It was another set of examples of gender disparity that has traditionally plagued the beer industry in the U.S. and around the world.

Despite being male-dominated, women are finding ways to navigate the industry and share their love for craft beer with others. These women increasingly shape the future of U.S. beer, one that’s guided with themes of diversity and inclusion.

Unfortunately, these same women regularly encounter situations that place their safety at risk. Working in a male-dominated industry puts women at a higher risk of experiencing sexual harassment on the job. The service industry is responsible for 14 percent of all sexual harassment complaints, according to Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. It’s reported that 90 percent of women in the service industry have experienced some form of sexual harassment. Because of this, many women in beer are looking for ways to maneuver uncomfortable and sometimes threatening circumstances. Some women shared how they’ve adopted a heightened awareness of their surroundings. They rely on regular check-ins with friends and co-workers, and some women have sacrificed everyday convenience for safety. While these extra precautions provide a layer of protection, spending extra time and money to avoid unsafe situations puts an undue burden on women working in the craft beer industry.

Amanda Oakes | Regional Sales Director | Montana

Amanda Oakes, a sales representative for Red Lodge Ales Brewing Co. in Red Lodge, Montana, used to spend two-to-five days on the road representing her brewery at beer events, maintaining accounts, and sharing Red Lodge Ales’ beer with drinkers across the region before COVID-19. Oakes loves selling beer because she’s really good at it, but life on the road isn’t always glamorous.

“Your safety is always at risk when you’re a single female, especially selling an alcoholic beverage product,” says Oakes, who has worked in beer for six years.

One night in 2006, Oakes packed up her car and headed back to her hotel after hosting a tap takeover at The Drink in Mandan, North Dakota. What she didn’t realize was a man from the event followed her back to the hotel’s front desk, where he pretended to be her husband to get a key to her room. When he unlocked the door, Oakes had the safety latch on, so he was blocked from gaining access to her room.

“One lesson I learned from that one situation is I never want it to happen again. So now when I check into a hotel room, I either will hand write a note or verbally let someone know that I am traveling alone,” says Oakes.

Since then, Oakes shares her story with other women in the industry and provides advice on ways to stay safe on the road. Unfortunately, Oakes’ story is not an isolated incident for women who travel for work. According to research from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) in partnership with AIG Travel, 83 percent of women experienced one of more safely-related concerns or incidents while traveling for business in the past year.

Danya Bonner | Director of Sales | Montana

Danya Bonner, a director of sales at Lewis & Clark Brewing Co. in Helena, Montana, started working in the beer industry 15 years ago. Bonner understands the hazards of the job because of her friendship with Oakes. She typically feels safe when she’s out on the road for the brewery, but has been followed by men in an easy-to-spot work vehicle, which gets a lot of attention on the road for its beer-label design.

After being followed home one night summer, Bonner decided to leave her vehicle at the brewery instead of driving it home. “Now, I don’t take my work vehicle home. I usually park my work vehicle at my hotel if I’m in a different town or a different state and then Uber. I’ve probably spent a fortune on Uber at this point,” Bonner says.

But it’s not just an undue financial burden placed on her. She also checks in regularly with the brewery on the way home and encourages them to do the same, especially if they haven’t heard from her in a while. These extra precautions have become a way for Bonner to safely do the job she loves.

Sarah Swenson | Sales and Brand Manager | Arizona

Sarah Swenson, a sales and brand manager in Arizona, often volunteered to drive friends and colleagues home after an event. That changed after Swenson was allegedly sexually assaulted by a male colleague after dropping him off at his house.

Since the assault, Swenson has re-evaluated who she can trust. She used to see herself as a caretaker for her male friends. Now, she’s careful about who she drives home—whether a coworker or friend. Women should be able to feel safe with men they know, but statistics show that familiarity isn’t as safe as one would expect. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), 80 percent of rapes are committed by someone known to the victim.

Because they work in the same industry, Swenson would run into him at events. “He would make it a point . . . to sit down right next to me and act like we were best friends. He knew that if he would start a conversation in front of my bosses, that I would be professional and tolerate it,” says Swenson.

Like many, Swenson has taken on the burden of maintaining her professionalism in the face of a man who assaulted her. Research shows that 60 percent of women have experienced workplace sexual harassment and assault, but it’s rarely reported. Another study shows that Black women experience sexual harassment at work at three times the rate of white women—approximately 23 percent of Black women. While 20 percent of Latinx workers have reported experiencing sexual harassment.

The affects of experiencing sexual assault in the workplace are damaging and puts unwarranted stress on the women who have to work in proximity to their assaulter.

Nikki Johnson | Beertender-Certified Cicerone | Maryland

Life in the taproom comes with its own challenges. One summer evening in 2018, Nikki Johnson was closing up the taproom at a Georgia brewery. Initially, Johnson was having a friendly conversation with a lingeringmale patron. But as she started to close, she expected the patron to pay his tab and head home.

“He just was like hanging on. He asked for one more beer . . . and I was like ‘No, dude, I’m closing up. Sorry. I’m trying to be polite,’” Johnson says. After 20 minutes of waiting for him to leave, Johnson told him to leave. The patron told Johnson he was waiting on his Uber, but she got him to step outside and she locked the doors.

“There’s no one around,” Johnson recalled. “I could scream as loud as I wanted, and no one would hear it.”

While Johnson wasn’t to blame for the situation, she’s taken on the burden of being the solution. Now when she closes, Johnson is firm from the start with patrons. “I was afraid that being blunt with that guy would make him mad and [want to] retaliate,” says Johnson. “I wish I would have more vocally requested to not close alone anymore.”

Making the Beer Industry Safer for Women

It’s hard to estimate the toll unwanted encounters have on women, especially women of color who often have to navigate these situations along with the mental and emotional stress due to working in majority white spaces.

Eugenia Brown works full time in mental health and part-time as a beertender at Charlotte, North Carolina’s Free Range Brewing. While people have made provocative, sexual comments toward her, the most upsetting situations she has experienced are those where she’s ignored or dismissed by customers when trying to serve them.

“Trauma is trauma no matter what,” Brown said. “So when talking about the emotional trauma that happens when you feel invalidated as a person, when you feel like your existence isn’t being recognized and celebrated. You internalize that, and then you start to question if you do belong in that space.”

Instead of shifting the blame towards the perpetrators, often women reexamine and second-guess their actions, believing they have some part to play in the incident. Studies have shown that self-blame is highest in cases of sexual assault, which leads to higher cases of PTSD. For Black women, the combination of racism and sexism can heighten depression and PTSD symptoms.

Brewery owners and managers can help create a safe environment by empowering their employees to advocate for themselves if their safety is ever compromised. To do this, HR Professionals Kristen Ireland and Erin Mies of People Spark Consulting recommend breweries start by identifying their culture and values and keep them front of mind for leadership and employees.

“There’s no reason why you shouldn’t ask for help if you don’t feel comfortable,” says Tracey Bardugon, a taproom manager at Atlanta’s Fire Maker Brewing Company. She keeps an Atlanta Police Department’s non-emergency number on speed dial. And while this is great advice, women of color are less likely to seek out law enforcement than their white counterparts due to the systemic discrimination and oppression experienced by the police.

One common challenge for women, Nikki Johnson, a Beertender-Certified Cicerone from Maryland, says, is where breweries are located. With so many breweries in industrial zones, working late nights in a warehouse far from other businesses or people is daunting. “I would’ve had to run a block to reach a building with another human being in it,” Johnson says.

Swenson also encourages women to speak up about their experiences. Many women who survive sexual abuse feel guilty or ashamed after the experience. Instead of coming forward, they maintain their silence, which can be isolating.

However, reporting incidents of sexual harassment comes with the fear of retaliation from the employer or abuser. Retaliation could include low performance reviews, undesirable shifts, spreading of false rumors, threats, or firing. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, retaliation is the most frequently filed issue constituting 51.6 percent of charges in FY 2018. The numbers are sobering and reflect an issue that extends beyond the beer industry.

”Don’t ever be afraid to tell someone what happened and what your situation was. And don’t be afraid to ask questions about how you [can avoid] being put in that situation again,” says Oakes.

This story was made possible by the Diversity in Beer Writing Grant, established by the North American Guild of Beer Writers in partnership with CraftBeer.com. Additional support for the grant comes from Allagash Brewing Company.

The post Creating Safe Spaces for Women in the Beer Industry appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Leave the visions of sugar plums to the little ones this year. For grown-ups, it’s all about those wonderful Christmas beers from independent craft breweries, and we’ve got a dozen classics lined up to get you into the spirit of the season. Put the kids in charge of decorating and kick back with one of these fantastic festive brews.

Great Lakes Brewing Co. | Christmas Ale

It’s difficult to explain the phenomenon of the annual Great Lakes Brewing Co. Christmas Ale release to people who don’t live in Ohio. At the brewery’s “First Pour” release event during the last week of October each year, a pint of Christmas Ale gets poured an average of every five seconds for 12 straight hours. That’s 70 kegs of beer in one day, and it’s only the beginning. Co-Founder Pat Conway says the beer has become an essential part of the season for Ohioans since first being brewed in 1992.

“When you taste it, you think of Christmas and the conviviality and warmth of the season,” he reflects. “It just seems to marry with the energy around Christmas.”

The beer is brewed with ginger, cinnamon and honey, and weighs in at a warming but gentle 7.5% ABV. The Great Lakes co-founder expresses what many Midwesterners feel about this Ohio Christmas tradition:

“When I take a sip, it’s like I’m wearing a sweater.”

Tröegs Brewing | Mad Elf

Belgian breweries often brew a special high gravity beer for the Christmas season, but strong Belgian Christmas ales from American breweries can be tricky to find. Fortunately, Pennsylvania’s Tröegs Brewing makes plenty of Mad Elf to go around. This Belgian quadrupel is brewed with cherries and honey, and the first batch in 2002 used 300 pounds of local honey from the Happy Beekeeper farm.

“That 300-pound order has increased to 25,000 pounds a year,” says Jeff Herb, who handles marketing at Tröegs.

Tröegs brews several variants of Mad Elf, including Naked Elf (the base beer without the cherries and honey), Wild Elf (a barrel-aged, mixed-fermentation version), and Mad Elf Grand Cru (a luxurious, limited edition version with Balaton cherries, wildflower honey and demerara sugar).

“We like to think of Grand Cru as our ‘Director’s Cut,'” says Herb.

(RECIPES: Traditional Christmas Desserts Made with Beer)

Revolution Brewing | Fistmas

Remember shopping malls? Revolution Brewing remembers shopping malls.

Rather than a conventional holiday party at one of their Chicago taprooms to celebrate their Fistmas Holiday Ale, the folks at the largest independent brewery in Illinois are hosting a mall crawl. Attendees of the Fistmas Bar Crawl at Woodfield Mall on the northwest side of Chicago will don elf hats and meander between the mall’s restaurants and bars sipping the titular spiced ale, and stops along the way will allow for gift wrapping and DIY Christmas ornament decorating.

Fistmas is 6.5% ABV and is brewed with ginger and orange peel. The beer has stayed more or less the same since it was first brewed in 2010, though it spawns a bolder taproom-only version called Fist of Krampus that changes year to year.

Bell’s Brewery | Christmas Ale

This legendary Michigan brewery is best known for its to-style classics, some of which helped define those styles in the first place. While beers like Two Hearted Ale have earned their status by standing firm on classic flavor profiles in a shifting beer landscape, Christmas Ale has changed with the times and received a significant update in recent years. While the beer was formerly a somewhat “timid” (as far as Christmas beers are concerned) 5.5% ABV, it jumped to 7.5% to better reflect consumer expectations for comforting holiday beers.

“Christmas Ale was revamped in 2017 to be a more rich, impactful and stronger beer for celebrating the holidays, stylistically inspired by non-peated Scotch Ales,” says Josh Smith, communications manager for Bell’s. The rich malt base and warming strength makes Christmas Ale a suitable companion for those cold Michigan Decembers.

(BEER TRAVEL: Plan Your Next Beercation)

Deschutes Brewery | Jubelale

This year marks the 32nd edition of Jubelale, even though Deschutes has only been open 31 years. That’s because Jubelale was the first beer the brewery in Bend, Oregon, ever bottled, all the way back in October 1988. That first year, founder Gary Fish hand-bottled the beer (with some help from his first employees) at his small brewpub. Production has grown a bit since then, but the recipe–based on traditional malty English winter ales–has remained the same.

Since 1995, the label art for each vintage of Jubelale has been designed by a different regional artist and inspired by Oregon winters. This year’s label by Mark Rada depicts birds in a forest, which Rada says represent the Jubelale artists of previous years, and a deer with robotic antennas, which speaks to being attuned to our environment.

“The earth is speaking to us here in Bend,” says Rada. Luckily for us, one of the languages it speaks is beer.

Sierra Nevada Brewing | Celebration Ale

Few beers are as iconically linked to the holiday season across the country as Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. This fresh hop IPA was first brewed in 1981 and the recipe has stayed the same for nearly 40 years, offering festive flavors of citrus and pine with a brisk hop bitterness that matches the cold winter air. Celebration includes plenty of fresh Chinook, Centennial and Cascade hops from the hop fields of the Northwest. Sierra Nevada spokesperson Robin Gregory says the arrival of those succulent hop cones is cause for its own annual celebration at the brewery in Chico, California.

“The fresh hops usually arrive at our dock in the middle of the night, and you should see our brewers,” says Gregory. “They are running around like kids on Christmas morning.”

Even for one of the largest independent craft breweries in the country, the excitement about great ingredients and great beer never fades.

The Lost Abbey | Gnoel de Abbey

The Lost Abbey of San Marcos, California, first brewed Gnoel de Abbey in 2017, but in just a few years, it’s already earned its place in this esteemed brewery’s venerated line-up. The beer isn’t spiced as many holiday beers are, but it stands out from the crowd due to its unusual concept. The brewery takes an imperial stout that’s been aging in bourbon barrels for over a year and blends it with a younger and lighter brown ale.

The resulting 8.5% ABV brew has the strength and roast of the imperial stout and the oak notes of the barrel but in a lighter, easy-drinking body, even at this formidable strength.

(MORE: Splurge-worthy Beer Gifts)

Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales | Noel de Calabaza

The sour ale pioneers at Michigan’s Jolly Pumpkin put their own personal stamp on a classic Christmas-y style with Noel de Calabaza. They brew a Belgian dark strong ale, a style many Belgian brewers release as a holiday seasonal, and then put it in oak barrels for six months where it receives the signature Jolly Pumpkin mixed-fermentation treatment.

What emerges is a dazzlingly complex 9% ABV beer with richly layered malt and barrel character, some acidity and subtle funk, and notes of dark fruit and chocolate.

Boston Beer Company | Samuel Adams Winter Lager

Sam Adams Winter Lager is certainly one of the most widely available Christmas beers, and likely one of the first such beers many drinkers ever tried, much as their Octoberfest introduced many American drinkers to that German autumn style.

Winter Lager is a “warming bock with festive spices,” and while its 5.6% ABV is lower than many other beers on this list, its comforting malt flavors and spices make it a fine choice for a casual holiday party or watching a Christmas movie or football game on a December afternoon. The good folks at Boston Beer use ginger, cinnamon and orange peel to lend Winter Lager its festive character.

Victory Brewing | Winter Cheers

When you think of traditional winter or holiday beer styles, hefeweizen probably isn’t one that comes readily to mind. That uniqueness is exactly what makes Victory‘s Winter Cheers Hazy Wheat Ale stand out. While Christmas beers are often spiced, Winter Cheers gets its subtle clove spice from its Bavarian weizen ale yeast, which produces banana-like esters and clove-like phenols.

The beer is a little stronger than many hefeweizens at 6.7% ABV, and its high effervescence and balance of fruity and spicy yeast notes make it an excellent pairing beer for holiday dinners. It even has a nice kick of Citra hops to give it an American twist. You might not have thought of this style as a winter beer at first, but a few sips of this expressive Pennsylvania wheat ale will make you a holiday hefeweizen convert.

Warped Wing Brewing | Esther’s Lil Secret

Warped Wing Brewing from my hometown of Dayton, Ohio, brews a few excellent Christmas and winter seasonals, including a spiced amber lager called Holiday Special and a smooth and comforting doppelbock called Abominator.

The crown jewel of holiday brews from this Gem City brewery, however, is Esther’s Lil Secret, which releases in November each year and is brewed in collaboration with 90-year-old Dayton chocolate company Esther Price Candies.

The recipe for Esther’s Lil Secret changes every year and, true to its name, is a closely guarded secret until the annual “release and reveal” party at the brewery taproom. This year’s edition is a Scotch ale brewed with chocolate, caramel and sea salt.

“We wanted to mimic the flavors of Esther Price’s now-famous Sea Salt Caramel,” says Warped Wing co-founder Nick Bowman. The rich and layered beer is a secret worth keeping.

(READ: Affordable Beer Gifts)

Great Divide Brewing | Hibernation Ale

While most of the beers on this list are themed around Christmas, the big holiday is just the beginning of a long winter. For most of the country, there are months of cold weather ahead after the presents are unwrapped. Folks in Colorado know this better than most, and Denver’s Great Divide Brewing releases a beer to carry us through the long, cold winter.

Hibernation Ale is an English-style old ale, a hearty beer with rich, layered malt flavors and enough strength at 8.7% ABV to brace us through those dark, cold evenings. This beer has been brewed since 1995 and has won multiple awards. It’s perfect to enjoy as your Christmas Eve nightcap, but be sure to hold onto enough cans of this traditional English style to last till to crocuses begin to peek through the frosty soil in spring.

Published Dec 11, 2019.

The post 12 Beers of Christmas appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Boulder, Colo. • October 16, 2020 — The Brewers Association (BA) awarded 272 medals* to 240 breweries across the country during the 2020 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) competition awards ceremony. The best beers in 91 beer categories covering 170 different beer styles (including all subcategories) were awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals during a virtual ceremony hosted on The Brewing Network.

Judges for the 34th edition of the celebrated competition evaluated 8,806 entries from 1,720 breweries from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. Socially distanced judging took place in 35 sessions over 18 days with strict safety measures in place. The awards ceremony was held virtually on Friday evening, kicking off the two-day online programming portion of the Great American Beer Festival.

“This year’s GABF competition may have looked a little different, but the beers entered into the competition were as impressive and innovative as ever,” said Chris Swersey, competition manager, Great American Beer Festival. “This has arguably been one of the most challenging years breweries have ever faced, so we hope these awards serve as a symbol not only of brewing excellence but also the resiliency of the craft brewing community as a whole.”

View the 2020 winners or download a PDF of the winners.

