News
After 12 years of beer, Big Ditch bets on hard tea
1+ hour, 40+ min ago (536+ words) He told me last spring he wanted more balance in his life over the next decade. Today, Big Ditch officially launches Jest Hard Tea " a vodka-based, bubble-free, 85-calorie hard tea line that marks the brewery's first foray beyond beer. It's…...
New York Craft Beer Day is April 11. Your only job is to show up.
2+ day, 22+ hour ago (178+ words) Now. About the glass. Her name is Kaylin Schafer. Online, she goes by Sad Scribbles. Her whole thing " and I say this with enormous affection and zero condescension " is drawing pets badly for $20. The point is: Kaylin designed the 2026 New…...
Power ranking Bluey characters, as evaluated by a very serious beer writer
6+ day, 3+ hour ago (292+ words) Here are the five best secondary characters in Bluey, ranked with the same rigorous methodology I apply to judging a hazy IPA (vibes, mostly). (If you're unfamiliar with the show, please take eight minutes to watch any random episode " available…...
The $8 pint: Rochester's new beer normal
1+ week, 2+ day ago (296+ words) These pricing dynamics are visible every day. Once you accept that pricing isn't just about ingredient lists or margins " that it also involves psychology, positioning, labor costs, and experience " the $8 pint starts to feel strategic rather than arbitrary. It's not…...
Beer is political. It always has been.
2+ week, 2+ day ago (1287+ words) I never intended this newsletter to be political. That was a luxury. Beer, for me, has always felt like a refuge " a third place in an increasingly fractured world. A barstool. A familiar taproom. A patio in July. A cold…...
Empire State of beer: 2026 New York Craft Beer Competition winners crowned
2+ week, 5+ day ago (1614+ words) Ten years in, the New York State Craft Beer Competition has grown into something of a controlled chaos: more than a thousand beers, dozens of judges, flights of glasses marching across tables, and the occasional moment when everyone stops, looks…...
Food worth chasing: Newark's Runaway Blue Brewing adds a kitchen to its offerings
3+ week, 23+ hour ago (439+ words) Newark's beloved nanobrewery has always been about more than beer. Now it's proving it with a storage closet converted into a kitchen and a chicken sandwich worth driving for. "You can't just be a brewery and only make beer nowadays,…...
K2 Brothers Brewing's last call: Foreclosure auctions loom
3+ week, 2+ day ago (493+ words) The legal end of K2 Brothers Brewing is now in motion. The order lays out the formal next steps in the foreclosure case and authorizes the process that will lead to the properties being sold. The filing refers to the "mortgaged…...
Copper Leaf Brewing, the brewery that came back from the dead, is dead again
4+ week, 2+ day ago (822+ words) It's never easy to write one of these stories. And writing this particular one for a second time, about the same brewery, feels especially deflating. Copper Leaf Brewing is closed. Again. Both locations. The Pittsford nanobrewery's Facebook page " one of…...
Rohrbach Brewing is changing hands " and it feels right
1+ mon, 3+ day ago (370+ words) Let me be direct with you: when the press release landed Thursday morning, I sat with it for a full minute before I wrote a single word. (And then I opened a new release from the brewery.) That's the news....