Category — Craft Beer

A Chilean brewer Ricardo Molina has made a quinoa based beer. Why didnt we think of this? Quinoa is the Peruvian supergrain which has tonnes of minerals, protein and good things and is loved by all wellbeing foodie types. Read up on it here. The beer - Cerveza Artesanal de Santa Cruz- has only recently launched in Chile but is doing well by all accounts and they aim to start exporting in two years. We couldn’t find a nice picture of the bottle so we chose a nice pixture of the grain instead.  Molina says:

“We started making this beer only six months ago, and it has already had spectacular success. We thought that the hardest thing would be to convince the consumers of the advantages of the product, but we were wrong; on the contrary, it was even harder to convince ourselves that we could have such success. ” 

We say: Inca beer genius

One of our favourite brewers BrewDog of PUNK IPA fame is being investigated by The Portman Group after a complaint about four of its products (Punk IPA, Rip Tide, Hop Rocker and Speedball.) 

Who’s complaining exactly and on what grounds? Tho shalt not use humour, irony and good branding? Apparently Brewdogs labels were deemed to be “associated with antisocial behaviour. ” Has Mary Whitehouse risen from the grave? 

A spokesperson for the Portman Group told Just Drinks “We received some complaints about BrewDog and they are being processed through the normal route which is our independent complaints panel who will hear the complaints made against BrewDod. The panel will make the final decision.”

Thank goodness for Melissa Cole of the Girls Guide to Beer blog who has criticised the Portman Groups recent draconian stance on beer names and launched a petition in defence of BrewDog. Have a read of her posts for some much needed sanity and sign the petition.

We have a taste for Porter right now and one of our favourites has to be the Flying Dog Brewery Gonzo Imperial Porter. It is inspired by the late Hunter S Thompson and the label artwork uses Ralph Steadman’s iconic portrait of the seminal gonzo journalist. It comes in at 8.7% so has a healthy kick.

Last month Forbes put together an interesting article on Brewery Tours and Beer Tourism with a focus on the growth of craft brewers in the US. Read the whole article here.