Steve Hindy’s son dies in bicycle accident
The son of Brooklyn Brewery’s founder, Steve Hindy, was killed in a freakish bicycling accident on the Manhattan Bridge this past weekend. Very sad.
Source: NY Daily News

More, more, more
SABMiller continues its purchasing rampage by bidding on Grolsch for $1.2 billion. We can’t the believe the beast is still hungry.
Source: MSNBC.com

Higher prices are on the way
Dan Weirback, president of Weyerbacher Brewing, sent out an open letter about malt and hops pricing via newsletter last week. A Treatise and an Appeal  or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Craft Brew, At Any Price was also posted to the brewery’s homepage. BeerAdvocates reprint his letter and weigh-in on his appeal to beer drinkers that they continue to support the industry. We think it’s great to hear from a brewer with specifics on just how the pricing will affect his brewery. When will more start talking about impact? 

So where does this bring us? These price increases for Malt and Hops alone amount to a minimum price increase from Weyerbacher to wholesaler of 12 to 14% and it gets worse on the beers that use a lot of hops. Many of our beers will increase about $2.50 per case. Our ingredient cost for Hops Infusion IPA has risen $3.94, so we will raise the price $4.00 per case. Its typical for a business to markup a certain fixed amount from cost, so typically this $4.00 would result in a higher markup to keep our margins this same, but you can see why we can’t do that. When you reach for that 4 pack of Double Simcoe IPA in the New Year, don’t be surprised if its $2.00 to $2.50 higher. Our ingredient cost on this hop bomb went up $8.14 per case. You can see where this is going. Many BIG beers not heavy on the hops will go up perhaps 3 or 4 dollars due to the malt increase.

Asheville Pizza & Brewing is reportedly feeling the hops crunch, too, with the Roland ESB going off-line and the cost of a pints going up a quarter.

The above is depressing, the below is at least worth a chuckle
The Onion clone, The Spoof, says light beer does not make you cool.