Yikes, It’s June already… and clearly nothing is slowing down anytime soon. But no worries, Rumor Mill is always on the case, keeping you plugged in to all the craft beer news that matters. Plus we’ve an all-important update on what we’ve been drinking lately and you absolutely don’t want to miss that.

ACB Goes North To Alaska (Everywhere, AK) – American Craft Beer was recently invited up to Alaska for an “in-depth” tour of their fast-growing craft beer and distilling scene, and it was AWESOME. And even though, we were clearly “out of our depth” up there, we did our best to behave, hung out with some amazing people and visited some unbelievably spectacular places. We’ll be bringing you a whole series of tales from “The Last Frontier” over the next over next couple of weeks –  that will ready you for a trip “you need to take” – as well as “what you should drink” when you’re there.

5000 Year-Old Brewery Discovered In China (Shaanxi Province) – According to CNN, “Archeologists from Stanford University, unearthed what they think is an ancient brewery, at the Mijiaya site in China’s Shaanxi province.” The findings indicate that that people in China established advanced beer-brewing technology much earlier than previously thought and that surprisingly, barley imported from Western Eurasia may have been part of the process.

Words To Drink By (Los Angeles, CA) – “We’ve all got to start somewhere, just don’t delude yourself that because you’ve started, you deserve to be successful.”

                                                                                             Bob Lefsetz – the Lefsetz Letter

Whirlpool Ventures Into Homebrewing Via Crowdfunding (Benton Harbor, MI) – It appears that Whirlpool wants in on the homebrewing game and they want you to fund it, via an Indiegogo crowd-funding site (they’ve a cash-flow problem?). Billed as easy, less work, and as offering more control over the fermentation process, Vessi Fermentor boasts the ability to produce quality beer in as little as 7 days. And they are betting that you’ll eventually be willing to fork over almost $1,900 for that ability.  We can’t help but wonder why a global giant, the size and scope of the Whirlpool, would ever stoop to crowdfunding this venture. What’s next crowdfunded washing machines?

What We’ve Been Drinking Lately (Washington, DC) – We’d like to thank all of the American craft breweries who’ve shipped us beer from time to time. And last night we hit up a Brewmaster’s Reserve “draft-only” release that Brooklyn Brewery’s marketing goddess, Samantha Bernstein, had specially bottled for us. (Thx Sam!) Brewmaster’s Reserve Bel Air Sour is a delicious 5.8% ABV dry-hopped Sour that’s perfect for summer and as cool as the classic car it was named after.

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