You Poured Me “The Hard Stuff” – The Session 103

The Session, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday, is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic.

I’ve written for the Session before, but this is my first time hosting. I asked folks to tell me what they believe are issues the beer community finds difficult to discuss, and I must say, it’s fantastic to see what folks have to say. I’ll update this post as more posts come in, and probably do a second round-up next Friday. But, for now, let’s dive into what people have already said.

Interestingly, though I doubt any of these folks know each other, the first five I link to are a fantastic group of posts because one naturally leads to the other.… Continue reading →

Readings You Might Have Missed

Food

To Cut Food Waste, Spain’s Solidarity Fridge Supplies Endless Leftovers.
I need this to be a thing I can contribute to, pronto. I always cook far, far too much. And I really hate food waste.

Beer

Waste Not, Want Not: 5 Ways Breweries Recycle Their Waste
I am endlessly fascinated by learning about what different breweries do in dealing with their waste streams. I think because it’s all such simple waste (water, grain, etc), and thus something I can see potential in and have some clue about how to reuse it. And probably because I know there’s some amazing potential for goodies in there.

Science

Building standards aren’t to blame for chilly offices
So what is? Because, at this point, we’ve all ready about how it’s sexism in building standards.… Continue reading →

Two Weeks of Links

I didn’t do links last Monday because something more important came up. So this week, instead of one link per section, you can have several! Except in the beer section, because the beer stuff I got these last couple of weeks somehow wasn’t my jam.

Food

Beyond Brothels: Farms And Fisheries Are Frontier Of Human Trafficking When Americans think about modern-day slavery, we typically tend to think of sexual slavery and movies like “Taken”. The reality is that trafficking is as much, if not more, about forced work of a non-sexual nature. Food is often produced under such conditions.

Europe’s Taste For Caviar Is Putting Pressure On A Great Lakes Fish. Lake Superior apparently has really adorable tiny fish that, in turn, have really delicious roe.… Continue reading →

Five Fascinating Links

Food: Whole Foods, Expensive Cheese, and the Dilemma of Cheap Prison Labor.

I had no idea public-private enterprises for prison labor use existed (again). It seems like a sticky situation, in that I can understand the arguments that this is a good thing and a bad thing. It’s definitely something for me to further mull over. And I’d love to know your thoughts on the matter, please.

A cheese board with built in cutlery. Alas, it won't help me cut through the ethical problems with so many cheeses.

Beer: The Defining Reason to Talk About Sam Adams Not Being ‘Craft’

“Craft” is a tricky word in the beer industry and in the beer community. You may have heard about (or participated in!) the debates around “craft vs ‘crafty’,” but the conversation seems to have died down some in the years since that press release was put out.… Continue reading →

That’s Technically Better, Yes.

Content Warning: Rape

So, there’s good news and there’s bad news.

The good news is that Pig Minds Brewing took to heart the various criticisms of one of their beer names. When they release their blueberry seasonal ale later this year, it will not be one that implicitly encourages rape. This is absolutely a step forward, and that truly is very good. The beer will not be “PD” any more but “Happi Daze.” You can see the much less rapey label below.

I don’t know if you guys know this, but I’m generally a pretty optimistic person. So while I didn’t expect that I’d ever have to write a post saying the previous label had changed, I sure as shit hoped I’d have to. I hoped the folks behind Pig Minds would, at some point, realize their label was problematic and change it.… Continue reading →