It’s also, bafflingly, crowd-free.

“People tend to head straight for the Grand Canyon, or maybe Arches or Zion national parks,” says Adam Kinsey, owner and founder of Grand Junction’s Handlebar Tap House as well as the new WestCo Brewing. The canyon boasts a serenity you simply won’t find at the Grand Canyon, with its steady flow of tourists. Similarly, beer-driven tourists flock to Denver or Fort Collins, leaving Grand Junction virtually untouched. This makes the underrated scene all the more special: an embarrassment of riches for locals, just waiting to be discovered by visitors.

Named for the junction of the Colorado River, which was once called the Grand River, and the Gunnison River, Grand Junction is home to a convergence of varying natural landscapes that together make it unrivaled in natural beauty: the canyon; Rattlesnake Arches, one of the world’s biggest concentrations of natural arches; and Grand Mesa, the largest flat-top mountain in the world. The city’s beer scene is just as rich in variety, built up around the community of adventurers and outdoor enthusiasts who call it home.

After spending two days being spoiled by Grand Junction’s incredible natural splendor as well as its inviting, top-notch beer scene, it’s my duty to urge any beer enthusiast to move this city to the top of their travel lists. Here’s where you’ll want to visit.

Ramblebine Brewing

Opening only as recently as 2020, Ramblebine was still among the first few breweries in town. Founders Eli Gerson and Rob James hit the ground running with a passion reaching across styles—in addition to a crisp lager, a well-balanced West Coast IPA, two hazy IPAs, and a tart blueberry sour, one of Ramblebine’s most popular flagships is God Hammer, a kveik-fermented Norwegian red ale. Taproom guests can also expect to find anything from pub ales to hoppy Pilsners to barrel-aged stouts. There’s such a diversity of nuanced, expertly crafted, delicious beers here, it’s almost a wonder that the taproom remains so laid-back and welcoming. Ramblebine’s team goes above and beyond to introduce guests both new and familiar to different beer styles and help them find their favorites.

Trail Life Brewing

Perhaps no one business can better capture the essence of Grand Junction than Trail Life Brewing, a brewery literally attached to a mountain bike shop. To live in this city is to live for adventure, whether that’s racing through challenging terrain or experimenting with new-to-you beers. The energy is palpable in Trail Life’s taproom, where post-bike-ride and post-hike patrons sip blonde ale, Mexican-style lager, hazy IPA, brown ale, and more—don’t sleep on the Pirates Life Black IPA. There are also guest taps and a full food menu of burgers, sandwiches, rice bowls, and more, such as a hummus and shawarma platter and fries with a flight of sauces.

Handlebar Tap House

Handlebar is also right next to a mountain bike shop—sensing a theme? “I don’t think anyone lives in Grand Junction who isn’t actively involved in at least one outdoor activity,” Kinsey says. Indeed, expect to see a lot of bikes parked outside Handlebar, where riders unwind over a full food menu boasting top-notch burgers and can’t-miss cheese curds, and 24 frequently rotating taps displaying some of the surrounding area’s best beers.

WestCo Brewing

The new kid on Grand Junction’s beer block comes from two local beer scene veterans, Kinsey and head brewer Danny Wilson. The brewery has been intentionally shaped as a community gathering place. Situated right next to the city’s Amphitheater at Las Colonias Park where live music plays, Westco is a low-key and inviting spot for pre- and post-concert hangs as well as family and friend gatherings, solo beers for winding down after a hike, or memorable meals from the kitchen that’s destination-worthy in its own right—think ramen, a Japanese chicken curry twist on poutine, gyoza, katsu fried chicken, smoked trout dip, and Colorado elk sloppy joes. The beer is naturally making its star turn, though, with a focus on flavor-forward but easy-drinking styles such as Mexican-style lager, Japanese-style rice lager, extra pale ale, New England and West Coast IPAs, and fruited sours.

Another Round …

There are still more beer destinations in town not to be missed, such as the local craft beer OG, The Rockslide Brew Pub. Opened in 1994, the convivial spot brews up a tight selection of lagers and ales for all tastes. Base Camp Beer Works offers creative must-tries such as a pineapple and pistachio cream ale, an Irish red ale with cranberry, orange, and cinnamon, and a peppermint bark porter alongside IPAs and Czech-style lagers; and Gemini Beer Company serves up its own IPAs and pale ales alongside gems from other breweries in town for a full Grand Junction ex-beer-ience.

The post Grand Junction: The Intersection of Adventure and Beer appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

FlyteCo has been making this trip—typically mid- to late August—since the brewery opened in 2019. Plenty of beer writers count a ride-along on their bucket lists, and I’d been eagerly anticipating the experience for months. But the weather doesn’t much care about fresh hop beers, pilots’ passion projects, or journalists’ dreams. As the hop flight gets postponed from a Monday to a Wednesday and then again, it becomes clear just how little about this endeavor is under Serani or any mere mortal’s control—and how getting to make this flight and subsequent beer is like catching lightning in a bottle.

“It’s always so last minute,” Serani says. “The harvest, they don’t know when that’s going to be until a few weeks ahead of time. The weather for the flight, we don’t know for sure until the day of.” Once both the harvest and weather patterns prove willing to play along, Serani has to remain in constant communication throughout the journey with the FlyteCo team back at the brewhouse. “They’re getting the beer ready for us to get back and get the hops right in. Every time we’ve been able to make this beer, it’s a miracle.”

The miracle has had a good track record. After six consecutive years, 2025 is the first time Serani isn’t sure if they’ll be able to make the flight at all. If he can’t fly to Billy Goat by the end of the week, he says, they’ll just have to get the hops shipped overnight.

Hop is My Co-Pilot Fresh Hop IPA is a “difficult beer to make,” Serani acknowledges, and in the era of hop pellets and extracts, navigating the challenging flight path over the Rocky Mountains isn’t exactly the most efficient way to get hops. But, says Serani, “the entire FlyteCo brand is about aviation, about inspiring people to push their limits and do something they don’t think they can do.” He thinks of his own path to getting his pilot’s license, how tough the going could get, and how the people who believed in him saw him through. “We want to do that for other people, whatever we can inspire them to do.” Plus, he adds, this excursion helps him and any pilots who come along keep their skills sharp.

“It’s just as much about community, too,” Serani notes. “It’s not often we can get together and fly out unless we have this common mission. And then we get a great beer out of it.”

Learning to Fly

On the cloudy Wednesday that this year’s hop flight had been pushed to, just a few of us—significantly down from the eight planes’ worth of hop-motivated pilots and passengers originally signed on—showed up to Erie for what would essentially become a post-mortem for the day’s flight of fancy. One member of the group is Serani’s father, Scott, which is how I learned that building and flying planes is a treasured family tradition generations strong. As Scott Serani points out photos, newspaper clippings, and plane pieces tacked to the wall of the family’s hangar and father and son share stories, I learn just how deep aviation’s roots run for Eric Serani and FlyteCo.

Serani grew up in Broomfield, Colo., about a 20-minute drive from Erie Municipal Airport. When he was just three years old, his grandfather took him up in his own 1946 kit plane during the toddler’s visit to Chicago. By the time Serani was five, his grandfather had moved to Colorado, where he could closely foster his grandson’s love of flying. His friend, a flight instructor, started teaching Serani to fly in earnest when Serani was 13. Sixteen is the earliest one can legally fly a plane alone, which Serani did; at 17, he got his full license allowing him to take passengers up with him. Between those two milestones, his grandfather passed away. The members of the EAA—Experimental Aircraft Association—chapter he and his grandfather belonged to rallied around Serani, realizing he’d lost his biggest supporter, and also that he needed to train in a more contemporary plane. They raised enough to give Serani a scholarship to hone his craft and become certified at Erie’s airport.

From that moment on, Serani wanted to pay that community support forward. He joined the EAA’s Young Eagles program, which gets kids between the ages of eight and 17 up for their first flights to spark their interest in aviation. And yes, that means Serani was sometimes flying kids older than him.

“One time, one of the kids’ mothers came over to me and asked if I was excited to go up for my first flight. I told her, ‘Ma’am, I’m the pilot,’” Serani says with a chuckle. Serani has continued his work with the EAA and balances running FlyteCo with a position as a flight instructor at Erie.

Dreams of a Flight-Themed Brewery Take Off

FlyteCo’s Denver location isn’t just meaningful for Serani’s personal history, but for aviation history. Today, Denver International Airport (DIA) is the third busiest in the United States and sixth in the world. Major airlines like United once had key hubs at the city’s original airport, Stapleton International Airport, which opened in 1929 and hit third place for busiest airport globally by 1961—it may have in fact grown too quickly to keep up with the traffic, as it closed in 1995 and operations transitioned to DIA. After Orville and Wilbur Wright shocked the world with the first flight in 1903 and aviation was born, it was considered impossible at high altitudes; to prove this theory wrong, French aviator Louis Paulhan became the first to fly in the Mile High City in 1910. And in 1954 in Aurora, just a few minutes’ drive from FlyteCo, Bob Stanley established the Stanley Aviation Manufacturing Plant, where he innovated upon and became one of the largest producers of airline ejection seats.

Serani learned to fly, therefore, in a part of the country that had really earned its wings, and this is fittingly where he would chase his next dream: owning a brewery. He and FlyteCo cofounder Jason Slingsby were roommates at the University of Colorado Boulder where Serani studied aerospace engineering—Slingsby went on to get his master’s degree in chemical engineering and also has a background in aviation. Serani went to work for Boeing but didn’t jibe with corporate life; meanwhile, he and Slingsby developed a homebrewing habit. After trying enough of their successful creations, friends of Serani and Slingsby declared that if the homebrewers wanted to open a brewery, they would invest.

With another cofounder, Morgan O’Sullivan, Serani and Slingsby opened FlyteCo’s original location on Denver’s Tennyson Street in February 2019 with a 15-barrel brewhouse. In 2020, an opportunity for a second location came along. After closing down in 1995, Stapleton International Airport had mostly been redeveloped, except for the air traffic control tower that had sat empty until arcade restaurant chain Punch Bowl Social took over the first three floors in 2017. But that entity shuttered by 2020, and family friends who had initially invested in FlyteCo told Serani and Slingsby they’d buy the tower if the brewery wanted to move in. After all, what could be a more serendipitous location for an aviation-themed brewery?

FlyteCo Tower opened in 2022, and in the spring of 2025, the original FlyteCo on Tennyson Street closed its doors. Copper Kettle Brewing Company, also in Denver, now brews FlyteCo’s flagship beers for them so their current 2.5-barrel system at the Tower can function as an opportunity for experimentation and smaller, more limited runs such as their Hop Is My Co-Pilot Fresh Hop IPA. The cofounders have leaned into the Tower as a massive entertainment complex with multiple bars, arcade games, bowling, billiards, mini golf, axe throwing, and more—there’s enough to do for an entire day with family or friends while enjoying FlyteCo’s beer alongside other select craft beers, wine, cocktails, non-alcoholic beverages, and a full food menu. Serani credits the something-for-everyone approachability and experiential component the Tower offers for being able to successfully run a brewery today, continuing to serve up multiple styles crafted with the same dedication to a steady crowd, and chase heady goals like fresh hop beers made possible by the power of flight.

Charting a Fresh Hop Course

When Serani broke down just how challenging the logistics of the hop flight can be as we disappointed would-be pilots and passengers lingered in the Seranis’ hangar—as if it was only in physically leaving Erie Airport that the day’s adventure would truly be canceled—I remembered a conversation I had with Morgan O’Sullivan in 2023. I was writing an explainer on fresh hop beers, and the FlyteCo cofounder had elaborated on the finicky nature of this substyle in general, let alone when you arrange your own airborne travel. Brewers must be flexible regarding what hops they’ll get as it all depends on what’s ready on which day during hops’ August-to-September harvest season. While fresh hop beers are more about the rare opportunity to brew something both truly local and uniquely ephemeral, none of them are the most efficient beer any brewer produces for the year—especially FlyteCo.

“It costs us more in fuel than it does to buy the hops, so there’s no practicality to the event whatsoever,” O’Sullivan had told me. “We do it because we’re passionate about it.”

Having interviewed dozens upon dozens of breweries at this point in my career, I am well versed in the many places where obstacles present themselves—not only in singular endeavors such as brewing with fresh hops, but in the herculean task of opening a brewery to begin with. For that reason, I’m surprised to learn that FlyteCo’s first hop flight took place the very year the brewery opened. However, the more I learn about Serani’s lifelong dedication to aviation and unlikelihood of backing down from a challenge, that element of surprise fades.

As FlyteCo’s original location opened, a friend of Serani’s who owns Bruz Beers, a Belgian-inspired brewery in Denver, was camping out at the now-closed High Wire Hops farm in Paonia, Colo. He saw a plane runway near the farm and called Serani: Wouldn’t it be something to fly his plane out here to get hops? Their interest piqued, Serani and Slingsby formulated a flight plan—175 nautical miles over the Rockies at between 11,000 and 13,000 feet in altitude, roughly a 90-minute trip for a four-seater RV-10—and then a recipe, collaborating with Bruz Beers for their first fresh hop beer.

When brewing on the 15-barrel system on Tennyson Street, the FlyteCo crew would fly back 80 to 100 pounds of hops from High Wire and later Billy Goat. Serani says the weight was never an issue, but space proved challenging—sacks of Chinook, Cascade, Nugget, or whatever was available that day were stuffed in every nook and cranny of each participating plane. Today, they get around 20 pounds of hops for their smaller brewhouse capacity, still ranging among Chinook, Cascade, and Nugget; still open to whatever Billy Goat has for them. During the flight, Slingsby preps the mash. The moment the hops touch down at Erie, they’re shuttled back to Central Park via car to get to work. Some go into the kettle for bittering while the rest go into the fermenter to dry hop the ale with their radiant aromas. It’s around this time, Serani says, about six hours after their initial departure to Billy Goat, that everyone breathes, gets a beer, and laughs about the wild adventure they just had.

