Erik Lars Myers's Blog

All the same old news is new again.

A little earlier this week, a good friend said to me: Hey. I’ve missed you writing on TopFermented. I figured with all of these acquisitions that you’d have something to say.

Sure, said I, I have a lot of thoughts, but not only am I busy as hell with the brewery these days, I also feel like I need to be a little more delicate with my words as President of the NC Craft Brewers Guild.

And then, lo, the muse gods answered all of our prayers and Anchor Brewing was acquired by Sapporo....

America: The Beer

You might remember a story from a few weeks ago: .

I’ll admit – I don’t get it. I feel like they’re pandering to an audience that they’re not likely to lose. I’m not sure if someone thinks that this will draw in consumers from some heretofore unknown market segment or if someone just thought it was cool (and if it’s the latter, then, fair enough). The most thought that I’ve put to it beyond...

Not Your Father’s Craft Beer

It’s amazing just how complex my feelings are about the dumbest things. Not Your Father’s Root Beer is inexplicable to me. Partially because I just really dislike root beer and I just can’t imagine drinking a whole bottle of this, and partially because of the witchcraft through which it hath been wrought.

Drinkers apparently love it. The press loves it.

Except for the handful who are decent journalists and smell something fishy.

Here, I’ll save you the trouble of click...

On North Carolina Beer Politics

You know, it’s been a while since I’ve had a good rant.

I’ve been pretty quiet lately. Since becoming the President of the North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild, I’ve often felt like it’s probably not the best idea in the world to be the guy that pops up the rash ranty blog posts. After all, we’ve seen what happens when I make large sweeping statements. But I feel like there needs to be another voice out there about North Carolina beer politics that isn’...

Craft Beer: We care what you drink.

Today, I poured samples of beer at the North Carolina State Fair. This year is that first time that samples were being poured there, so it was a novel experience for everybody involved. The staff, the brewers, the patrons, etc.

Because I didn’t have much to eat today I found myself getting irritated by little things today, like the fact that I had no idea how to get into where I was pouring beer. Like the fact that I was ridiculous and didn’t ask my distributor to bring beer over...

Thoughts on Generation Opportunity and Craft Beer

This past week, I was invited to take part in an event called Free the Brews hosted by Generation Opportunity.



Generation Opportunity is a nationwide non-profit funded by the Koch Brothers. They claim to be non-partisan, but they share funding mechanisms with a number of conservative groups and their messages are certainly libertarian/tea party heavy. As it appears to me, they are a group aimed at getting Millennials to vote conservative in the name of pro-business, or anti-fun, or something...

Snubbed and re-snubbed: On Local Media Support and Emerging Beer Culture

Today, I ran across an article in a local mag. The lede reads, Snubbed: Why Raleigh isn’t a top 10 emerging beer town.

The article is a response, of sorts, to a listicle in the Seattle Post-Intelligence: America’s Top Ten Emerging Beer Towns.

The list in the SPI doesn’t bother me much. I don’t see anything in it that’s necessarily out of place, and besides which lists are lazy journalism. Lists are what happens when somebody has to get an article out but doesn’t...

On supply chain for small breweries.

I’ve been kind of struggling over whether or not to write this. Partly because it comes off as something of a “woe is me” kind of post and partly because it looks like an excuse, but in reality it’s just me being frustrated and venting. So, hi, I have a blog.

Well, it IS something of a “woe is me” post, I guess. But, here goes.

Here at Mystery, we use a lot of specialty malts. You could probably argue that the only thing that we use is specialty malt becaus...

Thoughts from a brewer upon not winning at the GABF.

Weird article, right? I know. I just got back to my hotel room. I’m in between sessions on the Saturday of GABF 2013. I’ve had about 3 hours of sleep and my mouth still kinda tastes like whiskey (and a little like shitty cigar), so I’m definitely not at my finest. With all of that, you could probably construe this article as me being a sore loser. In reality, writing is my way of dealing with things; this is a lot closer to therapy for me and you just get to read it.



Lucky...

On Mystery’s Decision to End Growler Returns

Yesterday, we announced over at Mystery Brewing Company that, as of September 1st, we’d no longer be offering refunds on growlers. Since this decision looks like it’s coming a little out of left field, and because I’ve always wanted this blog to be a little behind-the-scenes-ish for the brewing industry, I thought I’d take the time to lay out my reasoning behind why we’re doiing this.

Reason #1: Cleaning Growlers Sucks

It’s incredibly time-consuming and inc...