Are we really only going to talk about one issue? Please, that’s tedious, leaves you open to some well deserved ribbing, and it’s how Prohibition was passed (I think we’ve all learned from that mistake). Like most of us are wont to do in real life let us jump from subject to subject, share stories, describe our dreams and brilliant ideas that only an ample amount of drinking would allow us to divulge and share with another. That’s what this... [Read More]

I told myself that I was done going over the disparity in numbers between the US and rest of the world with respect to the World Beer Cup. While what I wrote earlier was certainly not the definitive say on the matter, and nor was it meant to be, I thought I’d made my point. Until last week, when the WBC results made it for me by giving the US its largest metal haul ever, both in absolute and relative numbers. Based on previous entry and... [Read More]

Being such a the most prestigious beer competition™ one could be forgiven for expecting breweries to want to gain a World Beer Cup medal. As a light draws mosquitoes so would the wBC draw beers, to my thinking. With that idea in mind I was inspired by various questions1 to take a look at visualizing and summarizing the competitions through the years. I had several expectations going in: Died-off categories would represent general brewery/industry neglect (Non-Alcoholic Malt Tonic), historical... [Read More]

The WBC is next week! If you’re like me those acronyms actually bring boxing to mind more so than beer. However, let’s not get stuck on putrid sanctioning bodies and “alleged” corruption in a brutal and beautiful sport. Instead, we’ll swig (Freud!), eh swing, our attention back to our regularly programmed topic. Similarly to boxing, however, we will be talking about competition: beer competition. The WBC is the World Beer Cup or what I am starting to consider the “World” Beer Cup (wBC), the... [Read More]

While it is not clear if anyone cares to go on looking at the percentage change of brewery counts over time (crickets!) I am not ready to give it up. At least not yet, but this is likely the last word on the matter for a while. It is good to follow through on what you start and I certainly want to be a good influence on my future nephews/nieces. Additionally, there is the self-serving reason of being able to reuse this visualization work in future posts and... [Read More]

Not Gonna Get Too Dirty… Yet So regarding that deceptively simple plot, once I was done putting it together I got to thinking (uh-ooh) about some questions and points of interest. Sure, we didn’t break any ground with the graphic but it was meant as a starting point for further investigation and that’s what this post is about: digging a little deeper. Data Source: Beer Institute First the “obvious” things. If you knew a little about... [Read More]

Hello, world (beer burp) I’ve been meaning to get this post/site up and going for some time now. If I told you how long I’ve had this web address and how little I’ve done with it you’d probably shake your head. You might also empathize, I mean I can’t be the only procrastinator. Excuses aren’t just something I come up with, right? Ironically, I’m actually moving forward (for real this time?) at one of my busiest and most transitionary periods. That’s not entirely odd. When you have little time... [Read More]