Smooth Landing: FlyteCo Tower Builds on the Brewery’s Aviation Ethos

I may have not been able to experience that particular adventure this year, and as I would learn a week later, neither did the FlyteCo crew themselves. For the first year since the brewery’s launch, the weather had pushed flight plans so far that the team missed the harvest, grounding their fresh hop beer until 2026. It’s news that puts all of my own harrowing memories of delays and missed connections in perspective. I did, however, get to take in the adventure that is FlyteCo Tower, and become fully immersed in the wonder of flight for one entire day.

After all, all the arcade games in the world can’t distract from FlyteCo’s lifeblood of aviation. What other brewery can claim an in-house historian and tour guide who has taken on the mission of turning the 11-story air traffic control tower itself into a museum? I had the opportunity to take one of Sean Henson’s tours up through the tower, during which he stops on each landing to unravel the history of aviation, from Paulhan’s history-making flight to to Stapleton’s development, to the groundbreaking efforts of Marlon Green, who fought for Black pilots to be able to fly for commercial airlines, and Emily Howell Warner, a Denver native who became the first woman hired onto a permanent United States airline flight crew.

Henson is a gifted storyteller who clearly shares the passion for aviation that’s in the water—or the beer—at FlyteCo. People return to the brewery to gift him photos and memorabilia he continues to add to the tower’s collection. I learn so much, in fact, about the timeline of aviation on this tour—a history pushed along by people just like the FlyteCo Crew that dream of taking to the skies, obstacles be damned—that I find myself getting emotional about flight and the people who devote themselves to perpetually improving upon it.

Should you find yourself also tearing up on a Tower tour, give in: You’re meant to feel inspired by the power of flight at this brewery. It’s the location, it’s the aviation-themed decor, it’s Henson’s work turning the tower into an homage, it’s the beer, it’s the hop harvest flight, it’s who Serani and Slingsby are. Ten percent of FlyteCo’s profits, the brewery’s marketing manager Kaylie Maness tells me, go to aviation-fueled initiatives like the same Young Eagles program Serani has been working with since he was 17.

Even without a Hop Is My Co-Pilot IPA for 2025, the dogged determination and enduring love of aviation are core ingredients in all of FlyteCo’s beers. I’m almost sure I can taste that in the brewery’s brightly citrusy Azacca Pale Ale I sip at one of the FlyteCo Tower’s bars, surrounded by suspended model planes and aviation memorabilia, enthusiastic beer fans, and kids excited to see what game they can play next. It strikes me that the Tower captures only the good parts about an airport, like the promise of an exciting journey and the introspection it causes, making you consider what inspires you and what you might be capable of. From Serani’s intention of motivating guests to take flight or rise to whatever challenges move them, hope springs eternal. And that certainly includes hope for clear skies and fresh hops in 2026.

The post Cloudy with a Chance of Fresh Hops: How Denver’s FlyteCo Catches Lightning in a Bottle appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Inspired by brewers such as Chris Lohring, founder of Notch Brewing in Salem, Mass., more Czech-style lagers began appearing on tap lists and attracting American beer fans. Under that style umbrella sit Czech Pilsners and Czech pale, amber, and dark lagers, differentiated by their malt and characterized by an overall roundness (originally a result of the Czech Republic’s water when the styles were invented) as well as herbal, earthy, and floral notes from Czech Saaz hops. Lukr taps facilitate the three traditional Czech pours that highlight these lagers: the Hladinka, with three fingers of foam; the Šnyt, with three parts foam, two parts beer, one part space at the top of the glass; and the Mlíko, mostly foam with a touch of beer at the bottom.

The faucets became a way for American breweries to fully honor the Czech tradition and/or a valuable marketing opportunity, depending on what taproom you’re in. That’s the challenge—not everyone realized the hardware is just the first step. Without a deep understanding of the Czech-pour process, you’ve just got some funny, sideways handles behind the bar.

Lukr established The Perfect Pour Academy in 2022. While they also train Czech tapsters and even high school students interested in beverage and hospitality careers, Lukr global sales manager Jan Havranek explains that as they noticed American breweries delving into Czech lagers and their taps, the company recognized some education was necessary.

“Buying a Lukr tap and putting it on Facebook is not enough,” Havranek insists. “You learn to brew the beer well, so you need to learn how to pour the beer well, how to serve it well, and actually take care of it after it’s brewed.” A growing number of brewery owners and staff have now been getting official certification from this program to mark their understanding of the Czech “perfect pour.” They see this extra dedication as worth the lift—not only is it a tradition that spotlights a beer’s aroma, but Lukr pours are also a valuable point of engagement in a time when it can be tough to motivate people to go out and drink on-premise.

A Thirst for Knowledge

Jake Atkinson first encountered Lukr taps at Bierstadt, where they’re used for the German Slow Pour Pils. When opening Philadelphia’s Human Robot, he knew he wanted to be able to offer these kinds of pours and connected with two of the American beer scene’s most Czech lager-dedicated brewers, Mike Fava and Brienne Allan of Sacred Profane, who helped him obtain Lukr taps before they were widely available in the United States. Human Robot installed three faucets and began educating themselves with videos from Pilsner Urquell. When Havranek reached out to see if the team was interested in receiving training in their taproom during Perfect Pour’s first American tour in October 2024, they jumped at the chance to have their four managers and two most tenured bartenders schooled by Lukr’s head tapster and Pilsner Urquell Master Bartender Ondřej Rozsypal.

Wild East Brewing opened in Brooklyn in 2020, and while Lukr taps weren’t an essential part of the business plan right away, styles like Czech lagers were. Wild East has New York’s first custom-built decoction system, says cofounder Lindsay Steen. Decoction mashing, a staple in German and Czech brewing, involves removing a portion of the mash, boiling it, and returning it to the rest of the mash. Among other benefits, this triggers the Maillard reaction, where sugar and amino acids react and yield flavors that provide depth. This kind of layered complexity shines especially bright poured on Lukrs, those caps of foam bringing all of the aromas front and center. Wild East installed the Czech faucets to serve their beer as traditionally as it’s brewed and was the first U.S. brewery to be asked to pour at the Prague Beer Fest in 2022. Steen had read about classes available at Lukr in nearby Pilsen and decided to add the stop to their Czech Republic journey.

Wild East invited Alternate Ending Beer Co. to pour with them in Prague. The brewery also opened in 2020, in Aberdeen, N.J.. Head brewer Brendan Arnold says that, like Human Robot, the plan to have Lukr taps was in place before they launched, inspired by Bierstadt. Alternate Ending is also a decoction brewery; Arnold says considering they already make extra effort on every step of production, it made sense to follow suit on serving. They installed Lukr taps and began doing their own research, but Wild East’s offer led to them undergoing Perfect Pour training in Pilsen, too.

Wild East and Alternate Ending also benefited from Lukr’s Perfect Pour tour of the Northeast, during which Havranek and Rozsypal visited taprooms to train staff on-site. Another one of their stops was Wishful Thinking Brewing Co. in Bethlehem, Pa. Brendan and Jackie Breslin opened the brewery in April 2024, pouring all their beers on Lukrs regardless of style, so even an IPA or stout can enjoy the same aroma-amplifying, mouthfeel-enriching benefits Czech lagers do. They visited Pilsen in 2023 to meet with Havranek and take a shorter, three-hour version of the Perfect Pour Academy training (the longest option is three days). The rest of their staff received training during the Perfect Pour tour.

While Lukr’s American visits have just begun and haven’t yet stretched beyond the Northeast, Denver’s Cohesion Brewing Company has been pursuing proper-pour education since it opened in 2021—earlier, if you count cofounder and brewer Eric Larkin’s business plan.

“From 2019 I knew we were going in this direction,” he says. “We went to Pilsen to get [the taps]…it was one of the first purchases we made, and baked into our approach. On opening day, we told our staff, ‘You’re going to waste a lot of beer today, and that’s OK, because we’d rather have it poured right.’”

The Perfect Pour Academy didn’t exist in 2019, but Havranek arranged for the Cohesion founding team to visit Lukr headquarters for some training. In April 2024, staff member Lauren Carrasquillo went on a family vacation to Prague and Larkin funded a side journey for her to Pilsen in order to become Perfect Pour-certified.

The Syllabus for Expert-Level Serving

Arnold says the first day of the three-day training in Pilsen involves visiting various pubs around Pilsen to experience the pours of different tapsters and get a feel for Czech beer culture. Next is a full day of hands-on learning, with trainees developing skills and muscle memory to complete ideal versions of the three Czech pours. During this portion, Breslin says, they learned everything from the individual function of every part of the faucet to the exact angles at which glasses should be held (approximately 45 degrees) to the exacting standards on cleaning—a multi-step routine during which Rozsypal could identify every missed spot—and glassware temperature—35 to 40 degrees, for which Czech venues often have glycol baths but American breweries like Wishful Thinking typically use freezers for.

Trainees are then put to the test at a local brewery, pouring for actual customers. “It was kind of nerve-wracking,” said Alternate Ending cofounder Scott Novick. On the academy’s third day, students are also tested with both a written exam and a demonstration.

Participants learn this mechanical minutiae while also deepening their understanding of the sensory experience and culture behind these pours. Even the owners and brewers familiar with Czech beer learned the purpose of foam on a deeper level, how much the tapster can manipulate that foam, how it’s different from the foam of a German slow pour—Czech foam is wetter, pillowy, and soft, while German foam is drier and more bitter—and what sensory experiences each of the three pours creates. Larkin compares it to the way a coffee shop can create an entire menu of drinks consisting of different espresso-to-milk ratios.

“With the Šnyt leaving about a finger empty, it really allows you to get your nose into the mug and surround yourself with the smell,” Atkinson says. “The Hladinka, going all the way to the top, is crisper with less head, but still smooth and creamy.”

Extolling the Tapster

The epiphany behind learning the detailed nuances of these pours is just how much control the tapster has over a beer. Steen says Wild East’s Patience & Fortitude Czech-style Pilsner has never tasted as good as when Ondřej Rozsypal poured it, and Breslin says when Rozsypal poured a Šnyt during Wishful Thinking’s training and one of the brewery’s cooks tried it, he was surprised it was the same beer he’d had earlier.

“We believe that if you take the right care, the beer can taste way, way better,” says Havranek. “We have a Czech saying, ‘The brewmaster brews the beer and the tapster makes it.’ We believe both roles are equally important.”

“My biggest takeaway from the training was the value and importance of service culture,” Carrasquillo says. “Ingredients, brewing technique, and serving style and culture are all weighed the same. In American or other international beer, there’s more emphasis on the ingredients and what makes the style. But in the Czech Republic, it’s all these details from chilling the glassware to the pour itself.”

“It was a surreal experience to see how their culture almost puts the tapster on the pedestal, not the brewer or owner,” Novick says. “Tapsters are the most important people in the industry.”

Commitment to the Pour—and Communicating That to Customers

The next challenge after learning the art of the perfect pour is helping consumers understand.

“People think they’re getting cheated,” Novick says. “‘Oh, I just ordered an $8 beer and they gave me three fingers of foam.’” Offering a Šnyt is far from a cheat and is instead an enhanced beer-drinking experience that hinges on educated servers. Novick also enlisted an illustrator to provide drawings of the three pours that are provided at every table, as well as stickers of the Hladinka, Šnyt, and Mlíko. Their efforts seem to be working.

“[With] the quality of presentation with these lagers, we have sold more lager,” Arnold says. “We like to call ourselves a lager brewery that makes great IPA, but we have seen an increase in lager sales on weekend nights—we’re running out of lager mugs.” Customers become intrigued by the pours and appreciate the brewery’s dedication, and often end up ordering a Šnyt or Mlíko when closing their tabs. “They’re getting this new sensory experience and it’s exciting.”

Wishful Thinking also has pour illustrations on its menus, Wild East commissioned beer cartoonist Em Sauter to illustrate the Czech pours, and Carrasquillo says they have information throughout the Cohesion taproom, from table tents to the menu. But both Steen and Carrasquillo emphasize that the best learning comes from actual conversations with guests. Increasingly, too, Steen notes, patrons are already aware of Czech lagers and Lukr taps. For breweries renowned for their lagers, these pours might be the very reason many customers walk through their doors.

Whether beer drinkers are in the know or hungry for a novel discovery, traditional Czech-style pours deliver. And when they’re enjoyed from a tapster trained by Lukr itself, these pours promise to build a lasting appreciation for imbibers.

The post Czech Your Taps: Breweries Level Up with Perfect Pours appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Somewhere along the way, though, one of the best known, widest ranging flavor profiles in beer lost its seasonal ties: citrus. The main harvest window for citrus fruits runs from November to March, so why isn’t that period an anticipated citrus beer season?

“If you think of a kid running a lemonade stand, you imagine them wearing a T-shirt and shorts, not a jacket,” says Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver. Citrus has become somewhat synonymous with summer, with its inherent refreshing qualities, inclusion in beer styles known as easy-drinking thirst-quenchers, and season-less availability for consumers.

“The first thought that comes to mind is Belgian-style witbiers and having dried citrus peel ingrained with that recipe and flavor profile,” says Joey Pepper-Mellusi, owner and brewer at New York’s Schenker Beer Company. “It’s probably the first thing people think of when they think of citrus and beer, like, ‘Oh, citrus, summer beer, witbier.’”

