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Welcome to 2016…It’s a brand new year but 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.
New Places To Enjoy Beer This Year In The Golden State (Sacramento, CA) – Starting January 1st new California law allows craft brewers and beer bike peddlers expanded opportunities to market their products. In 2016, you may be able to drink on a party bike or power-pound brewski at your local farmers market.
Beer Can Shortage Will Challenge Craft Brewers In 2016 (Everywhere, USA) – As two of the three largest US producers of cans, Rexam and Ball, merge. The third company, Crown, is increasing its minimum order to a full truckload — as many as 200,000 cans – a number that will challenge what many of the smaller craft breweries might need or what they can afford. We’ll be watching this story closely this year – so stay tuned.
Words To Drink By (Washington, DC) – “A woman drove me to drink and I never even had the courtesy to thank her.”
– W.C. Fields – Actor
New Micro-Maltery Opens In Motor City (Detroit, MI) – Most malted barley, the key ingredient in brewing any beer, is malted by a big producer like Cargill, or imported in from Europe or Canada. Small malting operations are a rarity – and now, a new micro-maltery has opened in metro Detroit according to the Detroit Free Press. Motor City Malt House is the first micro-malting operation since the prohibition era using exclusively Michigan-grown and malted barley. Look for more operations like this to debut across the country in 2016.
More Universities Offer Serious Brewing Classes in 2016 (Everywhere, USA) – We don’t have to tell you that craft brewing is “big business” and now American universities including University of Vermont, San Diego State, and Portland State and the University of Portland are offering brewing programs addressing all aspects of the biz according to the New York Times.
What We’ve Been Drinking Lately (Portland, ME) – We’d like to thank all the breweries who ship us beer from time to time. It’s always great to sample the brews that we write about and helps to give us a better feel for what’s happening out there. Over the holidays we hit up a bomber of something special fromLeft Hand Brewing that combines two of our favorite things – coffee and serious beer – and it was terrific. Left Hand Bittersweet Imperial Coffee Milk Stout is a 9.5% shot of milky sweet stout melded with Colorado’s Allegro Coffee Mocha Java Blend.