GABF Competition Statistics

• 34th edition of the GABF competition
• 8,806 beers judged
• 1,720 breweries in the competition from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C.
• 115 judges from 21 states
• Average number of competition beers entered in each category: 97
• Category with the highest number of entries: Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale (377)
• 272 total medals awarded
• 240 medal-winning breweries
• 337 first-time GABF entrants
• 19 first-time GABF winners

Most-Entered Style Categories

The winners of the top five most-entered categories were:

Category 58: Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale (377 entries) – Sponsored by The Cincinnati Insurance Companies

GOLD: Spellbinder, Wren House Brewing Co., Phoenix, AZ

SILVER: Yojo, Moonraker Brewing Co., Auburn, CA

BRONZE: Wicked Pawesome, Metazoa Brewing Co. – Stringtown Production Facility, Indianapolis, IN

Category 57: American Style India Pale Ale (355 entries) – Sponsored by The Ardagh Group 

GOLD: IPA, Perry Street Brewing, Spokane, WA

SILVER: Updrift India Pale Ale, Pelican Brewing Co. – Tillamook, Tillamook, OR

BRONZE: Nothing Noble, Von Ebert Brewing – Pearl, Portland, OR

Category 39: German Style Pilsener (200 entries) – Sponsored by Micro Matic

GOLD: Sprockets, Gravely Brewing Co., Louisville, KY

SILVER: Prost Pils, Prost Brewing Co., Denver, CO

BRONZE: Pils, Kansas City Bier Co., Kansas City, MO

Category 28: Wood & Barrel-Aged Strong Stout (199 entries) – Sponsored by BeerHole

GOLD: A Night to End All Dawns, Kane Brewing Co., Ocean, NJ

SILVER: Ruckus, Melvin Brewing – Thai Me Up, Jackson, WY

BRONZE: Grasp of Oak, Moksa Brewing Co., Rocklin, CA

Category 60: Juicy or Hazy Imperial India Pale Ale (192 entries) – Sponsored by The Alison Group

GOLD: The Hopsplainer, Burke-Gilman Brewing Co., Seattle, WA

SILVER: Not A Scientist, Cloudburst Brewing, Seattle, WA

BRONZE: Sugar on My Tongue, Highland Park Brewery, Los Angeles, CA 

Most Medaled Breweries

The most medals won by individual breweries included:

Sun King Brewery – Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN – 4 medals 

GOLD – Afternoon Delight, Category 26 – Wood- and Barrel-Aged Beer

BRONZE – Cherry Busey, Category 30 – Fruited Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer

BRONZE – Pachanga, Category 34 – Light Lager

BRONZE – Sunlight Cream Ale, Category 49 – Golden or Blonde Ale

Cannonball Creek Brewing Co., Golden, CO – 3 medals

GOLD – Featherweight Pale Ale, Category 53 – American-Style Pale Ale

BRONZE – Vladimir Brutin, Category 18 – Experimental India Pale Ale

BRONZE – Let’s Talk About Mex, Category 37 – American-Style Cream Ale

Chuckanut Brewery – North Nut, Bellingham, WA – 3 medals 

GOLD – Chuckanut Maibock, Category 47 – Bock

SILVER – Chuckanut Chuck Lite, Category 34 – Light Lager

BRONZE – Chuckanut Rye, Category 12 – Rye Beer

Riip Beer Co., Huntington Beach, CA – 3 medals

GOLD – Tangible Passion, Category 82 – Belgian-Style Specialty Ale

SILVER – The Riizzo, Category 10 – Coffee Stout or Porter

SILVER – Black the Riipper, Category 69 – American-Style Black Ale or American-Style Stout

• 23 individual breweries won 2 medals
• 213 individual breweries won 1 medal

Brewery and Brewpub of the Year Awards

See criteria here.

Packaging Breweries

Very Small Brewing Company of the Year – Sponsored by Brewers Supply Group 

<1,000 barrels produced in 2019 

Five Branches Brewing, Tarpon Springs, FL; Jerry Brown

Small Brewing Company of the Year – Sponsored by ABS Commercial

1,000 – 14,999 barrels produced in 2019

Big aLICe Brewing Co., Long Island City, NY; Big aLICe Production Team

Mid-Size Brewing Company of the Year – Sponsored by MicroStar Logistics

15,000 – 6,000,000 barrels produced in 2019

Lost Forty Brewing, Little Rock, AR; Lost Forty Brewing Team 

Brewpubs

Small Brewpub of the Year – Sponsored by Briess Malt & Ingredients Co.

<750 barrels produced in 2019

The Good Society, Seattle, WA; Phil Cammarano & Nick Berger

Mid-Size Brewpub of the Year – Sponsored by Brewers Supply Group

750 – 1,500 barrels produced in 2019

Monkless Belgian Ales, Bend, OR; Todd Clement & Chris Dinsdale

Large Brewpub of the Year – Sponsored by Ska Fabricating

Over 1,500 barrels produced in 2019

The Freehouse, Minneapolis, MN; The Freehouse Team 

Large Breweries and Multiple Location Breweries

Brewery Group of the Year – Sponsored by Live Oak Bank

Over 6,000,000 barrels produced in 2019 or multi-location breweries wishing to compete as a group

Three Creeks Brewing Co., Sisters, OR; Team Three Creeks 

Editor’s note: Photos for media use are available on the GABF website.

*Out of a possible 273 medals in 91 beer style categories, 272 were awarded. The bronze medal was not given in Category 20, Gluten-Free Beer.

The 2020 Great American Beer Festival was made possible in part by the generous support of its sponsors.

Media contact: Jenelle Scott (on behalf of the Brewers Association): jenelle.scott@backbonemedia.net, 970.963.4873 x224

###

About the Brewers Association

The Brewers Association (BA) is the not-for-profit trade association dedicated to small and independent American brewers, their beers and the community of brewing enthusiasts. The BA represents 4,800-plus U.S. breweries. The BA’s independent craft brewer seal is a widely adopted symbol that differentiates beers by small and independent craft brewers. The BA organizes events including the World Beer Cup^®, Great American Beer Festival^®, Craft Brewers Conference^® & BrewExpo America^®, SAVOR^™: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience, Homebrew Con^™, National Homebrew Competition and American Craft Beer Week^®. The BA publishes The New Brewer^® magazine, and Brewers Publications^® is the leading publisher of brewing literature in the U.S. Beer lovers are invited to learn more about the dynamic world of craft beer at CraftBeer.com^® and about homebrewing via the BA’s American Homebrewers Association^® and the free Brew Guru^® mobile app. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The Brewers Association is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital/familial status. The BA complies with provisions of Executive Order 11246 and the rules, regulations, and relevant orders of the Secretary of Labor.

The post Winners of 2020 Great American Beer Festival Competition Revealed During First-Ever Virtual Ceremony appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

As homebrewers progress to professional brewing, little changes in regard to competition goals. Professional brewers still want feedback in order to improve and to see if their beer is better than the rest. However, there is more at stake. Professional brewers want to sell beer, and the road from awards to sales is long and winding. Surprisingly, it has both nothing and everything to do with consumers at the same time.

The Competition

The Best of Craft Beer Awards (BOCBA) in Bend, Oregon began in 2014. Ryan Sharp took it over a few years later, armed with a passion for good beer and serving great breweries. He has since grown BOCBA into one of the largest professional beer competitions in the U.S. Now, every winter, judges at BOCBA stare, sniff, swirl and swig well over 2,000 beers from the U.S. and beyond.

Sharp acknowledges that while consumers may benefit from his work, competitions like BOCBA really are about the breweries.

“The primary purpose is to gather people with well-trained palates to provide feedback for brewers,” he said.

As far as the second reason, eventually bragging rights and street cred convert into marketing. Sharp provides BOCBA award graphics brewers can use to tout their accomplishments. But, there’s yet another benefit to winning awards, as he illustrated through a story about Fortside Brewing Company in Vancouver, Washington.

The Community Brewery

In 2018, Fortside brewed a one-off hazy IPA called Orange Whip. It became popular among taproom patrons, but after winning a silver at BOCBA, it really took off. The sales of that one beer got the attention of a local distributor who became “flexible” in their terms, in order to sell Orange Whip to a wider audience. Co-Owner Mike DiFabio admits that this isn’t always the case, but in this instance, the award was a catalyst to creating their first flagship and significant growth. It was the brand awareness and especially the opportunity that arose from that award that made the difference.

“Orange Whip is now about 25 percent of our total production,” DiFabio said.

The Specialty Brewery

Matt Van Wyk may have won more medals than Michael Phelps at a pool party. His story of awards and opportunity began with his first GABF medal in 2005. With his hand at the helm of Flossmoor Station Restaurant & Brewery in Flossmoor, Illinois, they won four more in 2006, as well as the coveted title Small Brewer of the Year. After a circuitous story that includes a sister-in-law, a dentist chair and a small brewery, Van Wyk founded Alesong Brewing and Blending in the cultural cross-section of high-end beer and wine country.

Awards may have brought him this opportunity, but shiny medals are no longer his focus.

“Winning awards isn’t make-it-or-break-it,” Van Wyk said. “But it is nice.”

That is because his awards are now working for him. They are waves of momentum spreading his reputation on a red carpet made from barrels and barley. Challenges persist amidst the competitive beer environment, but a legacy of awards has a way of smoothing out some of the rough spots, such as ensuring adequate shelf space in bottle shops. Best of all, his patrons know that when they drink an Alesong Beer, they drink knowing it is world-class.

The Retailer

There are everyday beers, Friday night beers and special occasion beers. Award winners occupy all levels. Robert McCarthy, beer buyer at Newport Avenue Market in Bend, Oregon, knows his beer and which ones his customers should take home.

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At the top of a set of rickety black stairs, Carolina del Carmen Villatoro and Daphne Salinas haul a bag of pale malt over the edge of a silver vat and begin to pour. It’s around 11 a.m. and nearly everyone in the crowd below — a group of about 40 women — is holding a donut and tasting glass  filled with  amber, stout, hazy IPA, or another style of beer. These women, some in bubblegum-pink rain boots, others wearing black hoodies emblazoned with “Galgo Beer,” have traveled from the U.S. West Coast (San Diego, Los Angeles, and Seattle), and Mexico (Mexicali and Ensenada) to be at Lúdica Artesanal brewery in Tijuana.

With a mix of old friends and new faces, the event feels like a social gathering, albeit one that could only occur prior to COVID-19. Chatter echoes through the cavernous brewery and warms the space with laughter. At the top of those black stairs, perched to the right of the vat with a broad grin stretched across her face, is Jessica Guerrero, founder of The Mexicali HomeBrewers. With a mash shovel, she stirs the soupy malt constantly. The room smells like yeasty porridge. Villatoro and Salinas empty the last of the malt into the vat and toss aside the empty bag. The crowd below erupts into applause.

For the next hour or so, each woman at Lúdica — including myself — will climb to the top of the stairs and pour a portion of malt into the steaming stew. The beer of the day is an American-style brown ale, brewed with three kinds of caramel malt, a chocolate malt, and a blend of four different American hop varieties. It was a beer voted on by a group of female craft-beer enthusiasts from both sides of the border and a recipe developed by a mostly female student beer club in Tijuana. Both of these factors make the 10-barrel batch of “Dos Californias Brown” more than just a beer.

The recipe for the Dos Californias Brown Ale was developed by students from the Instituto Tecnológico de Tijuana who are part of a brewing club called Galgo Beer. The majority of the club’s participants are female students. Photo by Alessandra Bergamin

In 2018, Melody Crisp and SouthNorte Brewery founded Dos Californias Brewsters, a female-led beer collaboration between the border cities of San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico. Over the last three years, with the support of the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, women from both sides of the border gather for a brew day hosted at a local Tijuana brewery. The final product debuts each year at the annual Ensenada Beer Festival, via the SouthNorte brewery booth, and tapped at breweries across Tijuana.  Beer sales fund scholarships for women studying biochemical engineering at the Instituto Tecnológico de Tijuana, a public university in the city. So far, twelve students have been supported by scholarships through the sale of the Dos Californias Brewsters beers.

This year, the spread of COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the 2020 Ensenada Beer Festival, so Dos Californias Brown has only been sold in to-go growlers at Lúdica. Crisp said Dos Californias Brewsters will rebrew the batch or host a fundraiser in the future to raise donations..

While the scholarships are the ultimate goal of the brew day, COVID-19 won’t detract from what was still accomplished back in February: the collaboration is about more than just fundraising. It’s a way to encourage women to be involved in craft beer, empowering those in the industry, and fostering cross-border friendships.

“Despite some language barriers, we can still come together over this common thing that is beer,” Crisp said. “It’s pretty amazing.”

Brewing on Both Sides of the Border

On an unusually rainy day in late February, I waited for a U.S. Consulate bus outside the world’s busiest land border crossing outside Tijuana. Pre-COVID, around 90,000 people would pass from one country to the other each day. It was around 8:30 a.m. and already families were greeting one another in a nearby parking lot outside, or waving goodbye to loved ones as they crossed from the U.S. into Mexico.

San Ysidro, the border crossing that divides San Diego and Tijuana, is a labyrinth of goods, cars, and people navigating the fences, barbed wire, and border patrol agents that divide one country from the other. On the U.S. side, the border is bound by shopping outlets, currency exchange stores, and a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf which doubled as the brew day’s meeting point. But this ordinary scene masks a greater truth — the U.S.-Mexico border represents so much more than just the end of one country and the beginning of another.

Over the past four years, U.S. immigration policies have largely centered on the border and the influx of migrants fleeing violence and poverty in Central America. As a result, President Donald Trump has made repeated calls for a border wall, the enforcement of a “Remain in Mexico” policy for those awaiting immigration proceedings, and the tear gassing of migrants — including children — by border patrol agents near the San Diego and Tijuana crossing.

In this light, it’s difficult to reconcile the reality of a brewing day sponsored by the same U.S. government that has enforced these policies. But border cities and the people who reside in them also exist beyond the politics that may try to define them, and Tijuana’s female brewers, as well as the students from the Instituto Tecnológico de Tijuana, are good examples of that.

“It’s one thing when you read the national headlines but it’s another to actually be here on the border where everything happens,” said Sue Saarnio, the U.S. Consul General in Tijuana, on the brew day. “People don’t let the fact that there’s a border stop them.”

While this sentiment is refuted by much of America’s restrictive border control policies, it’s most applicable to the people, such as those from San Diego and Tijuana, who routinely cross the border for work, school, and travel. Paulina Villalobos is one such person, and sees the initiative as a natural extension of the flow of people, ideas, and goods between Southern California and Baja Mexico. More so, she said, Mexican breweries import brewing ingredients from  the United States, binding the two craft beer industries together.

“We don’t feel like we don’t belong on either side of the border,” Villalobos said. “It’s just that wall that separates us — that’s it.”

Just after 9 a.m., five of us boarded the consulate bus to Lúdica. We moved quickly through the car lanes that bridge the U.S. and Mexico and snaked through the drizzle and traffic of Tijuana. Lúdica’s taproom and brewery are about five miles from Avenida Revolución, Tijuana’s main tourist drag, complete with zebra-painted donkeys, billboards advertising discount pharmaceutical drugs, and bars selling ice-cold Coronas by the bucket. Partly influenced by San Diego’s robust craft beer scene, Tijuana has seen an explosion of breweries over the last decade, said Villalobos. While the country has fewer than 1,000 craft breweries in total, in 2015 more than 20 opened in Tijuana alone. One of the more recent breweries to open was SouthNorte.

Jessica Guerrero, founder of The Mexicali HomeBrewers, took the lead as participants added three kinds of caramel malt and a chocolate malt to brew the Dos Californias Brown Ale. Photo by Alessandra Bergamin

Founded by Ryan Brooks, the former head brewer at San Diego’s Coronado Brewing Co., SouthNorte is the first independent American brewery to have a permanent presence in Mexico while also selling their beer in the U.S. Because of this, the brewery played a role in the creation of Dos California Brewsters. Until recently, Melody Crisp was the vice president of marketing at Coronado, where she met Brooks and began working with SouthNorte. (Crisp was laid off due to COVID-19.)

Because of cross-country travel pre-COVID, Crisp would travel into Mexico three or four times a month as part of her work with SouthNorte, and in part to enjoy Tijuana and its surrounding areas. That helped her become well connected to the craft beer scene in Baja, California and meet Preeti Shah, the former Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana. Shah was familiar with SouthNorte’s cross-border brewing and thought there was potential for a similar collaboration catering to women. Shah invited Crisp to a meeting of GalgoBeer, a brewing club at the Instituto Tecnológico de Tijuana. Crisp was surprised when she arrived: the majority of participants were women. More so, these women wanted to work in brewing production and were learning the full gamut of skills from management and sales to the brewing itself.

“In San Diego there’s a lot more women today in brewing than there were 15 years ago but there’s a lot of room for improvement, especially on the production side,” Crisp said. “Seeing women in Mexico pursuing a brewing career on the production side was very eye-opening.”

Each year, more and more women across Mexico are getting involved in different aspects of craft beer from tasting and appreciation to the brewing itself. “If I can’t count the number of women [involved] — it’s a good sign,” said Kathy Pedrín the co-founder of Mujeres Catadoras de Cerveza en México, a national women-led beer club. Photo by Alessandra Bergamin

At the 2020 Dos Californias brew day, many of the U.S.-based women described how the Pink Boots Society — a club that promotes, supports, and encourages female beer professionals globally — had connected them to events, scholarships, and, most importantly, one another. No chapters have popped up yet in Mexico, largely because the country has its own locally-grown women’s beer club. Eight years ago, Yadira Espinoza — who now lives in Germany — and Kathy Pedrín founded Mujeres Catadoras de Cerveza en México, a women-led beer club with a focus on education, appreciation, and promotion of the country’s craft beer industry.

When the club was founded, Pedrín explained, there were only eight breweries in Ensenada and 20 to 30 women working in the industry across Mexico. When asked if she could estimate how many women are involved in some capacity of brewing across the country now  Pedrín was stumped. Catadoras alone has grown to include about 20 cities across Mexico, including those along the border such as Tijuana and Mexicali.

“Each year, more and more women are getting involved,” Pedrín said. “If I can’t count the number of women, it’s a good sign.”

Women of the Galgo Beer Club

Just after midday at Lúdica, the rain had eased and cars began filling the small lot in front of the brewery as locals stopped by for a Saturday drink. The morning’s chatty hum had become a deafening roar as people ordered tacos, sampled beer from both sides of the border, and accidentally smashed a glass or two.

Switching between Spanish and English, a group of nervous but enthusiastic GalgoBeer club participants described how each of them had decided to join the club. For some, especially when there were few female participants, it was a matter of “if you join, I’ll join,” explained Ivette Aramburo Zepeda. For others who noticed the growing number of female members, the club was a path into a world they had always assumed was male dominated. Given Tijuana’s burgeoning craft beer industry — and the city’s close ties to the United States — the decision to join the club was also an enterprising one.

“I saw a growth opportunity, you could say, as an entrepreneur, to get my foot in the door and enter the beer-making world,” said Johana Lizeth Amaya Ramos. “I was excited about that and it motivated me to join.”

While the brew day scholarships have eased the financial pressure of paying for college — some of the recipients have spent summers working to pay for tuition or spread themselves thin and work part-time throughout the school year — the connection between Galgo Beer and the Dos Californias Brewsters has also inspired the students to radically rethink what a career in the craft beer industry could look like. Even though Tijuana has a growing thirst for craft beer, the fact that men dominate the city’s best-known breweries is not lost on the female students. Many of them prefer the idea of creating a female brewers association rather than pursuing a career at a traditional brewery, where many of them have already gained production experience. Through a collective such as Adelitas Cerveceras Mexicanas — a group of more than 150 Mexican women who have launched craft beers under their own brand — there is the potential for women to brew distinct beers while supporting one another.

With so much down time, the Dos Californias brewing day is as much about connecting with other female brewers as it is about the beer itself. Photo by Alessandra Bergamin

“When you’re in an industry that’s dominated by men, it’s cool to see women who aren’t afraid to get into any and all areas of the industry and do what needs to be done,” said Diana Ivette Pulido Villarreal.

Amid the hubbub of the brew day, I had forgotten about the steaming malt mixture in the silver vat. Then, all of a sudden, a loud hiss cut through the noise of the brewery. Once again, the room erupted in hoots and hollers. “Holy shit, we did not want that to happen!” said Betty Lopez, former head brewer at Tres Fuegos Cerveceria in Tijuana, as she laughed. The silver vat of soupy mash had overflowed and a light brown liquid seeped across the floor. Without missing a beat, Jessica Guerrero — who had been mixing the mash earlier — began sweeping the liquid with a bristled broom. With the lengthy downtime of brewing, it was easy to forget that we had gathered together to brew a beer. But, in another sense, the overwhelming camaraderie of the day had superseded the beer itself.

“This day is really about having the time to connect with one another and the act of just being here is the most important thing,” Crisp said. “It all starts with being present.”

This story was made possible by the Diversity in Beer Writing Grant, established by the North American Guild of Beer Writers in partnership with CraftBeer.com. Additional support for the grant comes from Allagash Brewing Company.

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Although the Center for Disease Control and Prevention says that the United States has one of the safest public drinking water supplies, there are emerging issues with Americans’ water. These concerns prompted the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to create Brewers for Clean Water in 2013. Since then, the initiative has been gaining ground. The fight for clean water is on.