“It’s become an automatic reaction to think of lighter, brighter flavors when it’s warm out,” says Michael Williams, brand coordinator at Great Lakes Brewing Co. in Cleveland. “Then on winter days, it’s colder and darker and people gravitate toward porters, stouts, and winter seasonal beers that reflect the weather.” Plus, Williams explains, while so much of craft beer is rooted in using whatever’s fresh at the time, “we live in a grocery-store world. Consumers have a bit of a disconnect with when citrus is fresh and in season because they’re seeing oranges in stores year-round.”

Capturing the Moment

For breweries such as Great Lakes, Brooklyn Brewery, and Schenker, though, as well as Arizona Wilderness; Smog City City Brewing Co. in Torrance, Calif.; and Fort Point Beer Company in San Francisco, it’s important to embrace the true seasonality of citrus.

For Arizona Wilderness head of production Brad Miles and wood cellar manager Nick Pauley, crafting beers around citrus fruits right when they’re harvested creates an unrivaled experience of freshness. They take full advantage of the season: Miles aims for a citrus beer each month, and this year, there will be seven releases from February to May, such as their popular Arizona Dreamsicle Milkshake IPA, Citrus Valley Triple IPA, and the March for Orange Hazy IPA in support of the Arizona chapter of the MS Society, all with Arizona Sweet oranges; and the Blood Orange Refuge IPA.

They balance regular returning staples with new experiments, demonstrating how many styles citrus shines in. Arizona Dreamsicle and Blood Orange Refuge play on what a natural fit citrus is for IPAs, considering how prominent those notes are in many hops’ aromas. They’ve also brewed citrus lagers and classic witbiers such as the Regenerative Desert Wheat. Pauley says their Salome saison is made with Meyer lemons from a brewery employee’s grandmother’s tree; other beers highlight tangelos, oranges, limes, yuzus, kumquats, and mandoras, which are orange-mandarin hybrids.

“When we’re making these beers in the winter, we’re able to capture the moment when this stuff is at its peak freshness and availability,” Pepper-Mellusi says. He uses lime, mandarin, and yuzu in varying iterations of Schenker’s renowned Glow Up Berliner Weisse series, and feels their flavors shine whether they’re used right after harvesting or frozen at that time to be used later. Once in the beer, citrus boasts staying power, too. “Even three to six months after one of our Glow Ups is packaged, the fruit flavor holds on quite well as opposed to some other fruits that may drop out a bit faster because they don’t have that oil content.”

Building Relationships

Of-the-moment freshness isn’t the only perk of working with citrus in season, says Mike Schnebeck, director of innovation at Fort Point Beer Company. “Focusing on citrus in the wintertime gives you this selection of more interesting varieties … There are more opportunities to work closely with local farmers and folks that really know these varietals, know when things are ripe and when things are going to be the best, and know the nuances of the fruit.” When you source a flavor such as lemon or lime in the summer, he explains, you’re not looking at many specific details because they’re simply not available—you’re shopping from processed or concentrated options, which can yield more broad, less nuanced flavors.

The relationships brewers build with their citrus suppliers is a main driver of their using these fruits in season. Schenker’s citrus beers were born out of Pepper-Mellusi’s relationship with Flavors by Bhumi in Bordentown, N.J., one of the few United States yuzu growers outside of California.

“Working with brewers like Joey is an exciting journey,” says Flavors by Bhumi cofounder Vivek Malik. “They understand how to let the citrus notes shine in a brew, highlighting yuzu’s natural complexity [brewers describe this as grapefruit brightness, lime tartness, mandarin sweetness, and even some bitter pine]. This collaboration allows us to bring the unique characteristics of yuzu to an entirely new audience.”

Arizona Wilderness works primarily with Agritopia, five miles from the brewery in Gilbert. “They grow a certain number of varieties, and we tell them what we want—I heard we bought 85 percent of their citrus last year,” Miles says. When we spoke, he had just handed in his “citrus forecast” to Agritopia, mapping out what fruits they’d need for what beers. While Miles certainly has fruits in mind, especially for regular Arizona Wilderness rotationals, he and Pauley are open to learning about whatever’s being grown—the great thing about citrus fruits, Pauley notes, is that if it tastes good, it’s likely to work well in beer.

Agritopia head farmer Kelly Saxer says about seven of their 11 acres are devoted to citrus and other orchard crops. “Arizona Sweet oranges are mostly what breweries source for their beer; it’s a good juicing orange,” she says. They also grow navel oranges, mandarins, tangelos, tangerines, pomelos, pink grapefruits, white grapefruits, lemons, and blood oranges, “another one breweries like a lot.” Different varieties are ready for harvest at different times, generally beginning to ripen in November and December and continuing to early March, providing a brewery like Arizona Wilderness with a long season of different fruits for different beers.

A supplier relationship is also at the heart of Smog City’s Kumquat Saison. Cofounder and brewmaster Jonathan Porter says inspiration struck in 2015 when he and his wife, Smog City cofounder Laurie Porter, rented a house with a big kumquat tree and realized how well the fruit would work in beer. “It’s delicious and unique in that it doesn’t have segments, and the skin is sweet,” he says. “It’s marmalade-y and overall pretty tart, kind of phenolic, and complex.” They started making 50-gallon batches using a pound of kumquats per gallon, and could do several batches just from that tree. But then they found a local organization called Food Forward, aimed at fighting hunger and preventing food waste through means such as accepting surpluses from personal fruit trees.

“They said the one thing they couldn’t get rid of was kumquats…it was hard to funnel them into food pantry items,” Porter recalls. “That began our partnership with them.” With kumquats harvested all over LA, Smog City can now brew multiple 500-gallon batches of Kumquat Saison, a beer which, according to the brewery’s marketing specialist Brett Ciccarello, is part of their One Percent for the Planet Initiative. Smog City dedicates 1 percent of sales to environmental nonprofits, with Food Forward being one of the organizations they make beer for, donate to, and volunteer with.

Part of the Process

Working with fresh fruits as opposed to year-round concentrates is a chance for brewers to prove their dedication to these flavors’ seasonality. Some suppliers handle the time-consuming processing of the fruit themselves—for its Yuzu KSA Radler, Fort Point gets juice made by Yuzuco from fresh yuzus. The juice’s perks over concentrates are clear, Schnebeck says, in the depth and complexity of the flavors, which even feature some piney-ness.

Other brewers handle this processing in-house. Miles says they’ve found they need to use all parts of the fruit to represent its complexity, from the sweet juice to the bitter-tinged peel. They use an industrial juicer to cut fruits in half, squeeze them, and discard too-bitter pith so they just have zesty peel. For the same complexity-geared reason, Oliver uses grapefruits in their entirety for Brooklyn Brewery’s non-alcoholic Special Effects Grapefruit IPA.

At Smog City, the team freezes the kumquats until they’ve got enough for a batch, then they carefully thaw them and use a giant immersion blender to grind them up. What Porter calls a “coarse puree” of peel, pulp, seeds, and all goes on top of the saison when it’s past its primary fermentation.

Most brewers tend to add their citrus later in the brewing process because, as Pepper-Mellusi notes, volatile aromas can get lost on the hot side, a waste when you’re working with whole, fresh fruits, especially pricier ones like yuzus. “Putting yuzu in more toward the conditioning stage allows it to go further…and carry through aromatically.”

For the Cran Orange Wheat at Great Lakes, Williams says their orange also goes in pretty late. “The puree is going into the whirlpool to prevent volatilizing some of those flavor compounds, and then later we stuff a hop bag with the peel…it creates the perception of real fruit character, with some very light astringency from the peel that’s not too in your face.”

Keeping the Sun in Your Heart

Another challenge in making citrus beers in the winter can be reminding consumers why they want these flavors even if it’s cold out, but this is something made increasingly easy with the reputations these brewers have developed, the strong reception their beers have been met with, and some helpful seasonal connections.

The Cran Orange Wheat, for example, is part of a holiday-geared lineup for Great Lakes including their renowned Christmas Ale and a cookie stout. With its wheat beer base, it’s a refreshing way to present citrus for winter, playing on the Christmas tradition of an orange in your stocking and cranberry sauce on the dinner table. The beer itself, Williams says, pairs well with food, especially as a way to cut through and brighten those richer dishes.

At Fort Point, the team hadn’t even planned a specific season for the Yuzu KSA Radler to be available, but the demand was so great for it upon its debut in June that they decided to make it available in the winter and all year round. Even with colder winters in New York, Pepper-Mellusi observes that some drinkers don’t entirely switch their preferences based on the weather. Just as some breweries make stouts in the summer, breweries who release citrus wheat beers, sours, and Kölsches in winter instantly become a go-to for the consumers craving those brighter beers in December. That flavor profile, too, can prove transformative in dreary winters that tend to otherwise come with heavier flavors.

“I feel like humans in general crave citrus in winter months because of the lack of sunshine,” Porter says—even in Southern California. “If we don’t get [that brightness] from the sun, we get it on the palate.”

“My brother Roger and I have a phrase we always use, and that is, ‘You have to keep the sun in your heart,’” Oliver says. “We say that to ourselves as we return to cold, dark NYC after two weeks on warm, sunny Mexican beaches in February. So, while a citrus beer isn’t as obvious in winter, they’re still delicious. It’s all about the mindset, and summer is a state of mind.”

The post Citrus Sunshine in the Cold Winter appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

A necessary milestone for the industry to hit is the day when brewers are no longer boxed in by their backgrounds and how they identify, but are simply acknowledged and appreciated for the beer they brew.

However, it’s always vital to recognize the incredible work LGBTQIA+ brewery owners and brewers are doing to get craft beer closer to being a meaningfully diverse industry. These are the movers and shakers who are not only brewing top-notch beer, but who are also finding time to lead cause-driven collaborations, engage in community outreach, raise money for charities, and make game-changing steps toward a craft beer industry that intentionally welcomes all. In honor of Pride Month—but with the important caveat that these breweries call for year-round acclaim and support—we’re spotlighting some of the most inspiring LGBTQIA+ brewers in 2024.

Tanya Sapula | SaltFire Brewing Co., South Salt Lake, Utah

Tanya Sapula and SaltFire’s staff intentionally create a gathering place that welcomes all, a necessity everywhere but especially meaningful in a more politically conservative state such as Utah. Sapula says she feels that good craft beer can bring good people together, and that the brewery’s taproom could provide a venue for that and fill a void.

“As a 39-year-old queer female brewer, I noticed a large gap in Utah’s gay scene,” she says. “While we have several nightclubs, there really wasn’t a lot of ‘neutral’ gay space. I’m talking about a place to gather casually, have conversation, and still be home in bed by 10.”

With an “if you build it, they will come” approach, Sapula and the SaltFire team—Sapula says the production staff is by pure happenstance predominantly LGBTQIA+—brew an annual Pride beer for which they invite all local LGBTQIA+ brewers to come help brew; partner with local organizations such as Project Rainbow (empowering the Utah LGBTQIA+ community and providing financial support through a community fund) and Rift (bolstering community and inclusion among LGBTQIA+ individuals via outdoor activities); and hold year-round events to create space for the LGBTQIA+ community, from low-key tie-dye nights to big Pride Month parties. To Sapula, it’s about “meet-ups where you can find new friends, or even just look around and feel surrounded by your community. Growing up, being able to even do the latter would have made a world of difference to me.”

For members of the LGBTQIA+ community who love craft beer and are trying to find their way in an industry that hasn’t always felt the most inviting, Sapula says she thinks it’s “extremely important to be visible, to be an advocate, and to compassionately educate others when needed…[And,] find a brewery or employer that supports you no matter what creed you come from. The thing about craft beer is it brings people together. I truly believe there is space and a pint for everyone at the table. We’re here, we’re queer, we belong in beer.”

Bri Burrows | The Big Rip Brewing Co., North Kansas City, Missouri

It was a big risk for Bri Burrows to dive into the world of craft beer professionally, but it’s one that’s paid off in dividends from the beer she’s been able to brew to the causes she’s been able to lift up. Burrows started homebrewing when her family thought it would be fun to make their own beers for each other, and she was inspired by how creative brewing turned out to be. She left a “pretty cush 9-to-5 desk job” in 2016 to start bartending, and at The Big Rip, she worked her way up from bartender to head brewer to co-owner.

Burrows is proud of her lagers throughout the years, especially considering how intimidating lager brewing can be, and also loves a gluten-free beer she made called Fire Tree, brewed with sorghum and honey with pineapple puree, jalapeños, and roasted tomatillos. In terms of the collaborations, partnerships, and advocacy Burrows’s position as The Big Rip co-owner has provided the platform for, she is excited that she recently got to brew at Side Project Brewing in St. Louis. “I [also] brewed with Lady Justice in Colorado, a female queer-owned-and-operated brewery. My favorite collab so far, though, is when I brewed with Lily [Waite] from Queer Brewing out of the UK…We jammed to Good Charlotte while brewing a boysenberry IPA called Try and Tear Me Down! and donated all the proceeds to a local LGBTQ+ charity organization.” Burrows also partnered with Missouri’s first Black-owned brewery, Vine Street Brewing Co., on a Pride beer honoring Stormé DeLarverie, “a butch lesbian who was a pioneer for Gay Liberation in New York and protector of all young queers.” That beer will be released at The Big Rip’s first ever Queer Dyke Night event on June 21.

While Pride celebrations are a vital element of June and all that it represents, Burrows stresses the importance of this kind of work during the 11 other months. “Most breweries in [Kansas City]—and most businesses everywhere, honestly—only focus on the LGBTQ+ community in June. As a member of this community, I know how it important it is to take care of it year-round.”

