In Blurry Focus: Utah Brewers Guild

Utah Brewers’ Guild President Phil Handke, Communications Director Erika Palmer and Treasurer Chris Haas are guild members working to unite brewers in the Beehive State.

On one of the most beautiful days on record this year, I shunned the sunshine to settle into a seat deep down in the basement of the BeerHive Pub (128 S. Main). With a chilled glass of barleywine about halfway drained, I soon found myself sitting across from Phil Handke, the President of the Utah Brewers’ Guild. With a Master’s Degree in Communications, he certainly seemed like a business-minded professional—a pragmatist unafraid of raw, hard numbers, whose qualities may prove very useful as the Guild grows and develops a stronger lobbying voice for the brewing industry in our state.  … read more

SLC Bicycle Co.

In 2008, on the corner of 2nd and 2nd in Downtown Salt Lake, a beautiful bike shop opened up alongside the booming bicycle community with a definitive name: Salt Lake Bicycle Company. The shop was a little intimidating at first for a newbie cyclist like me, with fancy, expensive-looking road bikes hanging in the big windows and a sprawl of gear I knew nothing about, but its staff immediately jumped into the community to prove they were there to serve us little guys, too.  … read more

Rolling with Mayor Ralph Becker

Salt Lake City has seen a sizable increase in bike-friendly programs and infrastructures the past few years, thanks to pedal pusher Mayor Ralph Becker and his team of cycling enthusiasts. You won’t see Mayor Becker preaching the bicycle’s many benefits to our city and its residents, and then riding off into the sunset in a Hummer like you’d expect from most politicians, though. Salt Lake’s Mayor lives his word as a dedicated bike commuter himself, riding 2.5 miles to work every day! … read more

Why is The Bayou Firkin With My Beer?

The Bayou owner Mark Alston drives a spout into a firkin cask with a wooden hammer for an entirely gravity-poured, charmingly tepid beer.

The 20th Century, for the most part, wasn’t a very beer-friendly time in U.S. history. Prohibition, for example, all but destroyed centuries of beer-brewing knowledge in the United States. When we emerged from the beer dark ages, as a people, we were at the mercy of those beer companies that had managed to survive the 13 years in brewing exile. The beer wasn’t bad beer, but it was mass-produced with adjuncts (corn, rice, millet, etc.) and was limited to European-style lagers. Now, having the benefit of a decades-long craft beer boom, we enjoy damn near every style, type and method of the beer brewing process. … read more