If you write beer reviews, this is a must-hit link. Fal Allen, former Anderson Valley Brewing GM, made a long list of terms to use when writing beer reviews. Some may already be savvy with words but part of the reason I stopped writing reviews after about 20 of them was because I felt I was saying the same thing over and over. Now you can use words like, “Acetaldehyde,” “Ethyl acetate,” and “Sulfidic” in your reviews. Credit to the newly re-designed Brookston Beer Bulletin for the find.

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Craft beer in supermarkets. Proposals to make it legal in some states that haven’t yet allowed it have drawn their share of criticism but have plenty of backers. One side argues that consumers have the choice to buy beer in supermarkets if they want to while the other argues that supermarkets will take away business from small retail outlets and they’ll be forced to close. The Colorado Brewers Guild was adamantly against a recent proposal in the state to add beer to supermarkets and it failed to pass as it has in Massachusetts and other states in recent years.

The Brewers Association, based in Boulder, CO, appears to have taken a stance on the issue by creating the Market Development Committee, responsible for gaining access to and promoting sales in chain on and off-premise accounts . . . including supermarkets. The goal is to increase craft beer market share by adding new package placements in chain stores and bars. Ten of the fourteen members on the committee are in the top 25 craft breweries out of 1400+ and two represent Colorado breweries: Kim Jordan of New Belgium Brewing, and John Bryant of Oskar Blues, who happens to be the Committee Chairperson.

Supposedly, if independent retail stores have to close down, selection will be greatly reduced, and smaller brewers will not have the same amount of shelf space to stay afloat. Chain stores would seem much more likely to carry beers from craft breweries that are larger in size and can stock shelves consistently over small breweries. Smaller chains may be willing to carry smaller breweries but it begs the question as to whether the work of this committee is helping those at the top and hurting the rest.

Regardless, the Committee just put out its new presentation notes online for folks to check out (it’s a short 2-pg PDF).

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[Updated with the link to Harry’s post] Lastly, here’s a review from a few weeks ago that caught my eye. Most know by now that Beer Wars drew mixed reactions after its opening. A couple months later, Harry Schumacher, a leading industry analyst has finally presented his thoughts on the film. Sure, he points out that the premise of the film was kind of . . . backwards? which has been done before. What’s more interesting is when Harry goes into a bit of the history of distribution and some of the major players that got craft beer on shelves in the first place. Unless you follow Maureen Ogle’s work, you don’t get a glimpse like this into the history of craft beer all that often. Granted, it’s definitely a short read compared to Ogle’s work (which is well worth checking out).

Anyway, if you haven’t seen it yet, the movie is now available on DVD.