Burrows says she is excited to see growth in craft beer, with more female, queer, and/or BIPOC brewers working now in the Kansas City area. She sees a bright future with organizations such as the Pink Boots Society and Crafted for Action. “I love seeing more and more rainbows on beer cans and more rainbow tap handles from folks that actually support the LGBTQ+ communities year-round.” There’s still a ways to go, though, and Burrows plans on being part of that progress, from educating queer-owned bars and restaurants on the brands they’re supporting to making sure queer events include queer-brewed beers.

Danielle Snowden | Earthbound Beer, St. Louis, Missouri

Danielle Snowden discovered Earthbound Beer upon moving to St. Louis in 2014 and trying their Chicken and Waffles blonde ale. Struck by the brewery’s creativity, Snowden asked about bartending there after returning from a year living in New Zealand for AmeriCorps and further honing a beer appreciation. Starting in 2017, she bartended, washed kegs, guided tours, worked the canning line, and started brewing, working her way up to head brewer.

At Earthbound, Snowden has been able to flex some serious creative muscles, from her Cookie Brown ale, with a recipe she wrote inspired by oatmeal raisin cookies, to the Out and About braggot, which Snowden releases every year for Pride. Now in its sixth year, Out and About is a hibiscus and lavender braggot that debuted for 2024 on June 1.

“Every year we choose a local LGBTQIA+ nonprofit to collaborate with and donate funds to,” Snowden says. “In the past we have worked with Metro Trans Umbrella Group, PROMO, and SQSH; this year we are partnering with Food Outreach. [They] provide nutritional support and enhance the quality of life of low-income men, women, and children living with HIV/AIDS or cancer. My uncle Brent lost his battle with HIV/AIDS back in 1990 when he was only 25 years old. I think about him all the time and try to honor him whenever I can.”

Community and collaborations are Snowden’s favorite part of being in the craft beer industry. She says she loves using the taproom space for getting people together and raising awareness and funds, and also for pushing for a more diverse industry. Snowden is especially proud of collaborations with Bow & Arrow’s Native Land, Blacktoberfest, Earthdance Farms, Arch City Defenders, and Metro Trans Umbrella Group. Most recently, Earthbound partnered with The ExBeerience to create a beer for Juneteenth, picking a local historical Black figure to highlight and a local nonprofit to donate proceeds to. In addition to all of these projects, Earthbound makes its space intentionally inclusive by offering affordable wedding options, a concept launched by co-owners Stuart Keating and Kristina Goodwin. “Unfortunately, a lot of LGBTQIA folks don’t have that generational wealth and raising funds on your own is really difficult,” Snowden says. For a nominal fee, couples can book Earthbound’s space, choose from Snowden or Keating as an officiant, and have flower and dessert options.

From collaborations to maintaining a meaningfully inclusive atmosphere, Snowden says it’s important to the Earthbound team to be politically involved. “By getting involved in these various projects we are using our platform to raise awareness, promote diversity and inclusion, support local businesses and organizations, and foster community engagement and dialogue.”

Kelissa Hieber | Goldspot Brewing, Denver, Colorado

Kelissa Hieber was professionally involved in organizing around racial, worker, and queer rights in Ohio when she picked up homebrewing as a hobby. Feeling burned out by work and inspired by the creativity of brewing, Hieber decided to apply her passion for advocacy to craft beer.

“I did love all the things that craft beer could offer but I wasn’t seeing a lot of diversity, even just straight white women, at the breweries we were going to,” Hieber says. “I wanted to create a space that could change some of that and turn it into more of a real community.” She moved to Denver and completed a college craft brewing certification program, following that with an internship and then a job at TRVE Brewing. In 2015, she started bartending at the just-opened Goldspot Brewing. Within a few months, she was an assistant brewer there; by 2016 she was head brewer; by 2018, a 25 percent co-owner; and by 2021, Hieber was full owner.

Hieber sees opportunity for inclusion in beer itself. By brewing beers such as Prickly Pear Hibiscus Sour; Tropicolo, a tropical stout with tea; and Brut IPA with Pinot Gris grapes, she opens Goldspot’s doors to those who have never before felt that craft beer is for them. “When I was bartending and brewing, whenever anyone came in that wasn’t a white guy, I’d have them try three different [beers of the moment],” Hieber says. White men coming into a craft brewery tend to have existing ideas of what they want, Hieber believes, whereas new-to-beer consumers especially from marginalized backgrounds are commonly subjected to wrong, overly simplified, and often gendered stereotypes about their preferences. Many women come to craft beer as wine drinkers, for example, Hieber notes, and may lean toward something like a saison. “They don’t necessarily want a Kölsch or light beer, and a lot of people are just serving them that.” Hieber sees these stereotypes as a form of gatekeeping she wants to break down.

In addition to brewing with all palates and experience levels in mind, Hieber leads her team in hosting regular community events and participating in cause-oriented collaborations. She appreciates opportunities for intersectionality; one of her favorite partners is Frontline Farming, a BIPOC women-owned farm focused on racial food justice. One of the things she is proudest of as Goldspot’s owner is the environment she has created for staff. Hieber intentionally hires queer people, women, and BIPOC. The majority of her staff happens to be LGBTQIA+, and they have an equal voice in what beers are brewed, what causes are supported with donated proceeds, and what events are held in the taproom. Hieber pays for employees’ health insurance out of pocket, including coverage for gender affirmation surgery for transgender staff.

“I’ve been in the service industry for 20 years now and it’s very rare to find an owner in the beer or food scene [providing this level of insurance],” Hieber says. “It’s about trying to be the boss you never had.”

The post Pride in Their Craft: LGBTQIA+ Brewers Build Community appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

For a town visited by millions of thirsty imbibers each year, it may seem surprising that New Orleans’s craft brewery scene is both young and small. Until the late aughts, local offerings were sparse. Dixie Brewery had been running since 1907; after a shutdown due to Hurricane Katrina, it was revived, and in 2020, its name was changed to Faubourg Brewing. Known for producing perhaps the most recognizable Louisiana craft beer nationally, Abita Brewing set up shop 30 miles outside of New Orleans in 1986 and continued to be one of the only representatives of craft beer in the area for decades. Parish Brewing came along in 2003, also outside of New Orleans. But plenty of hurdles hindered real growth—namely Louisiana laws banning sales from taprooms. Legislation passed in 2015 making taprooms a viable possibility, a change that happened alongside a growing contingent of determined brewers ready to put New Orleans on the craft beer map.

Before this shift, the best-known spots for craft beer within the city limits were not breweries, but beer bars or shops. The Avenue Pub opened in 1987, d.b.a. opened in 2000, and Stein’s Deli opened in 2007. This was the reality of craft beer in New Orleans when Kirk Coco opened NOLA Brewing on Tchoupitoulas Street in the Irish Channel neighborhood in 2008.

“Coming out of [Hurricane] Katrina, the city was in a period of complete repair, redefining our industry, our innovation, and what businesses could flourish out of this complete disaster,” says Doug Walner, NOLA Brewing CEO and chairman since 2018. “This was a city with a rich history of brewing, but virtually all of it had died off in the ‘70s and ‘80s.” Walner says Coco was intrigued by the opportunity. “He realized this is something that’s big in the rest of the country; we should have our own contribution.”

As NOLA Brewing opened seven years before that legislative change, they got a jump start teaching locals about craft beer and building community around it with “Free Fridays,” when people would hang out outside of the brewery and drink gratis beer. During those early years, NOLA Brewing helped build interest in craft beer, laying the groundwork for New Orleans to become a craft beer destination, too.

The demand was growing, but it took years for more breweries to answer the call. Courtyard Brewery and Second Line Brewing opened in 2014, and after taproom sales became feasible, more followed suit: Urban South Brewery in 2016;  Brieux Carré, Port Orleans Brewing Co., and Parleaux Beer Lab in 2017; and Miel Brewery in 2018.

There was a learning curve for locals who suddenly had these homegrown craft beer options. Miel cofounders Janice Montoya and Alex Peyroux started telling their families and friends about their plans for a brewery and taproom and were met with confusion that was absent in more developed craft beer hubs such as the Pacific Northwest or the Northeast. Montoya says they received reactions assuming they’d serve cocktails and wine and tapas, too, or that, conversely, they’d focus on just one beer style, like the familiar Abita amber. “We were like, ‘No, we’re making one thing, beer. No, we’re making all different styles.’”

“The beginning was definitely about us educating our customers,” says Brieux Carré head brewer Charles Hall, who joined the team about three months into operations. “If we opened on day one with six Pilsners, I don’t think people would have gotten it. Slowly integrating classic European lagers and traditional styles, and teaching people about them, has allowed us to focus our menu—we have five Pilsners on right now.” They are also now up to six LUKR taps, a sign of Brieux Carré’s dedication to lager. The seven-barrel brewhouse, which produced 600 barrels last year, has grown to seven fermenters to accommodate their love of—and locals’ demand for—lager.

An Open Door

When asked if the city’s famed cocktail reputation made it difficult to establish a reputation for good craft beer, too, it seems a more popular opinion that it’s helped. For both locals deeply familiar with the city’s creativity and demonstrated quality, and tourists coming to experience that, there’s an open door to experience other beverages.

“Being in a lauded cocktail town, it ups the competition and the standards,” Peyroux says. “People are coming here from New York and going to work at the nicest cocktail bars in town, playing with flavors no one else sees, and trends start picking up. We want to match that, that quality and level of service. It makes us try harder.”

Besides, Hall points out, cocktails may bring people to New Orleans, but craft beer provides a necessary respite. “New Orleans is a place where people want to have a good time all day, and beer is a little more conducive to that than Hurricanes. Our session beers work well for that. We open at noon and people come in right away, whereas Frenchmen [the New Orleans street famous for bars and live music] doesn’t really get bustling until seven or eight.”

While the city’s worldwide cocktail renown acts as a bridge and point of inspiration rather than competition, other challenges persist from the New Orleans water to the aforementioned Louisiana laws.

“Our water here is terrible for brewing beer,” Hall says. “It’s got a high pH, it’s very hard. Almost everyone I know in town has an RO [reverse osmosis] system to build our water how we want it.”

The water profile is an obstacle brewers can overcome; Louisiana laws are a more daunting hindrance. Taprooms cannot sell any other kind of alcohol unless they operate as a brewpub. It’s a constant pain point, and why NOLA Brewing has pivoted to brewpub status. They only sell beer out of their own location and offer a full food menu with other types of beverages, along with a popular live music lineup. The goal, though, to Walner, is to be a community hub. While breweries such as Brieux Carré, Miel, and Parleaux are still grappling with the laws as taproom breweries, they keep their distribution footprints small in order to focus on community as well.

A Vibrant Culture

To be a part of the craft beer scene in New Orleans is to be a part of the city’s vibrant culture of culinary delights, thoughtful drinks, deeply rooted music traditions, and an emphasis on socializing within the community. That opportunity continues to grow the number of breweries and attract the likes of the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, the parent company of Washington D.C. beer bar ChurchKey, D.C. brewery Bluejacket, and the former New York City beer bar The Grand Delancey. NRG beverage director and partner Greg Engert says years of interaction between Bluejacket and the New Orleans beer scene solidified the desire to put down roots in the city. The Avenue Pub’s then-owner Polly Watt extended the invitation to put Bluejacket on at the bar, and Bluejacket went on to brew seven annual collaboration beers for Mardi Gras. NRG’s addition to the New Orleans beer scene, Brewery Saint X, opened in the spring of 2023.

Saint X’s beer is the latest evidence that New Orleans imbibers, both local and visiting, are interested in drinking experiences they can’t find anywhere else. Despite the area’s famously hot and humid climate, Engert says they’ve seen sales for their cask beers double in the last six months. Guests are realizing just how refreshing an ale served at 50° F can be. “New Orleans drinkers are thoughtful, whether it’s the people who live there or the people who go there,” Engert says. “We’re seeing people get excited about cask ale and Czech-style lagers that take eight weeks and get served on side pulls. This is how craft beer got people excited in the first place—they’re interested in stories and technique, and that is so relevant in New Orleans.”

Saint X joins a group of breweries driven by the chance to directly contribute to what makes New Orleans unique.

“This is a city where people don’t live in their houses, they live in the streets,” said Parleaux Beer Lab founder Eric Jensen. “It’s a point of pride to be able to create something that contributes to the social capital people exchange on the streets every day. To have Urban South or Parleaux or Brieux Carré helping to provide libations at a crawfish boil in someone’s backyard is special.”

The post Beer in a Cocktail Town: How Craft Breweries Have Enriched NOLA appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

More recently, however, there’s an opposing extreme at work, too. Last August, Kate Bernot reported for The Washington Post: “Craft Beer is Polarizing. Many Drinkers Want High ABV or None at All,” examining consumers’ rising interest in high-ABV beers alongside that sustained penchant for near-zero beers. Once a happy medium, beers with middling ABVs are now the odd man out as imbibers choose low-strength beers for health reasons and for longer drinking occasions, and go maximalist with high-strength beers when they’ll be drinking only one or two beers and want the ultimate flavor complexity and a little bit of buzz. Suddenly, imperial beers are getting their own headlines.

“I think this [imperial beer growth] has a direct tie with the state of the U.S. economy,” muses Julie Rhodes, strategic business consultant and founder of Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions. “Consumers feel like they are getting more bang for their buck with higher ABV offerings.” The fact that 19.2-ounce cans, most frequently containing high-ABV styles such as imperial IPAs, are helping craft beer grow in convenience stores supports the “bigger booze, better value” connection.