Brewers for Clean Water Gets its Start

In 2013, NRDC began working with several organizations in the environmental community to push the Environmental Protection Agency to clarify which waterways were protected by the Clean Water Act (CWA). “This was – and still is – a subject of great confusion,” says Becky Hammer, senior attorney and deputy director of Federal Water Policy for NRDC.

To aid their efforts, NRDC began investigating what other voices they could partner with to make sure water sources were protected. Breweries were a natural fit. “No matter the size, breweries intuitively understand that they need to have clean water,” Hammer says.

NRDC first began reaching out to breweries in the Midwest. As word got out, big-name breweries like Allagash and Sierra Nevada joined its movement. And their efforts paid off. In 2015, the Congress passed the rule they’d been pushing for limiting water pollution.

In 2016, everything changed when the new administration took over. Since then, the NRDC has been playing defense in response to a multi-phased rollback by the government that will undo CWA. “They put out their own rule that redefines protected waterways in ways that are worse than how it was in 2015,” Hammer says.

As a result, fewer waterways are protected under these new rules. The threat is a problem everywhere, but certain parts of the country will be hit hardest. In Arizona, for instance, 80 percent of its waterways will no longer be protected under the CWA. Breweries are paying attention, and it’s safe to say that many are worried.

The cause for concern

If you’ve ever brewed beer, you know that mineral content matters. “How hard or soft water is in the area can be problematic,” says Layne Carter, local brand and sustainability manager at Aslan Brewing Company in Bellingham, Wash. “Depending on where you live, the mineral content might be a lot for a brewer to work around.”

In Bellingham, for instance, water is drawn from Lake Whatcom and, occasionally, the middle fork of the Nooksack River. Because the water is soft, it’s perfect for brewing beer. “We’re basically starting with a blank canvass, and we can add minerals if we want,” says Frank Trosset, Aslan’s head brewer.

For Cahaba Brewing Company in Birmingham, Ala. “The water in Birmingham has always been among the top-rated across the country,” says Eric Meyer, Cahaba’s co-founder and brewer. “Yet because there could always be a change in the water chemistry with heavy rains or changes in the water treatment plant, we have charcoal filters and constantly check our water.”

Cahaba has a full lab to test the water, which generally takes about 15 minutes. Cahaba brews two days a week, and on the first day of every brewing cycle, the brewery tests the water. It doesn’t usually get tested the second day, as Meyer assumes the water will be the same.

While these breweries and others haven’t yet encountered issues with water quality, there is growing concern. “There’s absolutely a sense of urgency,” Carter says. “Whether or not it be in our area, we know that advocating for clean water is important, especially considering recent changes in environmental protection and water supply safeguarding.”

Enter Brewers for Clean Water, which currently consists of over 100 breweries. It costs nothing to join – filling out a simple form is the only step to becoming a member, outside of having the brewery’s name listed on the web site as a supporter.

Once breweries are registered, they can decide what actions by the NRDC they want to endorse. For instance, when NRDC composed a letter to the administration opposing some of its clean water rollbacks, breweries could choose whether or not they wanted to add their signature. The situation was the same when NRDC sent letters to oppose the administration’s attempts to weaken water standards for coal-fired plants.

Becoming Part of the Clean Water Movement

It seems like every brewery should want to be part of this movement. But Hammer suspects there are a few reasons that may be holding breweries back.

For starters, capacity issues are an obstacle for some. “Some breweries are so small that the only person reading the emails is the owner who’s also trying to run the business,” Hammer says. While it requires only a minimal time commitment to participate, brewery owners do have to read emails and letters to decide if they want to sign on. “For some small breweries, they just don’t have time to do this.”

Some breweries also cite political reasons. “Some believe that advocating policy issues would be perceived by customers as a political move,” Hammer says. “They don’t think it’s worth losing business if customers who support the Trump administration get mad.”

Yet outside of those two reasons, there’s little reason not to join. Hammer also admits constraints by time limits in getting the word out to breweries. “With over 8,000 breweries in the country, I don’t have time to email each one of them,” she says. Fortunately, breweries that want to participate don’t need to wait for Hammer to contact them. They can fill out a form online  and wait for confirmation of their registration.

Joining was a no-brainer for Bent Paddle Brewing Company in Duluth, Minnesota. “We had already been putting out statements about how important water is for us,” says Laura Mullen, co-founder and VP of marketing and outreach. Bent Paddle sources its water from Lake Superior, which is renowned for its quality. “We have such neutral water here that it can mimic any water table in the world, and clean water matters to our bottom line.”

Aslan Brewing also didn’t hesitate. “Our team at Aslan takes a lot of pride in our sustainability efforts,” Carter says. “Being a large brewery in a small town, we strive to do as much advocacy for the environment as possible, and we welcome any chance to be a voice in the craft beer industry when it comes to protecting our planet.”

While Meyer understands why breweries might be skeptical at first, he believes the benefits outweigh any negatives. “The biggest benefit is that as breweries, we’re united as one voice under an organization that knows how to word things the right way,” he says, adding that having a voice will be vital when the government lessens restrictions on water quality, which could then add more impurities to the water. “Any changes in water quality will have a big impact on the craft beer industry.”

The post Craft Brewers Band Together for Clean Water appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Hugs (pre-COVID-19; meetings are now virtual) are given freely among members of the Brewing Change group. Black, Cuban, Mexican, biracial, Afghan, and more gather at tables to talk about the beer they are currently enjoying, the nuts and bolts of the industry, or even about how their jobs are going outside of beer. Some work in the craft beer industry, some just like a good pint, and others simply like the company of those who understand them.

Brewing Change Collaborative (BCC) wants a more diverse craft beer scene in the Twin Cities, creating a place where people of color can gather and feel included. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 64 percent of the population in Minneapolis is white. The state as a whole is 84 percent white. It can make the members of BCC feel outside of their own communities, but the nonprofit group is working to change that.

Elle Rhodes, one of the three leaders of BCC, and the one in charge of media and education, said people of color needed a group.

“It (Brewing Change Collaborative) started as a thing to change the spectrum of who we’re seeing, but it also became, not a support group, but a group of support and community that gave back to us more than expected,” Rhodes said. “In November there was a meeting, and everyone talked about the Founders lawsuit and their thoughts on it in a room with a different perspective than the general population.”

Founders Brewing Co. employee Tracy Evans filed a lawsuit alleging he was fired for reporting coworkers for racial discrimination. It was eventually settled.

Of the 180 breweries in Minnesota, just two are run by black owners. Du Nord Craft Spirits is owned by a black man; La Doña Cerveceria brewery’s owner is a Minnesota native born to Uruguayan immigrants, and Surly’s owner is of Pakistan descent. The group of diverse owners is small.

“Representation provides a level of safety for the oppressed to think and move freely, giving us the power to dream big and reclaim our agency,” Nasreen Sajady said.

The beginning

A year before the Brewing Change Collaborative was created, Sajady wanted to start a similar group. There were no other Muslim or queer women in the industry, and she had a hard time relating to peers.  She felt a need to connect with people after she began working at Fulton Brewing Co. as the quality manager, but found herself surrounded by white men. On her first day, she felt overwhelmed by working in a place without seeing someone like her, and said she had a panic attack.

“It was so overwhelming for me,” she said. “If there was a person of color or a woman in the room, I don’t think I would have had that reaction. I would have felt safer.”

Sajady began working at Fulton on Jan. 2, 2018. She said it took her a few months to acclimate to the work environment. Later that year, Sajady met coworker Rhodes.

Rhodes, working as an on-premise sales rep in the Twin Cities, was convinced she was the only black woman working in sales, and still is. Though others would always tell her there is one more, she’s never met her. When a reporter for Growler Magazine called Rhodes for an interview Rhodes said she called her “a f—— unicorn,” as a black person in the industry.

“That’s when it hit me that I was the only one,” Rhodes recalled.

Ramsey Louder felt the same way.

“I was the only person of color in production, one of the few that worked at Dangerous Man,” said Louder. He is now head brewer and co-owner of ONE Fermentary and Taproom. “Occasionally it would become lonely. For a long time, I didn’t think much about it. I was just happy to be there doing what I was doing.”

But that loneliness crept in. People would only refer to him as the guy who checked IDs (something he did at Dangerous Man, a brewery in northeast Minneapolis, before he was a brewer), or wouldn’t acknowledge him in the same way they would the white staff or brewers. He didn’t have anyone to turn to who could relate to being invisible.

“I wanted to do something to try and prevent that from happening to me or someone else,” he said.

Louder was coming back to the Twin Cities from Michigan, where he was a cellerman at New Holland Brewing Co., to open his new brewery, and he, Rhodes, and Sajady got to talking about creating a group where people of color and the LGBTQ+ community could exist where they could be more open in conversation with other people of color who understood them.

Ten people gathered at BCC’s first meeting in March 2019. And now dozens show up to meetings, and there are nearly 100 members in the group meeting at places like ONE or La Doña.

Rhodes said every one of the 10 in the inaugural meeting worked in the brewing industry. Two were beer reps, two were brewery owners and brewers, one was a brewer, two worked in packaging, two as bartenders at a brewery, and one in quality control.

They felt like they might be the only people of color in the entire Minnesota beer industry. They felt elated to all be together; the first meeting lasted three hours. It was a social gathering, but also one where they made organizational goals.

First, they decided on their mission. Second, they decided education should be a pillar of the group. And finally, they wanted to advocate for one another in the industry.

It was scary for some.

“What if people get upset about us making an organization for people of color? How dare you make something I can’t be a part of?,” Rhodes remembered some at the meeting being concerned about.

“You don’t have to be in the industry or even like beer,” Sajady said. “It’s a space of love, and if people need love, they’re welcome to join us.”

Taking action

Becoming a nonprofit was one of the first things the group knew it needed to do in order to accept donations and raise money for its members for education and scholarships. These scholarships might be to attend a beer fest. Or to attend learning opportunities provided by the group and collaboration breweries. To earn money they accept donations and run raffles at beer fests and events. The Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild allows them to set up tables at their events at no charge.

The group brewed a beer with Inbound Brewing Co., with sales of that beer in the taproom going straight to Brewing Change. They’ve done the same thing with Bauhaus Brewing Co., with a portion of proceeds coming back to them from a collaboration beer. One of the largest donations to date was from a diversity panel at ONE. Toni Boyce, formerly of New Belgium Brewing Company, was a guest speaker, and handed over a donation check from the Fort Collins, Colorado, brewery.

The trio recalled being at one of their very first events, Fulton’s Gran Fondo in 2019. An older white man walked up to the Brewing Change Collaborative table to see what it was all about in the group’s nascent days. He was confused. Was there really a problem?

There is, and it’s not just something BCC members see. The Brewers Association released a report in August 2019. In it, Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson said, “The data show that similar to craft consumers, brewery employees are disproportionately white relative to both the general U.S. population and where breweries are located.”

This year’s plan, whenever people are able to gather again thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, is much more robust.

Additional outreach has become even harder due to the pandemic. Minnesota has more than 26,000 confirmed cases, and 1,126 have died as of June 8. BCC is hoping to award scholarship money from the donations, raffles, and collaborative beer releases to two members to attend Pittsburgh’s Fresh Fest Beer Fest, known as “the country’s first black beer fest.” It is now an online fest.

It’s the first BCC scholarship opportunity that aims to help people of color pay for travel, tickets, and more.

A virtual education series is set to launch this summer, with the goal of helping people of color expand their beer-related knowledge and prepare to take Cicerone tests. Dangerous Man, where Louder got his start, was set to let BCC use its space for free. They were also going to provide graphic design for marketing and advertising. COVID-19 has changed the plans quite a bit, but Dangerous Man may still help out with the virtual series.

There are also homebrewing courses in the works and brewing science discussions. BCC is also sharing in-state job openings on its Facebook page.

The future

BCC hopes that educating its members and being a place where people of color and the LGBTQ+ community can see others like them in the industry will make a change in Minnesota. Louder hopes that BCC leads to more diversity in the industry, and people of color putting down roots in Minnesota.

“We should see more people of color because of our group and seeing more representation in the industry,” he said.

BCC member Gabe Gutierrez, a craft beer enthusiast who does not work in the industry, said he looks forward to learning more about beer in a setting that reminds him more of home. His Cuban ethnicity did not make him stand out in his hometown of Miami, where the Miami-Dade county has a population that is nearly 70 percent Hispanic or Latino.

“When I moved up here almost four years now… that’s really when I’m like, ‘OK, I’m starting to notice,'” he said. “Mostly these subtle, weird stares, or kind of put in these awkward situations. Especially when traveling to breweries outside of the Twin Cities.”

BCC offers growth and support to inject the industry with a more diverse workforce through education. Rhodes said that one member of the group has become an assistant brewer at Inbound. A handful have found part-time jobs in the industry. And many are finding interviews when they could not get a foot in the door before.

Most of all, the weekly and monthly meetings  will remain a place where people of color can try to work together toward a more diverse industry.

“Last time we had a meeting at La Doña,” Louder reminisces. “A table of people of color sharing experience, why we’re there, what we’re looking for. A common experience we share where we don’t need to guard or check our words.”

“We get to be ourselves,” Sajady continued. “It’s not something as people of color we get to do every day of our lives.”

The death of George Floyd

On May 25, George Floyd was killed while in Minneapolis police custody. An officer of the Minneapolis Police Department knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

It happened at the Cup Foods grocery store at the intersection of East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue. Sajady can see the store from her front doorstep.

“I can hear everything,” Sajady explained. “I rode my bike by there later and saw the four cops at the scene. They had just started taping up the area. It was weird. It was like riding through water; the energy was so still.”

Sajady has not only been out protesting. But she has opened up her home as a haven for people to eat, snack, drink water, and feel replenished.

If you followed Sajady on social media you would have seen rage and sadness because of Floyd’s death.

But weeks later, she is feeling something else.

“I’m really proud of everyone involved, everything that they’re doing,” Sajady said. “The way they are communicating and their anger is being heard. It’s beautiful. I’m very proud of everybody for being so brave. Living on this block, every single hour is a different feeling. Up or down, up or down.”

Through Brewing Change Collaborative, Sajady and her co-founders are making sure friends and members are OK after protests. And they are always reaching out to check the mental health of their friends.

Brewing Change Collaborative also wrote a public letter to the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild. It had remained silent on Floyd’s death until June 3.

“Your silence is deafening, in fact,” the Instagram post stated. “We need for the Guild to step up as a leader in the craft beer community, to be the voices of education and advocacy to its audience for those it aims to support. We need your support of our missions, members, and community to go beyond beer festivals and donations, to advocating for the diversity and inclusion we have all been preaching.”

The Guild thanked BCC in the Instagram post thread, and since published a statement on the death of Floyd. “There is no excuse or our delay in making this statement, and we want to thank you and all members of our Minnesota craft beer community for holding us accountable.”

The trio can consider this a small victory. But they know more inclusion and diversity is going to be a marathon. But it’s one they’ve been ready for their entire lives.

“It makes me hopeful that more and more people are opening their eyes,” Sajady said. She thinks that through this tragedy, and the will to do better, that perhaps this is the turning point for a better Minneapolis, and a better America.

This story was made possible by the Diversity in Beer Writing Grant, established by the North American Guild of Beer Writers in partnership with CraftBeer.com. Additional support for the grant comes from Allagash Brewing Company.

The post Brewing Change Collaborative Tackles Diversity in the Twin Cities Beer Community appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Recently, brewers across the nation have begun to reimagine their tours in an effort to be more inclusive to the unique needs and desires of their drinking audience. One particularly underserved group has been those craft beer lovers who are deaf.  

Thankfully, that is now changing as breweries add American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters and other elements in an attempt to better embrace these members of their drinking audience. 

Streetcar 82 Leads the Way 

While implementing ASL-guided tours might be new to some, it makes up the foundation of Streetcar 82 Brewing Company, which is one of the few 100 percent deaf-owned and operated breweries in the country. According to Owner and Founder Jon Cetrano, Streetcar 82 “pretty-much” only conducts their brewery tours in ASL. 

To Cetrano, the ASL focus is important because it’s both an inclusive practice and a smart business strategy. Based in Hyattsville, Maryland, Streetcar 82 is a short drive from the Washington, D.C. area. The district is a hub for the deaf community due to the proximity of Gallaudet University, a private university for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, and the availability of accessible federal government employment opportunities. 

Alongside tours, Streetcar 82 also offers ASL classes in their brewery that give community members and homebrewers alike a new way to learn and talk about beer in an ASL-focused format. 

An Opportunity to Build Stronger Connections 

Like Streetcar 82, many breweries across the nation have realized the opportunity in front of them to connect with these members of the drinking community. Some inspiration can come from simple observations in their taproom.  

“We’ve noticed some folks signing in our taproom over the years,” Dovetail Brewery’s Tour Coordinator Shana Solarte says. “I thought finding an interpreter to come along was an easy way for us to make the tours more accessible and inclusive for all of our patrons.”

(More: All Together: Breweries Collaborate to Help Hospitality Workers)

The popular Chicago brewer, most known for their authentic takes on easy-drinking European styles, just hosted their first ASL-guided tour earlier in March. 

For Industrial Arts Brewing Company in Garnerville, New York, the opportunity to introduce ASL-guided tours came as the brewery continued to expand its hospitality services in the hopes of establishing stronger connections with their consumers. The addition of ASL tours helps the brewery, now in its fourth year of operation, establish a more meaningful relationship with their growing audience. 

“One of our commitments of service is the focus on customized conversations we have surrounding our product with individual guests,” says Christine Olivier, programs and events manager for Industrial Arts. “The addition of services for our deaf and hard-of-hearing customers makes it possible to reach deeper into our community.”

The Importance of the Interpreter 

Similar to a brewery’s standard tour, the only real addition for an ASL-guided version is the presence of an interpreter, who relays the verbal narration of the main tour guide via sign language to the deaf and hard-of-hearing patrons in the group. 

The point is to make everything the same, so that everyone can enjoy the unique intricacies of their local brewery. For Industrial Arts, their ASL-guided tour is composed of their bar manager along with an ASL interpreter. Unique to these tours is the 90 minutes of interpreted bar service that follows the tour, so that these patrons can communicate with the taproom staff without barriers. According to Olivier, the new tour format has been well received. 

(More: What Happened to the Beer? World Beer Cup Entries Saved)

“We just had our first tour on February 22, with 20 enthusiastic visitors from the hearing and the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities,” she says. “The energy has been positive and enthusiastic so far!”

In an effort to make their ASL-guided tour more interactive, Minnesota’s Surly Brewing Company partnered with local interpreting company CODA Brothers. Tour Coordinator Ty Rushmeyer says the presence of the CODA Brothers interpreter provides more opportunities for interactive learning, and encourages first-time visitors to ask questions they may not have had the opportunity to ask previously. 

“The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and we have received much heartfelt gratitude for providing this experience,” Rushmeyer says.

Zilker Brewing Expands Beyond the Standard Tour 

Austin, Texas-based Zilker Brewing Company had similar aspirations for their ASL-guided tour. According to Taproom and Events Manager Rachael Hackathorn, the Zilker team hosted a four-day workshop for staff to learn the basics of ASL, in preparation their “Terp’d” tour. This ASL-guided tour had also been hosted by Austin brewing colleagues like St. Elmo Brewing Company and Austin Beer Garden Brewing Company. Unfortunately, the initial results for their “Terp’d” tour weren’t great. 

“We didn’t have a great turn out, and personally, I think that at some point most brewery tours blur together,” Hackathorn says. “We all have shiny tanks and make beer.”

(Find a Brewery Near You)

So, instead of an ASL-guided tour, Zilker developed a new way to embrace the deaf and hard-of-hearing community in Austin. Through a partnership with Austin’s ASL Craft Beer Club and a working relationship with community partners like Tabytha Rodriguez’s Draft & Craft pop-up market, Zilker provides their taproom space for Deaf beer drinkers’ happy hours, which Hackathorn says is much more successful.

Along with a trained staff that can properly communicate with their hard-of-hearing guests, Zilker goes above and beyond to make their taproom more accessible for these special happy hours. This includes bringing in vendors for interpreted tarot card readings, which is funded by Draft & Craft. Zilker is also cognizant of the proper lighting, music and other environmental factors needed to make these happy hours as enjoyable as possible. 

