Photo by Karin Higgins, UC Davis

The Science of Suds

Fewer than two miles from a fraternity scene marked by late-night keg stands, chugging contests and beer pong rallies is a quiet UC Davis classroom above Sudwerk Restaurant & Brewery where the next generation of brewers learn the chemistry behind the craft.

Dec 1, 2011 Allen Young

The Cupcake Skinny

Will the confectionary craze last?

If there’s anyone more excited than a kid in a candy shop, it’s a middle-aged woman in a cupcake shop. The national cupcake craze also has hit all regions and demographics, according to those in the bakery industry.

Mar 1, 2011 Linda DuBois

Girl Crush

Female winemakers gain market share

When Gay Callan left her Bay Area sales job to grow grapes in the Sierra foothills in the early 1980s, people told her that she — a city slicker and a woman to boot — was crazy.

Mar 1, 2011 Christine Calvin
Segiun Moreau Napa Cooperage

Aging Gracefully

An oak by any other name is not just another barrell

Just as winemakers won’t put just any old juice in a barrel, they won’t use any old barrel either. For one wine, it’s French oak. For another, American. For yet another, Hungarian. In some cases the wine goes into a steel tank and never touches oak of any kind.

Sep 1, 2010 Robert Celaschi

Working Lunch with Christopher Artinian

It was the end of 2008 when the economic dominoes began to fall: Lehman Brothers was upside-down, housing crashed, the stock market swooned, banks faltered and the domestic car industry all but went belly up. It wasn’t the best of times to be a high-end American steakhouse.

Jul 1, 2010 Douglas Curley