In my experience, smart, successful, driven people usually give off a certain vibe. Whenever I meet someone who has earned the application of those adjectives, and who is exuding that energy, I usually find my internal voice muttering, “How the hell do these people have so many talents? Sickening, isn’t it?” When – at 38 years old – the Indiana native, trained electrical engineer, MBA, stockbroker, software developer, business founder/owner, college Dean, vineyard owner and CEO Scott Fergusson sold his software company to Broadridge Financial Solutions, he hadn’t even conceived of Chapman’s B ..read more

Anyone who has known me for any length of time, or who has read almost anything that I’ve written about beer online in the last 20 odd years will know, I have been struggling with US beer culture for the best part of a quarter of century. I’ve written countless forum and FB posts about it, indulged in umpteen blogs, and had a million private conversations and exchanges that have expressed my frustrations. Most of those discussions have not generated much in the way of definitive conclusions, and in my opinion the state of US beer has never been worse. That’s right, never been worse. Ever. Even ..read more

A very quick observation, and a couple of questions. This afternoon I was in a local tap-room. I don’t care much for most of the beer that this particular brewery puts out, but I can usually find 1 or 2 out of the 10 or 12 that they have on-tap at any one time that I might drink. So, if I feel like going out to do some work in a public space (as is sometimes the case), and I’m in the mood to sit with a beer rather than a coffee, then I might find myself there. Anyway, two ladies came in directly prior to me, and the conversation at the bar was frankly … bizarre. They were asking about the draf ..read more

Most of you reading this know that I’m an Englishman who has lived in the USA since 2000. Obviously I’ve had access to a lot of Belgian beer over my lifetime, both from when I lived in the UK, and via my multiple visits to Belgium, but living in America presents a whole new set of problems for the Belgian beer lover. Access to Belgian beer in the USA has ebbed and flowed a lot in 20+ years that I’ve lived here. Sometimes it’s been basically non-existent (for example, prior to 2004 in Georgia), sometimes it’s been great (just after popping the cap in 2004 in Georgia when oodles of Cantillon Fou ..read more

I recently had a quite brief conversation with a person who is intimately acquainted with a local brewery here in Fort Wayne, IN, and whose livelihood is dependent upon selling the beer that said brewery produces. That’s a bit of an awkward way to describe this person I know, but it frames things in such a way that it maintains their anonymity. Nothing that follows is particularly controversial, but if I do things this way it simply means that people will keep talking openly to me about the local beer scene. I’d like to keep it that way. Anyway, we were chatting about another local brewery tha ..read more

I *think* that I coined the term legacy drinker. I never remember hearing it anywhere else. If that’s not true, apologies. So, what does ‘legacy drinker’ mean? My definition varies from day to day but the general meaning is that of a drinker who mostly enjoys, and drinks perhaps almost exclusively, the classic, well-established styles. Another way to put it is in the negative, i.e., a drinker who eschews fake (kettle) sours, pastry stouts, milkshake IPAs, NEIPAs etc. You get the general idea. Don’t worry, I know how lots of people feel about me banging on about, ‘the state of beer today’ and ..read more

When five blokes get together to brew and drink beer, sometimes things don’t exactly go to plan. There’s quite a lot of potential for nonsense to be talked, and for fanciful plans to be made. However, on Spring St. in Fort Wayne’s northwest quadrant you’ll find an outstanding example of talk that was converted to very real accomplishment. Fortlandia Nano Brewery turned three years old* on August 9th 2022, the same day that I visited with co-owners Ken Daly and Jerry Glass. When Jerry, Ken, Dan Voors and Sam Snyder were attending regular meetings of the Mad Anthony Serious Homebrewers (MASH) cl ..read more

If you’re wondering what’s been happening at Birdboy Brewing Co. of late, and you’re a tad confused by some recent comings and goings, then you’re not the only one. A lot has been going on both behind the scenes and out in public, and the current state of affairs takes a little unraveling. In an attempt to do just that, I recently sat down with the man whose hand is now firmly on the rudder at Birdboy, Mark Burton. Before we talked about the present and the immediate future, I wanted to get to know Mark a little. I always start with the basics; “What was the first beer that you remember drinki ..read more

I suppose that I should throw in my two-cents on Stone, everybody else has. To be honest, were it not for the post that I wrote in 2015 that marked the end of an era for this blog, I probably wouldn’t bother, but specifically because of that post I feel like I should comment once more. If you don’t want to bother to go back and read that in full, essentially, seven years ago, I wrote that Stone already felt like some kind of corporate monster to me. Book-ending those thoughts and the Sapporo news of last week with a few words here, seems appropriate. A lot of what I think about Stone in 2022 w ..read more

If you happen to feel an enhanced sense of community the next time that you visit the Goshen Brewing Co. (GBCo.) in Goshen, Indiana, it’s not by accident. Founder and former head brewer Jesse Sensenig made it that way. I sat down with him a few days ago to ask him about the GBCo. story, and to hear how a vision of local purpose permeates all that he does. Jesse’s beer journey is a somewhat familiar one in some ways, but perhaps driven by slightly different motivators in others. I asked him about the first beer that he recalls drinking. Somewhat predictably he says it was probably somethin ..read more