Thrifty spending isn’t the only factor buttressing rising ABVs. “Imperial” refers to both big alcohol and big flavor—it means the same thing as “double” or “triple” when you’re discussing a style like an IPA. But across certain styles that have traditionally included IPAs, stouts, and porters, “imperial” instantly conveys expectations of higher alcohol and richer flavor thanks to more grains and hops in the recipe. Increasingly, breweries are taking advantage of that flavor potential. And that means more drinkers are realizing—or remembering—the appeal of imperial beers, and that even those who initially arrive at stronger beers for that better-bang-for-your-buck are finding delicious, thoughtfully crafted beverages.

Finding a Balance

A good brewer can make a beer as complex as it is easy drinking at any alcohol level, from light lagers to barleywines, but stronger beers can indeed empower big, bold flavors. Their requirement of more residual sugars means brewers can play with different ways to temper that sweetness from fruit acidity to hop bitterness.

“With imperial-style beers, you’re given so much more leeway to find that balance in excess and, using that maximalist approach, lean into the intensities of higher IBUs, ABVs, SRMs, and starting/finishing gravities,” says Fred Cullin, a Brooklyn-based beertender who’s brewed at Evil Twin Brewing and Aurora Brewing Co. “For example, if you were to brew a 5% schwarzbier with a higher-than-usual percentage of specialty dark malts, you’d be lacking the desired residual sugar and warming booze to counterbalance the astringency of those malts. But when you amplify that recipe base to 12% and above, you’re able to maximize the roast, chocolate, and coffee imparted by those malts but still create a balanced product.”

More consumer demand for stronger beers means more opportunity for brewers to flex in this space. But one brewery was especially well-positioned for imperial beer’s reign. Greater Good Imperial Brewing Company opened its doors in 2016 in Worcester, Mass. with a mission to corner the strong-beer market and prove how crowd-pleasing the category could be. They’ve helped blaze the modern imperial beer trail in American craft beer while becoming a local favorite. Now, they have a bigger audience.

“It brings a resurgence of energy for me,” says Chris Zampa, Greater Good’s vice president of operations. “I’ve been in the industry 17 years, and any time you find a product people enjoy like this, it’s hard not to get excited. I get even more excited to see the industry following along.”

Zampa says Greater Good founder Paul Wengender saw the opportunity to explore a niche seven years ago. “Most beer companies [then] only had one or two SKUs that might be an imperial or a double IPA. Paul thought there was an area where you could make big beers, but you could also make them regularly drinkable and consumable.” The brewery’s tagline became “Bigger, Bolder, Smoother.” The team set out to push flavor boundaries while demonstrating just how easy drinking imperial beers could be.

Greater Good’s beers demonstrate restraint, with enough residual sugar for that alcohol and big flavor, but with sweetness kept in check with a thoughtfully orchestrated bouquet of complementary flavors and aromas. Consumers already in search of imperial styles sought Greater Good out, while others who happened into the taproom became converts. “I feel like every day I have a conversation with a patron, ‘Just try this,’” Zampa says. “I think people see 12% and think hot, boozy, not approachable. But it is. It’s just getting them to cross that line…and people realize, ‘Oh, wow, this is really good, it doesn’t taste like a shot of whiskey.’”

In the face of this mounting imperial-beer demand, Greater Good is not only poised to welcome this burgeoning crowd, but might very well at least be partially responsible for the swell. They’re not just one of the breweries helping consumers see how smooth and enjoyable an imperial beer can be; they’ve even proven than an entire business focusing exclusively on beers of 8% ABV and higher could thrive. And now, again in the company of fellow well-regarded breweries, Greater Good is pushing the imperial category forward with innovation. They are “imperializing” styles not formerly associated with imperial ABVs, and that diversification could help focus consumers’ fickle attention.

Bucking Tradition

Throughout most of Greater Good’s life so far, the brewery’s beers remained more or less on that expected imperial-strength track, mainly IPAs and stouts. When Colleen Quinn joined the brewery in 2022 as CEO, Zampa says she brought a vision of expanding the portfolio. The brewery formed an innovation committee and got to work thinking outside the hazy-IPA-and-stout box. Their first creation was a Cold IPA, or, depending on who you ask, an India pale lager. “That beer showed us we can explore all the styles we call ‘non-traditional imperial styles’ like lagers, Pilsners, and blonde ales, and do it with the quality we stand behind,” Zampa says. Next came Bombshell, an imperial blonde ale, and Los Imperiales, an imperial Mexican-style lager. Now, every style is on the table, from fruited sours and hoppy amber ales—now pouring in the taproom—to possible Czech-style Pilsners.

In Illinois, Mikerphone Brewing has also seen the appeal of imperializing a typically low-booze Czech style with Flip the Switch, a Czech-style dark lager weighing in at 8%. Upstate New York’s Aurora Brewing Co. put some smoke on its dark lager with Dark Ascent. At 7%, it’s just under what one might consider “imperial,” but significantly stronger than your typical schwarzbier (4.4% to 5.4%). Aurora has also given this treatment to the normally 4.2% to 4.8% gose with Bee Sting. And in New Orleans, Faubourg Brewing Co. captures the spirit of its city with Beignet Au Lait, an imperial blonde ale also clocking in at 7%.

Santa Rosa, Calif.’s HenHouse Brewing Co. knows a thing or two about imperials as well—just take a scroll through its High ABV collection. Like Greater Good, HenHouse skillfully volleys back and forth between playing the hits such as pastry stouts and double IPAs, and introducing consumers to new styles to love, including barrel-aged oyster bière de garde and barrel-aged sour saison. They also honor traditional favorites doppelbock, American barleywine, barrel-aged old ale, and Belgian strong ale.

HenHouse cofounder and CEO Collin McDonnell explains that their imperial beers are motivated by flavor, not simply by that booze factor. “We’re not just making strong beers to make strong beers,” he says. He cites HenHouse’s 9.7% barrel-aged doppelbock, The Greatest Generator. “You can have those caramelly, toasty malt characteristics of a doppelbock, which is strong enough on its own, but if you put a little of that barrel aging on top you get a little toast from the bourbon barrel as well as a little vanilla, caramel, bourbon—which all complement each other nicely.”

Innovation and Education

Because imperial beers are born from flavor—not booze—goals, McDonnell says HenHouse’s overarching emphasis on consumer education is as relevant as ever. He notes the economic element of imperial beer’s current rise, having experienced that people are more likely to buy a 10% imperial stout than an 8% iteration, that double-digit factor kicking the investment over the value goalpost. But McDonnell and the HenHouse team want consumers to understand what’s actually going into that beer, which helps establish how special it is—there’s great value in that purchase, indeed, but not just because of the alcohol content.

McDonnell’s point leads to two further factors that could—in addition to bang-for-your-buck purchases and brewery innovation in imperialized styles—help cement imperial beers as a go-to right alongside those 3% or 0.3% options. One factor is that imperial beers and their educational component are primed for enhanced taproom experiences. “These are the styles that keep people interested in coming into taprooms and trying new things,” McDonnell says. “A barrel-aged doppelbock is not going to do well in mass market channels, but for a majority of small breweries doing their business through tasting rooms, that keeps people close to the brewery.” Innovation within imperial beers alongside consumer education is especially relevant as the craft beer industry’s growth slows and the smaller taproom-based business model becomes the more realistic option for most.

Plus, imperial beers, with their higher alcohol and usually intensive processes from aging to using more unconventional ingredients, will always appeal to consumers seeking a special-occasion beer. They’re often special-occasion beers for the breweries themselves, who choose imperial styles to celebrate their anniversaries. Imperial beers exude a quality that says, “Gift me,” or “Cellar me and enjoy me for a milestone.”

On the other hand, Zampa says Greater Good is also helping people see that you don’t have to save these beers. Having a category of beers to turn to for special occasions can help keep consumers sweet on imperial beers in perpetuity, but the newer revelation fueling imperials’ demand now is the fact that they can be consumed on any old Wednesday, that they can make the occasion special instead of waiting for one. 

The post Imperial Beer Takes the Throne appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Since launching in the fall of 2021 in Brooklyn, N.Y., the brand’s presence has blossomed all over New York City as well as Washington D.C., but for now, remains a one-person operation. Back Home’s momentum is little surprise, however, considering how dedicated Tabatabai is to craft beer, her Iranian heritage, and building community.

“One time when [Tabatabai] dropped off some cases, people at the bar were clapping for her,” says Christa Sobier, owner of Brooklyn beer bar and bottle shop Beer Witch. “I said to her, ‘Is that normal?’ She laughed and said, ‘No!’ This is how much people love her. When there’s a new release of her beer, people are outside waiting for us to open so they can get some.”

Back Home may have launched in 2021, but its roots stretch decades into the past. Born from Tabatabai’s mission to recreate her grandfather’s homebrewed beer so treasured by her family, Back Home brings to life not only Iranian and Middle Eastern ingredients and flavors, but the communal joy of brewing beer and bonding with one another over beer, a joy taken away in Iran after the revolution in 1979, after which alcohol was banned.

Back Home’s story—which is also Tabatabai’s story—begins before this revolution. Her father grew up in Tehran and her mother in Shiraz; both came to the United States for university and had intentions of returning to Iran to get married and have a family there. The revolution took place while they were still students in America, and the Iran they had known drastically changed.

“They outlawed so much,” Tabatabai says. “Dancing, playing music outside, alcohol…women had to be covered. It went from being a completely free country to being so oppressed, with so many rules and regulations on people’s bodies and freedoms.” Her parents started their family in the States, settling in Atlanta, with special attention paid to maintaining Iranian culture and traditions in their home. Tabatabai’s grandparents immigrated to the States as well. Her grandfather died when she was a toddler, and she got to know this beloved family member through stories.

“He was this larger-than-life man everybody knew in the community; he was the beer maker and the winemaker,” Tabatabai says. “He hosted people at his house and would try these different concoctions. They were in southern Iran, where the weather is very hot and humid. It’s great for growing cherries and oranges and lots of fruits and herbs. He would use things from his garden in his beer and wine.” It wasn’t until a few years ago, though, that her grandmother specifically commented on wishing she could enjoy his ab jo (Persian for beer) again.

Past Becomes Present

The wish became a sort of challenge for Tabatabai. Brooklyn-based by this point, Tabatabai was a freelance journalist who had worked at ESPN. She had no professional connection to beer, but the connection she did have is perhaps more important. Not only did she like to drink beer and visit breweries on her travels, but she understood the accessibility of the beverage and the way it was loved around the world across cultures.

“At home, I don’t remember there ever being liquor or wine. It was always beer for my family. And that’s kind of why I love beer, too. It’s accessible and anyone who is poor or rich, it doesn’t matter…anyone can drink beer. Black, white, Asian; everybody loves beer. It’s consumed most widely in the world in terms of alcohol.”

How, though, does a seasoned journalist dive into the complexities of brewing in order to bring a relative’s memories to life? One important skill set helped: Tabatabai had grown up joining her relatives in the kitchen, learning to craft different Iranian dishes with love and how to use various Middle Eastern ingredients. The relationship with flavors, aromas, and how different components work together provided a valuable foundation for brewing. Building on that, Tabatabai watched YouTube videos, picked up classes at NYC homebrew shop Bitter & Esters, and joined Brooklyn homebrewing club Brewminaries. As Tabatabai continued to learn, hone her craft, and tinker with recipes, she’d share the fruits of her labor with family.

“They would tell me if they loved it or hated it or what tasted familiar or what I could change about it,” she recalls. “It was a really a fun project. It would bring up stories about my grandfather. My grandmother would taste something that would ignite a memory.”

At first, Tabatabai simply valued this bonding her beer fueled, but as brewers began to try and commend her barberry sour through beer swaps, her confidence began building. And the desire to embrace Middle Eastern ingredients in beer evolved into the realization that this brewing hobby could be an impactful business, prompting Tabatabai’s decision to go all in on Back Home Beer in 2021.

An Expanding World

It’s no secret that the craft beer industry has long been lacking in inclusivity, diversity, and representation. As Tabatabai points out, beer is universal, yet the people making craft beer in the United States too often don’t reflect this—therefore neither do the actual ingredients and flavors in the beer. As the industry starts moving forward with more inclusive hiring, it makes sense for it to open up with beer styles and flavor profiles, too, fully welcoming all people with all palates. Fixating on North American and Eurocentric styles for nearly all of American craft beer’s lifespan has resulted in Middle Eastern flavors being absent from the conversation here.

Some responses Tabatabai has received when people find out about Back Home Beer is the immediate assumption that this is “Muslim beer,” and questions as to how such a thing can exist when Muslims don’t consume alcohol. Back Home Beer isn’t affiliated with religion, and reactions like these stem from sweeping generalizations. In fact,, as Tabatabai notes, people in the region surrounding what is today Iran invented beer. The earliest evidence we have of brewing beer is from over 2,500 years ago in modern-day Iraq and Iran. Forty years of an alcohol ban in Iran and a lack of diversity in American craft beer cannot erase thousands of years of brewing tradition; this is what Back Home Beer highlights.

Most reactions to Back Home are overwhelmingly positive, though, with people of Middle Eastern heritage embracing familiar flavors right alongside others who embrace learning about these flavors. Tabatabai says the intention with Back Home has never been to only fulfill a small niche, to only be “that Middle Eastern beer.” Rather, she is exploring classic craft styles and expanding on what they can be, making lagers, goses, and IPAs stand out with the inspiration of Middle Eastern ingredients.

