American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
We blame the industry for this… It used to be that when we wrapped up our Weekend Picks on Friday, we could coast through the weekend. There was little need to check in for updates – things were pretty much done. But clearly all that’s changed.
So here’s some of what’s happened in the world of craft beer while you were off 
enjoying yourselves.
From Piss to Pilsner (Zealand, Denmark) – Organizers at Roskilde – the largest music festival northern Europe – are hoping to turn 25,000 liters of urine into next year’s beer. Urine from more than 100,000 festivalgoers will be used to fertilize barley that will go into the beer served at next year’s event. The Guardian is reporting that even the rock stars are being invited to share their artistic piss in the process, which we hope will add some nuance to the eventual brew.
Brazen Beer Thief Gunned Down (Atlanta, GA) – Actually he was just shot and successfully apprehended by the police – we just liked using the phrase “gunned down.” WSBV is reporting that last Wednesday, police officers shot and apprehended John Taylor, a man captured on video stealing several cases of beer from an Atlanta gas station convenience store earlier that week. No word on the brand of beer that he stole, but we’re guessing it probably wasn’t SweetWater.
A Marriage Made In Heaven? (San Francisco, CA) – Anchor Brewing and BrewDog have announced further partnership plans in the states. As BrewDog commences plans to build a brewery in Ohio, Anchor will continue to import and sell BrewDog to its 
wholesaler partners with an eventual distribution management transition to BrewDog’s forthcoming operations.
Venezuela Facing Catastrophic Beer Drought! (Caracas) – Forget global warming and nuclear ruin – Venezuela has real problems. They may be facing a beer drought of massive proportions brought on by a strike at the Polar Brewery. According to the BBC “the company makes up to 80% of Venezuela’s beer” and “half of their breweries are now shut, with others already running at reduced capacity.”
Left Hand To Become Employee Owned (Longmont, CO) – Joining a small handful of US craft breweries including New Belgium, Deschutes, & Harpoon, Left Hand Brewing has finalized an employee stock ownership plan that will give them a stake in the company. Under Left Hand’s new employee ownership plan, the brewery will contribute stock to the ESOP trust with each eligible employee receiving an annual allocation. “Our intent is to reward employees and foster an ownership mentality, encouraging team members to contribute to and participate in Left Hand’s long-term success,” commented Eric Wallace, co-founder & CEO.
