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Breweries Enter Their Value Meal Era | VinePair

Joshua M. Bernstein 2/25/26 Joshua M. Bernstein 2/25/26

Breweries Enter Their Value Meal Era | VinePair

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© 2026 JOSHUA M. BERNSTEIN  |  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

@joshmbernstein

If there’s one thing to know about me, I’m a die-hard fan of happy hours and a good deal. $2 hot dogs and $4 beers till 6pm? I’ll be there when the doors open.

Brewery taprooms rarely had to entice drinkers with deals, though. Fre

Oh man, it’s been a couple weeks in the world, huh? Everything can feel so very overwhelming. One antidote: bring a little joy into the world by bringing folks together. Community organizing can take so many forms, so I choose to encourage a li

Do I just come up with event ideas to wear a hot dog costume? Uh, yes.

After writing a VinePair article about breweries running meat raffles, I was like, I want to run a meat raffle too! Because right now, the world needs a bit more fun and communi

Each year for @sevenfiftydaily, I canvas brewing industry stakeholders to create a comprehensive road map for the coming year in beer. More than ever, a cloud of negativity covers an industry roiled by erratic tariffs, spiking costs, declining consum

Live, Laugh, Love in the dive-bar bathroom @uncleleoscincy? Why not. I’ll take a little positivity just about anywhere this year. Here’s to flushing away 2025. And into the future we go! Happy New Year, indeed.

A little December photo dump filled with all the weird Christmas decorations, concerts, matzo ball soup, solstice fires and a few great beers over the last month. Plus Prince as you’ve likely never seen him. Hope everyone is hanging tough this

As a writer, finding negative narratives in craft beer is a breeze. Sales are declining. Closures are climbing. Let’s blame all those IPAs! Or Gen Z! Or THC!

Instead of focusing on deflating news, though, @vinepair asked me to do another editi

Before November disappears, a few highlights from the last few weeks: Violet turned 12 and we celebrated with a dozen donuts! I rode in the local Cranksgiving food drive! And bought smoked turkeys for our 17-person Thanksgiving from a BBQ truck in a

During craft beer’s 2010s heyday, breweries created objects of dark desire by redoubling stouts’ ABVs, adding cocoa nibs and coconut to evoke liquefied candy bars, and aging the roasty beers in bourbon barrels. Creative extravagances led

Post-Halloween post for posterity and proof of life to show that, yet again, I dressed up like a hot dog for, like, the seventh year in a row. Best per-wear purchase o’ my life. Also: I stood on a street corner with strangers turned friends and