapped in a fun and perhap

With the work for the second edition of  The Pisshead's Pub Guide stalled, I've come up with an idea for another "book", and I'd like to know your opinion about it. It won't be a guide this time. What I want to do is to take the loose thoughts I posted the other day , expand upon them, link them to some of the stuff that I've written of the past year or so, with the intention of revisiting it within that context. And I don't discard the possibility of coming up with new thoughts and even changing my mind about what I've been saying so far. I still don't know how long it will be, and there are no deadlines yet (it'll largely depend on my workload and mood), but before I start I'd like to know if there is anyone who'd be interested in reading something like this (and paying for it, of course) or, why not, if someone has any ideas about what shape it could take. So, let me know. In the meantime, I'll be having a (few) bee

Taking the cue from Alan , Beervana Jeff is also trying to redefine the brewery categories in a way that is more realistic (for lack of a better word) to the current situation in the American industry. I like how things are here in the Czech Republic. There are four legally recognised categories that are based on the annual output of the breweries, and that's pretty much it. Everybody makes "pivo", attempts to come out with something that will describe certain beers haven't had much success, and as I've already discussed , I'm really cool with that. But back to Jeff, by the end of his post he says that "there's really no use for the term (craft) and I am going on a personal campaign to eliminate it from my own vocabulary." And I believe we should all do likewise. Let's do away with the term "Craft" to describe certain beers and breweries. It has become just another label, like "Premium", that doesn't mean any

About two months ago, I read an excellent article about Light beers in the US that, even after taking some of it with pinch of salt, makes you think a lot about the concepts of "craft" and "quality". But that is not what I wanted to talk about today (though I really recommend the article), but about what I started thinking after reading this little bit almost at the beginning: Melissa Brandt (...) chimed in. She'd recently bought her father a case of craft beer but couldn't convert him. Once he'd polished off the gift, he retreated to his basement kegerator full of Bud Light. "It was a sad moment," she said. Let's analyse this a bit. Unlike that wanker in Ustí , this woman's dad did drink the craft beers he had received, he "polished them", so we can assume he liked them (you don't "polish" a beer you don't like), and yet, he went back to the arms of his beloved Bud Light. What's so sad about it? Se