Phil Cook
@beerdiary.bsky.social
Beer diarist (at philcook.net), bartender, and various beer industry miscellany for a decade and counting. Continually disappointed optimist. He/him.
From: Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Wellington
Recently: Naarm / Melbourne
Now: Nacotchtank land / Washington DC
From: Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Wellington
Recently: Naarm / Melbourne
Now: Nacotchtank land / Washington DC
Pinned
Phil Cook
@beerdiary.bsky.social
· Oct 15
It's officially¹ Shandy On A Rooftop Season.
1: I mean, I say so. An excellent day wandering around a warm Melbourne has put me in the mood to declare it, and I'm claiming the authority. Any objections? Didn't think so.
1: I mean, I say so. An excellent day wandering around a warm Melbourne has put me in the mood to declare it, and I'm claiming the authority. Any objections? Didn't think so.
Reposted by Phil Cook
filed to "beer industry metaphors": the liquidation auction for ballast point's san diego taproom is underway, and while the brewery's old sign has 24 bids, none of them have yet reached the minimum set by the liquidator.
online.localauctions.com/auction/1966...
online.localauctions.com/auction/1966...
December 15, 2025 at 9:39 PM
filed to "beer industry metaphors": the liquidation auction for ballast point's san diego taproom is underway, and while the brewery's old sign has 24 bids, none of them have yet reached the minimum set by the liquidator.
online.localauctions.com/auction/1966...
online.localauctions.com/auction/1966...
Here's the Australian men's national cricket team captain in an ad for one of the country's largest liquor retailers, holding a can from the brewery he recently bought into. It's a weird little tangle of cross-promotion — and a good example of how Mountain Culture are now in a very different league.
December 12, 2025 at 5:15 AM
Here's the Australian men's national cricket team captain in an ad for one of the country's largest liquor retailers, holding a can from the brewery he recently bought into. It's a weird little tangle of cross-promotion — and a good example of how Mountain Culture are now in a very different league.
Reposted by Phil Cook
I wrote an important essay that will improve your holiday travel if you follow its very specific instructions:
airportbeer.selfhelpartpublishingempire.com
airportbeer.selfhelpartpublishingempire.com
Drinking The Largest Beer At The Airport Makes Everything Better
An essay by Austin L. Ray
airportbeer.selfhelpartpublishingempire.com
December 11, 2025 at 2:01 PM
I wrote an important essay that will improve your holiday travel if you follow its very specific instructions:
airportbeer.selfhelpartpublishingempire.com
airportbeer.selfhelpartpublishingempire.com
I'll take any excuse to re-up my recommendation of one overlooked incarnation of The Muppets — simply called 'The Muppets' (2015) — with its beautiful bar run by the very best dog.
December 11, 2025 at 5:19 AM
I'll take any excuse to re-up my recommendation of one overlooked incarnation of The Muppets — simply called 'The Muppets' (2015) — with its beautiful bar run by the very best dog.
Reposted by Phil Cook
New post up on Beer Diary — some thoughts the recent history of Australia's annual Hottest 100 Beers survey, and Mountain Culture, the brewery who have dominated it while rapidly evolving and at the same time seeming stuck in their own mythic past.
Upending the you-know-what: the Hottest 100 and Mountain Culture
Voting is now open for the 18th GABS Hottest 100, and Mountain Culture — having placed #1 for the past three years running — recently launched their latest campaign, this time with a Ted Lasso them…
philcook.net
December 10, 2025 at 7:26 PM
New post up on Beer Diary — some thoughts the recent history of Australia's annual Hottest 100 Beers survey, and Mountain Culture, the brewery who have dominated it while rapidly evolving and at the same time seeming stuck in their own mythic past.
Reposted by Phil Cook
Have you taken a moment to think about Rowlf today?
December 10, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Have you taken a moment to think about Rowlf today?
New post up on Beer Diary — some thoughts the recent history of Australia's annual Hottest 100 Beers survey, and Mountain Culture, the brewery who have dominated it while rapidly evolving and at the same time seeming stuck in their own mythic past.
Upending the you-know-what: the Hottest 100 and Mountain Culture
Voting is now open for the 18th GABS Hottest 100, and Mountain Culture — having placed #1 for the past three years running — recently launched their latest campaign, this time with a Ted Lasso them…
philcook.net
December 10, 2025 at 7:26 PM
New post up on Beer Diary — some thoughts the recent history of Australia's annual Hottest 100 Beers survey, and Mountain Culture, the brewery who have dominated it while rapidly evolving and at the same time seeming stuck in their own mythic past.
The Mount Vernon Lager Beer Brewery and Pleasure Garden is, you have to admit, an excellent name. I'd go there.
December 10, 2025 at 2:49 PM
The Mount Vernon Lager Beer Brewery and Pleasure Garden is, you have to admit, an excellent name. I'd go there.