‘Being Inclusive is Everyone’s Priority’

Beer is supposed to be fun, and taprooms are supposed to be places that everyone can enjoy. The above efforts from these breweries – and many others around the nation – highlight how important these initiatives for inclusiveness are for the breweries and their staff. 

For Olivier at Industrial Arts, the thought process is simple. All members of the community, regardless of race, gender, sex, economic class or disability, are welcome to be part of the brewery experience and the brewery tour process. It’s up to the brewery to ensure a warm welcome upon arrival. 

“If they are using their resources to enjoy our product, we should use our resources to engage their curiosity around it,” Olivier says. “We are looking forward to expanding the ways we can have these conversations with all who are interested.”

Breweries are vital to their communities and an essential service for so many, regardless of backgrounds. Encouraging an inclusive environment at your taproom shouldn’t be seen as add-on, it should be part of the brewery’s mission and purpose. 

Such is the case for Dovetail Brewing. 

“Being inclusive is everybody’s duty, and all kinds of people drink beer,” Solarte says. “Everyone is welcome at Dovetail, and we want to show that as well as say it.”

The post Craft Brewers Embrace Deaf Community Through ASL-Guided Brewery Tours appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

House of Fermentology, technically a small-batch beer blendery, settled quietly into Burlington, Vermont’s reemerging South End district. This was 2016. South End’s Pine Street, currently the heartbeat of Burlington’s ever-expanding hub of artists and artisans, was still transforming from a symbol of post-industrial abandonment to the vibrant pulse of Vermont’s maker community. The cost to rent space and organically grow an experimental business — one focused on unfiltered, wildly fermented ales aged slowly in oak barrels — was still relatively low.

It helped that in 1984, Mares wrote a book about craft beer and brewing, “Making Beer,” a beer book for industry and homebrewers before craft beer was Craft Beer, currently in its third edition.

“I have never been a professional brewer and never aspired to after I finished the first edition of ‘Making Beer.’ I had other things to write,” Mares said over the phone in February. “I wasn’t a businessman. I didn’t have $300,000 to spare. I’m a happy beer drinker and a hanger-on in the industry, but the only thing I ever did of importance was getting [Vermont legislature] to legalize brewpubs in 1988.”

It was a big thing for the Vermont brewing world. As of 2019, the state leads the nation in the number of breweries and brewpubs per 100,000 people older than age 21 — about 11.5 per capita.

Yet Mares asserted multiple times: he’s a homebrewer. But his friend Haire is another story.

The 20-year friendship between the two includes virtually 60 years of combined brewing experience. While Mares is the quiet craftsman and teacher-writer of the homebrewing world, Haire is the expert technician with a Wonka-esque creativity — a brewer meets businessman meets ardent inventor.

“I co-own House of Fermentology with Todd,” Mares said. “We joke that I’m the marketing director with no marketing budget. Todd has been the brewer and I’m the pretty face. I’m 79.”

Brewing By Vermont Beer Code

Along with co-founding a micro beer blendery with Mares, in 2016 Haire also became brewmaster and co-founder of Foam Brewers, located a mile from House of Fermentology on the mouth of Burlington’s Lake Champlain waterfront.

Foam opened to high acclaim, a cult following, and a burgeoning reputation for some of the most sought after ales in the country. A year after opening, RateBeer, a consumer-driven world website for craft beer enthusiasts, named Foam one of the top 10 new breweries in the world in its annual rankings. By then, Haire was already a fixture in the craft beer world for his 13 years leading production at a pre-beer-boom Magic Hat Brewery, followed by two years at Switchback Brewing Company, both in Vermont. He began to gain recognition as one of the best brewers in the country.

Haire lives by a distinctly Vermont beer code, an ethos exemplified in the last decade of craft beer by other state icons like The Alchemist, Hill Farmstead, and Lawson’s Finest Liquids.

“Have quality inputs,” said Haire. “Make them local. Then drink your local. And drink it fresh.”

Haire’s mentality — that beer is made and sold at the brewery — is less about exclusivity than the unwavering belief that serving a local community is the foundation of a brewery’s business. Haire believes drinking beer is about experiencing a narrative. It’s that a sense of person and place lies under the foam in a pint glass.

During a conversation in 2016, Haire recalled a quote by fellow Vermont brewer Steve Parkes, co-founder of Drop-In Brewery and the American Brewers Guild: “Your local beer shouldn’t travel farther than the distance a horse can carry water,” he paraphrased. It’s an old-school thought, even for a state geographically isolated by mountain ranges. It’s an idea that’s not often conducive to current-day economic requirements, such as scalability, high foot-traffic and escalated costs of production, including rent. Yet Haire uses this idea — to keep everything, from malt to customers, as local as possible — as his guiding principle to brewing. In doing so, he has shown that his beers are not only excellent; they are also profitable.

Brewer And Malter Make Good

On a visit to Foam Brewers in 2016, Haire opened a steel fermentation tank holding a wet-hop ale. Steam rising, he gently picked out a full-cone hop from Kirby Hop Farm in Chateauguay, New York. He pulled the bud apart, revealing fat lupulin glands clinging to the center, the small yellow sacs brimming with essential acids and hop oils. In the same beer, Haire used a blended malt base from Andrew Peterson, owner of Peterson Quality Malt in nearby Monkton. The relationship between brewer and malter continued to grow in the following years, helping to prompt Peterson’s 2019 purchase of Nordic Farms: 600 acres in Charlotte, Vermont, dedicated in large part to growing inputs for Vermont beer production. Along with housing myriad other local businesses — including an oyster farmer and a wood-fire bread bakery — the farm also holds Peterson Quality Malt’s new malt house and land for farming rye, wheat and barley for local breweries. In a state where dairy used to be king, Nordic Farms, once intended for cows, is currently the largest purchase dedicated to growing ingredients for area breweries. For the Vermont economy, this essentially means turning lemons into beer.

Sharing a Piece of the Farm Project

In 2020, Foam Brewers and House of Fermentology will both share a piece of that project.

“Nordic Farms was formerly a defunct, 60,000 square-foot dairy barn on 600 acres of farmland,” said Haire in a February phone call. He had just navigated a winter squall to reach Foam’s second production facility in Hinesburg, garnered in 2018 after demand for Foam exceeded the space on Lake Champlain.

By May, the Foam team will also open a restaurant called Deep City, with House of Fermentology sharing the space and the taps.

“House of Fermentology was outgrowing its 1,000 square-foot space on Pine Street,” said Haire. “So Bill and I are folding it into Foam.”

On merging House of Fermentology and Foam, Mares is happy. “It’s great,” he said. “[Todd and I] are keeping the trademark. It’s a style based on small-batch production”— in 2019, about 400 bottles a month —“and it always will be. That Foam will always have a House of Fermentology [beer] in their rotation I call a 100 percent success.”

20-Year Friendship Started With Bees, Not Beer

How House of Fermentology and Foam will continue to grow in tandem will likely reflect how Mares and Haire originally met. Their first bond wasn’t beer. It was bees.

“I have been friends with Bill since 1998,” said Haire. While Haire was working at Magic Hat, taking it from the initial inklings of a craft brewery to a mass-market stronghold, Mares was selling the first edition of “Making Beer” and honing his skills as a part-time beekeeper.

“[Bill] would come into Magic Hat often in those days for the Blind Faith IPA,” said Haire. “And I wanted to know more about keeping bees. I told him, ‘I’ll do the heavy lifting for your beehives if you teach me about beekeeping.’”

Decades later, after a new wave of craft brewing exchanged the Magic Hats of the world for breweries like The Alchemist, Haire suggested that Mares work on an updated edition of “Making Beer.” Since its original publication in the 1980s, the number of craft breweries in the United States mushroomed exponentially, and the definition of craft beer morphed along with it. Mares told Haire he’d do it — if he helped him with the revision.

“I’m no writer,” said Haire. “That’s a brutal job. But he threw me a chapter or two and helped me go through that.”

In tandem with writing the newest edition of “Making Beer,” Mares and Haire began to solidify a passion project: blending and aging beer under the name House of Fermentology at a low-cost warehouse on weekends. At the same time, Haire was in the middle of opening Foam Brewers, and co-ownership came with a perk. Per Vermont law, Haire explained, he couldn’t own and operate two different breweries at once.

“So legally I was [House of Fermentology’s] co-founder and do-er,” he said. “At the end of the day, our goal was to create a funky sour beer brewery using different herbs and inputs from Vermont. Doing it small and doing it well.”

Origin Of The Dots

It’s no coincidence, maybe, that House of Fermentology is famous for its Dot series. “You mark the queen bee with a colored dot to represent a year,” said Haire. The genesis of the Dots is the same as the 20-year friendship: honey bees.

Mares had another story. “We used some of our honey in our beers,” he stated. “But the ingenious method of dots and bees is above my pay grade. [Todd’s] idea to start with dots was more about simplicity.”

This might be true. In a 2018 interview with Hop Culture, Haire had another point of origin for dots: “All great art starts with a single dot,” he was quoted.

A mixed origin story for the acclaimed Dot beers emphasizes that Mares and Haire—and their 20-year friendship in brewing and beekeeping — are inextricably aligned. Mares and Haire see themselves respectively as the writer and the brewer, but the same is also now true in reverse. Mares helped co-own an internationally lauded brewery. Haire helped co-write the third edition of “Making Beer”.

The post The Adventures of Todd and Bill: A 20 Year Friendship in Craft Beer appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

So instead of drinking alone, tune in to any of the programs brewers are offering since you can’t hang out at the pub, attend a concert in person or take a tour these days.

Longing for an opportunity to enjoy watching a sporting event with a beer in hand? It doesn’t make  for a game, but Stone Brewing of Southern California is sponsoring online happy hours with the San Diego Loyal professional men’s soccer team. A series of Friday afternoon Instagram sessions features a coach or player talking with a brewer and fans who tune in. Assistant Loyal Coach Carrie Taylor, the first female coach in the United Soccer League, appeared in one, taking questions from the audience such as one complaining that team jerseys are needed in women’s sizes. Taylor responded  “I agree. I’ll see what I can do.” Asked about her favorite beer, she replied “cold.”

Stone had just formed a partnership with the expansion club to sell beer at the stadium and cross-promote. The pandemic halted the season after two games, so the sessions became a way to keep fans engaged, explains Stone founder Greg Koch on Instagram. Koch also goes on Instagram with Beers with Greg.

Tune in to stonebrewing.com/events for the Stone Brewing and SD Loyal Happy Hour; or for the Sessionable Saturdays with Greg.

And while we’re in Southern California virtually, we can also watch art and music events hosted by Boomtown Brewery of Los Angeles. Since it can’t currently host events in its taproom, Boomtown has been hosting art demos and a DJ playing music from her apartment you can dance to. One Saturday evening an artist showed how to make wearable art. “Virtual is the only thing these days,” says Managing Partner John Rankin.

And brewers are offering more than music and sports and even events you can participate in from your living room. Over on the East Coast, Hellbender Brewing Company of Washington, DC is featuring two weekly events you can take part in: Wednesday evening open mics and Thursday evening trivia, events moved online from the taproom. “We’ve had people come down and perform rap. It’s mostly singing. Someone played trumpet. We’ve had ukulele players, even stand-up comedy,” Evans says.

It helps that Hellbender CEO Ben Evans is a musician who takes the first 15-minute open mic spot. Evans comes from a family of musicians. He plays guitar. When not singing, he plays harmonica. “I was self-taught. In early college, I got a guitar, started teaching myself. He acknowledges he also learned some from his multi-instrumentalist brother. “I just sort of really enjoy playing guitar as a stress release.”

And since performers can now play from their living rooms, participants come from all over the country, as opposed to strictly the Washington area (including Evans’ brother in New York). Same with his online trivia, where participation is not limited by the number of people who can fit in his taproom. To take part or just listen in.

And wherever you are, if you want to burn off some beer-induced calories, you can join the Bikes & Beers Social Distance Ride. In normal times, Bikes & Beers teams up with brewers around the country. Cyclists pay an entry fee, do a ride on a given day of a chosen length, then enjoy two beers from the partner at the after-party along with a bag of swag. Part of the proceeds support local bike groups.

While hoping to return to standard rides this summer, a virtual ride is going on in April and May that you can still sign up for. Ride as much as you want on your own time at a safe distance from others outside, or on a peloton or exercise bike in your own home. Record your mileage, get a package and two beer tokens from any participating brewery, among other gifts. More than 200 breweries are involved.

By early May, about 2,500 riders have signed up, says Bikes & Beers President Sam Accardi. He wants to get back to regular rides by July. But if the lockdown continues, the virtual ride may be extended past May. Pedal over to check it out.

And who says the pandemic means you can’t enjoy a tasting or brewery tour? The New York State Brewers Association is sponsoring Virtual Craft Beer Tasting Experiences. The first one, hosted the first Saturday in May, featured four 90-minute Zoom tasting sessions at $65 each, each one inviting you into a different brewery. To keep it intimate and a discussion possible, attendance was capped at 100 per session and it sold out, including 35 who got a discount for attending all four. The association arranged to ship via UPS the two 32-ounce beers to your residence the day before so you could sip it while the brewer helps you understand what goes into it. The brewer then takes you through a virtual tour of the brewery, followed by a Q&A. The second beer is to enjoy later. The program was designed for couples, in case that sounds like a lot of beer to drink at once, says Association Executive Director Paul Leone. “We made sure the beers people got weren’t typical ones they could always get.”

“If we do a series of these, it may make up for all the beer festivals we had to cancel this year,” Leone says. “We don’t know how long these things will have legs. We’re going with it as long as we can. We may do pairings with New York cheese and beer” or with chocolate. “We have tickets on sale now for the next one.” Check it out at, here.

And in Chicago, the creative Beer Temple taproom and bottleshop will also send you a package of beer to enjoy during its weekly Facebook live events. Everyone drinks the same beer at the same time during the discussion. “I get feedback. They can ask questions,” owner Chris Quinn explains.

Quinn says “we usually have a theme (such as ) adjuncts: all sorts of adjuncts in beer for different reasons, including traditional ones such as corn” and newer ones. Another theme involves “great craft beers the industry was founded on: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Stone IPA, Allagash White.”

Beer Temple will deliver the beer in advance to parts of the city; suburbanites who want to participate can pick the stuff up. “We might reach out a little more” and deliver out of state, Quinn says.

“I’ve learned people still really want to have a sense of community and drinking craft beer is a very community-oriented thing. We intentionally have it on Saturday nights because we want people to relax and not think of anything important. We found there’s a large range of knowledge base. We  have had people who have never been to a beer tasting ever and a couple regulars who are yeast scientists and another who is a champion homebrewer. They probably know more about certain aspects of the beer than I do. It’s kind of fun to have everyone together.”

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The bill amended state liquor laws to authorize the sale of refrigerated high-point; beer stronger than 3.2% alcohol by weight (4% ABV) . The bill made it legal for craft breweries to serve cold beer in taprooms.

Prohibition was repealed nationally in 1933, but Oklahoma remained a dry state until 1959—even then, it retained one of the most restrictive liquor laws in the country.

“When the laws were written, they were written into the state constitution,” said Ross Harper, Owner and Founder of Angry Scotsman Brewing in Oklahoma City. “You could only change them through popular vote. So, for effectively 60 years, the Oklahoma liquor laws stood unchanged.”

Taproom Takeover

Restricting breweries from self-distributing high-point beer—restricted taprooms—restricted the kinds of experiences and events that breweries in other states consider normal. With the new law on the books, that all changed. A similar bill, Senate Bill 792 eventually reformed the whole system in 2018, the 2016 bill served as something of a placeholder that paved the way for the taproom takeover .

“I would say that law change really had an integral effect on the growth of craft beer in the state almost immediately,” Derek Duty, Director of Sales and Marketing for Anthem Brewing Company said. “You really saw the public interest start to elevate, as folks were getting around to see and learn more about the breweries and brewers in town, what they offered, and to offer up more support.”

“Oklahoma craft beer culture has come a long way very quickly,” Harper said. “If you look back in Oklahoma four or five years ago, there were maybe a dozen breweries at most. Now, there’s over two dozen in the Oklahoma City greater metro alone.”

Perhaps connected to the fact that there are so many breweries pop up so quickly is the phenomenon of brewing as a sharing industry. In Dick Cantwell’s 2013 book, The Brewers Association’s Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery, Cantwell said, “The collegiality of our industry is in fact envied by those in other artisanal industries who value individual over collective success.”

Cy Henley, Head of Brewing Operations at Anthem, echoed Cantwell’s remarks. “I’ve never been one to hide recipes or anything. I don’t mind sharing information, because I feel like—and most people feel this way—that if you drive quality in your beers, it just increases sales for the craft beer industry.”

Unique to the craft beer world, aside from the attitudes one finds, is this opportunity for customers to tour breweries and see how their beer is made, an added experiential benefit of the new legislation.

“You get to smell it; you get to see the work it takes to make beer,” Anthem’s Duty said. “You can walk around this place and watch everybody do what they do. We don’t want it to be a separate thing, so even with our renovations—that was one piece we were pretty adamant about—we want it to still feel like, ‘Hey man, when I go there, I’m in the middle of beer being made.’”

Living Your Best Beer Life

Vanessa House Beer Company—also in Oklahoma City—was started by a few buddies who lived and homebrewed together on Vanessa Drive in Norman while attending the University of Oklahoma.

Vanessa House might not exist had the taproom laws not changed.

“Under the old laws, you needed that big investment, because you had to attack distribution really hard—since you didn’t have the ability to do the taproom,” says Andrew Carrales, a co-owner of Vanessa House, “And we really wanted to open a brewery.”

Ross Harper said he probably wouldn’t have started Angry Scotsman had the laws not changed. “From a production, old-law mindset, you had to go big or you weren’t going to see your returns,” he said. “With the taproom, there’s a lower bar to entry, because you can put in a smaller system, be a little more artisanal.”

While the increase in breweries in the Sooner State suggests the new law’s success, the full measure of meaning cannot be gleaned by numbers alone. The reality of taprooms in the state indicates a radical shift from the ways of the past, but perhaps the shift takes us back to a more distant past (when people never left their hometowns and beer was all local)—perhaps the best things from beer culture’s collective past remain.

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ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a degenerative neuromuscular disease that slowly robs people of their ability to walk, talk, and even breathe. There are few effective treatments and no known prevention or cure. The Smiths, along with daughter and Bale Breaker Brewing Company Co-Founder Meghann Quinn, founded Ales for ALS to raise money through beer sales to fund research aimed at finding treatments – and ultimately a cure – for ALS.

Family Concerns Spark Action

Over the years, Cheryl watched numerous relatives succumb to ALS, including her grandfather and father. Along the way, she learned that her family carries a gene that causes ALS, explaining that this gives descendants a 50 percent chance of contracting the disease.

In 2011, Cheryl’s brother Scott Hanses was diagnosed. 

“That was what finally woke our family up, and we said we’ve got to do something,” Cheryl says.

In 2013, the Smiths founded Ales for ALS. 

“We needed as a family to get out in front of the disease,” Cheryl adds. “We were always reacting to another diagnosis.”

A Program Rooted in Hops

The family decided to leverage their unique position as hop producers, along with their craft brewing industry connections, to make the biggest impact possible in fighting the disease. Instead of simply donating money or holding a fundraiser, Quinn suggested involving brewers through the family’s hop-growing roots. 

“My family has been harvesting hops since 1932,” Quinn says. “We have a passion for hops. It’s in our blood, it’s in our DNA.”

Ales for ALS goes full-circle, from the Smiths’ hop fields to craft beer lovers’ glasses across the country. Each year the Smiths work with hop supplier Yakima Chief Hops to donate a unique hop blend to participating brewers. Brewers agree to brew a beer and donate $1 from each pint to Ales for ALS. They can brew whatever style of beer they want.

As co-owner of Bale Breaker Brewing Company, Quinn eagerly took the lead with a hop-forward brew. 

“Now we have an avenue to share our message with more people,” she says. 

