Liquid Agnostic

Archaeologists have found what they believe is the world’s oldest site for alcohol production, a study said yesterday, adding the beer-like beverage may have been served in ceremonies some 13,000 years ago.

The site is located in the Raqefet cave south of Haifa in today’s northern Israel that also served as a burial site for the Natufian people.

“If we’re right, this is the earliest testament in the world to alcohol production of any kind,” Dani Nadel, an archaeology professor at the University of Haifa a

Source: Drink to old times: World’s ‘oldest brewery’ found in Israel | Eat/Drink | Malay Mail

Summer 2018 in Brussels was hot. Bushes spontaneously combusting, train engines exploding, dogs and cats living together hot. Okay, maybe not that last one but Brussels did experience its warmest summer since records began in 1901. While the city melted in the heat, at Brasserie Cantillon brewers were in a cold sweat over the state of their lambic, the spontaneously fermented beer that is blended to make gueuze. Heat waves can be death for lambic, forcing brewers to discard thousands of litres of spoiled b

Source: The heat is on // Climate change is coming for Brasserie Cantillon — Brussels Beer City

Some of the most popular taprooms in the Twin Cities now offer a range of family-friendly accommodations: play areas, bar-height highchairs, lower tables to accommodate strollers and family bathrooms with changing tables. Some have toys, books and games and sell sodas and juice boxes. Meet Minneapolis, the city’s convention and visitors association, even offers a list of the 20 best family-friendly breweries in town (minneapolis.org/food-drink/breweries/family-pet-friendly-breweries).

While not everyone wants to sip suds next to a toddler, many brewery visitors say the all-ages welcome is appropriate for taprooms, which have a more casual, open vibe than bars. Others say it’s another sign that millennials are driving the craft brewery movement.“

This is the generation that puts their kid on the bike with them, travels around the world with them,” said Mary Meehan, consumer strategist and co-founder of Minneapolis-based Panoramix Global. “So it makes sense that they would bring their kids to the brewery.”

Source: Millennials are pushing to make Twin Cities breweries family-friendly hangouts – StarTribune.com

“We could not give Cantillon away,” says Engert, now the beverage director of D.C.’s extensive Neighborhood Restaurant Group, including the influential ChurchKey. “Our back cellar was just overwrought with Cantillon bottles, and not just 375 milliliter bottles of Gueuze. There was Fou’Foune, all sorts of Lou Pepe, different vintages—people just didn’t want it.”

Source: America Gone Wild — How an Ancient Tradition Became the New Wave in U.S. Brewing — Good Beer Hunting

For some people, beer is the perfect end to a workday. For Bertha Jimenez, it’s the start of a new way to eliminate food waste.

Breweries throw out millions of pounds of used grain every day that could have other uses. While some is repurposed as animal feed, compostable products or heating fuel, little has been exploited for its value as food.

But Ms. Jimenez, 35, has created a small start-up, Rise Products, that converts the grain into a flour that is finding its way into sustainable bakeries and kitche

Source: From Brewery to Bakery: A Flour That Fights Waste – The New York Times

With names like Shastafarian Porter, Joint Effort Hemp Ale and Fresh Bongwater Pale Ale, craft breweries’ affinity for weed is unabashed and long-established.

https://www.playboy.com/read/the-cannabis-industry-should-take-cues-from-what-s-on-tap

The team sampled 12 brands of beer from large brewers and craft brewers from around the Great Lakes. In every sample microscopic plastic fibers and particles were detected. Most of the fibers were smaller than five millimeters in length.

Wattenberg said what was interesting about the beer samples was a discrepancy in the amount of plastic contained in the final product when compared with the water used to make it.

https://www.wpr.org/minnesota-researchers-find-microplastics-beer-made-great-lakes-water

Grape or grain, but never the twain,” goes the old saying, but brewers no longer seem to care. In a craft-beer world where no ingredient is off the menu – even really disgusting ones such as beard yeast or peanut butter – grapes have become an increasingly common addition to the brewing process.

Source: Brewing on the vine: four beer/wine hybrids to seek out | Life and style | The Guardian

Here in Minnesota, no brunch spread is complete without a small glass of beer nestled next to your Bloody Mary. Also called a snit, on some mornings it’s the scrappy little sidekick aiding your hulking, tomato-based hero in fighting off last night’s hangover. Others, it’s the cheeky first mate, steering you with a wink toward a day-drinking afternoon while the captain’s back is turned. It is, objectively, a very good idea.

Which is why it’s kind of weird that no one really understands why or where the practice began. What is certain is this: If you order a breakfast cocktail outside of the Upper Midwest, you won’t get a beer back.

Source: Why do Bloody Marys come with a tiny beer? We investigate the Midwest phenomenon | City Pages