Welcome to The PUNCHbowl, a weekly installment where we share our favorite longreads on all things drinks and nightlife. This week, we learned about the “gray” market for beer in D.C., considered craft brewing’s sexism problem and explored the strip club that decides the future of hip-hop.
Bottles of Misogyny
Pearl Necklace. Raging Bitch. Happy Ending: just a few of the “cheeky” names the average consumer will encounter on stroll down the beer aisle. When it comes to labels, how did craft beer develop such a widespread culture of misogyny? And why is one of the few things that Big Beer and craft beer agree on sexist marketing? Will Gordon investigates. [Slate]
DC’s Black Market for Beer
Smuggled back across borders and marked up exponentially: not drugs, but rather, beer. Thanks to certain alcohol regulations in D.C. allowing bars and stores to act as distributors for beers that aren’t locally available, there’s a burgeoning “gray” market for certain limited-edition and rare beers in the District—and it’s making some brewers unhappy. [Washington Post]
Growing Pains
Getting to go from a little beer business to a big beer business sounds like any brewer’s dream, but the reality of it is often sleepless nights, unforeseen expenses and challenges on a much larger scale. The Chicago Tribune follows Pipeworks Brewing co-founders Beejay Oslo and Gerrit Lewis as they move from hobbyists to businessmen. [Chicago Tribune]
Strip Club to Billionaire’s Club
Breaking out in hip-hop often means first breaking out in Atlanta—and there’s one place that can make it all happen. But it’s not a record studio, or even music venue: it’s Magic City, A-Town’s most legendary strip club, a place where aspiring artists become stars against a backdrop of pasties and one-dollar bills. Devin Friedman explores how this place became “the most important club in the most important city in the hip-hop industry.” [GQ]
West Coast Brews
The Path Unseen series shares the origin stories of the folks behind San Diego-based Saint Archer Brewing Co., who mostly come from the worlds of surfing, skateboarding and action sports. In this installment, President and Co-Founder Josh Landan describes the arc of Saint Archer from birth to today, bumps and all. [Vimeo]
[Photo: Flickr/Indigo Skies Photography]