Hugging the Bar is a weekly newsletter on the culture of drinks, bars, and especially craft beer. After several years writing on these areas, I wanted a space to tell even more stories about the relationships we have with certain places, the memories we have tied to certain beers, and how craft beer ties into our own personal lives--to name a few themes. Sometimes the newsletter is an essay on my journey with grief and how a particular beer or bar played into that; sometimes it's a look at movie that takes place in a brewery; sometimes it's a four-part guide to festival safety for organizers, vendors, and participants alike. We're talking DEI efforts, safety for womxn, smashing stereotypes, and more.