Many American breweries make sixty beers a year. Rochefort hasn’t offered a single new release in sixty years. Because monks don’t do anything without considering the long view, the abbey also built a new brewery to handle the increased production.

The usual history of American hoppy ales takes us back to Northern California and the founding breweries there, who reinvented staid British ales by injecting them with expressive American hops. Sierra’s Celebration, a proto-IPA, seem to form a straight line through history to the present moment’s hoppy IPAs. But today we’re going to talk about a parallel development that happened further north, sparked by a colorful pioneer who is sadly an increasingly forgotten figure.

Beer tasting: Deschutes Black Butte vs Deschutes Black Butte N/A

What do Portland’s Level Brewing, Foreland, Upright, Steeplejack, and Away Days have in common? They form a growing list of breweries championing honest, proper cask ale. For decades breweries have tried to popularize this style, and Americans have spurned them. We’ll discuss what cask ales are and why Americans—and Portlanders—are finally starting to drink them.

Beer Tasting: Good Word Brewing

Today we’re going to be doing a bit more retrospective podcasting. In October, Jeff went on a national book tour—that’s the reason we had to put our podcasting on hold. Well, Jeff saw and learned much on his travels, so today we’ll discuss what he discovered.

Photo: Dan Cuzzocreo, the listener who inspired Show 149 on brown ales, came to the Chicago event

Since all has been quiet for months here at the Beervana Podcast, we’ve missed a lot of important happenings. As a part of getting caught up, we thought it would be good to review the key events of the past three months and discuss their implications. So buckle up and let’s go straight to the news!

Media in general has gone through a massive transition in the past decade with the rise of social media, the death of magazines, the arrival of podcasting, and, lately, a sort-of return to blogging in the form of email newsletters. But if you think blogs have no place in today’s media, you couldn’t be more wrong.

Prague’s U Fleků makes the iconic Czech dark lager, so much so they eschew terms like tmavý and cerne. Their’s is a “Flekovský ležák.” In my latest collaboration, this time with Zoiglhaus, we shoot for an homage. It’s a dead-on banger (no bias), but we didn’t dare name it Flekovský.

Back for a second year, and this time we plan to get it absolutely right.

I was pleased to see his eyebrows shoot up during his first sip, and I caught him murmur “this is good” as he placed the glass back on the bar.

The Wiener has landed! Just before Thanksgiving, pFriem debuted their version of a 19th-century Vienna lager like Anton Dreher would have made. It was a tremendous beer, and I’m delighted to say I was a collaborator. This is the story.