Jeff Alworth

As of Monday, Jan 6 (make of that what you will), I will no longer be posting at this site. I won’t be deleting the account, which goes back 16 years, but I can no longer support Elon and provide content for his propaganda site. You can find me: @beervana.bsky.social

Responding to a recent overproduction of hops, U.S. growers scaled back the acres they cultivated in 2024 in dramatic fashion. Here’s a summary of how that affected the states and individual varieties—with graphs and tables.  beervanablog.com/beervana/2025/…

@wcbeergeek @16TonsBeer It’s the same price as beer! Most of the NA stuff I like is a lot cheaper.

@16TonsBeer @Beervana And the price is often a lot higher

Opening the bidding here… “I just don’t see non-alc becoming much of a market. If it ever reaches 5% of the beer market, I will be shocked. I predict it tops out at 2%.”

@wcbeergeek @16TonsBeer I love the taste of beer. I prefer hop water to NA beer, even the good stuff (Guinness 0.0 excepted) because it’s just not the same.

@Beervana @16TonsBeer Already see supermarkets flooded with it, I think it has peaked already. I don't see where the growth comes from after grocery stores. Also think NA cocktails will take over the shelf space, honestly they are better tasting, better shelf life, wider audience.

@16TonsBeer We’ll see! For at least three years we’ve been waiting for this predicted breakthrough, and yet even on its tiny base NA is only growing ~30% YOY. Once that base gets a little bigger it will slow.

@Beervana Seems like Liquid Death and even na seltzer water growth is taking up a lot of this slack. I think na beer is headed for a true breakthrough product that is way more satisfying than current offerings. Not sure 2025 is the breakthrough year tho.

2024 was a year of mixed signals and confusing trends. In this year-end post, I review the major themes, positive, negative, and just weird. And then I finish with a flourish of almost certainly bad predictions! beervanablog.com/beervana/2025/…

In recent years, many people have decided to spend the first month of the year on an alcohol hiatus. That’s not great for breweries—and holing up isn’t great for people, either. So this year, whether you’re drinking or not, try #PubJanuary instead. beervanablog.com/beervana/2024/…

@TheBeerFather @southstarbrew @atjbeer We know that no American ever went broke laying blame on an English king.

@southstarbrew @Beervana @atjbeer Really weird. Happy Christmas doesn't sound wrong but Merry Christmas is definitely more common. Unless you get arrested by the red coats of course or whatever it is Americans think happens over here.

In the 18th and 19th century, Brits started using “merry” as a synonym for “drunk.” The state of merriment was considered base and vulgar by the upper classes. So in 1932, King George V started wishing his subjects “Happy Christmas.” We stuck with “merry.” beervanablog.com/beervana/2024/…

@southstarbrew I will take these as anti-Royalist rogues and my kind of breweries. (Or ones overly influence by America.) All the Brits I know say “happy,” but there could be sampling errors involved.

@Beervana Except that outside of American authored reddit boards it's not really true though. The English totally say Merry Christmas. Four trad English brewery Christmas posts (plus a lifetime of Christmas cards from my family) :

This is a fantastic report on Belgian beer (in Belgium) by @Will_Hawkes. It is full on details I understood only fuzzily. You’ll probably learn a thing or two as well: vinepair.com/articles/belgi…

In lieu of a year-end best-photos post, today I’m mixing it up. Here are nine photographs from 2024 with a mini-essay describing why I chose it. Maybe a picture with a hundred words is worth more than a picture with none at all. beervanablog.com/beervana/2024/…

@Rlwegner I am touchy because our city comes in for a ton of shit and your lead comment was how this was a very dumb post. Spicy comments get spicy reactions.

@Beervana That’s not what I am doing, but hey have a great day!

So people who “know” Portland from Portlandia should probably stfu when opining about it. It’s always been a blue-collar, working class town with lots of grit. I’ve actually lived in Wisconsin and Milwaukee and Portland share more than a passing resemblance.

@Rlwegner In terms of the beer they serve, yes. You’re not going to see more than one domestic lager on tap in a bar in this town. But hey, you keep telling me about my city.

@Beervana I don’t know what you are even on about here. Your own writing implies that Portland is its own thing.

@Rlwegner @stephenkallao @WIbeerbaron @HHillsBeer “This is the dumbest thing I have ever read about a thing I have never seen.” One wonders why Twitter is dying.

@stephenkallao @WIbeerbaron @Beervana @HHillsBeer Yes. Am I wrong? I have never been, but the description provided does not, in large part, fit a dive bar.

This @Beervana piece reminded me of a conversation with @HHillsBeer a month-plus ago... why do so many brewery taprooms have the same feel, the same aesthetic? And why aren't there more that feel like dive bars, or even just ... BARS? Any thoughts? beervanablog.com/beervana/2024/…

Unexpected news—real, hard news—broke this week. Each one of three items was interesting, but they seem to have an even greater force when lined up together. Perhaps, if we look at them in just the right way, we can even discern a lesson. beervanablog.com/beervana/2024/…