Author Archives: kihm
Four Brewers
This first appeared in the November 15-22, 1995, Syracuse New Times and revised in the May 1996 All About Beer. * * * Four Brewers: David Hartmann, Empire Brewing; Jim Kuhr, F.X. Matt Brewing Company; Jim Misthos, Anheuser-Busch; Marc Rubenstein, Middle Ages Brewing Company Have you ever found yourself tasting a beer and wondering if its […]
The American Homebrewers Association Brew-ha-ha
This article appeared in Southwest Brewing News, June/July 1997. When the editor ran the idea by me, I thought I’d signed on to write a cheery 20th anniversary piece on the AHA. Charlie Papazian had given me my first opportunity to write for national publication; I had always respected him and enjoyed his company; I […]
The Brewing of Bud
A tour of the Anheuser-Busch plant in Baldwinsville, N.Y., which first appeared in the Syracuse New Times, September 2-9, 1987 * * * The beer they brew in Baldwinsville begins as a handful of optimism and seed grain somewhere out in the Midwest, as green hop cuttings under blue skies in the northwestern United States […]
American Beer, 1975
This article appeared in the Syracuse New Times, September 28, 1975. The cliché has it that it is always darkest before the dawn, and that accurately described the state of American beer in 1975. The sun appeared to be setting on the last local and regional breweries and it had yet to rise on microbreweries […]
Spring
March 24, 2005 Spring has arrived in Central New York, with the traditional change from snow to freezing rain. The old snow remains, dirty and glazed, and the trees, though still bare, do not look altogether dead. Buoyed by the change of season and prodded by the need to make a living, I drove over […]
Shoppingtown
This one cost me a reader, but that was not such a bad thing. * * * December 3, 1997 It was raining on Sunday morning, a cold rain, and so I decided to delay my walk until later in the day, when I could join Laurie for a dry, non-slippery indoor mile or two […]
Seed
I wrote this some time in the 1970s. The conversation with the Honda garage actually happened; some times life hands you the best lines. * * * It was the bills I think. First there was the bill from the power company, and then the telephone company, and then one for auto insurance. I rarely […]
Secret Pals
I don’t remember what prompted me, but in 2008 I read Fugitive Days by Bill Ayers. Perhaps I saw Hunter S. Thompson’s comment that this was “a very good book about a terrifying time in America.” I ordered a copy through Abebooks. The jacket told me that Ayers was the author of A Kind and […]
Scars
July 23, 2007 I have the makings of a new scar, and I’m pretty excited about it. Boys love scars. Pirates have them. Heidelberg dualists have them. Mostly my knees have them. There’s the 1950’s scooter accident on a rough sidewalk in front of the house next-door, the piece of broken glass on the athletic […]
Sauce for Pasta
Shop on Friday afternoon or evening. Then start cooking around 9 a.m. on Saturday morning, after you’ve had a good walk, a shower and a healthy breakfast. If you’ve put off shopping, go shopping pronto and get home and cooking by 10 a.m. If you’re any later than that, forget about it and try again […]
Faithful Readers 