"Craft" news and stories

Do you have what it takes to master this Top Chef quiz? Or will you be asked to pack your knives and go? Find out below.

Earlier this week, the Brewers Association released their 2008 Craft Beer Sales Numbers. The report is simultaneously exciting and humbling, and makes an extremely interesting read for casual drinkers, or those who are seeing more unique brews on their local store shelves but don't quite know what to make of it.

America is currently home to 1,527 breweries. (Almost makes you worried that one might be sneaking up behind you right now...) The Brewers Association deems 1,483 of those "craft breweries" -- consisting of large craft breweries, microbreweries and brewpubs. For those not great at math, that leaves 44 "non-craft" brewers. Further number-crunching shows us that over 97% of companies making beer are making craft beer. But what you need to keep in perspective is that 97% are only making 4% off all the beer consumed in the US. Anheuser-Busch, MillerCoors and the like are still churning out the vast majority of America's suds.

So it's easy to see why, despite all the recent notoriety, craft brewers still have an us against the world mentality (with global conglomerates like InBev helping to up the ante). But despite this, for the seventh year in a row, the stats show all the craft brew hype hasn't just been a big public relations trick. Once again, craft brewers saw an increase in their share of the U.S. beer market, jumping a quarter of a percentage point. That might not seem like a lot, but it's significant: While non-craft beer saw a minimal 0.6% in growth last year, and imports dropped off 3%, craft beer saw a 5.8% growth rate. The top 10 beer brands all saw decreases in sales while craft beers staked out small but significant territory.

In other good news for beer lovers, the Brewers Association points out that a 2008 Gallup poll shows beer has once again taken a double digit lead over wine as America's alcoholic beverage of choice. One can surmise part of that increase may be a result of craft beers raising the profile of beer as an upscale beverage.

You can check out all the statistics for yourself here. Or true diehards and industry-types can head to the Craft Brewers Conference in Boston where a more extensive report will be released on April 22nd.

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Another week and another round of cooking and drama on the fifth season of Top Chef. This week the 15 remaining chefs must please the normal panel of judges (Tom, Padma, and Gail) along with guest judge Donatella Arpaia, a very successful New York restaurateur.

The Quick Fire Challenge once again has some New York flavor to it: the chefs must create a signature hot dog that will wow Padma and Donatella, and they only have 45 minutes with which to rustle up their doggies. The catch? Not only are they competing against one another but they will also be judged against a dog from Dominick's hot dog cart, as prepared by Angelina D'Angelo. Pretty stiff competition.

Read on to see who won the Quick Fire and who packed their knives and left at the end of the show (read no further if you haven't had a chance to watch yet, as there are spoilers ahead).

When you're making S'mores, all you think about is getting your chocolate-marshmallow fix, right?

But does anyone ever think of the marshmallows? What about how they feel, getting jabbed onto the end of a dirty branch and thrust into a hot flame?

Well, let me tell you: they hate it. And they'd take any opportunity to get revenge. Gee, if only there were a t-shirt to illustrate this point...

But wait! There is! Check out the "Let's Go Camping" tee on Barry's Farm, a fantastic new crafty site that also features laptop covers that look like furry monsters and cute lil' change purses. The best part? Barry's shirts come in tons of sizes.

Small microbreweries in Texas are lobbying to sell beer directly to the public to open up an entirely new sales area for the industry. Presently, the Texas A & B code only lets microbreweries sell to distributors and retailers. This puts Texas craft breweries at a disadvantage to those in other states where sales directly to customers are allowed.

To improve this, Saint Arnold Brewing Co. in Houston, TX is presenting a proposition to change the current beverage code. This proposal is supported by all five Texas microbreweries, which have joined together to recruit a sponsor to put it before the Legislature in the form of a bill. Brock Wagner, founder of Saint Arnold Brewing says that as many as 14 Texas microbreweries have gone out of business for various reasons since craft breweries first opened in the mid-1980s and early 1990s.

This proposal follows strongly on the heels of the strongly supported 2003 Proposition 11, which changed the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission code to allow state wineries to directly sell limited quantities of wine. The founder of Rahr & Sons, Fritz Rahr, thinks that Texas voters would again support such a change in the beverage law. He says, "It's time Texas craft brewers are offered the same customer-friendly advantages that Texas wineries already have."

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