Clamps & Gaskets: News Roundup for Weeks 2/3, 2014.

A bi-weekly, non-comprehensive roundup
of news of beer and other things.

Weeks 2/3
5 January 2014 - 18 January 2014

• 2014.01.18
  A summary of beer laws and beer-related legal activity in the U.S. during 2013, including some of the internecine battles between 'craft' breweries. Via Komlossy Law.



• 2014.01.16
  The U.S. is home to 2,722 breweries, and that number is expected to grow during 2014. Via Brewers Association.



• 2014.01.13
  Japan's Suntory to buy Jim Beam's parent U.S. company for $16 billion dollars, making Suntory the world's 3rd largest distillery company. Via CNBC.



• 2014.01.16
  Beer retailer writes that so-called 'craft-beer bubble' won't be bursting anytime soon. Via The BeerMonger.




• 2014.01.10
  Recently e-published: "The Unbearable Nonsense of Craft Beer." E-book by Alan McLeod of A Good Beer Blog and Max Bahnson of Pivní Filosof. A critique of some of the solipsistic silliness of 'craft' beer.



• 2014.01.10
  Icelandic brewery brews beer made from whale bones to pair with "soured whale fat, burned sheep heads, soured sheep testicles, salted fish, shark, etc." Via Foreign Policy.



• 2014.01.10
  At its current rate of planting, Washington state acreage for aroma hops is expected to outpace alpha hops for first time ever, in 2015. Via USDA (Tri-City Herald).




• 2014.01.09
  Draft Magazine publishes its list of the 100 best beer bars for 2014.



• 2014.01.09
  The Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control reverses course; to allow bars and restaurants to publicly advertise 'Happy Hours' of discounted drink pricing. Via Washington Post.



• 2014.01.09
  Peter Austin dies at age 92: one of the more important brewers of our time, especially for the British and American 'craft' beer renaissance. Via Roger Protz (The Guardian).



• 2014.01.08
  Draught-beer-to-go containers, called growlers, now legally sized, in Virginia, from one pint to 2 quarts. Via YFGF.



• 2014.01.06
  British wine writer says "Wine is becoming expensive and quite boring." Predicts major growth for beer in 2014, as a consequence. Via Jamie Goode.



• 2014.01.05
  Brain Pickings website selects the best biographies and memoirs of 2013, including Twain, Sontag, Ellington, and Nabokov.

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• Clamps and Gaskets is a (usually) bi-weekly wrap-up of stories on beer (or wine, or whisky); although some are not. But all are brief, and many are re-posts from twitter.com/cizauskas.
• The Clamps and Gaskets graphic was created by Mike Licht at NotionsCapital.