Brewers Celebrate Unique Ingredients

Many participating brewers also choose beers that proudly display the flavors and aroma of each year’s hop blend, which is created by some of the most respected brewers in the industry.

Every fall, a rotating group of brewers meets at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company’s Single, Fresh, Wet & Wild Hop Harvest Festival in Chico, California, to sample various hop varieties and determine the Ales for ALS blend. Yakima Chief then produces commercial quantities for spring distribution to brewers.

Personal Ties Help Spread Program

The Smith family initially had modest goals for Ales for ALS, but the program quickly grew beyond their expectations. They found a surprising number of breweries with personal connections to ALS, either through an employee who was suffering or who had loved ones with the condition. 

After the first year, “we were getting brewers from all over the country, and all of them had a story,” Mike Smith says.

For Thiel, the program tapped a cause that he had championed for many years, and was magnified by the news that his high school sweetheart Beth Hardesty had been diagnosed. 

“Finding out that my friend had ALS changed things,” he says. “I felt helpless.”

Brewery Brings the Fight Home

As a brewery owner, Ales for ALS seemed like the perfect way for Thiel to regain some control and make a positive difference. In late 2019, Ghostfish released Resilient Dry-Hopped Tart IPA using Ales for ALS hops. 

At the same time, Thiel discovered that close relatives of two friends from his hometown of Findlay, Ohio, had been diagnosed and he resolved to make an even bigger difference. Thiel reached out to Findlay Brewing Company about collaborating on an Ales for ALS event that would raise both funds and community awareness.  Findlay Head Brewer and Co-Owner Aaron Osborne agreed, and Thiel got to work on the paperwork and logistics to legally serve Resilient in Ohio. 

The event was an outstanding success on all levels. 

“It was shoulder-to-shoulder and elbow-to-elbow,” Thiel says.

In addition to educating friends and neighbors about ALS, and the toll it takes on those who suffer from the disease and their families, it raised much-needed funding for Ales for ALS’s fight. Resilient was so popular that customers finished off every last drop well before the end of the event. 

“The bartender said, ‘You could have sent double what you sent and we still wouldn’t have had enough beer,’” adds Thiel.

Making an Impact from Coast to Coast

On the East Coast, Mighty Squirrel Brewing Company in Waltham, Massachusetts, joined Ales for ALS after taproom employee and ALS activist Andrea Sheehey pitched the idea. What they didn’t know at the time was that Sheehey’s family also has the gene that causes ALS. Sheehey has lost numerous family members including her father to the disease. She has yet to be tested for the gene and faces a future of uncertainty. 

“The fear is there,” she says. “I can’t change my fate but I can do as much as I can to cure ALS.”

After recruiting Mighty Squirrel, Sheehey helped brew the beer and even got to name it. She christened the imperial IPA Ales for DAD in memory of her father, whose initials were coincidentally D.A.D.

“It was my proudest moment after working in the industry for eight years,” Sheehey said of the beer release. “It means more to me than anyone could ever imagine.”

For Sheehey, Ales for ALS also offers a fantastic conversation starter in the taproom and at festivals, to educate people and connect with individuals who have been impacted. 

“I never really knew how deep this was,” Sheehey says, astounded by the number of people who have shared their personal stories. 

Thiel agrees, viewing Ales for ALS as a catalyst to get people talking about the disease and to put them in action.

Funding Research to Conquer Disease

All funds from the program support the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI). ALS TDI works to find treatments for ALS, with the ultimate prize being a cure. Founded by the family of a patient, the institute is the largest nonprofit dedicated solely to ALS research. 

“We thoughtfully chose to partner with ALS TDI because of their research capability,” Quinn says. “We need to end this disease.” 

With the goal of attacking ALS from every angle, ALS TDI has found preliminary success with several treatments, including one drug heading into stage two trials.

For those impacted by ALS, however, progress can never move fast enough. 

“ALS [research] is seriously underfunded,” Thiel says, and he appreciates Ales for ALS’s impact on closing that funding gap. In just six short years, Ales for ALS has already blown past its initial lifetime goal of raising $750,000, topping $3 million in 2019.

Distinguished Breweries Drive Continued Growth

The number of premier breweries that participate also shows the strength of the program. 

“The fact that it keeps growing as it does and we retain the high profile brewers that we do – it just amazes us,” Mike Smith says. He counts breweries such as Russian River Brewing Company, Founders Brewing Company and Bell’s Brewery as supporters, and notes that virtually every participating brewery returns.

The program only looks to become stronger. After distributing over 10,000 pounds of the Ales for ALS hop blend to 193 breweries in 2019, they expect over 230 participants in 2020.

Sheehey hopes to make a significant contribution to that growth by recruiting more Massachusetts breweries. Her personal goal is to net 41 in 2020. 

“My goal is 41 because that is the age my father died,” Sheehey explains. “My goal is to make an impact. I want to make this the biggest year ever.”

Currently, breweries in 35 states participate, with more joining every year. This means that more and more craft beer drinkers can grab a pint knowing they’re supporting a good cause while sipping craft brews with friends. 

“I have always believed that beer is a mechanism for bringing people together, to share experiences and the company and presence of other people,” Thiel says.

Ales For ALS Brings Hope for the Future

Ultimately, Ales for ALS means creating a better future for people suffering from the disease and those who care about them. 

“With what’s been going on at ALS TDI, we have hope,” Cheryl Smith says. “To be able to say we have hope is not something that has ever been associated with ALS.”

Find a full list of Ales for ALS breweries on their website www.a4als.net.

The post From Hops to Hope – Ales For ALS Fights Fatal Disease appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Facetiming family and consuming other-worldly amounts of Netflix have been crucial crutches. Still, it’s also important to take a break from the screens and get your creative gears cranking. 

If only there was something you could do at home that was fun and resulted in… beer!

Honey, I Shrunk the Brewery

Homebrewing takes brewing beer on a commercial scale to something we can do on our stovetop or porch.

On brew day, you make the “wort”–not quite beer–by steeping and boiling combinations of grains, hops, extracts, and other ingredients. 

This mixture is then fermented by yeast turning that wort into beer.

Getting Started Is Easy

Making beer is an adaptable process that can take many forms depending on your skill level and interests.

The American Homebrewers Association created a 12-minute video to show one of the easiest–and cheapest!–ways to start homebrewing using mostly kitchenware you likely already own.

Watching the video will show you the process start to finish and prepare you for your first brew day!

Creativity in Recipes

One of the best parts of making beer at home is being in control of the recipe. As a homebrewer, the sky is truly the limit when it comes to the style and ingredients you wish to pursue.

For your first batch, it can be best to pick a tried-and-true recipe to set you up for success. HomebrewersAssociation.org has a collection of proven beer recipes, including small-batch versions of some of our favorite commercially available craft beers. Brew up your own Bell’s Two Hearted Ale  and see how it stands up to the real deal!

Once you get a few batches under your belt, you’ll begin to understand how to incorporate different ingredients and tweak to what you scheme up.

Get inspired by 51 Craft Beer “Clone” Recipes, 25 Award-Winning IPAs, 11 Must-Try Lagers, and 5 Fruit Beers. You can also visit the American Homebrewer Association’s library of 1,000+ tried-and-true homebrew recipes.

Be The Brewmaster

Once you take a sip of your first homebrew, you’ll be hooked. When you start planning your next brew day, head over to HomebrewersAssociation.org to find resources to bring your beer-making skills to another level. The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) has been supporting homebrewing and publishing Zymurgy magazine since 1978.

Are you ready to become a brewmaster? Start your 30-day AHA free trial to get instant access to award-winning recipes and 20 years of Zymurgy magazine digital archives.

The post Stay Home and Brew: The Time to Get Into Homebrewing is Now appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

is as strong as ever. Since 2006 American Craft Beer Week has supported and celebrated independent craft breweries, which support their communities and the country in exponential ways. With over 8,000 small and independent U.S. craft breweries, now has never been a better time to celebrate these American success stories.

CraftBeer.com, along with the Brewers Association (BA), the trade association for small and independent U.S. craft brewers and publisher of CraftBeer.com, are launching a variety of fun digital activities for American Craft Beer Week (May 11-17). While we may not be able to toast these breweries in person, we challenge all beer lovers to embrace the theme of this year’s ACBW and give craft beer to friends and family. 

#GiveCraftBeer

The theme of this year’s annual celebration is #GiveCraftBeer. During these trying times, a small token of appreciation can go a long way. Here’s how you can commit to giving and also drop a not-so-subtle hint to your friends and family network:

• Commit to Give Craft Beer and stand up and be counted for gifting craft beer, gift cards, merchandise, or other food and beverage offerings from a U.S. craft brewery.
• Download these Zoom backgrounds to use during video chats
• Download and share a social media post and tag #GiveCraftBeer

“This American Craft Beer Week, community and craft beer will connect in new ways. From May 11 to May 17, those who commit to giving indie craft beer will make a difference that reaches beyond the beverage to support and save thousands of hometown breweries who are instrumental in giving back to so many local communities and charitable causes,” says Julia Herz, craft beer program director for the BA.

The BA encourages beer lovers to seek the independent craft brewer seal when they’re shopping for themselves and to give a gift to neighbors, coworkers, family and friends. The seal, an upside-down beer bottle, is the certified logo for true craft brewers.

Connect with your tribe of breweries and beer lovers celebrating American Craft Beer Week by using the hashtags #SeekTheSeal and #GiveCraftBeer.

The post How to Celebrate American Craft Beer Week^®</p> This May 11-17, Even If You Can’t Visit a Brewery 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.

This brewery focusing on fruited, canned sour ales had to find a way to get their esoteric brews into the hands of Ohio drinkers without taproom sales or a wide existing distribution footprint. And that meant shipping beer directly to customers.

“We were already working on this before the announcement came through,” says Urban Artifact co-founder Scotty Hunter.

As soon as they saw the virus begin impacting the West Coast weeks prior, they set in motion plans to ship beer if necessary. That allowed them to mail their first orders to Ohio residents just days after Ohio taprooms shut down.

(Related: What Can Brown Ale Do For You?)

Ohio has over 300 independent breweries, and they’re all scrambling to adapt to life without taproom or keg distribution sales. As of this writing, around 70 are offering home delivery within an immediate geographical radius. A handful, however, are shipping directly to customers across the Buckeye state, and it’s pointing a way forward for post-Coronavirus sales.

Cooperative Laws Help Brewers Weather Pandemic

“Ohio alcohol laws are relatively permissive compared to some other states,” explains Justin Hemminger, deputy director of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association. “Having the ability to deliver directly to customers—which was already permitted by the state [before coronavirus]—made this quick pivot possible for our breweries.”

In the small college town of Athens in rural southeast Ohio, that ability is a gamechanger for Little Fish Brewing.

“In a small town, we already have a tough time selling all the beer we make,” says Sean White, co-founder of the brewery specializing in mixed-fermentation and barrel-aged beers. “It seemed like we should be hitting every possible medium we could, so we started shipping immediately.”

(More: How To Support Our Local Breweries During the Pandemic)

While they’ve long packaged their mixed-fermentation beers, their IPAs, lagers, and other typical craft styles have generally been taproom-only pours. To ship those to customers, they had to accelerate an idea they’d only discussed before the virus.

“It was like, hey, let’s get that crowler machine we’ve been talking about,” says White with a laugh.

Customers can now order any Little Fish draft beer right along with the bottled rarities.

Logistics of Shipping Beer

Both Urban Artifact and Little Fish are working with UPS to deliver their beers around the state, but a Columbus-based craft brewery experimented with offering beer around Ohio on their own.

North High Brewing deputized their sales reps around the state to act as delivery drivers. Because several of those reps were stationed in other cities—Dayton, Cleveland—they didn’t have easy access to North High’s limited-edition beers, so only six-packs of the brewery’s core beers were available to be ordered in most locations.

“For Columbus customers, we basically said if it’s in our brewery, we’ll sell it to you,” says brewmaster Jason McKibben.

Inventory dropped pretty quickly around the state, and North High ultimately pulled back direct delivery to within their home market in the state capital.

“I had to basically put everything that was in tanks and ready to package into cans,” explains McKibben. “Our distributor has our cans statewide, so we decided to let them keep grocery stores replenished.”

Niche Avenues

Little Fish and Urban Artifact say that in addition to providing a revenue stream, shipping has also allowed them to get more difficult-to-sell products into the hands of curious drinkers.

“This is allowing us to move smaller batches of beer that are more niche and might only have 50 or 100 people who want them,” says Hunter. “People are ordering a lot of stuff they wouldn’t be able to get otherwise. We’re seeing a lot of shipments going to rural areas where we don’t have distribution.”

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

Both breweries believe they will continue shipping to customers in some form even after taproom restrictions are lifted.

“It will evolve, but we’ll probably see greater interest in remote beer clubs,” says Hunter.

At Little Fish, shipping has changed the brewery’s strategic planning.

“We were seriously pondering a satellite taproom in a metro area before this because it’s always been harder than we wanted to move our products,” says White. “It’s possible shipping lets us get where we want to be.”

As the closure has dragged on, other Ohio breweries have started shipping as well, including Branch & Bone Artisan Ales in Dayton and Jackie O’s in Athens.

“We were hesitant at first to start shipping because we didn’t want to disincentivize people from visiting us as a destination brewery,” says White. “I’m starting to get the inkling this might actually encourage people to come down here. I anticipate we’ll continue to ship beer forever now.”

The post Ale Mail: Craft Breweries Deliver Beer Direct to Customers During COVID-19 appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Reimagining Variety Packs For a New Reality

While many brewers within grocery and liquor store footprints saw a sales uptick in recent weeks as consumers stocked up on beer, it’s unclear if these sales trends will continue. Instead of sending extra beer to retailers, Pennsylvania’s Wallenpaupack Brewing Company decided to go in a direction that fits their state’s current social distancing guidance. “Guidelines for operating the business were literally changing by the hour and evolved quickly so we channeled our energy into finding ways to be creative within our new reality,” said Wallenpaupack Brewing Company Owner Becky Ryman.

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

To provide a packaged drinking buddy during Pennsylvania’s recent 14-day voluntary quarantine efforts, Wallenpaupack developed a “Quarantine Pack” of 15 of its beers for local beer lovers staying inside for the two week period. The variety pack is available to-go from their brewery, with a portion of sales going to local charities.

Prioritizing Customers and Employees

The recent shelter-in-place mandate put in place by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has led to a huge uptick in demand for Chicago brewers. Music-loving Mikerphone Brewing has become a Chicago favorite thanks to its fun mix of creative beer names and great tasting IPAs and stouts. Owner Mike Pallen says online and phone orders — two newly implemented ordering methods  — have helped increased demand for to-go beer. The drawback? Mikerphone went through their entire stock of crowlers and howlers in a few days. “We went through so much beer that we decided to package two more beers to keep up with the demand,” said Pallen.

Fellow Chicago brewer, Maplewood Brewery, adjusted their sales strategy through the launch of their online store where consumers can purchase 4-packs, crowlers, and spirits (Maplewood is also a distillery) to be picked up at the brewery’s Maplewood Lounge.

(Related: Helping Our Craft Brewing Community During the COVID-19 Pandemic)

Maplewood is also taking creative approaches to entice current action for future benefits. They recently launched their first pre-order beer, their new double dry-hopped double IPA, Drinking Citra. To better support staff through their Virtual Lounge GoFundMe, Maplewood gave the first five people who donated $250 to the fund a “Maplewood Fast Pass,” which gives these generous patrons the chance to both skip the Lounge line and get a free pint once inside for a full year. The Fast Pass sold out within a few minutes.

Super-sized To-Go Sales

While cans and crowlers fly off shelves, the new “curb economy” has increased the volumes of beer purchased as beer lovers look to limit their trips out. St. Louis-based Schlafly Brewing is also seeing an uptick in a different packaging size: kegs. Schlafly’s Head of Marketing Wil Rogers says that a new emphasis on selling packaged beers to-go has led to big sales. “We’ve been surprised by the to-go keg sales we’ve been seeing. While it might not alleviate all of the heartburn from lost on-premise draft sales, it’s a great and different way to get your beer to consumers.”

San Diego’s Modern Times Brewing has also adapted its shipping requirements to accommodate new offerings including mixed cases and crowlers. One surprising benefit to this has been the dramatic increase in sales of their Modern Times coffee, which is shipped in bulk five-pound bags.

Food a Key Differentiator of the “Curb Economy”

With to-go purchases becoming a necessity of many breweries’ new business model, many capable of serving food are finding creative ways to expand quick beer runs into a to-go dining experience.

Wallenpaupack worked closely with their kitchen to create a “Beer Dinner for Two” date night kit, which includes a 4-course meal for two along with the proper beer pairings and tasting glasses. Karl Strauss’ family of brewpubs throughout Southern California have taken things a step further in the face of this new reality. The brewpub acted overnight to revamp their menu to accommodate eating at home, including platters, sides by the pound, fresh salads, and beer to-go. “We’re reorganizing our menu to be most helpful to [our patrons],” said Chad Heath, Karl Strauss sales & marketing director.

Stone Brewing has rolled out special pricing on food at their two Stone Brewing World Bistros and Stone Brewing – Napa, to better meet the new demands of consumers. Alongside up to 40 percent off food orders, CEO Dominic Engels also says that the brewery is rolling out “bounce-back tokens” to entice new patrons. For every $10 spent at their bistros during this period, a consumer will receive a $2 token toward a future visit when the bistros re-open.

Deeper Interactions at a Distance

One of the most difficult things about the new social distancing protocols is just that: the distance. People crave personal interaction and conversation. With on-premise dining now out of the picture, breweries are restructuring their social media strategies to better engage with consumers looking to talk and enjoy beer digitally.

New York’s Other Half Brewing is helping lead the charge through their social-driven virtual bottle shares, Q&A’s and virtual tours. Co-Founder Andrew Burman also says the brewery is looking to introduce virtual brewing sessions with co-founder Sam Richardson, so patrons can get an inside look at how they craft their renowned hazy IPAs. “[We’re] trying to make sure we can get [our content and beer] to those who want to be a part of it,” said Burman.

(More: Livestock and Lager: Breweries Raise Animals and Agricultural Awareness)

Wallenpaupack is implementing similar social strategies to engage consumers during these trying times. They’ve also decided to capitalize on one form of movement that is not restricted at the moment: driving a car. Ryman says they’re currently in the process of developing the artwork to deliver a “drive-up brewery tour” that interested patrons can experience from the safety of their car.

“We have beautiful, large windows on the front of our building that allow a glimpse into our brewery…We’ve heard many of our customers are longing for something “to do” and we feel [this idea[ safely serves that desire in a creative way,” said Ryman.

The Personal Side of Curbside

Cars also play an important role in the influx of beer deliveries delivered directly to a person’s home. While many breweries rely on third-party vendors like DoorDash, Caviar and other delivery courier services for their beer deliveries, some smaller operations are taking matters into their own (gloved) hands.

Is/was Brewing is a newer operation based in Chicago that focuses on saison-style beers. With no taproom presence, finding the proper means for distribution has also been at the forefront for is/was’ Mike Schallau. Instead of a third party, Mike and one other employee hand-deliver their larger format bottle via contactless delivery. Equipped with gloves and carrying isopropyl alcohol and disinfecting wipes, Mike and team deliver their beer straight to a purchasers’ front door and notify them when it’s arrived – they even watch to make sure the purchaser successfully receives the package. “There are only two of us so we are figuring out the other logistics as we go but we are taking social distancing and safety as the priority,” said Schallau.

(Find: Breweries Near You)

Breweries big and small are reorganizing their businesses to better adapt to the turbulence of the current economy and culture. What’s cool to see is how deeply ingrained the spirit of giving still is within the brewing community.

Beer is ingrained into the lifeblood of American culture. It is an important part of many people’s social lives. Now more than ever, beer can help provide a sense of normalcy amidst the chaos. “You quickly realize how “essential” beer is to people’s lives and sanity,” says Mike Pallen of Mikerphone

Amidst positive and creativity, many brewers echoed a sense of understandable worry due to the unstable and unprecedented times we are all in. No one knows what will happen next, but we’re all hoping for a better and more prosperous future. Be kind, follow the guidelines, be generous if you can, and never lose hope that we will get through this. There will be a freshly poured beer waiting for you on the other side. Cheers!

