Pacific Brew News

You already know this, but the 2009 Great American Beer Festival is underway in Denver. Compared to years past, the first session was pretty packed with beer enthusiasts from around the country – and beyond. I didn’t do a whole lot of sampling, but was fairly impressed with Sandlot’s lagers – the pilsner and Second [...]

If you see this man today, please feel free to buy him a beer. This is Mike “The Hop Hunter” Sober – a major force behind PBN and founder of the SOBER group. Today is Mike’s birthday! To celebrate he and his lovely wife, Terri, will be heading out to do what a Hop [...]

Recently all of us S.O.B.E.R. Group types gathered around the tall wood table in the Hop Hunters growler parlor and enjoyed a half dozen samples of beer from growlers that Rick and Tracy gathered on their latest crazed whirlwind jaunt into the North Country.  Considering Rick is a pretty picky bastard when it comes to properly handling and storing his [...]

In past years I’ve gushed about the genius and greatness of Sean Z. Paxton, the Homebrew Chef, and his dinners at the Northern California Homebrewers Festival (as well as Toronado and other locations). Well, I assume you’ve figured out this guy can cook. In fact, I hope you know he’s the best at what he [...]

This is just a quick post to mention two great events happening in Northern California this weekend.
First is the Northern California Homebrewers Festival at Lake Francis. If you don’t already have it planned, it may be too late. However, if you’re a homebrewer in the region you’ll need to add this to your calendar for [...]

I love local food and local beer. It seems I’m not alone in this, as more and more I see restaurants big and small promoting their commitment to serve as much local food as possible. Whether it’s produce grown an hour away or goat and lamb from down the street, local is a catchy [...]

True, some years back Pacific Brew News started as one of the first beer related podcasts out there – inspired by The Good Beer Show, Craft Beer Radio and Basic Brewing (and a couple others). In the beginning it was Mark and me, sitting on his couch, drinking whatever we could get our hands on. [...]

I recently took a whirlwind tour through Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Alberta and Saskatchewan, a 3,500 mile journey through some beautiful country. Given my affinity to finding new beer, I did some homework on www.BeerMapping.com to find breweries along the way. I called or emailed ahead, found out who sold growlers and then plotted some [...]

Collaboration. The word seems to be used more and more to represent the friendly relationships found in the craft beer industry – and not just here in the USA. This week three breweries worked in unison in Stockton, California, to create a beer that the region should be looking forward to – an India Black [...]

For many, this will be “old news”, but I just finished the book “B is for Beer” by Tom Robbins and thought I’d pass along some info for anyone with kids or grandkids – or just into beer.
The book is a hybrid of kids’ story and fiction, seemingly written to be read to children whilst [...]