A crisp, refreshing lager is made just a bit complex with the addition of Persian blue salt, an idea born from Tabatabai’s father and other people she noticed in the Middle East sprinkling salt into their lagers. Just as with food, she says, it works to enhance the beer’s other flavors, like the grain’s sweetness. A gose, too, becomes more layered with sumac and sour cherries—reflecting the wild ones that grow throughout Iran and the tradition of eating them, salted, with rice. The gose marries that tartness, sweetness, and saltiness with a hint of savoriness from the sumac. These beers pair as well with Middle Eastern food as with any other cuisine and can be enjoyed anywhere by anyone. They’re a natural teaching tool for introducing beer drinkers to these ingredients, whether they’ve experienced them before in food or not.

Ahead of the Pack

Back Home has captivated craft beer connoisseurs while simultaneously breaking out of the craft beer pack to appear on the menus of not only Middle Eastern restaurants, but Korean, Mexican, American farm-to-table, and oyster-and-cocktail spots. Co-founder of in-demand Brooklyn destination Cool World, Julian Brizzi was turned onto Back Home by Ally Marrone, the bar director at sister restaurant Grand Army Bar, and says they’re proud to serve the brand at both spots. At Dame, an English seafood eatery in Manhattan where you’d be lucky to snag a table, manager Megan Higgins calls Tabatabai “an absolute master at her craft,” saying “the Sumac Gose strikes a perfect balance of tangy and fruity, with really subtle hop aromas and a slightly higher saline streak than you would find in most goses. [It] pairs really well with Dame’s staple dishes…but honestly, I would crush more than one sitting outside on a warm spring day.”

For Christopher Struck, beverage director at NYC- and DC-based Lebanese restaurant ilili, Back Home’s message is as compelling as its beer’s quality. “Back Home Beer is a good beer that does good for our society by offering better representation and diversity, both at and on the table. Zahra has given us something compelling to drink at a time when looking to the past may be comforting, but looking to the future will require something radically different.”

With this upward trajectory, extending both within craft beer and beyond in the hospitality and dining scenes, what does the future look like for Back Home Beer? Since launching, Tabatabai has been contract brewing at Staten Island’s Flagship Brewing Co., a relationship she treasures for how hands-on she can be but also how she can trust her beer is being cared for whenever she can’t be there. As strong as the partnership is, though, recent media recognition and demand from restaurants, bars, and retail have made Tabatabai think about next steps. The founder has begun raising money with the plan of securing a production facility in Brooklyn, where, importantly, there will be a taproom.

“There will be street food from Iran that will go well with the beer…and it will just be a place for the community to come. It’s tough right now because so many people reach out like, ‘Where can I get the beer?’ and I have to direct them everywhere else. Which is great, but I also want to be able to say, ‘Come to me. You have a place to come at Back Home.’”

Until then, Tabatabai creates community even without a physical space, through each beer and her own passion for highlighting its ingredients. Sobier says the first time Beer Witch tapped Persian Blue Lager, the Back Home founder came to the bar with homemade roasted pistachios with lemon and sumac, sharing with each patron.

Beer lovers can simply crack open a can of Back Home beer to not only experience a delicious beverage, familiar in its well-executed style and exciting in its fresh flavors—it’s also an ode to memories, family, and freedom, and an instant emotional and sensory journey back home.

The post Transporting Beer Drinkers ‘Back Home’ with Middle Eastern Flair appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

The craft beer community is indeed answering that call. One of the widest-reaching initiatives is a global beer collaboration called All Together, spearheaded by Brooklyn’s Other Half Brewing. According to alltogether.beer, nearly 560 breweries worldwide have signed on. All Together will raise money for participating breweries’ local hospitality industries, as well as the breweries themselves.

“With our industry connections, we felt like we could use as many as those as possible to mobilize people to help,” Other Half co-founder and brewer Sam Richardson says. “There’s only so much one brewery can do, so we wanted to do something with enough parties involved that would make a difference but wouldn’t negatively impact any single brewery, all giving small amounts to a larger cause.”

At alltogether.beer, Other Half has listed the purposefully simple All Together beer recipe, with the choice of a New England or West Coast IPA. “We used a malt bill that’s fairly inexpensive, and hops that are pretty widely available,” Richardson explains. They enlisted Stout Collective to design can artwork that can be customized by each brewery, and Blue Label Printing to print labels at cost.

(More: Nationwide List of To-Go Beer Options by Breweries)

Proceeds from Other Half’s own All Together brew will benefit the Restaurant Workers Community Foundation (RWCF). Richardson hopes to have the beer ready by mid-April. After that, the invitation to brew All Together is open-ended. “If a brewery wants to brew it in June, that’s great,” Richardson notes. “Our goal is to make it something that people can keep making and keep giving.”

You can keep track of what breweries are joining in at alltogether.beer. However, there are even more breweries participating who haven’t signed up on the website. CraftBeer.com talked to some breweries around the country about their versions of All Together.

Non Sequitur Beer Project

For Non Sequitur’s All Together, the New York City brewery will use pilsner malt instead of two-row (a Non Sequitur trademark). Founder Gage Siegel says they’ll also use some Mosaic hops on hand from a different beer, plus HBC-586. Non Sequitur had planned to travel to Houston to partner with Sigma Brewing on an IPA using the experimental Pacific Northwest hop. Since the trip couldn’t happen, Siegel proposed that both breweries still use it as a kind of collaboration between them.

Non Sequitur is already in the habit of giving proceeds from their beers to charity, and Siegel is happy that to maximize that effort by joining such a large-scale collaboration. “I’m glad because it gives us a direction and we know our impact, however small, is going to pool with Other Half and a lot of other people,” Siegel says.

Non Sequitur plans to release All Together around the end of April, and will also donate to the RWCF.

Side Project Brewing

Co-owner and brewer of St. Louis’s Side Project Cory King started waiting tables at 18. “The hospitality industry is what he knows and loves, and the Side Project team had been looking for a way to help it when All Together came along.”

“The economies of so many cities run on the vibe and the feeling and the nightlife, which is almost all derived from the food and beverage industries,” King says. “When this ends, and everyone wants to go out, a lot of those places won’t be open. So, [we’re doing] anything we can to help, for places to maybe make it on the fringe.”

For Side Project, 100% of their beer’s proceeds will be donated. Their cause is the Gateway Resilience Fund. Side Project is following Other Half’s prescribed malt bill and Citra, plus they’ll be testing out an experimental New Zealand hop blend. Side Project’s All Together, called Shared, will be released at the end of April.

(More: What Happened to the Beer? World Beer Cup Entries Saved From Going Down the Drain)

Southern Grist Brewing

“We are overwhelmed and humbled by the support of the community,” says Southern Grist’s Kevin Antoon. “Our bartenders are making what they used to before COVID-19 due to the generosity of customers and [our] delivery program.” The team has also felt the love from fellow breweries. “In times of crisis, there is no industry I have ever been a part of that pulls together and supports each other in so many ways.”

Southern Grist is paying it forward, donating All Together proceeds to the Tennessee Craft Brewers’ Guild. “The guild mobilized immediately to request tax relief and abatement from our governor, push for delivery, and relief on laws against out-of-state shipping,” Antoon says of the guild’s impact. For the beer, brewer Jared Welch says they are taking the hazy route and sticking mainly to the recipe. “We’re particularly excited to play around with Cascade and Simcoe, which are not normally a part of our hop repertoire,” Welch says. Southern Grist’s All Together will debut mid-to-late April.

Mikerphone Brewing

Chicago’s Mikerphone Brewing went from celebrating its fifth anniversary on March 15 to figuring out how to survive the shutdown and support the community. Founder and head brewer Mike Pallen says so far they’ve participated in a raffle of exclusive bottles of beer, and have donated to a “brewery of the week.” All Together is another way they’re helping. Mikerphone will mostly follow Other Half’s recipe and will brew a fruity New England style. “We’ll go a little harder on the hops,” Pallen notes. “[The recipe] is a little lower than what we typically use, and we want to keep it in line with what we do.” It will be available in early May, with proceeds going to Mikerphone staff members and the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild.

Fifth Hammer Brewing

Queens, New York brewery Fifth Hammer is planning to brew a “soft, hazy 6.5% ABV” New England IPA, according to co-owner and brewer Chris Cuzme. “If the NE IPA is one of the best selling styles in the current market and this project is about raising the most money possible for a great cause, then let’s make the most delicious version…so that we can give our hospitality workers one hell of a charitable gift,” he says.

Explaining that he sees beer as “a people business,” Cuzme is hopeful about how All Together can help brewery, bar and restaurant employees who are out of work. “This project aims to alleviate some of the fiscal complications and fear they are enduring,” he says. “None of us know how long this is to continue and being able to completely cover the fiscal hit for hospitality workers would be impossible with this project. But in this climate, any small amount directed to the appropriate place is a large amount!” Fifth Hammer’s All Together will be available in early May.

(More: The Curb Economy: Craft Breweries Rise to Pandemic Challenge)

Modist Brewing

“The hospitality, food service, and craft beer industry work extremely hard to create memorable experiences for our patrons, and that can be overlooked or undervalued by convenience,” says Keigan Knee, co-founder and director of product development for Modist Brewing in Minneapolis. “Local businesses in our industries are essential to our culture, both here in Minnesota and across the world.” Knee feels All Together will help hospitality workers financially “while showcasing how important it is to support local hospitality businesses in our communities.”

Modist will only make a few tweaks to the All Together recipe, substituting Sabro hops since they don’t have Cascade hops on hand. Their brew will be available at the end of April (Modist’s Instagram page will have updates). It will benefit Minnesota-based collective The North Stands.

Outer Range Brewing Co.

Emily and Lee Cleghorn, co-founders of Outer Range Brewing in Frisco, Colorado, responded quickly to the shutdown’s impact on their community. They started a “cans for cans” drive, where customers get 20% off to-go beer when they bring canned goods for the local food pantry. “We have unbelievably received well over a thousand pounds of food donations already,” Lee Cleghorn says. “Our food pantry estimates that three out of four families in our area are now unable to cover all of their expenses, so the donations go a long way.”

All Together essentially helps Outer Range help even more. Their New England IPA will follow Other Half’s recipe, and proceeds will go to the Colorado Bartenders Guild’s Colorado Family Meal Initiative. The brew will be available mid-April.

Industrial Arts Brewing Company

“[All Together] is a way we can reinforce a tenet of craft beer that has made it the truly great community it is: the sharing of knowledge and resources to help raise each other up,” says Sofia Barbaresco, brand director of Industrial Arts Brewing Company in Garnerville and Beacon, New York. “But mostly, this is a way to show support for the people who have supported us in our three and a half years. We wouldn’t be here without all the hospitality workers that have been behind us since day one.”

Industrial Arts will carefully follow Other Half’s recipe, “but given the individual characteristics of our brewing system, water profile, and fermentation processes. “It will definitely come across as an ‘Industrial Arts’ beer,” Barbaresco explains. They will release their beer on April 30 and give proceeds to the RWCF.

Keep an eye on alltogether.beer to see what breweries by you are participating, and follow breweries’ social media feeds for exact dates of All Together releases.

The post All Together: Breweries Collaborate to Help Hospitality Workers appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Exciting initiatives have joined a roster of organizations and movements that have had their theoretical noses to the grindstone for years, from Queers Makin’ Beers to the Pink Boots Society to the relatively newer Fresh Fest. In 2020, we get to see all these projects in action. We’re talking to the leaders behind movements including #IAmCraftBeer, the Diverse Beer Writers Initiative, and Beer. Diversity. to examine where they gauge the community is in the push for greater inclusion in craft beer and what we have to look forward to in 2020.

#IAmCraftBeer: From Twitter Hashtag to Meetups

On September 9, 2019, Chalonda White — a.k.a. Afro Beer Chick — tweeted out a racist email she had received. Replies were of shock and disgust at the message as well as support for White, but the conversation didn’t end there. The Brewers Association’s Diversity Ambassador Dr. J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham saw the tweet and started the hashtag #IAmCraftBeer as a way for those who don’t feel represented in the beer scene to see each other.

“[I] think it’s really important to highlight the diversity that is already in the industry that perhaps we don’t see,” Jackson-Beckham says. “The hashtag was really more of an effort to say, ‘You know what, in this industry where we have lots of opportunities in front of us and lots of work to do and progress to make, to make sure everybody feels that they have space.’ It’s not like there’s no one in craft beer and it’s not like the people in craft beer are all the same person. I just thought it made sense to take a moment and highlight the fact that we are all already very individual, unique people.”

(More: Don’t Drink Another Beer Before Reading This)

Craft beer drinkers of every background emerged to tell their stories, which Jackson-Beckham has been archiving.

“I am so happy that something so ugly turned out to be something so beautiful,” White says. “People are always going to have their opinions who should and shouldn’t belong. At first I wasn’t even going to share the tweet, but I’m glad I did. […] When Dr. J started the whole hashtag, you’re seeing that it’s not just bearded white dudes drinking beer. It’s a lot of other people–people of different races, religions, cultures, colors. Beer is a rainbow, and I’m loving it.”

As inspiring as #IAmCraftBeer has been, White stresses that the movement must extend beyond social media to have a lasting impact.

“The conversation needs to kick off change. That’s what I’m not really seeing too much because I’m starting to see that people are using this diversity and inclusion as a trend,” she says.

As far as bringing a Twitter initiative to life in the real world, White has been taking charge alongside fellow advocates like Liz Garibay, curator of History on Tap and founder of the Chicago Brewseum. White and Garibay organize #IAmCraftBeer events at breweries in different cities where all beer drinkers can come meet each other.

“There are a lot of people who are talking about stuff, and there are people who are actually doing it,” Garibay says. “You need both. When you actually physically come together and inform yourself and educate yourself, that’s when real change happens.”

