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World lager now accounts for nearly a third of all beer sales in UK pubs by volume, and more than a third by value according to The Morning Advertiser’s Beer Report. Not craft. Not stout. Not local — world lager. Brands like Peroni, Estrella, …

In the moment a complaint lands at the table, the relationship goes one of two ways.

Handle it right and the guest remembers that you handled it right. In hospitality, a problem handled well is often remembered more vividly than a flawless meal. The …

At the end of every shift, there is money that stayed on every table your servers worked.

Not because the food was wrong. Not because the guests had a bad time. Because the conversation never happened.

The bottle of wine the table would have ordered …

A potential guest searches your restaurant on Google. They find a three-star review from two weeks ago. Then they look at your response.

That response is where the reservation decision gets made.

Not the star rating. The response.

The Fork in the …

Port is the most abused category in the US market. It’s treated like a closet find rather than a living wine program. Every bar that keeps a dusty bottle of Tawny behind the speed rack is leaving money on the table. This is one of the …

The orange wine category is built on Slovenian tradition that never stopped. The trend is just finally catching up. What’s interesting for distributors and importers is that the natural wine crowd already created the demand pathway — and the …

Uruguay has been “the next thing” in wine for twenty years. This time it’s different. When a LEED-certified winery outside North America appears in Maldonado and Tannat starts landing on lists in New York and Tokyo, the …

Ask a bar owner about Portuguese wine beyond Port and the answer is usually: “Is that the green wine?” Yes. And also no. Portugal has 250-plus indigenous grape varieties — more per square mile than anywhere else in Europe — and the US …

“China wine is just bulk.” That take is ten years out of date. When LVMH plants at 2,600 meters in Yunnan and a family estate in Ningxia beats out Bordeaux at Decanter, that’s not a novelty story anymore. That’s a category …

The big distributors aren’t in Bulgaria yet. That’s the window. When a Saint-Émilion Grand Cru proprietor shows up to plant in the Thracian Valley, he’s seeing something the US market hasn’t priced in. That window closes. …

The US wine market keeps ignoring South America outside of Malbec and Carmenere. Brazil is about to be the wake-up call nobody saw coming. The big distributors haven’t shown up yet — there’s still a window for buyers and importers paying …

Most mid-size operators do not have the resources to put a full-time person on social media. So they hire an agency. And then something predictable happens — the agency starts posting whatever they think sounds good, and suddenly your brand voice …

Most restaurant and bar operators run into the same wall. Post consistently on Instagram, X, and LinkedIn — or watch the channel go dark. But thinking about social media every single day while also running a floor isn’t realistic. That’s …

Two industries rode the same pandemic wave. One kept rising. The other crashed back down.

In 2019, online grocery captured just 3.4% of the $1.02 trillion U.S. grocery market — roughly $34.5 billion, according to the Mercatus/Incisiv …

After years of battling for beer space in the US the two parent companies of Anheuser-Busch and Miller Brewing have struck an agreement to merge the two.

How things can change in four weeks or even four days! On September 16, InBev approached the …

I regularly have the conversation about bringing a new product to the Las Vegas market and can I help them. The best advice I could give anyone for years was to skip Las Vegas and Nevada and go straight to Colorado. That may not be the advice I give …

In an era of craft everything, how do small startup brands find traction in a marketplace dominated by big brands with enormous advertising budgets? A common problem in the restaurant industry is alcohol buyers know what they want but no idea who …

Ardbeg Kelpie Committee Exclusive (97.3 pts)

Kelpie is this year’s limited release from Ardbeg. In 2004 Ardbeg began producing limited distiller’s editions. The Committee Exclusives are only for the Ardbeg Committee club members, but …

Dr. Bill Lumsden has been on quite a run. Named Master Distiller of the year for 2016 by the International Whisky Competition on the strength of the magnificent Glenmorangie Signet (97 points) and he repeated again in 2017 by winning whisky of the …

The 8th annual International Whisky Competition was held in Las Vegas on May 3, 4, 5. All whisky are sampled double blind so the participants don’t know anything about the whisky in the glasses except what they see, taste and smell in the …

I actually appeared on an episode of Brew Dogs, and got a chance to meet the founders. A really good time all around, and I like that they really push the boundaries having topped their own world record for alcohol content several times, but it has …

As a teacher of Wines, Spirits and all things food and beverage for almost 2 decades I was questioned a lot. Whenever questioned on a topic, I always made it a habit to go reconfirm my information. When out earlier this week, a gentleman at the bar …

Recently I was in San Francisco taking my Certified Sommelier exam. I never really thought that this was something that I would pursue. This article is going to be a discussion of why I believe any and all certifications can be vital to ones future. …

If you have never seen any of the Fog and Smog films, you are welcome. These guys were introduced to me by Ryan Pastorek who is the same gentleman that introduced me to The Daily Pint, to which I am eternally grateful. Fog and Smog lampoon, via music …

Another first for PowerfulThirst.com. Our very first media credentials for an out of state event, WhiskyFest 2015 San Francisco. WhiskyFest is one of my favorite events of the year. They get great speakers and attendees like the Eddie and Jimmy …

So for my first weekend here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest city of Portland, Oregon, I decided to take in a little local flavor. As I am establishing contacts and people to interview I decided to play regular tourist. I started out my day …

I am going on my first visit of distilleries in Tennessee and Kentucky. I will be stopping and sharing drams at some of the country’s most important and historic distilleries. Tune in for next week’s posts.