TRY THE FREE 6 PACK NEWSLETTER HERE

What’s up, beer geek! This is The Beer Scholar 6-Pack weekly newsletter, a short clean email featuring 6 bulleted links with brief descriptions for each.

'Sup, beer geek! How was your week? I continued filming Keeping & Serving lessons for my online course for the Cert Cicerone exam. I also sent my very young nieces-in-law their first ever slide presentation video. I presented them with a Beer Scholar style lesson on soda by the half-gnome wizard, Beldril Goldsnorter (me). Then I just talked while showing a bunch of pictures of them with family members. Apparently, the kiddos were unhappy that it ended after just 5 minutes, so it was a big hit. That was definitely my biggest win of the week. Life is strange. 

Oh hey, I'm honored to have been selected again to be a judge for the North American Guild of Beer Writers Awards Competition. It's open for entries until July 31st. If you've written or produced any media about beer this year you should enter, there's even a category for beer reviews! 

As always, here are 6 dope links for your Friday 6 Pack. Enjoy.

TBS 6-Pack

RANDY MOSHER ON LAGER YEAST

Lager Yeast with Randy Mosher - BeerSmith Podcast #254. This link opens the discussion on YouTube right at the point where Randy Mosher, the author of Tasting Beer and other Cicerone must reads, starts digging into the science of fermenting with lager yeast. Worth a listen if you’ve been digging the craft beer focus on lagers or want to know more about the flavor compounds lager yeast strains produce. 

GOOD LUCK FINDING UNIQUE BEER NAMES!

Litigation Rules the Nation — Beer’s Trademark and First Amendment Disputes Draw Lawyers’ Attention by Kate Bernot for Good Beer Hunting. As an attorney who specialized in IP, this stuff is fascinating to me. We've mostly moved past the IP-theft-slash-wannabe-parody-era of beer labels, but it had a real moment. Now that players in the industry have $real money$ that IP theft game is increasingly dangerous. Also, breweries are now more likely to sue each other over trademarks than ever before. That’s rough considering there are so damn many breweries, each releasing a gajillion new beers each year.  

RON PATTINSON ON BERLINER WEISSE 

Weisse! by Ronald Pattinson. Legendary beer historian, Ron P, has a short new book out about Berliner Weisse. You gotta love the guy for using actual historical data to bust many beer myths over the years and for providing us with a real understanding of how various styles have developed over the years. I haven’t read this one yet but it’s on my hit list.

DOGS DON’T ACTUALLY SMELL BETTER THAN HUMANS?

Stepping in It: How Journalists Perpetuate the Myth that Dogs' Sense of Smell is Superior to Our Own by sensory scientist Avery Gilbert. This is the important takeaway: “The broader, and much-cited claim that dogs are 10,000 to 100,000 times more sensitive to smells in general is unsubstantiated. The fact is that dogs outperform humans on some but not all of the smells tested to date.” Back in the day a scientist incorrectly told a reporter that dogs can smell one particular compound 10k-100k better than humans and it’s been repeated over and over in the media…it's false.

WHICH DONUT IS YOUR FAVE?

13 of the Best Doughnuts Ever, Ranked by Brian Yaeger for TheTakeOut. My old friend, beer writer, and the guy who got me to dive fully into craft beer back in 2008, Brian Yaeger, is obsessed with a few things — great beer, donuts, and…broccoli. Seriously though, he really knows his donuts and even organizes the yearly Baker’s Dozen Beer & Donut Festival here in Portland, OR. Check out his take on the best donuts. I’d never even heard of a few of these. 

IT'S BLOW UP POOL SEASON

Inflatable swimming pool on Amazon. I got this blow up pool a couple weeks ago when the weather in Portland was hot for a change and I was laid up with Covid. It's the biggest blow up pool I've ever seen (not that I'm an expert). It is legit adult sized. I've heard it's hella hot everywhere, so you may need this.

Have a lovely weekend, y'all!

Chris