Opportunities to Affect Change

Jackson-Beckham, White and Garibay are all busy both talking about and acting on ways to improve representation, diversity and inclusion. Also an assistant professor of communication studies and beer scholar at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia, Jackson-Beckham runs her own diversity consultancy called Craft Beer For All. Coincidentally on the same day that White received the email that catalyzed #IAmCraftBeer, Jackson-Beckham launched the nonprofit Craft x EDU, offering grants, scholarships, education, support and resources to people of all backgrounds looking to work in beer.

The work that Jackson-Beckham is doing intersects frequently with the rallying and unifying that White and Garibay do with their own projects and their enthusiastic #IAmCraftBeer outreach. #IAmCraftBeer’s mission also includes partnering with breweries to brew collaboration beers for which the proceeds support the breweries’ local nonprofits as well as the upcoming #IAmCraftBeer innovation grant fund.

All three advocates express optimism about the year ahead along with specific areas where they see immediate opportunities for improvement.

(More: Aurora Hunting and Craft Beering in Fairbanks, Alaska)

“One of the things that I find interesting and often frustrating is the way that we perceive and talk about inclusion, equity, diversity efforts,” Jackson-Beckham says. “We tend to think of them as very end-goal … We expect that all of a sudden, places will immediately look different very quickly and that’s just, for me, both dangerous and wrong-headed. Equity and inclusion, diversity, these are organizational business goals. This is not a cheerleading effort that you lay on top. These are things that affect your profitability, they affect your compliance with federal law, they affect your human resources, they affect your corporate culture.”

Two specific actions White is calling for are improved representation in beer festivals’ advertising, and for breweries to seek out partnering with black-owned breweries.

“I’m telling these beer fests, ‘When you send me your media kit, if I do not see people that look like me, then don’t invite me,’” she says. “Some of these beer fests I have attended, I know people of color are there, I’ve taken pictures with them, so why is it that when you’re advertising for your beer fest, we are not included?”

Regarding collaborations as a conduit for representation, White tweeted her idea and says she immediately started hearing from breweries like 2nd Shift Brewing asking her for information on black-owned breweries they could contact.

“What happens is you’re bringing them into a community that might possibly often overlook them,” White encourages.

“Beer is the perfect place to set an example for other industries to start making some changes and bring people together.” Liz Garibay

“People are really into this. They want to see change, they want to see different types of people in those spaces and different people making beer,” Garibay says. “They’re really rooting for more female brewers and more brewers of color—we want that, we want to see that sort of rainbow. This is the place for it to happen. Beer is more than just a beverage–it’s a powerful cultural force with the ability to bring people together and the power to make change. This issue of diversity is one of those things that completely encompasses that mantra. Beer is the perfect place to set an example for other industries to start making some changes and bring people together.”

The Diverse Beer Writers Initiative

Yet another positive movement that sprung from #IAmCraftBeer is Beth Demmon’s Diverse Beer Writers Initiative. Demmon is a journalist in San Diego focusing largely on craft beer, and often specifically on diversity in beer. She wrote about #IAmCraftBeer for Vice’s food and drink vertical, Munchies, and one response to her story got Demmon thinking.

“I saw there was a woman who works in the beer community who is black and she basically said, ‘Why is there a white writer talking about a black beer issue?’” Demmon recalls, paraphrasing the question. “At first, I was a little upset. I was like, ‘Well, I’ve worked hard to build relationships with editors and I’m using my privilege to amplify a very important movement taking place. Then, I had to take a step back and say, ‘Well, you know, should I be the person talking about these types of issues? Who else could be a better person within that community to discuss this on a much wider platform?’”

Demmon was one of two recipients of the North American Guild of Beer Writers 2019 Diversity in Beer Writing Grant; her article about parenting in beer published here on CraftBeer.com. She experienced firsthand how such an initiative can open the beer world up to fresh voices.

“It is difficult to break into beer writing or any media because there’s a lot of gatekeeping in media and editorship,” Demmon says. “That’s not a critique, that’s just the way that it is … So when the North American Guild of Beer Writers puts together an opportunity that is open to anybody and is specifically looking to amplify underrepresented voices with kind of no strings attached, that’s the beauty of a grant, there’s no ulterior motive.

Demmon wanted to play an active role in welcoming more diversity into beer writing, seeking to help others receive opportunities similar to hers through the NAGBW grant, and to work toward more representation in the discussions we have about craft beer.

(More: Is 2020 the Year of the Low-Cal IPA?)

“I thought, if I’m really serious about changing the landscape of the craft beer community as a writer, as a consumer, as an advocate, I need to put my money where my mouth is and help promote the writers who don’t have the connections or the experience that I do to be able to tell [these] stories,” she explains.

Demmon launched the Diverse Beer Writers Initiative in which she offers free consulting to anyone from anywhere in the world looking to write about beer. The range of advice she offers caters to total beginners as well as more experienced writers, pertaining to everything from monetizing a blog to finding publications to write for. Demmon is excited about what she has seen people she’s worked with accomplish. Some have applied for the guild’s 2020 Diversity in Beer Writing Grant while others are pitching editors.

Between the Diversity in Beer Writing Grant and movements like Demmon’s initiative, 2020 offers hope that beer lovers will continue to hear more diverse voices and perspectives when they read about beer.

Ren Navarro’s Beer. Diversity.

Ren Navarro entered the craft beer world through sales. On the side, she began doing talks as Beer. Diversity., focused on improving inclusion in the community.

She thought consulting on and discussing diversity in beer would be a side hustle, but by May 2018, it was clear that enough breweries and businesses in the U.S. and Canada (where she calls home) had the need for guided conversations about representation. Beer. Diversity. became Navarro’s full-time calling.

Through Beer. Diversity., Navarro not only speaks at breweries and on various panels, but she also helps organize events aimed at speaking to underrepresented communities who work in or want to work in beer. One initiative is focused on bringing those voices to conference stages.

(Find a U.S. Brewery: Brewery Finder)

“You’ll look at a conference and be like, ‘Yeah, that’s this guy who always speaks at this thing, that’s that same guy who always speaks at that thing.’ We thought we’d just kind of divert it. Say we want a group of indigenous brewers speaking–[or] I want a group of black women. So, we have people who don’t normally get up on stage to be like, ‘Hello, this is my experience.’”

Through Beer. Diversity., Ren wants to reach both brewers and drinkers, encouraging breweries to expand their demographics and the general public to go out into the world and discover new breweries where they can be seen and participate in the beer community. Navarro teaches staff workshops to help breweries assess how they hire, how they address the public, and how they treat their employees. She says it’s important for these small businesses to create an open dialogue so everyone is heard.

Navarro says another vital goal for 2020 is continuing to “make room at the craft family table … I would really love to see more people of color, more differently-abled people, more LGBTQ+ people, more indigenous brewers.”

Navarro doesn’t want to see complacency hinder progress, but she’s cautiously optimistic about the year ahead.

“I’m still getting booked,” she says. “Until I don’t get booked, I don’t think we’ve done it yet. My calendar is filling up, I’m booking into the summer. That tells me that we’re not at that point where people are like, ‘Yeah, we’ve got it.’”

The post Outspoken Advocates for Diversity in Beer Enter 2020 Cautiously Optimistic appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

The beer-making community is working to kick the stigma that it’s only for bearded dudes in flannel. The beer merch world has traditionally reflected that male clientele. With the exception of the odd fitted women’s tank here or there, the selection was generally geared toward men.

But as the beer world expands to be more diverse, so does its merch. The clothing and accessories you can wear to proclaim your love of beer are more varied than ever before, courtesy of visionary women building brands and contributing their talents to the beer merch arena.

Girls In Craft Sparks Female-Focused Beer Merch Movement

One of the trailblazers of the female-focused beer merch movement is Jenn Suarez, who established Girls In Craft in 2017. The company is growing quickly. Its selection of products currently ranges from tanks, tees and hoodies to sweatpants, jackets, hats, patches, phone accessories, luggage tags, bottle share bags and a tulip glass that appears quite frequently in any scroll of the craft beer corner of Instagram.

Jenn is the brand manager for a high-volume screen printing shop in Southern California. Since she was 15, she’s worked her way from retail to manufacturing to branding in the action sports world and then branding for action sports apparel companies.

(More: Lady Justice Brewing Dreams Big, Supports Women-Based Causes)

Her knowledge and experience in merchandising can be seen in Girls In Craft’s thoughtful product range. Jenn’s brand caters to items women want, like comfortable clothes for running errands and sturdy, high-quality mugs. She puts careful thought into how the products are made, paying special attention to detail on fits made for women, and researching the best materials.

Girls In Craft was born from Jenn wanting to see more inclusive options in beer merchandise.

“I love buying craft beer merch, I have a ton of brewery merch … it lets someone know you went and tried that beer, you had that experience,” she says. “Most of the merch I saw was catered toward men. T-shirts were thicker, heavier, not as soft. Being from the apparel industry, I’m very picky about t-shirts. I wanted something softer, flowy, not cotton but tri-blends.”

Jenn wanted Girls In Craft to create products for a variety of women, recognizing the majority of female beer drinkers want things that fit them and feel good, as well as selections that fall between the bedazzled beer merch she sometimes saw for women and the made-for-men tees.

As part of her mission to offer choice to the spectrum of female beer drinkers, Jenn makes sure her clothing runs from size small to 2x or 3x and features different shapes and silhouettes.

“Our girl is every girl,” she says. “It’s the one thing I want to be known for. We do not exclude any type of woman. From shape and size to gender, transgender, gay—it’s a place where everyone can be.”

If Girls In Craft’s online community is any indication, women are indeed feeling seen by the brand. The brand’s Instagram feed is full of loving comments and praise, and there are ambassadors who love the clothing and accessories so much that they’ve incorporated it into their own content. The fans illustrate the success of Jenn’s inclusivity mission—yes, even men can be spotted rocking Girls In Craft hats and tees.

The community spirit filters into a focus on collaborations that Jenn is looking to build upon. In addition to spreading the word about Girls In Craft organically through ambassadors, Suarez has already started working with artist Emily Gilberg of adoodleandabeer, printing Emily’s designs on Girls In Craft clothing.

The goal, Jenn says, is to feature lots of different collaborations. In addition to adoodleandabeer, there would be partnerships with creators Jessica Walsh of HopHeart, Sabrina Rain Grimes of Boozy Craft Corner, and other artists and artisans.

Girls In Craft will give these creators “a broader marketplace to be seen,” Jenn says, bringing together exciting new female-focused designs, and giving talented creators a platform.

Creating Beer-focused Drawings and Designs

Emily Gilberg’s adoodleandabeer started when she decided to combine her two passions, craft beer and drawing, into one dedicated Instagram account about two years ago. Her posts and videos quickly started garnering a fanbase.

The self-taught artist had been drawing her whole life. She got into beer by attending can and bottle releases with her husband and loving the familial atmosphere, explaining, “Beer is more of a community than anything; that’s what drew me into it.”

Since her Instagram took off and her partnership with Girls In Craft began, Emily has found different opportunities to make her mark in the visual aspect of beer. Breweries have commissioned labels by her and other brands have come to her for artwork and logos. Some Instagram users even contact her for tattoo designs.

The artist has loved seeing how women are helping breathe new life into the beer scene by expanding on what beer merch means and the different kinds of art that can cover cans and represent craft brews.

“It kind of blows me away,” Emily says. “Beer is an art platform; it’s evolved into this thing where the beer inside is special but people also chase after it for the label as much as what’s inside. Women play a huge role in all of that … they bring a lot to the table. It’s like, let’s change it up; it’s not just, ‘Here’s my double IPA.’ They bring a lot of flair and expertise.”

(Related: PHOTOS: Celebrating Women in Beer at 2019 Beer With(out) Beards Festival)

HopHeart Founder Creates Beer-themed Accessories

HopHeart’s Jessica Walsh brings her flair and expertise to weekender bags, jewelry, tanks, patches, pins, hats, glassware and more. The entrepreneur has just sold the taproom she owned with her husband in California in order to focus on their next venture–opening a brewery.

She finds time to channel her creative energy and lifelong love of drawing, painting and scrapbooking into her brand that celebrates the girly-girl in beer lovers—Jessica says she is a fan of bright colors and bold pinks and patterns; the HopHeart weekender has “serious Betsey Johnson vibes.”

She started HopHeart after wanting beer-themed accessories but only finding apparel (usually men’s apparel) at breweries.

“The venture started out as a very selfish project,” Jessica says. “I wanted stuff that wasn’t there.”

She points out that it’s still not common to find too much merchandise outside of apparel at breweries, but Jessica is helping change that with HopHeart’s range of products that, like Girls In Craft’s, are designed to bring one’s love of beer into all different parts of life, from working out to traveling. HopHeart is as much about community as it is about the products, if not more.

“I wanted to cultivate a community so that females, girly or not, could come together and talk about beer without being cut off, judged, or manipulated,” Jessica says. “I wanted to connect with other girls in the community and connect them with others, as well.”

The HopHeart community is so important to Jessica that she doesn’t call the people who buy her creations “customers,” but friends. She loves hearing stories from them like how one woman spotted another woman wearing a HopHeart tank from across the pool on a cruise and they ended up becoming pals. She’s received photos from two other women who met at a brewery and started chatting when they realized they were both wearing HopHeart bracelets. Jessica feels this kind of camaraderie is especially vital now for women in beer.

“As of late, there’s been some bullying against females in craft beer online, and I want to keep combating that,” she says in an email.

Jessica collaborated with Hop Culture’s Beer With(out) Beards festival celebrating women in beer by creating pins for the event, and has created a bangle for Left Hand Brewing. She’s currently gearing up to roll out some new products and work with Girls In Craft.

