It’s no secret that we’re a fan of the brew pub and feel like it really is the medium of the future. It is hard to imagine that most non-chain restaurants will add or be built with a brewery element going forward. Recently, though craft beer bars and brew pubs have been bumping up against one another.

Navigating the craft beer world is only as complex as you want it to be, but some people want to make it very complex. Sometimes I am one of those people, but not this time, I don’t think. This week’s show focuses on the massive transformation we’ve seen in just the last five years of the growth of the craft beer industry. Now that it has become a permanent part of public life, craft beer is starting to bump up against itself and the other industries it affects, particularly restaurants and, to a lesser but still important degree, tourism.

Craft Beer Bars and Brew Pubs Are Becoming Uneasy Bedfellows

If you have a brewery and you’re opening up a brew pub, is it rude to do one next to one of your biggest customers? I feel like it might be. Increasingly breweries are taking distributors and morons who hold public office out of the game by just opening restaurants. It’s not an ideal way to start a brewery, but it’s a fantastic way to grow one. the difficulty is, when craft beer bars and brew pubs develop less cooperative attitudes than they would have if just two restaurants were competing in the same neighborhood.

The trouble is, in Philly (and other places as well) the relocated breweries are bumping up against some of the craft beer bars that have been boosters for such a long time.

 

When breweries grow, do bars lose business? – Philly Beer World

Nearly 20 years ago, McGillin’s Olde Ale House stopped pouring Guinness Stout because the brewery’s parent company had a corporate relationship with a restaurant that was opening a few blocks away in Center City. Most of the publicity surrounding the boycott focused on the unnatural spectacle of an Irish bar declining to sell Ireland’s signature …

 

Beware Bad Beer Festivals

This is a fun story about things to look out for when it comes to beer festivals. For my part, I could live and die and never go to another one.  For me, beer festivals have ceased being about discovering new beer and more an alcoholic alternative to a bake sale. Almost all of the points that follow are worth noting, and I’ll add another one: Go Small.  Beer festivals with 40 or 50 breweries feel overdone to me.

Frankly, the best beer festivals in my mind are the ones held at a brewery, like when they do a bunch of new beers, or beers along a specific theme or even have a partnership or a special release they’re promoting.

How To Spot A Bad Beer Fest – CraftBeerTime.com

As number of craft brewers across the country has grown, so have the number of beer fests. These events offer an awesome opportunity to try countless samples from tons of brewers in one place. But how do you know which ones to check out and which to skip?

Beer Bars That Get It Right

I usually stay away from stories like this because they tend to be whiney and snobbish. This one isn’t. A lot of these suggestions are right on the nose, including the request to dial back the IPA-to-Non-IPA ration and also to offer half-pints, which are a thing in England (or at least we when I researched this),.

5 beer-menu rules I wish all bars would follow

Between my job and my social life, I spend a good chunk of time drinking beer in ba...