Each week (yay),Tony Budny pens SCREAMING INTO THE VOID and looks at the best in writing and social media conversation around the biggest issues in beer. If you feel something should be included, have a tip, or just want to sound off, feel free to look him up on Twitter @DrinksTheThings or email DCBeer. Don’t touch the orb.
HARK THE HERALD BEER CANS SING
It’s another edition of the Void, completely independent and family owned.
Wait, I regret to inform you we’ve been bought by AB-InBev.
I regret to inform you they’ve been bought by Amazon. There is only one company. They own everything. Including YOU. Just kidding… for now.
To start was feels as if it's been a slow beer news week, as always, we begin with the local stuff. Contained within this link is a brief synopsis of the first Maryland Reform on Tap task force meeting, where it was unearthed wholesalers and retailers have hit the ground running on their continued campaign to pass laws in their favor. Maryland is far from the only state to be targeted for these measures.
True Respite Brewing Company is slated to open in Derwood, MD soon and, of course, will not be open past 10pm, per the new laws governing new Maryland breweries. [Update, per our legal team: "True Respite's hours are not impacted by HB 1283. One, they put in their TTB notice before the April 1st deadline in the bill, and so are grandfathered in under the old provisions. Secondly, I believe that they have registered as a Class 7 micro-brewery and therefore would not be subject to the hours provisions for Class 5 breweries regardless."]
Governor Terry McAulife says Virginia breweries are booming and he’s not wrong.
DC is getting yet another Dacha, this time near Nats Park. It will seat 800 people outside. Let’s not forget that The Brig is also in the area serving a similar beer lineup, so it will be interesting to see how these two locations compete.
No local breweries made the Brewers Association's list of fastest growing breweries, but there are plenty of familiar names on the list. And, here in DC, you’ll see most if not all of them. Thanks, gray laws.
Bryan Roth is here to talk about connotations and discussion around Founders' barrel-aged malt liquor and how data will impact your beer, in light of the ABI-RateBeer fiasco.
Neil deGrasse Tyson got his own beer, in his own taste.
Finally, your weekly reminder that beer, while tasty, is poison. What a drag, right? But hopefully the brain cells we kill with a little alcohol will be the ones that help us remember 2017.
We’ll leave you with this advice on a sign in Croatia, which is good to remember after a long night of drinking: Don't enter, drunks. Don't touch the beer cases.