(Related: Brewers Association Releases Brewery Employee Diversity Data for the First Time)

Illustrator Behind “Boozy Craft Corner” Celebrates Women

It’s the infinite range of different beer fans that is at the center of Sabrina Rain Grimes’s Boozy Craft Corner. On her Instagram, the artist illustrates posts made by women in the craft beer community, highlighting the scene’s diversity.

When Sabrina illustrates characters of her own making, it’s an entire slideshow in all different skin tones. She depicts different body types, adds body hair and honors a very beautiful kind of reality in her bright, whimsical designs.

On her Etsy page, you can find the artist’s playful take on craft beer life in the form of prints — gumball machines with hop leaves instead of gumballs, an array of different beer glasses with faces to portray diversity — as well as tees and beer-themed planner stickers.

When explaining how Boozy Craft Corner got started, Sabrina echoes her fellow female-focused beer merch makers sentiment: she couldn’t find beer merch that felt like her when she shopped at breweries.

“Me and my best friend, Hayley, every time we went to a brewery and would look at t-shirts, we’d get upset that there weren’t cute girls’ tees.”

Sabrina says her friend is her “silent partner in crime” for Boozy Craft Corner, and that the two set out to give the beer world merchandise that makes women feel seen.

“I wanted something brighter and more open for women to look at and smile and be happy they’re doing what they’re doing, and not think, ‘I can’t drink beer because I’m a girl.’”

(More: Hot Experimental Hops Create Compelling Flavors)

Sabrina says she draws women of all backgrounds because she never wants anyone to feel left out in her work. As for her overarching color scheme of pink and blue, she explains that she wanted to take the two colors traditionally linked to the two different genders and unite them so they’re always together and not seen separately.

Like adoodleandabeer and HopHeart, part of Boozy Craft Corner’s future will play out through collaborating with Girls In Craft. In addition to putting her own influential stamp on beer merchandise, Jenn Suarez is bringing together the women offering their own female-focused unique creations to form one united front. Like the beer community, itself, this united front has a lot of different looks and approaches, but the common goal is to celebrate beer and every one of its fans.

The post Girls In Craft: Meet the Women Behind Female-Focused Beer Merchandise appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Matt Tarpey, The Veil Brewing Co. | Richmond, VA

Co-owner Matt Tarpey cut his teeth at some of the most prestigious and exciting breweries before opening The Veil Brewing Co. in the spring of 2016. He completed two apprenticeships at Cantillon in Brussels, worked as a shift brewer at The Alchemist, and assisted Shaun Hill of Hill Farmstead. In its two years and change of existence, The Veil has cemented itself as a craft beer pilgrimage destination. Tarpey cites two particular U.S. brews, along with a Belgian-brewed beer, as the impetus of his beer interest, which would later set in motion his career: Dogfish Head‘s 90 Minute IPA, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Chimay’s Grand Réserve (Blue).

“I remember [trying] them around 2006ish. There were a few craft beer/Belgian beer-focused bars in Norfolk, Virginia, that a few friends and I would frequent; it was most likely there. Those three beers really opened my eyes to how awesome and different Belgian and craft beer could be. There were so many other styles of beers that I had no clue existed. It didn’t lead into my immediate interest in pursuing a career in craft beer. But about four years later, my love for Belgian and craft beer sparked my interest to volunteer at a craft brewery to learn more about the beer-making process. That volunteer opportunity made me fall in love with the process and the industry. From there, I knew I had to do everything I could to become a brewer.”

(VISIT: Find a U.S. Brewery)

Nick Nunns, TRVE Brewing Company | Denver

It’s often billed as a brewery run by metalheads, for metalheads. Since TRVE Brewing opened in 2012, writers and visitors have been talking about the macabre music and the black-walled, skull-adorned decor. Founder Nick Nunns has spoken about an intentional mission to do things differently and stand out on the brewery experience. Don’t confuse the headbanging vibe with a gimmick, however. At the center of TRVE’s uniqueness is a portfolio of beers that experiments with old and new techniques. The beers continuously raises the bar on flavor and quality.

The taproom’s draught list is organized by beers fermented with a single culture, beers fermented with multiple yeasts and bacteria, and spontaneously fermented coolship beers. Nunns points to Stone Brewing‘s Arrogant Bastard Ale as an early motivation for his rise in the beer scene. And he got to skip the years of mass-produced lager drinking that many experience before that first craft brew.

“The first craft beer I ever had was the first beer I ever had. My roommates decided to get me an Arrogant Bastard, they said it was appropriate for me at the time. [He laughs.] It was a pretty big beer to start off with for sure. And it was kind of an overwhelming experience,” he says. “It kind of blew me away a little bit; I had never tasted something so bitter. It was such a drastically different beverage from anything I’d experienced.

“From that point on, I only drank craft beer. I never had any interest in mass-produced beers or lagers.”

Andrew Witchey, Dancing Gnome Beer | Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh’s Dancing Gnome Beer has made a name for itself amidst the hazy IPA clatter. Since the brewery’s October 2016 opening, founder Andrew Witchey has paid close attention to detail and quality. So even the most jaded juicy-beer beer drinkers see what’s special about Dancing Gnome. It has different takes on all things hoppy, flavor-packed and unfiltered. In an interview with Hop Culture, Witchey defined a Dancing Gnome beer as, “thoughtfully designed. Always hyper-fresh and definitely hop forward. That’s how we define our whole brand.”

Witchey got to work opening Dancing Gnome after studying at the American Brewers Guild in Vermont and then brewing at Brew Gentlemen. Like Nunns, Witchey’s passion started with the first beer he ever had, which just happened to be a craft brew.

“This sounds crazy, but it is the honest truth: the first beer I ever had — and I mean literally ever had, not just craft — was a smoked bacon stout on cask called Oink Oink Ale [at North Country Brewing in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania],” he says. “It was certainly memorable and put me on the path towards trying pretty much any beer I was able to get my hands on. Regardless of how enjoyable that specific beer was, it was my first intro into understanding the realm and breadth of possibilities of flavor and aroma in beer. ”

Kyle Harrop, Horus Aged Ales | Oceanside, CA

Kyle Harrop started experimenting with his own homebrewing in college and decided to turn his hobby into a side hustle. At his 2014 engagement party, his guests truly loved a barrel-aged imperial stout he made. Harrop has not quit his other job and other passion. As an accountant, he is juggling diverse work responsibilities. The output of Horus Aged Ales in its first year, 2017, is therefore no small feat. Horus concentrates on barrel-aged ales and collaborations with other notable breweries. Right out of the gate, Harrop partnered with a whopping 55 different breweries. He credits a handful of different beers and their different impacts with influencing his drive.

“This question really made me think. Because so many beers have had a huge impact on my brewing at various stages of my life. My first craft beer was a Stone Arrogant Bastard at Naja’s Place. The first craft beer I loved was Flying Dog‘s Gonzo [imperial porter]. My first lambic was a Cantillon Gueuze. The first beer I traded for was the Dark Lord [Russian-style imperial stout] from 3 Floyds. I used to drink Pliny the Elder almost daily. My first barleywine was Midnight Sun‘s Arctic Devil. Samichlaus opened my eyes to what beer could be. My favorite beer is a toss up between Kuhnhenn’s Bourbon Barrel-Aged Barleywine and Lost Abbey‘s brandy barrel-aged Angel’s Share.

“But, the beer that helped me pursue a career in beer was Funk Factory Geuzeria‘s White Lodge Reserve [made with O’so Brewing Company & Tap House]. A blend of three different years of American-made lambic-style beer absolutely blew me away. It was essentially a gueuze made with traditional spontaneous methods in Wisconsin instead of Belgium.

“This couples with the fact that blender and owner Levi Funk and I share a lot of similarities. The fact that he works a full-time job as an economist, in addition to having his beer business, made this beer even more special. While drinking this uber-complex beer and hearing his story, it gave me that last push I needed to pursue my dream of brewing professionally. Seeing that it was possible to balance two careers and produce such an incredible product really hit home. White Lodge Reserve was full of that funk traditionally correlated with this Belgian style and had hints of lemon, barnyard, aged cheese, and must, with a dry, Brett-filled finish. It is a beer that I will never forget!”

Brock Wagner, Saint Arnold Brewing Company | Houston

Beer is in Brock Wagner’s blood. His biography on Saint Arnold‘s website starts with his great-great-great-grandfather, who opened what is now the oldest existing bar in San Francisco, Wagner’s Beer Hall (today called The Saloon). Wagner gave investment banking a go for six years before giving in to his love of beer. He opened Saint Arnold in 1994, at a time when Texans had little interest in craft beer. The brewery quickly won Texas and its visitors over, thanks largely to good old fashioned word of mouth. and, of course, Wagner’s recipes. They walk a masterful line between creative and classic. Saint Arnold helped launch Houston’s craft beer scene, so what helped launch its founder’s love of beer?

“The first beer that changed my perception of what beer could be was a Christian Moerlein lager from Hudepohl Brewing Company in Cincinnati. The year would have been about 1981. While technically not a craft beer then, it would be seen as such today. I recall it being promoted as being brewed in accordance with the German beer purity law, the Reinheitsgebot (which I had never before heard of).

“My dad and I played tennis and after, he would split a beer with me. Usually, it was a Bud or Meister Brau. I enjoyed splitting a beer with my dad but can’t say I really loved beer. When we opened the Christian Moerlein, my view changed. That was the beginning of my love for beer.”

Esther Tetreault, Trillium Brewing Company | Canton, MA

One of the country’s most hyped-about and worthy-of-the-hype breweries started from a simple love of beer and the community around it. By the time they got married, JC and Esther Tetreault knew they wanted to start a brewery and make it a real gathering place. With some tinkering around on a wine-making kit Esther’s mom had given them, they were off to the homebrewing races, and Trillium Brewing Company opened in 2013.

They haven’t stopped growing since. Strict liquor license laws had previously restricted Trillium to beer purchases only, meaning no on-site consumption. Esther has been vocal about wanting to see that original brewery-as-community vision through. And so the Tetreaults have expanded upon their original Fort Point (South Boston) digs with a restaurant and brewery. There is also a location in Canton, Massachusetts, a seasonal garden space in downtown Boston, and an upcoming farm brewery in Connecticut. Trillium’s fans express their support by showing up in droves for wild ales, double dry-hopped IPAs, saisons, and goses. While Esther is a longtime beer lover, she can pinpoint one brew in particular as an influence on Trillium beer.

“One of the first craft beers that had a profound impact on me, and the way we wanted to approach quality and creativity at Trillium, was Hill Farmstead’s Double Galaxy [imperial IPA]. I think that was the first time I had a beer featuring Galaxy hops. And we knew it was the signature flavor profile we wanted to feature in our flagship IPA. The intensity of tropical fruit flavor, and Hill Farmstead’s commitment to quality and excellence, set the bar for our approach to creating Trillium’s first IPA.”

(TRAVEL: Brewery Brunches You’ll Love)

Paul Wasmund, Barrel Culture Brewing and Blending | Durham, NC

The first thing you might think of when you hear “Barrel Culture Brewing and Blending” is color. Just a little over a year old, the Durham, North Carolina, brewery specializes in oak-aged and fruity beers — or slushees. Brews in vivid reds, peaches and even greens populate its social media feed as well as the feeds of its fans. A line formed the night before its first bottle release. Barrel Culture started strong and has comfortably positioned itself in the “cult following” category. Head brewer Paul Wasmund was no stranger to buzzed-about beer, experimental techniques, and big flavors, coming from Bond Brothers Beer Company in Cary, North Carolina. Wasmund has spent his career in the craft beer world. His interest started almost the moment he was legally allowed to consume it.

“My first beer after turning 21 came just minutes after midnight in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. I was at a small music venue seeing a local band and when midnight came around, one of the bandmates bought me a Foothills Brewing People’s Porter. I remember being completely blown away by the fact that the beer was not straw-colored — I was immediately intrigued and had to know how this beer was made. A month later I had bought a homebrew kit and the rest was history.”

Kevin Antoon, Southern Grist Brewing Company | Nashville, TN

Friends Kevin Antoon, Jamie Lee and Jared Welch moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 2007 to work at a tech company. Their love of beer eventually won out when it came to their job goals, however. Opening Southern Grist in 2016, the trio joined the ranks of the relatively nascent but quickly catching-on craft beer scene in Nashville. Their location on the city’s east side became a hub for locals and tourists alike to try double IPAs with lactose, brown ales with macadamia nuts, and tart fruited beers. It’s such a hub, in fact, that the tech-turned-beer pros opened a second location on the other side of town. Antoon recalls the brew that inspired his career change.

“Up until I had Gumballhead by 3 Floyds I was a lifelong Miller Lite drinker. The body, hop profile and finish was a wake-up call that beer can be more than just a watered-down lager. This notion of experimentation and innovation with beer beyond ‘giant brands’ led to my first homebrew setup a few months later.

“My best friend (and now co-founder of Southern Grist), Jamie Lee, and I started brewing with different fruits, hop profiles and grain. After a few years of peddling our homebrew at parties we met our head brewer Jared Welch, started our business plan for Southern Grist … and the rest is history. To this day, experimentation and constant innovation still remains as a core value of our brewery.”

What was Your Game-changing Beer?

Hearing from these game-changing brewers what they remember about their early beer encounters is a reminder of how special any craft beer can be. Think about it: what was the beer that changed your perspective or made you think differently about beer? Even if you don’t work in the industry, a brew that makes you excited about beer and trying everything new that you can is a pretty big deal.

The post 8 Brewers on the Beer That Changed Their Lives appeared first on CraftBeer.com.