The post The Curb Economy: Craft Breweries Rise to Pandemic Challenge appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

It was the right move.

The BA would not risk the health and safety of its members, staff, contractors, anyone. There would be more Craft Brewers Conferences and more World Beer Cups, just not this year. That was clear – one thing that was unclear? What to do with all the beer.

As the organization acted to halt the preeminent industry conference and community gathering, shipments of beer entries for the World Beer Cup had already begun to arrive at the BA’s consolidation warehouse. Staffers and volunteers had spent weeks preparing beer entries for judging in the World Beer Cup’s host city, San Antonio. At the time of the cancellation – late on March 12 – international consolidation points and individual breweries were in various stages of sending even more beer, but growing reports of a pandemic loomed over the future of many large events. Earlier that day, Dry Dock Brewing head brewer Alan Simons’ musing on Facebook about his entry preparations proved prophetic, “I have a feeling I’m sitting in a cooler bottling beer for nothing.”

While many of the beers collected at the international consolidation points never made it out of port, early entries that did arrive sat sorted and ready for a competition that would never happen. Organizers were left with approximately half of the beer entries slated for San Antonio. Calls to judge the beer remotely, ship the beer back or donate it to a good cause were met with logistical problems and red tape that proved too large to overcome.

“It was super depressing.” said Chris Williams, the Brewers Association’s Senior Event Manager, speaking on the prospects of having to destroy the entries.

“It made me want to cry.”

A Clear Solution

On a sunny Tuesday in April, tucked away in a mixed-use area of Boulder County, masked volunteers are busy dumping beer. Inside a warehouse, five tables flank a path to a trailer with large, industrial plastic totes. Adam Dulye banters with his team of volunteers like he would with his kitchen staff.

(Related: Agonizing Decisions, 2-Day Drives, and the Spectacle Behind America’s Largest Beer Competition)

Adam is the Brewers Association’s executive chef. Normally charged with developing the menu for the World Beer Cup Awards dinner, Dulye spends a lot of time working with Williams and the events department. Faced with such a grim fate for the thousands of bottles and cans, some – in very different circumstances – could have been awarded gold medals, it was Dulye who offered a path forward.

In the days since COVID-19 swept across the country, the need for disinfectant solutions has become a vital weapon for those on the frontline risking their personal safety to care for the ill. In the search for cleaning agents effective against the novel coronavirus, the Center for Disease Control guidelines suggest solutions that are at least 70% alcohol as being an effective disinfectant. The same alcohol locked up in bottles and cans in the BA’s warehouse – albeit in a diluted state.

“How do we not destroy the beer?” Explains Dulye, “I have a truck. I can pull a trailer. I think we can make this work.”

Dulye began calling around to local distilleries to see if they’d be interested in distilling the World Beer Cup entries, eventually connecting with Denver Distillery and Ballmer Peak Distillery.

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

Alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than water. The distillation process utilizes this by heating wash to capture alcohol vapor, then cooling and condensing it back into a liquid. The resulting liquid is a more pure form of alcohol. The plan was set; convert all of the World Beer Cup beers into high-grade alcohol to be used as a sanitizer for frontline workers. One problem: get the beer out of the packaging to be distilled.

Adam’s Kitchen

True to form, chef Adam’s table was the cleanest in the warehouse. BA staffers, Mille Shamburger, Joe Damgaard, Stacey Wetzel and Emily Silver joined longtime GABF volunteers, Lindsey Barela, Jordan Cleppe and Heather Camerer to open each bottle of beer, dump them into 5-gallon buckets and eventually into 275-gallon totes. The totes will then be driven by Dulye to the distilleries via the chef’s truck. Despite the masks and social distancing, the atmosphere is light, with music playing. Barela, Cleppe, and Camerer all work in event planning. Without any events to plan, they are helping out in Adam’s kitchen, of sorts. The team has been working daily since the previous Thursday. They will eventually empty enough entries to produce between 400 – 500 gallons of high-grade alcoholic hand sanitizer.

“I doubt this was the fate that brewers expected when they tasted through their entries,” Dulye acknowledged, “but based on the options we had available, I hope they feel a sense of closure, maybe some relief.”

It was not the solution that most would have hoped for the beers. Brewers put their hearts and souls into brewing them for the World Beer Cup, but for those who had hopes of earning gold on an April night in San Antonio might find some solace in knowing that their effort did not go down the drain. And that, in hindsight, perhaps being a part of a solution is more meaningful than a medal. In this case, clarity came from chaos – and that clarity packs a 140 Proof – nasty virus killing – punch.

Most of the sanitizer distilled by Denver and Ballmer Distilleries will be donated to first responders. Customers at Denver Distillery will have a chance to get a bottle of sanitizer with the purchase of one of their other products. Ballmer Distillery is providing the community their sanitizer on Wednesday and Saturdays. Customers should bring a container.

The post What Happened to the Beer? World Beer Cup Entries Saved From Going Down the Drain appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

This story is not true. By the time I started working in the beer industry this myth had been widely debunked yet still spread. Those of us who know try their best to set the record straight.

In the same way it’s important to re-explore history, it’s valuable to re-examine how we talk about beer basics. Beer basics include ingredients and process, styles and flavors and pairing beer with food–what people need to know to start their journey as a beer geek. 

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

As craft beer has made great strides, the topics and techniques we follow to educate should too. As a craft beer and sensory consultant, international judge and Master Cicerone©, my mission is to help drive the craft beer movement forward. And I keep coming back to this thought: It’s 2020, and I think it’s time to re-think beer basics.

Examining how we talk about beer basics isn’t just about eliminating inaccuracies but making sure we’re mindful about how we talk about beer basics to make sure we’re not overwhelming people who are new to it.

Homebrewing and Wine’s Influence on Early Craft Beer

The exact origins of the beer basics we share now are unknown. This being said, we can see clear influences from both homebrewing, and wine appreciation. 

Although beer has been around for thousands of years, the way we currently talk about it has its origins in the late 70s homebrewing movement. Inspired by foreign beers and the writings of Michael Jackson, fine folk across America started making a range of beer styles at home. These are the roots of craft beer. 

Those days, if you were into craft beer, you were either a homebrewer or a friend of a homebrewer. It’s therefore understandable that much of our jargon in beer is highly technical. Think IBUs. This is a technical specification and, yet, it’s a measurement that’s often requested by beer drinkers. By contrast, wine or spirit drinkers are not seeking out and sharing technical specs on their respective beverages, apart from ABV, which is required by law. 

(More: Helping Our Craft Brewing Community During the COVID-19 Pandemic)

Meanwhile, the wine influence on beer basics can be found in how we divide beers and pair them with food (both of which are explored below) as well as the basic tasting and palate cleansing technique we use for beer. Wine has also informed how we choose the best glass to highlight the attributes of different beer styles, for example, the long narrow shape of a pilsner glass mirrors the champagne flute, which was designed in the 1750s to preserve carbonation and concentrate its delicate aromas. 

It makes sense that we would borrow from wine; the North American wine renaissance pre-dates the craft beer movement by about 10 years. At this time, there was an increased interest in local wine production as well as wine education. By the time craft beer came along, a lot of the research had been done with regards to the best way to enjoy wine and this information could easily be adapted to beer.

It’s now 40 years later. Our understanding of beer has grown a lot, as has the variety of beers that we have access to. Although it would be more convenient to keep things the way they’ve always been, it is worth examining beer basics to see if there’s a better way to communicate them.

The Division of Ales vs. Lagers

One aspect that I believe deserves scrutiny is the division of beer into ales and lagers. Of course, it’s true that most beers are either ales or lagers. It’s also true that, for brewers and homebrewers, it’s important to know if a style is an ale or a lager. From a beer lover’s perspective, though, is it that helpful? 

The ale vs. lager question is one that comes up often with beginners. When it does, it’s easy to share a basic explanation, but this involves details on yeast types and fermentation temperatures and can cause more confusion than clarity. It’s highly technical information. Have you ever successfully explained to someone the difference between ales and lagers? I mean, have you ever walked away thinking: “From now on, this person will now easily be able to tell if any beer they drink is an ale or a lager.”

(Related: A Sour Beer Pickle: Can American Brewers Better Define this Beer Style?)

Perhaps the instinct to divide beer into two categories comes from wine, which is always divided into red and white. The thing about red vs. white wine is that it’s an easy distinction, even for beginners, and these categories inform glassware selection, food pairing, and personal preference. Most wine menus list their wines in these categories.

The issue with dividing beer into ales and lagers is that it doesn’t inform personal preference. Some people indeed prefer lagers, but these people are usually referring to golden lagers, which are just one of many lager expressions. It’s much more common to hear people ask, “What do you have that’s hoppy?” or “Do you have any dark beers?” rather than, “Which ales do you have?” 

There’s a reason we don’t see this division on menus; it’s not useful. And, yet, we still talk about these two categories as if they’re critical to beer enjoyment. Why not create a few more categories that better reflect the overall flavor profiles of beer? 

Without any accepted beer categories, menus are a hodgepodge. Some divide by bottle vs. draught, some by region, some by mood or key descriptor, and some not at all. Wouldn’t it be great if there were standard categories, like the ones used in wine, that would allow drinkers to quickly identify which beers they might like? When I was writing my book, I spent a lot of time thinking about which categories might be useful and landed on four that work well: Refreshing, Mellow, Striking and Captivating. 

If you check out the CraftBeer.com Beer Style Guide, you’ll see it offers six similar sensory categories, like Sour, Tart & Funky, Crisp & Clean and Dark & Roasty. These types of categories reflect what a drinker might be in the mood for and serve as a more informative guide than simply ales vs. lagers.

Examining How to Talk About Beer and Food Pairing

Another area I propose we re-examine is how we talk about beer and food pairing. In this area, there are a lot of different theories and approaches but the one that comes up the most is cut, complement or contrast. This is likely an expansion of the common “complement or contrast” theory used for food pairing with wine. The idea is that you can pair a wine with food that has similar traits (complement) or use a food item or ingredient that completes the wine by adding a taste or quality that is not present in the wine (contrast). 

(More: Beer and Food Pairing Guide)

The issue in transferring this theory to beer is that beer has a much wider spectrum of tastes and flavors. Wine relies, for the most part on a balance of alcohol, acidity, tannins and sweetness. Beer, however, can have any of a combination of tastes, including those listed for wine, as well as bitterness, salt and umami, and a much broader range of flavors. The “cut, complement or contrast” approach oversimplifies the large potential there is for flavor interactions.

Again, in an attempt to keep things simple, the guidance can cause confusion. Cut, complement and contrast are easy to explain and can result in solid pairings. They can, however, backfire horribly as they only take into account a narrow slice of the beer’s flavor profile. These three techniques work best when they are used together. This combined method is one of many approaches to food pairing. 

As with beer categorization, food pairing is an area that has inspired a lot of theories and techniques. So much so that it’s easy to get lost in all of the different instructions. Again, this will be a process of trial and error, finding a system that is both effective and easy to explain.  

The craft beer landscape has evolved so much since its inception. We now have access to an unending variety of beer styles and flavors to enjoy and share. Beer is a complex beverage and our responsibility as beer lovers is to communicate its many qualities as simply and as accurately as possible. 

The more we hone the way we communicate beer basics, the more people we can welcome to the delicious world of craft beer appreciation. This isn’t a change that will occur overnight, but rather an evolution. Through experimentation and critical problem solving, I’m confident we can settle on a new way to talk about beer basics. Let’s start exploring possibilities!

The post It’s Time to Rethink How We Talk About Craft Beer Basics appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Stretching the Dollar for Spent Grain

Bell’s is a brewery known for its classics such as Two Hearted and Oberon. Based in Kalamazoo and Comstock, Michigan, the brewer has grown to a production of nearly half a million barrels per year since its inception in 1985.

What does this mean in terms of spent grain? About 16 million pounds.

“It all becomes cow feed,” says Kate Martini, sustainability specialist for Bell’s. “We’ve partnered with a cattle farm for over 20 years. They’ve been scaling up along with us; they pick up our spent grain sometimes multiple times a day from the Comstock brewery.”

Sending spent grain to a farm to use as livestock feed is common practice in the brewing industry, but some breweries get creative.

(Related: Reindeer Grains: Brewery Finds Use For Spent Grain)

“I think we’ve repurposed spent brewer’s grain in more ways than any brewery I can think of,” says Saul Kliorys, sustainability manager for Great Lakes Brewing Company based in Cleveland. “We incorporate it into pretzels that we serve here in our restaurant. In 2010, we were a part of starting what was then known as the nation’s largest urban farm, Ohio City Farm. We used spent brewer’s grain there to build up the soil quality.”

A particularly unique project that Great Lakes has experimented with in the past was partnering with a local mushroom cultivator, Killbuck Valley Mushrooms, to demonstrate the possibility of growing mushrooms on spent brewer’s grain. At the same time, they also demonstrated the use of worms to decompose the spent grain and turn it into a soil amendment.

Reuse at Great Lakes does not end with spent grain. Any bottle of beer that is filled incorrectly–that is, 5 mL below or above the 350 mL line–can have a second chance for use as a mustard, barbeque sauce, or even ice cream.

“We’ve partnered with Mitchell’s Ice Cream to make ice creams out of our Porter and our Christmas Ale, called Edmund Fitzgerald Porter Chocolate Chunk, and Christmas Ale Gingersnap. They’re really good,” Kliorys explains.

Composting Breweries Create Community

Brewery Vivant, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, specializes in yeast-forward farmhouse style beers paired with delectable cooked-from-scratch eats. Owned by Kris and Jason Spaulding, the craft brewery has been a family endeavor ever since it opened in 2010, just nine days before the birth of their first son. From the start, they’ve held sustainability as a core value, exemplifying this priority to their community by becoming the very first Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) certified brewery in the nation and a Certified B Corporation to boot–that’s about as conscientious as you can get as a business. They send their spent grain to a nearby farm and have been composting their food scraps since day one, returning them to the ground for use as a rich soil amendment.

“I thought it was an important thing to have staff wrap their heads around right from the beginning,” says Kris Spaulding, president. “If you’re working somewhere and they’re having you separate food scraps from waste–that is different. It pushes staff to see what sustainability looks like, and gives them a very active role in implementing our goals.”

Food scraps don’t break down in the landfill, and instead will generate the greenhouse gas methane. Less organic matter in the landfill means less space taken up, healthier soil and a cleaner planet. As for the impact on the larger community, Kris shares, “I hope that people see what we’re doing and it makes them want to do better too. I love when our staff members take our values with them wherever they go within the industry or outside of it. I’ll run into people and they’ll tell me, ‘I can’t believe this place I’m working at doesn’t compost and I’m trying to convince them to do it.’ That is so awesome, right? That’s what we hope happens. We plant these seeds and then they take sometimes.”

(Recipe: Spent Grain Granola)

How does a brewery go about starting to compost? For Bell’s it started with a deep dive into their waste data. They were shocked to learn that they were sending more landfill waste from their Eccentric Cafe than they were from their main production facility. In order to compost, though, they had to justify the move financially.

“A lot of people struggle to make the case to start composting because it can cost more money, but when we started our industrial compost program we had to reduce our landfill enough to pay for it,” says Martini. Landfill can be a huge operational cost to most breweries and restaurants.

The first step was finding out exactly how much of each type of material was being thrown away. “In the end, we had this pie,” Martini explains, “here’s our pre-consumer waste, post-consumer waste, here’s how much we have in recycling, how much actually should have been in the dumpster all along. So then you ask yourself, do we have enough here that we want to engage with a farmer to do pre-consumer food scraps? Usually you can find a farmer who will take it for free. Right there is your savings. You don’t have to pay for it to go to the landfill.”

The next step is figuring out how to change your waste collection, Martini explains, “Engage with a farmer for livestock feed, or send things to an industrial composter.”

Bell’s had enough post-consumer waste that it wasn’t viable for pig feed; it made the most sense for them to go with an industrial composter. To do that, they found another local business that was already composting to use as a resource. HopCat, a brewpub that has 19 locations throughout the Midwest, composts at each one of its restaurants. Carrie Veldman, sustainability manager, explains that it makes a big impact when a HopCat location opens in a new city.

“If we start a compost route, it makes it a lot cheaper for other people to do it,” she says.

Breweries might also consider making incremental changes to the way they handle waste. In 2018, Great Lakes Brewing decided to compost all of the cinnamon and ginger from their Christmas Ale production, resulting in a surprising 16 tons of organic material diverted from the landfill. Now, they are looking at a partnership with the up-and-coming Rust Belt Riders, a Cleveland-based compost pickup service, to help them divert even more from their waste stream.

(Related: Livestock and Lager: Breweries Raise Animals and Agricultural Awareness)

For those wanting to do something productive with their food scraps, a lot can be gained from the camaraderie within the craft beer community.

“Anything leftover from events that people host here at Bell’s, or events that we host for our employees, is sent to our local food bank. They serve it for meals or repackage it to send home with people,” explains Caitlyn Pelfresne, sustainability associate at Bell’s. With over 38 million people hungry in the United States (one in seven children), and an estimated one-third of our food supply being thrown into the garbage, businesses that are putting in this extra effort can really help to solve two issues at once. The Good Samaritan Food Donation Act protects businesses from liability when donating their surplus food. Local food pantries and shelters are also great resources for getting edible food into hungry bellies rather than a garbage can.

(Find a Brewery: Craft Brewery Map)

It can be challenging for urban breweries to find a farm to partner with that will consistently take their spent grain. A lot of times, a densely-populated region may be inundated with breweries, but lacking enough nearby farmland to be able to handle all of the byproduct. This is not an issue for Alpha Michigan Brewing Company. Alpha, located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, has a population of 145 and is among the smallest villages in America (if not the smallest) with a brewery. The majority of downtown Alpha, including the brewery, exists on the town’s tiny traffic circle. Yet with a community so small, it makes it even easier to forge connections.

“One of our club members picks up our grain and makes dog treats out of it that we hand out to any customers with dogs in their cars,” says taproom manager Sarah Fredericksen.

Last October, Alpha Brewing had their second annual pig roast. “A few of our mug club members have kids that are part of our local Youth Livestock Market Association, and they were telling us, ‘We really need some good food for our pigs.’ In the summer when these kids are raising pigs, they come and pick up our extra grain, feed their pigs, rinse off the buckets and bring them back to us. This year we purchased two pigs at the Iron County Fair. We roasted one pig as a fundraiser for the Youth Livestock Marketing Association and Iron County 4H and charged a $20 donation. Along with $1 a pint, all the money we raised we gave back to the Youth Livestock Marketing Association and 4H so that any kid in Iron County who wanted to participate but couldn’t afford to would have the joining fee waived. With the second pig, we did a roast for our mug club members as an appreciation party.”

This kind of “circular economy” is the goal of sustainability efforts. Breweries of all production levels are diligently finding ways to reduce their waste output to better their community and lighten their load on the environment. Find out what your local brewery is doing to mitigate their impacts – then raise a glass!

The post Saved Grain, Salvaged Soil: Craft Breweries are Lightening Their Environmental Impact appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Some breweries are taking this link a step further with an unexpected agricultural addition: farm animals. Breweries are raising cows, goats, pigs and other livestock in order to revive the land, reduce waste and educate the public about the ecosystem that pairing livestock and lagers can create.

Jester King Brewery’s ‘Prince of Goats’

“Hi, I’m Peppy. People call me Farmer Peppy. Or just, you know, Prince of Goats.”

That’s Sean “Peppy” Meyer, the resident farmer and goat herder at Jester King Brewery outside Austin, Texas. When he was hired in 2018, his only stipulation was that he be allowed to bring his goats with him. Brewery founder Jeff Stuffings agreed.

“We all moved into the goat barn together for a year,” says Peppy, who lived with his 20 goats until this last summer. “I’ve since moved off the farm and have been reacclimating to humans. I’ll be moving back into a small trailer on the farm soon, because it’s kidding season. We’re expecting about 25 babies.”