Reposted by Phil Cook
Light beer, fun beer, Guinness beer and indie beer. More community, not enough unity, broken dreams and Oat Kream.
Here's our deep dive into the beer trends of the year across Australia – with an accompanying podcast series to follow.
Here's our deep dive into the beer trends of the year across Australia – with an accompanying podcast series to follow.
The Year In Beer 2025: National Trends
Given 2023 and 2024 were out and out shockers for the local beer industry, we’re not sure how much of a compliment it is to describe 2025 as not quite as bad. Indeed, there’s probably an argument to b...
craftypint.com
December 3, 2025 at 7:09 AM
Light beer, fun beer, Guinness beer and indie beer. More community, not enough unity, broken dreams and Oat Kream.
Here's our deep dive into the beer trends of the year across Australia – with an accompanying podcast series to follow.
Here's our deep dive into the beer trends of the year across Australia – with an accompanying podcast series to follow.
Reposted by Phil Cook
Dave does a great job distilling and synthesizing the rise and fall of Rogue, and reading it makes me realize how out-of-step brands founded on toxic masculinity (to use a shorthand) have fared. The country is steeped in TM now, and it’s just not into beer brands offering more of the same.
After a year of increasingly dire developments at the pioneering PNW craft brewer, last month it abruptly shuttered all its locations, declaring bankruptcy the day before Thanksgiving. At @vinepair.com, I charted Rogue's rise & fall against the fate of the craft-brewing industry it helped to create.
Rogue Is a Case Study in Craft Brewery Collapse
On rare occasions, the beer industry produces a perfect metaphor. In 2022, for example, a high-profile California craft brewery called Modern Times Beer soared up the volume charts, overextended itsel...
vinepair.com
December 5, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Dave does a great job distilling and synthesizing the rise and fall of Rogue, and reading it makes me realize how out-of-step brands founded on toxic masculinity (to use a shorthand) have fared. The country is steeped in TM now, and it’s just not into beer brands offering more of the same.
Reposted by Phil Cook
New on the beer blog: pub etiquette guides and beer history.
ohgoodale.wordpress.com/2025/12/03/y...
ohgoodale.wordpress.com/2025/12/03/y...
Your Essential Pub Etiquette Guide Guide
Since the first Druid hung a hop bush out of his upstairs window – a telltale sign for the medieval cognoscenti that human sacrifice was no longer practiced on the premises, only the ritual slaught…
ohgoodale.wordpress.com
December 4, 2025 at 3:07 PM
New on the beer blog: pub etiquette guides and beer history.
ohgoodale.wordpress.com/2025/12/03/y...
ohgoodale.wordpress.com/2025/12/03/y...
I'm always genuinely relieved to read someone else saying "we don’t think there’s any compelling reason to give hospitality special treatment compared to any other sector..."
That's your medicine. As a treat, there's everything else. I particularly loved the deep dive on a vintage Hamm's beer sign.
That's your medicine. As a treat, there's everything else. I particularly loved the deep dive on a vintage Hamm's beer sign.
GOOD MORNING! Here's our weekly round up of good writing about beer, with pubs in Norwich and Bradford, thoughts on the budget, and notes on a kitsch advertisement for Hamm's beer. 🍻🍺
boakandbailey.com/2025/11/news...
boakandbailey.com/2025/11/news...
News, nuggets and longreads 29 November 2025: Suburbia
Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got dodgy dates, kidney beans and The Fat Cat.
boakandbailey.com
December 3, 2025 at 6:43 PM
I'm always genuinely relieved to read someone else saying "we don’t think there’s any compelling reason to give hospitality special treatment compared to any other sector..."
That's your medicine. As a treat, there's everything else. I particularly loved the deep dive on a vintage Hamm's beer sign.
That's your medicine. As a treat, there's everything else. I particularly loved the deep dive on a vintage Hamm's beer sign.
Reposted by Phil Cook
I tried to look at the past 13,000 years of beer brewing from a bird's eye perspective. That leads to some reflections I certainly didn't expect.
A simple way to put it: there are three kinds of beer, but not the ones you expect.
www.garshol.priv.no/blog/439.html
A simple way to put it: there are three kinds of beer, but not the ones you expect.
www.garshol.priv.no/blog/439.html
Malt, Mould, or Saliva | Larsblog
Personal blog of Lars Marius Garshol.
www.garshol.priv.no
December 3, 2025 at 2:49 PM
I tried to look at the past 13,000 years of beer brewing from a bird's eye perspective. That leads to some reflections I certainly didn't expect.
