We’re planning another trip to northern Europe and will be harvesting a big wish list of beers to sample from the I Think About Beer website. Writer Christopher Barnes has given his life to Belgian beers (much like our crew have given their lives to Iron Maiden) We’re really looking forward to finding a bottle of Oud Beersel Bzart Kriekenlambiek once we’re on the ground.

Bart Watson is chief economist at the Brewers Association. That job sounds dry as dust but Watson somehow manages to take incalculable, boring numbers and turn them into colorful tales about the current state of craft beer. Got an hour to kill? Here’s a podcast with the numbers man. We love his take on New Glarus’ success.

Shreveport’s Red River Brewing Company, Smith Family Farms, and Fat Calf Boucherie are teaming up for a first of its kind venture in the US. Red River produces beer, Smith Farms raises animals for meat and Fat Calf is a food truck parked in Red River’s parking lot.

Now the three are combining forces as Smith Farms is opening an animal processing plant next door to the brewery. There’s a symbiosis here as Red River will be donating spent grain to the farmers and the farmers will be selling the meat they produce to the food truck.

The life cycle of the creation is endless.

Martin Luther married a runaway nun who would eventually bear him six children and open her own brewery. He also popularized hops in Germany by railing against the Catholic church and their stranglehold on beer production. Do you enjoy reading about Germanic history from half a millenia ago?

New Glarus, famously, only distributes their beer in the state of Wisconsin. They remind us of Live Oak, another mom and pop brewery that only distributes in the state of Texas. You don’t have to be in 45 states and 10 foreign countries to be successful. Sit down with New Glarus owners Deb and Dan Carey and find out how and why they do it their way.