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Saturday, April 04, 2009

Piping Hot Serving of Fresh News

Saturday's not a usual day for a news dump, but this Saturday--sunny! warm!--is not a usual day. So let's get to it...

Honest Pint News
A front-page article by Janie Har in today's Oregonian gives a thumbnail report on yesterday's hearing in Salem. I am slightly misquoted as saying that Germany and England have glassware marked to 16 ounces. Before being innundated about further evidence of my stupidity (don't worry; plenty more opportunities will arise), let me say that I mentioned only that those countries have standards, not that they conform to US pints. (Click through to see a huge batch of cranks who've commented on the story. Amusing.)

The Eugene Register-Guard reported the story, too. David Steves and Andrea Damewood write quite a nice piece and get my position spot-on. (It's interesting--Steves is one of my favorite reporters for the R-G, Har for the O. Nice.) If you have a chance, click through and read this article--it's pretty in-depth. They did some backstory reporting on local pubs, talking about the impact on local business. One quickie response: it's true that to be certified as a purveyor of an honest pint under the legislation you'd need to buy new glassware (if you weren't previously serving honest pints), there's a simple, free fix: don't call them pints. Nothing wrong will selling "glasses" of beer.

Heater Allen
In his latest brewsletter, Rick Allen reports a malfunction with his glycol chiller has left him with six weeks of lost beer. He now anticipates the next bottling on May 17. So if you hanker for a local lager, you best stock up quick.

Bikes and Hopworks
There was a cool article in yesterday's New York Times about the bike culture in Portland. It is currently the second-most emailed story on the Times' site. That's cool enough, but for Hopworks, it is even cooler:
Riders who wish to delve deeper into Portland’s diverse bicycle culture can simply drop in on pubs like Hopworks Urban Brewery in Southeast, a tavern decorated with spare bike parts that serves organic beer.
There are now a whole lot of people across the country who know about Hopworks. That's gotta be good for business, right?

6 comments:

  1. What is with those comments on the OregonLive site? They are horrendously ignorant!

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  2. Yeah, Rick Allen (from Heater-Allen) is not happy about not having any product during that time. I'm actually his neighbor (business-wise); we have a start-up cider company right next door to him. He makes good lagers, which I'm not usually a fan of.

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  3. Depressing about Heater Allen. Just finished a bottle of the pils with some pizza--watching UConn lose to Michigan. Just a great food beer--as are all of his beers.

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  4. Jeremy in SE PDX8:57 PM, April 04, 2009

    Man, I just gotta chime in on the Oregon Live comments... don't know whether to laugh or cry. Holy knuckleheads, Batman!

    --JT

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  5. i guess if you're a troll, hanging out and commenting on Oregon Live must feel like the height of excellence.

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  6. Recently discovered the Heater Allen Schwarzbier (sp?) and it is one of my new favorites. Just an excellent, drinkable beer. And I am typically an ale guy...

    jfwells

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