Having been neglectful about actual, tasty beer, I offer a round-up of recent discoveries, both in trends and individual beers.

The Covid pandemic has been especially brutal on downtown businesses, and last week claimed one of the most important independent bars in Portland, Bailey’s Taproom. It counts as its legacy a host of breweries it championed and a richer, more interesting beer scene.

Today we unveil a new logo for the show featuring our newly identified mascot “Maris Otter.” On today’s show we’re going to talk branding and design with Maris’s creator, Jordan Wilson. Jordan is a branding expert responsible for the incredible design and marketing at Old Town, as well as a redesign of 54-40 and the branding of new brewery, Foreland. In a special two-part show, we’re going get under the hood of this fascinating process and see how it works.

American brewers invented cream ale as a way to cheaply combat the rise of pale lager. It was neither creamy nor especially ale-like, and it wasn’t until well after Prohibition that breweries found commercial success with the style, none more than Rochester’s Genesee.

You may recall a recent podcast extra in which Jeff and I sampled beer sent from New England—and these included a milkshake sour the brewery described as “Berliner weisse.” But was it? Today we’re going to unpack one of the world’s great beer styles, going into the history and classic brewing techniques, and then see how these modern, fruity interpretations fit in.

Located in the West Flanders city of Roeselare, Rodenbach has been making dark ales for 200 years in a brewery that inspires the reverence of an old church. The brewery’s history, their process, and the beer’s quality make Grand Cru one of the most important beers in Belgium.

Today we’re going to welcome a guest to discuss a new business model that developed as a reaction to the Covid pandemic. Casey Armstrong is behind Road Beers, a direct-to-consumer delivery service with a growing slate of brewery partners. We’ll slingshot off that discussion to expand our inquiry and give it the Beeronomics treatment. In what ways will the pandemic permanently alter the way we do things? What will snap back to the way things were before the interruption? We’ll look at the beer industry, of course, but also consider the wider economy.

For decades, Americans have been warned of the dangers of the “tied houses” and the sterling virtues of a three-tiered system of production, distribution, and retail. But is this all hogwash? Craft breweries are testing the theory.

The sense about craft beer right now, with assaults from a global pandemic and hard seltzer, is often morose. In purely financial terms, beer seems to be sputtering. But as a cultural force, it has never been stronger.

On February 5, 2021, Portland Brewing will close its doors for the last time. The brewery’s closure marks the end of that scrappy, DIY era of craft brewing. And while it’s sad, a review of what Portland Brewing accomplished also reveals what a success its 35-year run was.