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Evan Rail

@evanrail.bsky.social

He / him. Author of “The Absinthe Forger.” Monthly drinks columnist at VinePair, freelance contributor to the NYT, WSJ, etc. Included in Best Food Writing, The NY Times Book of Wine, etc. Former Prague Post food writer (2000-2006). Jdeme na jedno.

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Brian Alberts@brewedculture.org · yesterday

'Even Beer is Getting High at Oktoberfest' Complaint in 1970 that inflation had brought the beer price at Munich's Oktoberfest to 2.75 Deutsche Marks, equivalent to 74 cents per Maß. Adjusted for inflation, that's about $6.90 today. Beer at Oktoberfest this year will start at €14.80 (~ $17 USD)

News clipping from Stars and Stripes, Aug 21, 1970. Title: 'Even Beer is Getting High at Oktoberfest' (perfect headline, no notes) Text: "If President Nixon's advisors were here, they might feel compelled to issue an "inflation alert." The staple of Oktoberfest -- a one-liter mug of high powered Bavarian beer -- has fallen prey to spiraling prices. When the festival opens here Sept 19, the going price for a mug in one of the big tents will be 2.75 marks (approximately 74 cents), up from 2.40 marks last year. An Oktoberfest spokesman said the increase was unavoidable because of a 27 per cent wage and benefit hike recently given to brewery employees and the high cost of providing oompah bands for the tents."
Evan Rail@evanrail.bsky.social · 2w ago

This Week in Book Promotion Scams: “Joe Rogan” wrote to me (from a Gmail address, LOL) praising my book and asking if I wanted to appear on “The Joe Rogan Experience.” I would only need to pay a $250 “participation investment” in order to confirm my spot on the podcast. Reported.

Evan Rail@evanrail.bsky.social · 2w ago

I was just telling @beervana.bsky.social yesterday about accounts of gold-colored lagers in German newspapers in the 1820s.

Andreas Krennmair@akrennmair.bsky.social · 2w ago

We went to the Beer and Oktoberfest Museum in Munich yesterday. One detail I noticed was in this painting from 1841. Some sources say that Munich lager was relatively pale from roughly 1820 until about 1840. Is this what we're seeing in this painting, an early Munich pale lager? #beerhistory

Wilhelm Wanderer's 1842 painting "Alt-Münchner Kellnerin" (Munich waitress), showing a waitress in typical Dirndl working clothes for her profession leaning against a table with a bread roll, a half loaf of rye bread, a stoneware mug with a tin lid, and a glass mug with a tin lid. The glass mug contains beer of a pale amber colour, with a little foam on top. In the background, guests can be seen sitting, as well as a church further back.
Anna Kubišta@annakubista.bsky.social · 3w ago

En Tchéquie mais également en Slovaquie, impensable d'imaginer les pâtisseries sans pavot. On tombe souvent sur des champs à perte de vue, comme ici en 🇸🇰. Le goût de ces pâtisseries, leur odeur dans les boulangeries (ou à la maison), c'est l'essence de la Mitteleuropa.

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Evan Rail@evanrail.bsky.social · 3w ago

Here's a gift link to my latest NYT travel piece, 36 Hours in Bruges. Brugge is a charming town with a lot going on, including an excellent new art space, Brusk (esp. the Bigger Picture exhibit). Cool bars, cafes & restaurants. Plus Greet Verbeke’s curios & antiques. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

36 Hours in Bruges, Belgium: Things to Do and See (Gift Article)

Like the works of the Flemish painters who once inhabited the city, Bruges’s appeal lies in the details.

nytimes.com

Evan Rail@evanrail.bsky.social · 3w ago

This is a great guide to food & drink in Bruges — I wish I’d seen it before I wrote up 36 Hours in Bruges for the NYT, out now. (Service was slow & prices high at a certain steakhouse, so I didn’t include it; I loved Avi’38, Shibuya & Dees in this guide. Cult & Mosh, not listed here, also rock.)

Edible Reading@ediblereading.bsky.social · 3w ago

NEW POST! This week my brand new, completely revised and overhauled guide to brilliant Bruges. Here’s the link if you want to read about excellent food, beer, wine and coffee: ediblereading.com/2026/07/17/c...

Susannah SB@whattastesgood.bsky.social · 3w ago

New from me: an interview with Drew Kulsveen of Willett, who dgaf what the haters say about Pot Still (and who is importing something very surprising that is definitely not like bourbon) www.unicornauctions.com/unicorn-revi...

