Appellation Beer

Hello and welcome to Appellation Beer! Discover the reasons behind our blog's 16-year journey and the meaning behind its name. Here's a quick overview of what you can look forward to: Every Monday, we share links to interesting posts from around the web that you might enjoy, often accompanied by our own insights. On select Wednesdays, we focus on the various aspects of beer production or highlight the significance of location in brewing. Occasionally on Fridays, you'll find a mix of news, opinions, musings, favorite song lyrics, and photos – all of which may be a bit offbeat or candid.

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1 week ago | appellationbeer.com | Stan Hieronymus

Father’s Day beer: Cannonball Creek Project Alpha LXXVThere was plenty of interesting (new to me, even) reading last week, but I am sticking with my plan not to reenter the That Was The Beer Week That Was business. However, this is a little different. On Thursday my beer RSS feed began filling with links to articles at Randy Mosher’s website, remodeled, in part, I think, to support his upcoming book, “Your Tasting Brain.” Mosher has added articles going back almost 20 years to his archives.
My new favorite beer style? Vera

2 weeks ago | appellationbeer.com | Stan Hieronymus

Jeff Alworth yesterday used to news that the Brewers Association added seven new beer styles to the Beer Style Guidelines in advance of the Great American Beer Festival to rage about how there are too many beer styles. This is one another of those discussions I feel like I’ve been part of more than enough times already, so just two thoughts. I am happy that there is a defined category for West Coast Pilsner.
It’s not beer’s fault, it’s me

2 weeks ago | appellationbeer.com | Stan Hieronymus

The headline — Costco Is Coming for Craft Beer — about store brand beers reads like click bait. The story itself, on the other hand, serves interested readers well. But . . . I can’t remember how many version of this I have read. It is a function of knowing that Mission Street Pale brewed by Firestone Walker and sold by Trader Joe’s won two gold medals and a silver at the Great American Beer Festival before purposefully hazy IPA existed.
But it’s not 2003

3 weeks ago | appellationbeer.com | Stan Hieronymus

I did not receive the press release about how Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head), Bill Covaleski (Victory Brewing), and Greg Koch (Stone Brewing, now retired) are “bringing their legendary friendship, their boundary-busting brews, and a rock-and-roll spirit that can’t be tamed” to Manhattan later this month. But you may read the basics and the astonishing verbiage here.
Beer’s past, future, Grodziskie, farmhouse yeast, the Gaia concept . . .

3 weeks ago | appellationbeer.com | Stan Hieronymus

That’s Marcin Ostajewski of Browar Grodziskie in line for breakfast at the 2024 Craft Brewers Conference in Las Vegas. In a little more than two weeks he and brewery president Krzysztof Panek will be talking about all things Grodziskie in Utrech, the Netherlands, during Carnivale Brettanomyces. The “yearly wild beer festival dedicated to deviant fermentation of all kind” is, in fact, about more than oddball fermentation.
6.02.25 beer links: True Beer vs Big Craft & very bad news

3 weeks ago | appellationbeer.com | Stan Hieronymus

The news Sunday that Martyn Cornell has died was a gut punch. Friends filled Bluesky with small stories, including links to many of his blog posts. Rereading one of my favorites — “In which I give more badly written beer history a good kicking” — I couldn’t help but smile for a moment. It was a sentence after sentence takedown, and should have made any writer happy to have Martyn not review their work.
5.26.25 beer links: Calibrating, ticking on TikTok & murk

1 month ago | appellationbeer.com | Stan Hieronymus

It is Memorial Day in America, so get outdoors, drink a beer if you want. If you missed these posts last week, read them Tuesday. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~QUOTE OF THE WEEK“Me, if I have a SNPA (Sierra Nevada Pale Ale) in front of me, I am really only concerned with the taste of the thing in front of me, not whether it has hit the bullseye on the shifting dart board of style.” — Alan McLeod From Your Beery News Notes For The Start Of The Last Month Of Spring. Context follows.
Beer links 5.19.25: Radlers, stubbies, skulls & calories

1 month ago | appellationbeer.com | Stan Hieronymus

I may have exceeded my monthly quota for words last week, so showing more restraint . . . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~CULTURECask. This is a story about cask Ale’s bid for UNESCO cultural heritage status, but within there is a “hey, did you see this?” fact. “For all the headlines about American-inspired craft beer, about four times more traditional cask ale is served in the UK.”The ink link.
5.12.25 beer links: Generations and cultures

1 month ago | appellationbeer.com | Stan Hieronymus

That’s Buckwheat Zydeco Jr., son of the late Buckwheat Zydeco (Stanley Dural), above, playing accordion, with his son on the frottoir at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Below, C.J. Chenier, son of the “King of Zydeco” Clifton Chenier, fronts a celebration honoring his father. That’s two more generations on the frottoir. Other members of the band included Marcia Ball (on the keyboard), David Hidalgo (in the background) and Sonny Landreth (not in the frame).
A few beer links and observations for 4.28.25

2 months ago | appellationbeer.com | Stan Hieronymus

Greetings, and welcome to Appellation Beer. Look here for why this blog has been around for more than 19 years and why it is called what it is. Otherwise, a guide to what to expect on a semi-regular basis:Most Mondays, a link to one or more posts from elsewhere you might want to read. Sometimes with additional thoughts. Some Wednesdays, a post centered on the moving parts involved in creating beer or the importance of place.