Whenever I visit the States, I'm impressed by the amount of beer and food matching events. Brewery dinners with each course paired to a different beer are just something craft brewers seem to do as a matter of course. "We brew beer, we'll host a beer dinner featuring our beer." American craft beer logic.

In the UK, we have some catching up to do.

So many beers, So little time...With the kind of weather now crossing the US, winter seasonals have begun making sense - and we've a number of wintertime offerings for you to peruse. We've also some exciting new releases from Deschutes and Pelican Brewing that you'll need to chase down.

Having reveled in all Deschutes Brewing has to offer, then picking up the Keg Cap from Bend based Drink Tanks, it was time to figure out where I want to go for the few remaining hours I had in town. A tough decision when you've got 19 breweries within the city limits staring you down. While I wanted to visit more of them, those places I did visit provided more hospitality than I've ever been shown anywhere else.

Hey it's Wednesday and it's Rumor Mill Time...Monday's announcement that Green Flash Brewing had acquired an iconic boutique brewery sent ripples throughout the craft beer community. We've more details on that merger as well as other things breaking right now in the world of craft beer. Plus we've an all-important update on what we've been drinking lately.

We don't sleep so you can....THIS WEEK'S RUMOR MILL IS ON!

Harpoon may be a large craft beer name on the national stage, but they've got a couple hyper-local projects going on right now. How local, you ask? Well, the first one's based on honey sourced from bees that live a smidge over one mile away from the brewery.

So many beers, So little time... Who knew that craft beer and cookie mashups would become a thing? Well they have around the mid-Atlantic. Who knew that dessert-themed beers would take on a life of their own? Well that's happened too - and we've some sweet offerings that you'll want to get your sweaty little pre-diabetic hands on.

On the heels of last week's news that Anheuser-Busch had acquired 10 Barrel Brewing comes today's announcement that Green Flash Brewing was joining forces with the Alpine Beer Company. Although these acquisitions differ wildly in rationale, context and scale - they do speak to one undeniable fact - consolidation is gaining momentum in the craft beer industry .and we predict that we're going to see a lot more of this kind of thing going forward.

Alpine and Green Flash refer to this new alliance as a "sharing of resources and wisdom" but we think it's more than just that - and we thought you'd want to see the entirety of press release they sent us.

When you think about Florida, Ormond Beach is not the first city that comes to mind. Located in North East Florida, on its Atlantic Coast, this city of approximately 39,000 sun lovers is a northern neighbor of Daytona Beach and home to Tomoka State Park. It's also home to two of Florida's more exciting new brewing operations - Tomoka Brewery and the Ormond Brewing Company.

We blame the industry for this... It used to be that when we wrapped up our Weekend Picks on Friday, we could coast through the weekend. There was little need to check in for updates - things were pretty much done. But clearly all that's changed.

So here's some of what's happened in the world of craft beer while you were off enjoying yourselves.

Hey we get it. You're busy and you can't hang with us 24/7. But still, we don't want you to be missing all the good stuff. So as part of our ongoing commitment to bringing you the best craft beer and lifestyle coverage on the face of the planet - and to keep you plugged into our ongoing recklessness - we do a weekly compilation of our good, bad, and ugly.

So welcome to another edition of our Friday Wrap-Up...