Peppy thinks American farms lost something when animal husbandry became industrialized.

“If you want to have a sustainable program, then it’s a necessity to have animals. We replaced animals with machines, and it’s just been empty ever since,” he says. “It makes the job a lot easier when there’s mutual understanding and respect. The animals receive a better life, and we receive the products they yield, such as fertilizer and milk.”

(READ: Established Craft Breweries Plant Rural Roots)

Fresh Milk and Beer Sold Here

Speaking of milk, Stone Cow Brewery near Barre, Massachusetts, is operating a brewery on a working dairy farm that’s been owned by the same family for more than 80 years.

Molly DuBois’s grandfather bought the farm in 1938, and his descendants have been milking cows here ever since. Molly and husband Sean, along with her brother Will Stevens and his wife, Shayna, manage a herd of 200 dairy cows and operate a brewpub. There aren’t too many breweries where you can walk out with both a six-pack of beer and a pint of fresh, raw milk.

“There’s not a lot of money in wholesale milk,” says Molly. “We can get maybe .13 to .15 cents for a pint of milk at wholesale, but in the taproom we can get $5-$8 for a pint of beer. The brewery has saved not only our farm, but our way of life. We didn’t want to be the generation to stop milking cows here.”

Her husband agrees.

“Molly’s grandpa bought this farm from a family who had been farming here since 1749,” says Sean. “We have 1,000 acres that have been farmed by two families in 260 years. We inherited something we feel is pretty special.”

Pigs and Pils

Wooly Pig Farm Brewery in eastern Ohio sits on 90 acres of mixed pasture and woodland draped over a few small hills. The owners raise a rare Old World breed of pig on the property.

Founder Kevin Ely has taken frequent trips to Franconia in Germany during his brewing career. He first saw Mangalitsa pigs on a bicycle tour through the region years ago.

His sister-in-law, Lauren Malenke, is a large animal veterinarian. She was able to identify the shaggy Eastern European breed from his photos. Lauren and husband Aaron, along with Kevin and his wife, Jael, all noted the similarities in terrain between Franconia and eastern Ohio, and Kevin recalled how many rural and small-town breweries in Germany had raised pigs to help get rid of spent grain. They decided their new brewery should carry on the tradition.

Wooly Pig raises about 30 pigs, and Aaron is responsible for their care.

“We also have about 30 sheep, a couple horses and a llama,” he says “Oh, and a goat named Hoppy Phils.”

(VISIT: 2020 Great American Beer Bars)

Brewery Livestock Reduce Waste

At Wooly Pig, every bit of waste from the brewing process goes to feed the Mangalitsas.

“They do really well with basically all organic waste streams generated from the brewery,” says Ely. “Some other animals can be more finicky, but pigs are more robust and flexible. Seeing those old breweries in Franconia, as the spent grain was being shoveled out, it would be shoveled right into the hog barn.”

“Other farmers sourcing grain from breweries, they have to pick up several days at a time, and have vehicles and containers for it,” says Aaron Malenke. “I basically have it at my disposal.”

“We’ve built our brewery around being able to feed our pigs all of our spent grain, all of our weak wort, all of our spent trub and yeast, our spent beer,” Ely says. “This makes it viable for us to be doing what we’re doing on this farm without a wastewater treatment plant supporting us. And we’re eliminating the impact of vehicles and fuel.”

Wooly Pig is tailoring the size of its animal herds to the amount of waste the brewery is producing. If the brewery grows, they’ll expand their livestock program to match it.

While cows can’t tolerate quite as much spent grain as pigs can, Stone Cow is dividing its grain among the herd of 200, which is otherwise grass-fed.

“Spent grains are amazing to put in a cow’s diet,” says Sean DuBois. “They produce more and better-tasting milk. You’ve extracted the majority of the sugar, and you’re leaving them with all the good stuff.”

At Jester King, spent grain goes to a local Wagyu beef farm, but Peppy has another plan for how animals can reduce the environmental impact of trucking.

“We’re getting mules. It’s going to be so badass,” he says. “They’ll help with transportation by hauling stone and other stuff. Hauling kegs. Unlike vehicles, they won’t compress the soil.”

Breweries Raise Livestock, Revitalize Land

Peppy is just as passionate about the role of livestock in reviving mismanaged farmland and prairie.

“The majority of America was once a prairie developed by bison, and we essentially exterminated them,” he says. “It’s up to us to move these domestic animals through now.”

Prairie grasses grow up into the sun but also down into the soil, he says. When animals eat the foliage above ground, it stimulates the grasses to expand their root structure, which provides a setting for a rich ecosystem of microorganisms in the soil and prevents erosion. The plants and the soil sequester carbon.

“Take away the animals and the roots die, and all that carbon blows off in the wind,” he says. “If you take away that mammalian presence, it just falls apart.”

By carefully managing the grazing pastures for his goats and, soon, sheep, Peppy can help redevelop land that was damaged by industrial agriculture for decades.

There’s another obvious agricultural benefit to pairing livestock and brewing: free fertilizer.

“Every week I harvest three wheelbarrows of manure from the goat barn,” says Peppy. “That’s gone into our planting beds.”

While feeding spent grain to livestock removes carbon emissions from waste management and transportation, the benefit goes in the other direction as well at Stone Cow. The barbecue restaurant attached to their taproom serves grass-fed beef and vegetables grown right on the property.

“You’ve heard of farm-to-table,” Sean says. “We like to say we brought the table to the farm.”

Additionally, Stone Cow’s food is cooked over wood responsibly harvested from their land.

“It’s a pleasure for me to be able to go out before the sunrise and pick some cauliflower and then that evening see people drinking our beer and eating fire-grilled vegetables,” Molly DuBois says. Stone Cow hopes to begin making cheese with their milk soon as well.

Ambassadors for Responsible Farming

All three breweries see their four-legged charges as a way to educate beer lovers about responsible farming practices.

Peppy corrals the curious among Jester King’s couple thousand visitors each weekend to teach them about the regenerative agriculture of the animals.

“I’ll stand on a table and yell the farm tour call,” he says. “‘You want to come learn about farms? Also, there’s really cute goats.’ And that’s when everyone stands up and is like, ‘Hell yeah, I want to drink a beer and pet a goat.’ Then I’ve got 50-100 people for an hour. I try to explain as much as possible about agriculture and how we got separated from the land.”

While much of this education is purely informative, Peppy also lets folks touch and interact with the goats.

“It’s fun to watch the larger goats interact with children in such a delicate manner,” he says. “They sense it’s this little human, and they have to be gentle.”

The Wooly Pig team uses its livestock to help educate the public as well.

“The pigs really do make this place family-friendly,” Malenke says, echoing thoughts shared by the Stone Cow crew. “People want to see the new piglets. They want to feed squash to the llama. That all helps. Most people haven’t been on a real working farm. It’s not just a petting zoo.”

The brewery also hosts a kids’ weekend every summer with additional animals from neighboring farms. It all helps drive home how natural it is for farming and brewing to be linked (and for families to be present for both). Even other farmers can learn from this.

“We have farmers who come into the brewery all the time who are raising pigs, and they’ve never seen a Mangalitsa, and they’re not used to seeing pigs on pasture,” says Ely.

(TRAVEL: Visiting Fairbanks, Alaska, for Craft Beer)

Brewery-Raised Livestock ‘Living Their Best Lives’

At Wooly Pig, Kevin Ely is as passionate about raising animals in a responsible way as he is about brewing authentic German lagers.

“We’re raising these animals in as respectful a way as possible,” he says. “Lots of space, ample feed and clean water, shelter. They’re living their best lives. It’s an integral part of how we manage to operate our brewery and farm in a remote space.”

“Lots of space, ample feed and clean water, shelter. They’re living their best lives.” Kevin Ely, Wooly Pig Farm Brewery

“We need to find a way that these animals are treated with honor,” says Peppy. “Historically, this was known to be a sacred being.”

The brewery’s founder is onboard with Peppy.

“We want to develop an ecosystem that can be a model for the state, the country, even internationally,” Stuffings says.

“We work hard as hell, but it’s special,” Peppy says with a laugh, before adding a thought that could apply to all three trailblazing breweries: “This place is a massive rebellion against the mundane.”

The post Livestock and Lager: Breweries Raise Animals and Agricultural Awareness appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

CraftBeer.com has built a state by state list of breweries that are offering beer to-go, delivery or alternative form of sales. The majority of the more than 8,000 breweries in the United States are small and independent. The Brewers Association, the parent organization of CraftBeer.com, believes that  99% of the country’s craft brewers will be affected by these shutdowns. Forced shutdowns will put many family businesses on the brink.

All of us need to socially distance to avoid potential exacerbation of the COVID-19 pandemic. If you are ill or an at-risk individual, you should avoid going out. If you are healthy and can avoid coming into contact with large groups, taking advantage of curbside beer service or beer delivery is a great way to support local businesses. Even if you can’t get out, but would like to support, there are fundraisers for brewers and opportunities to purchase brewery merchandise.

For Breweries

Breweries are invited to add to the list by using this form.

New: Homebrew Shops now have a list courtesy of our friends at the American Homebrewers Association. Find a list of homebrew shops that are offering homebrew supplies and ingredients, here.

Support Your Local Brewery Toolkit

This digital suite of overlays is for brewers to share on social to tell their customers how they can support them in the coming weeks. Customize to best fit your purposes, here.

Check out the list. There are over 1,000 breweries listed and growing.

Stay safe. We’re in this together.

Support a Brewery Near You

The post Nationwide List of To-Go Beer Options by Breweries appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

COVID-19 Affects Beer Events

In Florida, COVID-19 precautions became necessary during Tampa Bay Beer Week. Cigar City Brewing’s Hunahpu’s Day and Green Bench Brewing’s Foeder For Thought – two events that have grown to attract crowds of hundreds of people from all over the globe – have both been canceled in collaboration with the guidance of local authorities. “We have decided this is the most responsible action to take for our loyal customers, our employees, the craft community and the city of Tampa,” Cigar City Brewing posted when canceling the event.

Green Bench Brewing’s closing statement echoed that of their cross-county brewing brethren. “While we have to cancel for now, we hope to be able to take this time to create something even bigger for the following year. This feels a bit surreal to write, and we’re just so sorry we have to make this call.”

(Related: Brewery Business Coronavirus Resource Center)

Reassuring The Public

Brewers are acting to reassure their communities that they will remain open and are operating to the highest standards of cleanliness. Brewers are, by practice and necessity, people who clean regularly to exacting standards. Austin, Texas brewer Jester King also reassured their community and closed with a note about the mission of craft breweries. “We hope to withstand any decline in business this may bring by conscientiously following these measures and keeping the spirit of Jester King alive in these challenging times… We want Jester King to continue being a place to get away from the stresses we endure each week to gather over world-class food and beer with friends and family.”

Adjusting Services

KettleHouse Brewing in Missoula, Montana hosted their FishOn! Catch and Release Party, but to adjust for folks who were taking precautions against COVID-19, the brewery offered a pre-order and pickup service. The brewery allowed patrons to pre-order their beer, and “A KettleHouse manager will deliver the beer right to your car upon arrival with a valid 21+ ID.”

KettleHouse has since announced the close their taproom until further notice.

Cincinnati, Ohio’s Fibonacci Brewing is offering patrons drive-through and delivery service. The brewery said in a press release, “When Fibonacci opened in 2015, there was already an existing drive-thru from the previous floral shop. With the impending outcomes of coronavirus, they have decided to officially open the drive-thru window for pick-up.”

(More: Beer Styles Built for Surefire Cellaring)

According to Fibonacci co-owner and President Betty Bollas, “We understand the severity of the issue and that not everyone can be in a public setting right now due to age or medical condition. Some of our favorite customers fall into this category and we want to offer another way to serve them and include them. We have been using specific precautions in our taproom and this is just another way for us to serve our customers.”

Chicago’s Hopewell Brewing listed on their website that they will operate “to-go sales only until at least March 30th” in adherence to an order given by Illinois’ governor on Sunday, March 15 aimed at limiting the spread of the disease.

Milwaukee’s Lakefront Brewery announced their Beer Hall, Restaurant, Tours and special events will cease operations until further notice. “It’s crucial that our city gets out in front of this health crisis,’ said Lakefront Brewery President and Founder, Russ Klisch. “We only have one chance to end the transmission of this virus.’” Lakefront, who distributes beer in 30 states and six countries, assured the public that operations will continue and “there will not be a shortage of beer to buy wherever Lakefront is available.”

Doing Right by Employees

Meanwhile, Massachusetts-based breweries Trillium Brewing and Tree House Brewing have both posted that they have asked workers who can stay home to do so, but they will be paying their workers while operations are limited. “We know many people are reading this and facing the same tough decision – one we never expected to face – and our hearts are with you,” Tree House co-founder and head brewer Nathan Lanier wrote on Twitter. “We find solace in knowing wholeheartedly that we are doing the right thing and at the right moment.”

Supporting The Beer Community During COVID-19

As breweries and many other small businesses are facing difficult times, the action of supporting your local brewery may change, but the spirit remains the same.

(Community: The Coming Economic Challenges Facing Craft Brewers)

Most importantly, if you’re sick, stay home. This cannot be understated. Follow the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health authorities by washing hands, not touching faces, and sneezing into a tissue or elbow.

Buy Beer

It seems like a simple gesture, but that is how breweries make money. If possible, buy beer for a friend or family member, too. No one is sure how COVID-19 is going to play out, but supporting a brewery goes further than simply drinking from their taps. Many breweries already sell beer to go, where possible. If you can buy that beer at a fine beer store or bar/restaurant that serves growlers then that supports two businesses. These retailers are banking on enthusiasts’ demand for fine beers and they could be hurting during these times as well.

Buy Gift Cards

This is like investing in a good time with friends and family in the future while helping your favorite beer purveyor in the present.

Buy Brewery Gear

Many breweries have been affected by COVID-19 precautions and more people staying home. Supporting a brewery like this reminds the community about them and helps remind the community about the brewery and their place in the community.

Beyond buying beer, as Jester King alluded to, it is about keeping the spirit alive during this time of heightened awareness. Whether you do this at home or in a brewery is up to you.

Everyone is navigating uncharted waters right now in reacting to COVID-19. Craft brewers are doing their best to reassure their community, and the community can reassure their craft brewers that we will support each other during COVID-19 just like always.

The post Helping Our Craft Brewing Community During the COVID-19 Pandemic 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.

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“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.

But something about the hard seltzer trend seems different, perhaps even risky to ignore. This is a whole new animal, a marked departure from what brewers are accustomed to. Faced with a tsunami of growing demand and more competition than ever before, many craft brewers are forced to operate outside their comfort zone–to adapt and evolve to meet the rising tide of requests for this bubbly, flavor-kissed craze.

Of course, with any new trend, there are naysayers, those who scoff at the notion of hard seltzer. After all, it contains no grain or (in most cases) hops–though brewing methods can vary, essentially the process involves dissolving sugar into boiling water, fermenting the sugar into alcohol, and infusing flavoring and carbonation after the fact. Seltzers are also gluten-free and relatively low in calories–two factors driving beer lovers’ changing tastes.

A Big Divergence

For most hard seltzer doubters in the industry, the qualms are philosophical.

“Seltzer just feels like a big divergence from some of the principles that made craft beer special in the first place,” says Chris Winn, co-owner and “chief high five officer” at Tradesman Brewing in Charleston, South Carolina. “It’s almost like we’re forgetting some of the lessons we had to learn 30 years ago, about pivoting and doing something different and unique instead of chasing trends. Craft as an industry did not get to where we are by copying the big brewers.”

Instead, Winn suggests brewers may be better off to “focus on the things you do really well and make you stand out.”

For Bill Eye, co-founder and brewer at Bierstadt Lagerhaus in Denver, that means only crafting and serving Old World-style lager, styles that take a significant amount of time and attention to detail.

“People coming to Bierstadt, they know we believe in a very traditional approach: lager, in a beautiful glass, made by people who have tried to bring the German beer experience to the U.S.,” Eye says. “We were flabbergasted by the amount of care and respect beer gets over there.”

“Whatever it is you put your name on, that has to do with what you as a person or company believe in. And I don’t believe in taking sugar and dissolving it in water and calling it brewing. I don’t believe in handing something like that to a customer with the same enthusiasm as a well-crafted helles.”

The Early Hard Seltzer Adopters

But for some small and independent craft brewers embracing the hard seltzer trend, the transition was much more natural.

“Back in 2008, we started making nonalcoholic sparkling water just for ourselves – we called it ‘skaqua,’” says Dave Thibodeau, president and co-founder of Ska Brewing in Durango, Colorado. “After 12 years, we just love having something with bubbles in our hand most of the day.”

Late last year, Ska took this a step further, introducing canned hard seltzers in a mixed 12-pack throughout their distribution network.

As a self-proclaimed “beer guy first,” Thibodeau admits he had “some trepidation” venturing into hard seltzers, but realized he had to “look outside my own selfish interests, and not just be a purist and brew only what I want but what our customers were asking and looking for.”

“These are customers we might not otherwise have, and now they’re sharing the experience of our taproom and our community.” – Dave Thibodeau

And for Thibodeau, seltzer is no further removed from beer than other recent trends.

“When some brewers are going to Walmart and filling their cart with Fruity Pebbles for their next IPA, I don’t see how you can dis on seltzer,” he says.

Tackling controversial styles is nothing new for Upslope Brewing Company, based in Boulder, Colorado. When the brewery debuted its flagship Craft Lager in 2011, few in craft beer were focusing on anything like that–yet. Then in May 2019, Upslope introduced its Spiked Snowmelt lineup of hard seltzers. The two brands are now the craft brewery’s top products, with each commanding relatively equal production volume.

“There was a way worse response when we put out Craft Lager than when we did seltzer,” says Henry Wood, the brewery’s vice president of sales and marketing. “We heard, ‘Congrats, you made Budweiser,’ as if there was this disappointment we made a lager.”

“But thank goodness we did, because that was one of the last unexplored spaces for craft beer when ABV was growing and IBU was going through the roof,” Wood says, referring to the past trend of ever-stronger IPAs. “We said, ‘What happens if we go another way?’, and everyone in this company has benefitted from that.”

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

Brewing Hard Seltzers: Simple Ingredients, Hard Process

While the ingredient list for hard seltzers may be straightforward, some brewers have found making one still presents significant challenges. A thin window for fermentation and a relative lack of flavors to mask flaws behind translates to many a test batch going down the drain.

“It was easily the hardest fermentation process since our first original beer batches,” says Jack Diebolt, co-founder and head brewer at Diebolt Brewing Company in Denver. His first attempt at brewing hard seltzer “was uncharted territory, and it simply wasn’t fermenting out. We couldn’t tie up a tank with something that wasn’t fermenting, so we had to dump it.”

“Managing fermentation and yeast health is one of the greatest challenges with beer, and seltzer’s ingredients don’t provide any nutrients for yeast,” says Mitch Steele, brewmaster and chief operating officer at New Realm Brewing in Atlanta, which he co-founded in 2017 after nearly 30 years in the industry.

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New Realm offers draft variations on its house-made hard seltzer in its two restaurants–the second location is in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

“Finding the fermentation protocol that works so your yeast stays healthy and gives you the results you want is a challenge,” Steele said.

Widening the Aperture

While many craft brewers making hard seltzer acknowledge it may not be their own first choice of beverage, they see the need to cater to its growing demographic, both from a business and community perspective.

“It’s all about widening the aperture of your customer,” Wood says. “Now people can come into the Upslope taproom who are gluten-free or don’t drink beer, when they used to go to a bar or restaurant for their office happy hour.”

While Steele admits that offering a seltzer remains “a very philosophical debate” for his team, he still acknowledges its necessity.

“I know a lot of brewers have flat out said they won’t make a seltzer, and good for them–I respect that,” he says. “But from the point of view of our restaurants, we have customers who want a drink that’s not beer, and Georgia state law does not allow us to offer outside products.”