A simple way to put it: there are three kinds of beer, but not the ones you expect.
www.garshol.priv.no/blog/439.html
A simple way to put it: there are three kinds of beer, but not the ones you expect.
www.garshol.priv.no/blog/439.html
Reposted by Phil Cook
New post by me on #MITPressReader @mitpress.bsky.social
On the 100th anniversary of the #ScopesMonkeyTrial
the ways we depict #evolution can still give an erroneous progressive view (that evolution leads to humans or ‘increased complexity’).
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/is-our-pictu...
On the 100th anniversary of the #ScopesMonkeyTrial
the ways we depict #evolution can still give an erroneous progressive view (that evolution leads to humans or ‘increased complexity’).
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/is-our-pictu...
December 1, 2025 at 5:56 PM
New post by me on #MITPressReader @mitpress.bsky.social
On the 100th anniversary of the #ScopesMonkeyTrial
the ways we depict #evolution can still give an erroneous progressive view (that evolution leads to humans or ‘increased complexity’).
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/is-our-pictu...
On the 100th anniversary of the #ScopesMonkeyTrial
the ways we depict #evolution can still give an erroneous progressive view (that evolution leads to humans or ‘increased complexity’).
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/is-our-pictu...
Reposted by Phil Cook
Fingers is like no other drinks publication out there. I don't score wines, review whiskeys, or wax poetic about craft breweries. I publish adversarial reportage and analysis on the business, politics, and culture of drinking in America—especially the money/power shaping it. Just one recent example:
The anatomy of a right-wing booze grift: www.fingers.email/p/the-anatom...
December 1, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Fingers is like no other drinks publication out there. I don't score wines, review whiskeys, or wax poetic about craft breweries. I publish adversarial reportage and analysis on the business, politics, and culture of drinking in America—especially the money/power shaping it. Just one recent example:
Reposted by Phil Cook
This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥
December 1, 2025 at 11:09 AM
This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥
Love a simple empty-glass photo. Sometimes the quiet endorsements are the loudest.
December 1, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Love a simple empty-glass photo. Sometimes the quiet endorsements are the loudest.
The headline is more than a little ominous (in the context of beloved small breweries); the actual story seems like an excellent development. I'll raise a glass of oyster stout to Ralph's retirement and the next phase for what he started.
December 1, 2025 at 3:26 AM
The headline is more than a little ominous (in the context of beloved small breweries); the actual story seems like an excellent development. I'll raise a glass of oyster stout to Ralph's retirement and the next phase for what he started.
Reposted by Phil Cook
. @thespinoff.bsky.social marks a significant anniversary: 75 years since Aotearoa got rid of its upper house thespinoff.co.nz/politics/01-...
The day the suicide squad burned down the house at New Zealand’s parliament
The case for debating drunk first, and sober second.
thespinoff.co.nz
November 30, 2025 at 11:23 PM
. @thespinoff.bsky.social marks a significant anniversary: 75 years since Aotearoa got rid of its upper house thespinoff.co.nz/politics/01-...
Reposted by Phil Cook
Nothing better than a cozy bar in the winter.
November 28, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Nothing better than a cozy bar in the winter.
Reposted by Phil Cook
Hello from the heartland.
November 26, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Hello from the heartland.
Reposted by Phil Cook
On November 15, 2026, Voyager 1 will be one light day away from Earth -- 16.1 billion miles, equivalent to the same distance light travels in 24 hours.
www.popsci.com/science/voya...
www.popsci.com/science/voya...
Voyager 1 is almost one light-day from Earth
The intrepid spacecraft will cross a major distance milestone in November 2026.
www.popsci.com
November 26, 2025 at 4:32 AM
On November 15, 2026, Voyager 1 will be one light day away from Earth -- 16.1 billion miles, equivalent to the same distance light travels in 24 hours.
www.popsci.com/science/voya...
www.popsci.com/science/voya...
Reposted by Phil Cook
Fun fact: New Zealand's first homegrown rock 'n' roll song was 'Pie Cart Rock 'n' Roll' (1957). It goes deep.
* New Zealand takes pies (namely, handheld meat pies) so seriously that there are National Pie Awards that get major media coverage. The New Zealand National Library has a whole dedicated category for “Pies — Competitions.”
Pie.
Pie.
November 25, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Fun fact: New Zealand's first homegrown rock 'n' roll song was 'Pie Cart Rock 'n' Roll' (1957). It goes deep.
Reposted by Phil Cook
The modern world is just pro wrestling and a gambling addiction standing on top of a mechanical Turk.
Founders on LinkedIn still seem to be struggling with the difference between telling people about their humble beginnings and admitting to straight up committing fraud.
November 25, 2025 at 7:19 PM
The modern world is just pro wrestling and a gambling addiction standing on top of a mechanical Turk.
Reposted by Phil Cook
It's Friday, and apparently bluesky is ready for this fun revelation:
Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.
Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.
November 21, 2025 at 5:11 PM
It's Friday, and apparently bluesky is ready for this fun revelation:
Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.
Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.