Story Archives of 'Alcohol'

Picking up a six-pack at your local grocery store is more complicated than it used to be. Sure, there’s the old stand-bys: Budweiser, Miller Hi-Life, PBR and Heineken. But you’ll also find pumpkin ales, chocolate stouts, and the absurdly-named, like Skull Splitter, Old Leg Humper, Moose Drool, He’Brew, and Ale Mary Full of Taste.

The craft beer movement has caught up with America’s foodie and wine snob culture and invaded the local liquor store. In 1965, the United States had one single craft brew – Anchor Steam, from San Francisco. Today, there are over 1,500. Burkhard Bilger is staff writer for The New Yorker, and wrote about the rise of extreme beer in its recent food issue.

It's a quickly growing market in the U.S., where sales of craft beer grew by twelve percent last year. But the movement really has roots that stretch back thousands of years, drawing inspiration from the fermented beverages of ancient Egypt, and of the Aztecs and Mayans.

Bilger profiles Sam Calagione, a vibrant character, savvy marketer, and founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Delaware. Dogfish's motto is "off-centered ales for off-centered people," and it makes everything from elegant Belgian-style ales to experimental beers brewed with fresh oysters or arctic cloudberries.

But not everyone is crazy about what Calagione is doing – making beer with blue-green algae, or cardamom, curry and lemongrass. There are people within the craft beer movement who see "extreme beers" as detrimental to the craft beer brand. Bilger traces this debate over what constitutes beer back nearly five centuries, to the battle between German and Belgian brewers. And he notes that this isn’t the first time America’s experimented with odd beers - in 1873, the country had some four thousand breweries.

While craft beer still makes up a tiny part of the market – only four percent, or equalling about as many bottles as the Michelob brand, the small brewers hope they'll grow to make a much larger dent in the industrial beer market.

(Photo by Hawkins)

Few have more finely-tuned taste buds than wine lovers. They can detect the faintest tones of raspberry and cherry, blends of leather and fresh-cut grass, hints of apple and pear. The descriptions can frankly get a bit silly.

But wine is not only for the connoisseur. This year, America is expected to become the largest wine market in the world, surpassing France and Italy. Another new trend: wine from a box.

Boxed wine, long associated with sorority parties and bad hangovers, is slowly gaining acceptance worldwide. Joining Word of Mouth to clue us in on this and other ticks in the wine business is Tyler Colman. He runs the popular wine blog DrVino.com, and has just written a book called Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics Influence the Wine We Drink. He also teaches wine classes at New York University and the University of Chicago. Tyler says boxed wine has a lower carbon footprint than bottles, and makes more sense economically.

We also hear from design curator Ellen Lupton on why boxed wine deserves a second look. Her piece was produced by Katie Rolnick for Studio 360’s Design for the Real World series.

(Photo by Richard Winchell)

Governor Lynch’s latest plan to address the state’s budget shortfall would involve raising taxes on cigarettes, reducing the state discount to wine retailers, and introducing a brand new tax on charity poker games. We’ll unpack the economics of so-called “sin taxes” and explore what these increases could mean for consumers, businesses and the state budget.

Guests

• Brian Gottlob , Principal at PoliEcon Research
• Charlie Arlinghaus , President of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy
• Dan Eaton, Democratic State Representative from Stoddard and longtime member of the House Finance Committee

We'll also hear from

• John Lynch , Governor of New Hampshire
• John Ganos, owner of Tobacco Haven in Brookline

Consumers can walk down the aisles of any supermarket and easily find nut-free, dairy-free, and of course, fat-free products.

Now another specialty food is appearing on grocers' shelves: wheat-free products.

They are a god-send to the growing number of consumers who find they can't eat wheat, rye or barley.

NHPR Correspondent Sheryl Rich Kern has this report on the growing market and the response by one very large company in Merrimack.

Frank Reinhold, the owner of Flag Hill Winery and Distillery says growing grapes is easy; making wines is tricky. The company, located in Lee, now produces vodka made from apples. Frank tells host John Walters why that decision makes a lot of sense from a business AND taste standpoint.