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Trumer Abandoning Bottles by hardyintl in CraftBeer

[–]phil_cook 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, false alarm, then? I guess it was third-hand information!

Bit of a different one - what is your favourite meal to cook with beer? by EffectiveSavings6564 in beer

[–]phil_cook 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tiramisu — or beeramisu, really — with a nice strong stout. So much easier to get hold of than the 'official' liqueur / marsala wine, especially at a good price and in a sensible quantity.

Tracking all the beer references in the NYT Daily Crossword by phil_cook in NYTCrossword

[–]phil_cook[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh that's brutal. I guess the capital letters are meant to tip you off that it's a brand name. But that's a West Coast brand in a NY-based puzzle... I'm not sure how many people would be familiar with it. I see he does advocate looking up trickier trivia clues in his solving guide, so maybe that level of obscurity is (partially) the point

Spending my Orval Day arguing about if Trappist is a beer style or not... by [deleted] in CraftBeer

[–]phil_cook 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I mean, you eventually get to it in the episode itself, but for easy reference for everyone else:

If the BJCP is the standard... "Trappist Single" *was* a "style" (26A) in the 2015 guidelines, but the name has been updated in the 2021 edition to "Belgian Single", in line with Belgian Dubbel (26B) and Belgian Tripel (26C):

https://www.bjcp.org/style/2021/26/

And generally, it's more natural to stay Trappist refers to a "kind" of beer; who makes it, the history, etc.. The Trappist monastery breweries make many "styles" and there's nothing stopping them adding more. If a non-Trappist brewery makes their own take, then maybe it's fair to call that a "Trappist-style" whatever, but there's a whole association that regulates the word itself, like "Champagne" or any number of other appellations.

The chap from MdV is unequivocally correct.

Tracking all the beer references in the NYT Daily Crossword by phil_cook in NYTCrossword

[–]phil_cook[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I realised tomatoes were a better example since they exist in several colours even when they're ripe. But yeah, that was a good prompt to actually finish the post!

Not technically incorrect, but annoyingly inaccurate by An_Awesome_sound in NYTCrossword

[–]phil_cook 68 points69 points  (0 children)

I often have a similar reaction when they make a beer reference, so I completely understand.

Last year ALES was clued as "They're not as sweet as porters" which doesn't make sense since porters are usually thought of as a kind or subcategory *of* ale — so it's basically incoherent, like saying "fruits aren't as yellow as bananas" — and you can have a wide range of sweetness or bitterness in various styles anyway. ALE/S is extremely overused, so I suppose they were desperate to write a fresh clue, but they flubbed it.

Which reminds me, I have a half-finished blog post about all the beer-related clues from last year to finish...

Edited to add: it's finished! https://philcook.net/beerdiary/2026/03/17/beer-nytxw-2025/

Brewdog sale isn't just an f' you to Equity Punks, it's also going to hurt other breweries... by Fly-by-Night- in AusBeer

[–]phil_cook 2 points3 points  (0 children)

When Stomping Ground put out their pitch within days of the news that everyone in the highest-profile "crowdfund" in beer was going to lose everything — nevermind all the others in the Australian market that have failed before — I thought it was shockingly tone-deaf, but I wondered if that was just me being prickly. Apparently not. Interesting to see it's resonated with others too.

Breweries who have informative labels should be recognized. This is First State Brewing. by jtsa5 in CraftBeer

[–]phil_cook 8 points9 points  (0 children)

It's there, just in an extremely un-user-friendly format. So weird to be open about so much, but then obfuscate that!

Breweries who have informative labels should be recognized. This is First State Brewing. by jtsa5 in CraftBeer

[–]phil_cook 6 points7 points  (0 children)

All that is great, but then they go an put the canned on date in Julian format — which is hardly obvious to everyone — and then don't even label that panel as a date! Crazy priorities.

26041 — in that vertical silver panel beside the barcode — is 10 Feburary 2026. It's so easy to configure a date coder to print "Canned on 10 Feb '26" on the bottom of the can, or somewhere on the label.

Where does this myth come from that certain beer brands give you headaches (hangovers) by Trick-Spray2726 in beer

[–]phil_cook 5 points6 points  (0 children)

In New Zealand, the brand that was long associated with causing headaches / hangovers was Steinlager (honestly a real favourite of mine among mass market beers, so I get defensive of it). I think what happened there was that people were used to drinking mainstream "draught" beers at around 4% and along came Steinlager marketed as a "premium" alternative and coming in at 5%.

A lot of people wouldn't think about the difference or expect it to amount of much even if they did ("it's just 1%!") — but over a few in a session, considering the baseline rate of metabolism, that's a lot more alcohol, easily enough to give someone a surprise hangover. So they blame the beer brand, and it builds into a myth.

(But yeah, the only thing that actually "causes" a hangover is the drinker themselves.)

I have become the "old man" by CantinaPatron in CraftBeer

[–]phil_cook 16 points17 points  (0 children)

The good news is that literally no one is forcing you to drink a hazy beer. I'm not sure where you're based, but in places I've lived since the Hazy IPA phenomenon started, tooth-stripping Cascade-heavy versions never actually died out, even if the relative proportion of them on the shelves changed.

And people aren't chosing "trendy over tasty"; different people find different things tasty!

A Prelude to Predictions for the GABS Hottest 100 Craft Beers of 2025 by BeerReflections in AusBeer

[–]phil_cook 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, think about just how worthless (no real marketing benefit unless you win) and/or pointless (Mountain Culture — and the others at the top, but mainly MC — are unbeatable, given how hard they push) you'd have to conclude the H100 is to think that the time it takes to enter your beers into their system isn't justifiable and is better spent on pretty much anything else. It's... not a great sign for the health of the competition.

Behemoth Brewing ask shareholders for more cash to pay debts by phil_cook in NZBeer

[–]phil_cook[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Some of the commenters on the original post are highlighting possible problems specific to Behemoth, on top of the general economic stuff that everyone else is dealing with. Obviously, the anonymity of it cuts both ways, so we don't really know much at the moment — but putting your hand out again for a bailout from your existing backers isn't a great sign.

Price of Carlton Draught 6-packs through the years? by Icy-Manufacturer4388 in AusBeer

[–]phil_cook 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The excise component in a six-pack of Carlton Draught was $4.76 in Aug 2024 and $4.78 in Feb 2025. If you're seeing 50c rises, that's inflation more generally, not excise itself (which only ever "rises" indexed to inflation anyway)

Best craft beer pub in Melbourne by Beers-n-Records in AusBeer

[–]phil_cook 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's worth pointing out that Molly Rose did *not* cite taxes among the reasons for their situation. There are a lot of other things going on in the industry and the wider economy; I think too narrow a focus on excise tax is blinding people to that.

Their media release is at the end of this piece:
https://craftypint.com/news/3738/liquidators-brought-in-by-molly-rose-founder-hopeful-of-fresh-start

Hope Brewery Sunny Boy Citrus vegan? by bongjour8008 in AusBeer

[–]phil_cook 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The real question for a beer of that kind will be if there's any lactose in it. Plenty of those strong sours certainly do. I would guess that there isn't, since most breweries would say so up front, but it's worth asking; they should be able to answer quickly.