And for Diebolt, it’s simply a matter of ensuring that alternative is a product of your own making.

“This is the first time in our brewery’s history that we’ve been able to offer anything dramatically different from beer that we make in house,” Diebolt says. “People come here to taste our creativity, so I’d prefer to offer them something we make.”

Ska’s Thibodeau has seen firsthand the draw of seltzer for new customers.

“In the tasting room [the other] night, about three-quarters of the people drinking seltzer I didn’t recognize – and I know our regulars,” he says. “These are customers we might not otherwise have, and now they’re sharing the experience of our taproom and our community.”

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Whether they choose to make a hard seltzer or not, most craft brewers concede that each brewery must decide for themselves.

“Are people freaking out when you go to bar and one person gets wine, one gets beer and another a vodka soda?” Thibodeau asks. “There’s not much difference, as long as they’re all sitting at a table having a good time.”

Even Eye agrees.

“I’m not here to tell people not to drink or make seltzer,” he says. “Drink what you like, it’s not a moral judgement.”

“The best expression of what we do is people drinking our beer without having to think about what went into it. At the end of the day, the most important question the customer should have to face is, ‘Do you want another?’”

The post Craft Brewers Explore Philosophical Debate Around Hard Seltzers appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Bell’s Light-Hearted is among the most recent entrants in the low-cal craft beer space. The Michigan craft brewery tweaks the timeless, award-winning recipe of Two Hearted to arrive at a lower 110 calorie count. Bell’s Brewery Communication Manager Josh Smith says the reason for creating the low-cal IPA was simple: beer lover demand.

“We recognized that there was an opportunity to give beer lovers–Two Hearted fans or not–an option that had everything they were looking for: lower calories, a lower ABV and all of the deliciousness that is Two Hearted,” he says.

Bell’s Light Hearted Ale is among the most recent low-cal IPA releases. Odell Brewing introduced Good Behavior (110 calories, 4% ABV) in fall 2019, echoing similar motivation of meeting beer drinkers in the “better for you” beer space.

“We love light, sessionable beers after a bike ride, hike, or summiting a 14er…Most of the beers in the market that fit this bill are light lagers and we simply love hops too much to not try to create a lighter, lower calorie IPA that would be perfect for all these moments,” says Odell Brewing’s Community Manager Kristen Wood.

Deschutes Brewery took the opportunity to take the trend even further by combining it with the hazy IPA beer style. The result is their recently introduced WOWZA! hazy pale ale (100 calories, 4g carbs, 4% abv). According to Deschutes’ VP of Marketing Neal Stewart, the creation of WOWZA came from the brewery’s ambitious innovation program.

(#SeektheSeal: Seek the Independent Craft Brewer Seal)

“We saw an opportunity to innovate within this space while offering something that is very much on trend, which is what led us to a hazy pale ale. We wanted to ‘embrace the impossible’…[brew a] low ABV hazy pale ale that checks all these boxes and still tastes great.”

Oskar Blues fell back on its decades of experience making big, burly IPAs to craft its low-cal IPA. Aaron Baker, Oskar Blues’ senior marketing manager, says the inspiration behind the brewery’s buzzed-about One-y Low-Cal Hazy IPA (100 calories, 4% abv) was the ability to appeal to drinkers who have enjoyed previous IPAs from Oskar Blues.

“We wanted to brew a beer that could satisfy a range of beer drinkers, from hardcore IPA lovers to those who prefer something more sessionable,” he says.

Brewing a Low-Cal IPA

With the influx of low-cal IPAs comes the introduction of new ingredients that help remedy the complex equation of delivering the full-flavored beers drinkers have come to expect, but with lower calories and ABV.

Atlanta’s Monday Night Brewing made light of its own new creation, Lay Low IPA (90 calories, 3.2% ABV), in a press release, calling it “something totally unoriginal.” But the brewery explained it’s a difficult style to perfect.

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“It turns out that’s pretty hard to achieve,” says co-founder Jonathan Baker, “but using science, dedication, and the spirit of the mighty tiger, we think we’ve finally nailed it.”

To achieve a balanced body with traditional hazy and West Coast IPAs, one common technique for brewers is to boost the sugars in the malt bill to level out the bitterness, which adds to the beer’s calorie count. A new fix is the addition of monk fruit, which adds sweetness but not calories. The wonder fruit is present in both Dogfish Head’s Slightly Mighty (95 calories, 4% abv, 3.6g carbs, 1g protein and 0g fat per 12oz serving) and Hi-Wire Brewing’s new Go Getter low-calorie IPA (100 calories, 4% abv).

Firestone Walker took a very tactical approach to the creation of Flyjack low-cal IPA (96 calories, and 4% abv), delicately weighing how many calories they could allocate to drive a memorable hazy hop flavor in a 12oz package. After accounting for the 4 percent of alcohol content (which seems to be the standard level for low-cal IPAs), Walker says the brewery had about a quarter of the calorie allocation (roughly 24 calories) to hit the requisite flavor notes, which was a “riddle and a huge challenge for the team.”

The solution for Walker and team was the addition of the new Strata hop, which is designed to deliver more hop aroma in a smaller quantity, along with an “expressive” yeast strain which they say heightens the esther and fruitiness of the beer, creating a flavor-laden beer at a lower calorie count.

“Personally and professionally, I am happy to have a beer I can drink that spaces out the calorie count; I drink a lot of tasty beer,” says founder David Walker.

(Editor’s Pick: Sierra Nevada’s Resilience IPA Inspires Aussie Brewers After Devastating Wildfires)

Low-Cal Could Prove to be Big Win

According to Neal Stewart, Deschutes’ low-cal hazy pale ale was launched in conjunction with the news that the brewery was to be the sponsor of Portland Trail Blazers Radio Network back in October. The soft launch quickly led to a huge sales uptick as WOWZA! became Deschutes’ best-selling beer at the Moda Center, which is where the Blazers play their NBA games.

With a clear hit on their hands, Stewart and the team decided to expedite their launch schedule to align it better with a period where many drinkers become more calorie-conscious: January.

“Distributor orders wiped out our initial forecasts and we’ve added several additional brews to the schedule to keep up with demand,” said Stewart.

While people drinking a low-cal IPA wouldn’t technically be participating in the popular month-long sobriety trend dubbed Dry January, being thoughtful with their beer purchasing and consumption habits is a clear consumer trend that doesn’t seem to have a 30 day expiration date.

The post Is 2020 the Year of the Low-Cal IPA? appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

The impacts of wildfire on California’s breweries are numerous. These businesses face immediate threats like property and product damage, reduced tourism, and the inability to deliver beer to bars, restaurants and retail customers. Longer-term impacts include costly increases in utility expenses, insurance, and preventative equipment. These threats create difficult operational challenges for small and independent craft breweries.

Destructive and Deadly California Wildfires

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention, more than 3 million acres burned over three years, at least 150 people died, and more than 35,000 structures were damaged or destroyed.

Seven of the most destructive California wildfires on record occurred in the 13-month period between October 2017 to November 2018 — this includes the Camp Fire, the state’s deadliest on record (the same fire that deeply impacted Sierra Nevada Brewing’s community, sparking Resilience IPA).

In 2019, the Kincade Fire burned more than 77,000 acres in Sonoma County; Saint Florian’s Brewery, named for the patron saint of firefighting and co-owned by a firefighter, remains closed because of damage.

According to CalFire, the three-year cost to the state of California for the suppression of those wildfires was an estimated $1.49 billion. The damage to California’s economy is much higher–AccuWeather estimates it to be over $665 billion.

(TRAVEL: Craft Beer Road Trip to Pacific Coast Craft Breweries)

Topa Topa Brewing and the Thomas Fire

Those are big numbers, and it can be hard to envision how they impact individual communities and businesses. For Jack Dyer, co-founder of Topa Topa Brewing Company based in Ventura, California, it was the Thomas Fire that changed the brewery’s approach to business.

“What some folks didn’t realize is that the Thomas Fire burned for over a month, so it was a prolonged event, made worse by the mudslides in Montecito,” Jack says. “The first night of the Thomas Fire, it came into Ventura hard and fast. I got to the brewery very early that morning, and the town of Ventura was chaotic. I watched as homes and apartment buildings on the hillsides went up in flames.”

“I watched as homes and apartment buildings on the hillsides went up in flames.” Jack Dyer, Topa Topa Brewing Co.

At one point, the brewery in Ventura and taprooms in Santa Barbara and Ojai were all endangered simultaneously.

“As the fire burned on towards Ojai and then SB [Santa Barbara], we kinda had a strategy in place of how to deal with things logistics-wise, but it was a tough time as a business owner, feeling for all of our employees’ safety as well as our customers,” he explains.

The fiscal impact of the Thomas Fire for Topa Topa Brewing Company was an estimated $150,000 in lost revenue, from losses at the taproom to road closures impacting distribution.

Power Shutoffs Plague California Breweries

The risk of power outages is among the most direct wildfire impacts a brewery faces. Loss of power during the brewing process potentially forces breweries to dump batches of beer, rendering them unable to meet sales orders.

No utility company has received more ire for its reaction to recent wildfires than Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E). In 2019 the company implemented a policy of Public Safety Power Shut-offs (PSPS). According to PG&E, a power shut-off can be triggered by multiple weather factors including low humidity levels and high winds, a potent combination that fuels wildfires.

PG&E’s power shut-offs had a major impact on Russian River Brewing in 2019. The Kincade Fire came within one mile of its new Windsor, California, brewery location, in the heart of the evacuation area. The brewery spent eight days non-operational and lost an estimated $340,000 in revenue.

Additional power shut-off alerts after the Kincaide Fire required the use of a generator to keep the brewery operational. Generator rental costs to operate a brewery of their size grew into the tens of thousands of dollars, and inspired the brewery to consider purchasing their own expensive generator system in 2020. Co-owner Natalie Cilurzo says the cost would be difficult to manage but says, “I don’t believe we have a choice.”

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Wildfires Motivate California Breweries to Explore Energy Independence

Topa Topa Brewing Co. is looking into adding solar panels and back-up batteries to the tasting room and brewery locations, in part, because of the wildfire impacts they saw at Russian River. The brewery’s newest tasting room was designed with the addition of solar power and solar panels already in mind.

“We can and will do more to stay energy independent, and have plans to add solar to our roof here in Ventura to help us deal with extended power outages related to climate change,” Jack Dyer says.

The brewery has also joined Clean Power Alliance, a new energy provider in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties providing renewable green energy. They have already seen increases in utility costs as those companies are forced to offset the expense of fire suppression and prevention, but by joining this alliance they will be supporting efforts for stable, long-term renewable energy development, and a reduction in current energy greenhouse gas emissions.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico has been on the forefront of implementing sustainable brewing practices in its efforts to achieve energy independence, prevent operational interruptions that might cause lost batches, and also create less strain on the energy grid.

As far back as 2006, the brewery was one of the original business partners in PG&E’s ClimateSmart and Biogas recovery program. Sierra Nevada uses equipment to capture the methane output of its operation which is then blended with natural gas, and reintroduced as energy to be used by the brewery. The brewery has a similar recovery with 100 percent of the CO2 emissions and relies extensively on solar power.

Preparation is the Best Defense

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is the third most-advanced producing craft brewery in the United States and the brewery’s success has afforded it opportunities to invest in state-of-the-art sustainability equipment. But for smaller breweries, asking tough questions about their current state of readiness can help them mitigate and prepare for the impacts of future wildfires. California craft brewery owners who’ve already been forced to confront wildfire events strongly recommend preparing for emergency situations now.

“Failing to plan is planning for failure,” says Topa Topa’s Jack Dyer. “Putting a solid plan in place to deal with natural disasters if and when they happen is critical for doing business here in California.”

Russian River Brewing Company’s Natalie Cilurzo echoes Jack’s advice that planning is the best defense.

“Failing to plan is planning for failure.” Jack Dyer, Topa Topa Brewing Co.

“Be prepared for power outages via backup sources like batteries, solar, and generators that are large enough to ensure there is no loss of product and which allows you to continue brewing,” she says. “Make sure you have a good insurance policy in place that covers things like business interruption for lost revenue even if there is no fire damage. Practice emergency evacuation drills with your staff and have SOPs to follow in the event of a power outage or an emergency. Plan for the worst-case scenario and everything in between.”

In 2020, California breweries of all sizes are beginning to incorporate natural disaster planning into their operations. New technologies in sustainability are helping companies and the State of California prepare, but having a plan for emergencies appears to be the first step for breweries and all businesses confronting the reality of potential wildfire impact.

The post Repeatedly Under Threat, California Wildfires Force Craft Breweries to Plan for the Worst appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

When they revamped their branding in late 2016, the owners of Drekker Brewing Company–brewer Darin Montplaisir, president Mark Bjornstad, engineer Mason Montplaisir and CFO/Head of Nerdery Jesse Feigum–could have chosen historic or Nordic beer label imagery to complement their new digs. The spacious and sun-drenched former locomotive repair shop in Fargo where they brew is older than the state of North Dakota. They named it Brewhalla, a riff on the name for the Old Norse hall of the gods.

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And they certainly could have had their pick of artists to design their branding. Drekker is plugged into the local art scene, welcoming creative types during seasonal indie craft markets, a bustling Christmas market featuring local makers, and monthly Creative Mornings sessions featuring TED-style talks, art projects, and networking over artisanal coffee.

Instead, they chose Punchgut, an introverted scribbler and gig poster master who prefers to let his work (a gleeful mix of the macabre and the adorable) and his eclectic resume do the talking. The artist works in a cocoon of deconstructed pop culture imagery and bad taxidermy in a Fargo garage studio. He’s been named-checked in “High Times” and “The Wall Street Journal.” His work is featured in both “The Art Of Modern Rock” and the Disney film “Sky High.”

“He’s more like the anti-gallery guy,” says Bjornstad, who is cheerful and garrulous

with a Seth Rogen-esque chuckle. “We were dreaming up this brand identity that was kind of 90s skateboard punk with pogs and some death metal influence, and a kind of pop culture, Trapper Keeper vibe. Punchgut was the only person that we thought could pull that off.”

Intense Collaboration Between Brewery and Artist

This rapid-fire volley of cultural touchpoints and vivid imagery is the way Bjornstad and Punchgut communicate…usually via text, often at 2 in the morning, but occasionally in an off-the-cuff session in the office tucked under the Brewhalla rafters. That’s where each beer starts as a recipe and collection of words and images that Feigum and Bjornstad scrawl onto a whiteboard. One of their first collaborations was on a chocolate milk stout called Milk Maiden.

“‘It’s ‘The Sound Of Music’ – but she’s dead’” says Bjornstad, recalling his instructions to Punchgut. “Use the colors of Swiss Miss.”

Punchgut obliged, creating a smiling fräulein in shades of cocoa and baby blue. She’s a skeleton, naturally.

Not every artist could follow this image-packed shorthand. But Punchgut is into it.

“My brain starts churning on this stuff,” he says. “And they knew exactly what to feed me to get me going.”

Every step is collaborative. Sometimes Feigum and Bjornstad have a concept nailed down and Punchgut just pops in the final piece of the puzzle. Sometimes Punchgut pitches an idea that spins them off into a different direction. Sometimes they hash it out together, alternating between keeping things bold and being deliberately contrary, like when they pair adorable beer names like Tickle Monster with creepy images.

“I love contrast, and I think that’s why I work great with Drekker; we do this kind of funny, wink-eye stuff that also has a lot of dark imagery in it — but also a cute side to it.” says Punchgut. He grins. “And it angers the right people.”

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The entire office laughs. Just a few minutes before, Fegium looked up from his computer and read them a note from a customer who wondered if they knew that a “666” was lurking within a beer label.

They do indeed. While there are undercurrents of darkness (and teenage dudeness) present in most labels, there’s also a higher purpose at work here, both in the beer and in the branding.

“We want you to be challenged by the weird beer, we want you to be challenged by the strange artwork,” says Bjornstad. “We’re not trying to create everybody’s favorite beer. We’re trying to challenge what beer can be. We think it would be a mistake for us to put that much context into the beer and then not encourage the customer to find something weird or ugly or strange on the outside. We’re trying to create experiences.”

Punchgut routinely hides little Easter eggs –Illuminati symbols, occult references, conspiracy theories – for die-hards to find. Characters move from the background of one label to the forefront of another or pop up in gig posters, stickers or a kitschy blacklight poster. It’s all part of the sprawling beer universe they’re building together.

“They’re creative on their end with brewing and we’re creative on the labels, so it’s one of those few times where it’s a 100 percent team effort,” says Punchgut. “They’re always open for experiments.”

Punchgut’s Label Art Connects Drekker’s Beers

Each label stands alone as its own work of art. But the artwork also sorts the beer into its designed place in the Drekker Brewing Company hierarchy.

“We talk inspiration, but also where it has to fit within the brand,” explains Bjornstad. “I’m trying to envision what beers is this going to be alongside, if it’s part of a family in our portfolio.”

For example, their juicy New England-style IPA Ectocasm and double IPAs Cuddle Buddy and Freak Parade are stylistically similar beers. So the labels are similar as well, bursting with neon colors and elaborate monsters.

Ongoing beer series are stylistically similar too. The labels that grace Drekker’s sour beer series become fuller and more complex as the beers do. Brain Squeeze beers are brewed with lactose and sea salt. The artwork for these fruity, creamy smoothie sours features oozing, dripping, candy-colored brains against relatively subdued background.

“We want you to be challenged by the weird beer, we want you to be challenged by the strange artwork,” says Bjornstad.

The wild ales of the Slang du Jour series are complex and dessert-like, inspired by sfogliatella pastries, cinnamon and maple sugar-infused blueberry pancakes and brewed with graham cracker crumbs for luscious key lime, cherry and bumbleberry pie flavors. The central figure is enveloped by swirling lines and whipped cream airiness.

(Related: 9 Artists Using Beer to Create Fine Art)

For Chonk, a rich sundae sour, Bjornstad envisioned equally decadent artwork — “a drippy, stretchy, oozing river of syrup all over the place.” An appropriately rotund cat surveys the scene.

Sometimes the art even revives a beer. Bjornstad penned the recipe for Pizza Toots, a New England-style IPA, as a groan-inducing “sacrificial beer” to test the new Brewhalla brewing system. It made the grand opening line-up as a one-off, but Punchgut wasn’t too impressed with the artwork that the owners tossed up on the menu board in a pinch. So for Christmas, he sent them a present – a new label.

“I sent it out to everyone like, ‘Guess what we’re gonna re-brew!’” Bjornstad recalls, sotto voce. “And it’s just one of the most fun, lighthearted, cute labels we’ve ever done. We get comments about that beer all the time. I’ll be at a coffee shop and the label will be cut out and stuck on the back of a laptop.”

Punchgut’s Beer Art Attracts Attention

The DIY stickers and Punchgut’s connections introduce a new audience to the Drekker brand, and to craft beer in general. Many make a pilgrimage to Brewhalla to find the source of the intriguing beer label artwork.

“New customers come in and express awe and excitement when they see the menu boards behind the bar,” says Ali Belfiore, a Drekker beer slinger and graphic designer. “Our repeat customers are always looking forward to what Punchgut will create next.”

Drekker ships beer to the 35 U.S. states that allow it, so beer fans that can’t make it to Brewhalla check the full line-up via social media. Many now follow the artist on Instagram for a sneak peak at new beer labels.

“I like to see Punchgut along his creative process,” says Kat Verley of New Town, North Dakota. “He will post his label art in succession, so you can see how he works from start to finish.”

Other than the occasional complaint about 666 depictions, few people seem to mind the dark imagery. Which is good, because it’s an integral part of the brewery’s brand. The owners of Drekker Brewing Company had Punchgut paint a giant grim reaper mural in the event space at Brewhalla for the same reason that they feature similar imagery in their beer labels.

“Some places put, like, a culture quote on the wall. We paint a reaper mural,” says Bjornstad, chuckling. “It has a very simple meaning for us. We’re just trying to live this amazing life with experiences that build us up and bind us together, trying to live faster than the reaper. It’s coming for all of us, so live the life you want to live now.”

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