The indispensable tool for the Massachusetts adult beverage trade.
By

Lew Bryson

Cinco Promo

Like any other good thing that really gets rolling, Cinco de Mayo is getting complicated. First it was a memorial to Mexican pride, a battle won against the French invader. Then it was a touchstone for Chicano pride, something to encourage Mexican-Americans to be proud of the Mexican part of...
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Brewer’s Go Buggy!

These American-brewed beers are starting to find their way into the New England beer market. They’re similar to classic Belgian beers, they’re complex in flavor and aroma, they’re hot with the high-end beer customer, and they’ve got a margin like wine. Interested? You should be; the right shop can do...
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Lighten Up!

If you have any solid answers, there are some very large brewers who want to meet you. They have a problem that is defined by these questions. Two of the world’s largest brewers think they may have found some answers already: Heineken and Anheuser-Busch. They’re making major moves into the...
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Roll Out The…

WHOA! Yes, we’re talking about barrel-aged beers, but this isn’t about oom-pah bands and whirling dirndls and whoopee. This is about brewers who are using wooden barrels to add new flavors and depths of complexity to beer, a truly innovative move that represents the best traditions of American brewing –...
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Today’s Bourbon Drinkers

Behold the Classic Bourbon Drinker (homo redlikkerus). He is white, middle-aged, Southern, and firmly clutches his large glass of bourbon and branch. He is simple and unadorned, much like his drink. His drink is whatever is on sale that month, pricelined to a razor-thin margin to move cases and beat...
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Predictions for a Beer Market

Thirty-five years ago, wine was in the same market position as beer is today – a commodity. Largely, it was bought by the jug, it was bought on price, and it was not bought with any consideration to “pairing” with food, except that maybe you got an Italian wine when...
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Dann Paquette

Imade a prediction that celebrity brewers would become a major attraction to beer aficionados, and named two local examples, Dann Paquette and Todd Mott. It seemed right to follow up with an interview with one of them, and I knew where to find Dann – The Tap, in Haverhill, MA....
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Porters and Stouts

Then I grew up and had a beer, and ran into porters and stouts. The relationships of these beers makes for one very, very messy Venn diagram, with more circles than a UFO nut’s cornfield, a lot of scratched-out lines and erasures, and some really odd intersections. Porter definitely came...
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Bourbon

One thing’s for sure: this ain’t your daddy’s bourbon. But some of it is Pappy’s bourbon – Pappy Van Winkle, that is. And the bourbon that still bears his name is a good example of what’s going on in the bourbon business today. Pappy’s grandson, Julian Van Winkle III, has...
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Craft In A Can

If there is an icon of mainstream beer, a thing that symbolizes the kind of beer that craft beer drinkers love to hate, it is the can. Beer cans are practically synonymous with American light lager beers, despite the popularity of imported nitrocans filled with Guinness, Abbot and other beers....
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