Master Distiller Drew Kulsveen Is Planning a Long Future for Willett

We spoke to the master distiller for Kentucky’s biggest “it” bourbon about legendary bottles, growth during an industry downturn, and how hospitality ...

unicornauctions.com

Evan Rail@evanrail.bsky.social · 3w ago

In May I went to Vilnius for a travel assignment. In addition to my notebooks, pens and phone, I took a Holga — a medium-format camera with a plastic 60mm f/8 lens that lends itself to blurring, light leaks and a messed-up depth of field. I got my pictures back this week.

A black-and-white photo of a man with glasses in front of a curtain, with shadows obscuring half his face.A black-and-white picture showing some of the memorials to authors on the wall at Literatų Street in Vilnius, with lots of shadows and details.
Marci Baranski@ecomarci.bsky.social · 3w ago

Food systems are a major source of both CO2 (thru land conversions) and non-CO2 gases. The issue is, technological solutions and substitutions are scare. Food systems climate solutions are mainly dependent on governance and behavioural change, which while possible, are challenging.

Alexander J. Stein@ajstein.bsky.social · 3w ago

A transformation of food systems – especially towards healthy, more plant-based diets – could result in 15 million fewer deaths/year and help cut back the ‘hidden’ costs of the current systems ($10-20 trillion/year) of which most are due to unhealthy diets… doi.org/10.1038/s415... +

Overall, the scale of change implied in a food system transformation requires commensurate ambition. As it stands, many policies and subsidies are working in opposition to food systems transformation. Current levers and interventions aimed at changing aspects of food systems—for example, sugar taxes, labelling and advertising restrictions—are insufficient in isolation to deliver the magnitude of change required in the scenario studied here. The substantial relative reductions in production across livestock (36%), sugar (34%) and cereals (23%) by 2050 in the transformed food system versus a BAU scenario suggest profound implications for the political economy of global food systems. Powerful actors behind some commodity industries often move to resist, block or co-opt efforts and represent a principal impediment to food systems transformation.
Fourteen Visuals@fourteenvisuals.com · 3w ago

This is the human behind Fourteen Visuals. My name is Mike and I am a photographer and designer. I love working with folks that want to be outside the box. The ones that don’t want to follow trends. The ones that don’t want to rely on slop. I’m here for you. Let’s make something cool together.

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Francesca Morbidelli@pintamedicea.com · 4w ago

Think of landscapes of southern #Tuscany. Perched on a hilltop on the slopes of Mount Amiata, Montenero d’Orcia hosts #Birragustando the #craftbeer festival held in the village park (yes), under the🌳🌳. A festival with - imho- the most beautiful sunset in Italy 🍺 www.pintamedicea.com/birra/evento...

Birragustando 2026 il parco della birra artigianale

MONTENERO D'ORCIA (GR) – Il festival della birra più atteso dell’estate: il Parco della Birra Artigianale torna dal 10 al 22 luglio 2026.

pintamedicea.com

🇨🇦 🇺🇸 Zoë Keating@zoekeating.com · 4w ago

Songtradr has fired all the engineers at Bandcamp and while they say they are focusing resources on that beloved platform, we don’t know what is going to happen. I am worried. Now is the time to support member-owned cooperative music distribution platforms like @Subvert.fm

Jim @thingsandstuff.wtf · last mo.

Friends in Ireland. Late August/early September I will be in the county Mayo area. Where should I go, what things should I look at? Will be based in Ballycastle most of the time.

Evan Rail@evanrail.bsky.social · last mo.

💯 When I lived at the Cité Universitaire in Paris, the U.S. building had (still has) a memorial to Thomas Paine at nearby Parc Montsouris. It says: Englishman by Birth French Citizen by Decree American by Adoption Paine was also one of the Founders who made the right call on slavery: against it.

The Rude Pundit@rudepundit.bsky.social · last mo.

The founder we should talk more about is Thomas Paine, who will fuck your shit up every time. Here he is in The Rights of Man just ripping into any ideas of "originalism" and that kind of garbage.

Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave, is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies. Man has no property in man; neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow. The parliament or the people of 1688, or of any other period, had no more right to dispose of the people of the present day, or to bind or to controul them in any shape whatever, than the parliament or the people of the present day have to dispose of, bind or controul those who are to live a hundred or a thousand years hence. Every generation is, and must be, competent to all the purposes which its occasions require. It is the living, and not the dead, that are to be accommodated.