It’s always entertaining to guess about the future. What are the trends and movements that will define food, drink, and culture in the next generation? But instead of always asking “what’s next?” perhaps we should be asking “who’s next?” These Minnesotans got in on the ground floor of their industries and movements at a … [ Read more]
C’est le Vin: Europe’s vintners are buying fruit, lighting fires, and saving good vintages as climate change alters the future of fine wine
January 2, 2019 by
The world of wine is always changing. Consider in Champagne, France (circa 1668), when a monk by the name of Dom Pierre Pérignon fought desperately to keep the bubbles out of the insipid red wine he was making for mass. It wouldn’t be until much later that the region would become known for its beloved … [ Read more]
Bye Bye Burgundy: How a warming climate is changing the landscape of wine
August 30, 2016 by Leave a Comment
I was waiting in line to speak to a wine shop owner in San Francisco when I struck up a conversation with a winemaker visiting from Italy. She and I started talking about the Cascadia fault in Oregon and the potential of much of the vineyard land sliding into the Pacific Ocean when the ‘big … [ Read more]
Dutch entrepreneurs are making beer from rainwater
July 14, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Rainy days may be the perfect opportunity to blow through a season or two on Netflix. But for a group of Dutch entrepreneurs, rainy days are perfect for another reason—brewing beer. The founders of Hemelswater (Dutch for heaven’s water) recently released a beer made from rainwater collected in Amsterdam. According to a report in The Guardian, Hemelswater Code Blond … [ Read more]
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s—a pigeon with a miniature backpack?
March 15, 2016 by Leave a Comment
No, this is not an Onion article. Nor is it an early April Fool’s Day joke. The Pigeon Air Patrol is a thing, and it’s London’s new tactic in monitoring air quality, reports Mashable. A flock of pigeons equipped with tiny backpacks containing pollution sensors and GPS trackers, aka The Pigeon Air Patrol, was released from a … [ Read more]
Lake Superior one of the fastest warming lakes on Earth
January 28, 2016 by Leave a Comment
A new study released by NASA and the National Science Foundation in December shows that lakes are warming faster than the oceans, reports MPR News. The study focused on 235 lakes on six continents over 25 years and concluded that lakes are warming at an average rate of 0.61 degrees Fahrenheit every decade. Four of the five … [ Read more]
2015 the hottest year on record by a long shot
January 20, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last year was the Earth’s hottest year on record, surpassing more than a century of high temperature marks by a wide margin, reports the Associated Press. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and NASA say 2015 was by far the hottest year in 136 years of record keeping. NOAA says 2015’s average temperature was 58.62 degrees … [ Read more]
The Last Great Race: A Minnesotan’s Incredible Rise in Sled Dog Racing & Why He Left it All Behind
December 29, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The Greyhound bus pulled away, leaving Jake Berkowitz stranded on a dirt road in the middle of northern Michigan. A few days earlier, the 18-year-old was celebrating Thanksgiving with his family in St. Paul, Minnesota. Now he was alone, waiting for a stranger to pick him up and introduce him to a way of life … [ Read more]
Climate change’s impact on beer: What you need to know
November 27, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Jenn Orgolini, sustainability director for Colorado’s New Belgium Brewery, proclaimed in 2011 that beer drinkers should worry about the climate. “If you drink beer now, the issue of climate change is impacting you right now,” she warned. We often think of climate change as simply dialing up the global thermostat. But it also changes which … [ Read more]
Traditional Belgian brewing methods threatened by climate change
November 4, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Cantillon, one of Belgian’s breweries using traditional open-fermentation methods, is being affected by an abnormally warm autumn, according to a report in The Guardian. “We had to pour away three brews for today, Thursday and next Monday because the nighttime temperatures are currently at between 10 and 15 C (50 -59 F), which is far too … [ Read more]
The 81 companies promising action on climate change
October 20, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The White House announced today that 81 companies have signed the American Business Act on Climate Pledge to demonstrate their support for action on climate change. These 81 companies have operations in all 50 states, employ over 9 million people, represent more than $3 trillion in annual revenue, and have a combined market capitalization of … [ Read more]
Climate Change: The Good, The Bad, and The Barley
June 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The Minnesota of the future will look very different from today. So, too, will the future of Minnesota beer. Photos by David Hansen, University of Minnesota In January 2015, the United Kingdom’s Hadley Center for Climate, NASA, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) held press conferences—all in the same week—to declare 2014 the … [ Read more]
