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Isthmus Beer and Cheese Fest | Madison, WI | January 19

Beer and cheese are staples in Wisconsin. Thus, it only makes sense that there should be a beer and cheese festival in the Badger State. “The incredible amount of quality craft beer and artisanal cheeses create almost limitless pairing opportunities,” says Brodie Birkel, event director of the Isthmus Beer and Cheese Fest. “We offer beer and cheese school to point out many wonderful pairings but also urge people to just explore what they like as a start.”

The festival—which is going on its 10th year—features over 120 breweries and 20 different cheese vendors. Attendees get a chance to vote for their favorite of each in the Best of Fest competition. Tickets are capped at 6,000 and the festival does sell out.

(More: America’s Great Beer Bars Returns for 2019)

Ark-La-Tex Craft Beer & Barbecue Festival | Shreveport, LA | March 9

“Craft beer and barbeque are both technically hand-crafted in small batches; the chefs and the brewers take pride in the taste and uniqueness of each batch or recipe, so it seems natural they would go hand in hand for a festival,” says Ark-La-Tex Craft Beer & Barbecue Festival co-founder John Psalmonds. “There is such a wide variety of tastes in craft beer and barbecue that can complement each other for a great combination of flavors.”

The festival is organized in conjunction with the International Barbeque Cookers Association and is a sanctioned competition with cash prizes and trophies—along with the chance to move up to the next sanctioned event—to winners. Last year’s inaugural event drew 32 competitors, two dozen breweries, and around 700 attendees. If you go, opt for the VIP Room Experience which includes a barbeque and beer pairing challenge between four chefs.

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

Schlafly Beer Stout and Oyster Festival | St. Louis, MO | March 22-23

Eighty-thousand oysters overnighted from both coasts, 25 rock star oyster shuckers flown in for crowd entertainment, and 15 different stouts brewed specifically for the event – it’s how Schlafly Beer does their annual Stout and Oyster Festival. Going on its 20th year, the party draws between 12,000 and 15,000 revelers looking to see how many raw oysters they can slurp and stouts they can sample.

“The smooth, hearty stouts cut through the ocean brine flavors of the oyster,” says Stephen Hale, founding brewer of Schlafly Beer. “Stouts are great with raw oysters, but they also pair well with a variety of different kinds of oysters like fried oysters or oyster stew. The creaminess of stouts actually complements oysters, and if you like to pile on horseradish or Tabasco, stouts cut the heat for the perfect pairing.”

(Style Spotlight: English-style Oatmeal Stout)

The beer served is exclusively from Schlafly Beer, and they do run the gamut in creativity. Among the stouts poured last year were horseradish, mango ancho, and dulce de leche variants. Capping off the festival is an oyster shucking contest featuring teams of all-star shuckers from the east, west, and middle coasts.

Moo & Brew Festival | Charlotte, NC | April (Exact Date TBD)

One of the arguments on why beer pairs better with food than wine is beer’s versatility and the exponentially more flavors that come from beer. Beer is just more versatile—like a hamburger. Moo & Brew Festival honors the creativity behind both at their annual festival with over fifty participating breweries and a dozen or so restaurants putting their twist on the American classic. A highlight of the festival is the best burger award. Each of the 5,000 attendees is encouraged to vote for their favorite burger. Last year, the award went to Blacow for their Nutty Goat Burger with garlic and herb goat cheese, candied bacon, aioli, pecans, pickle, arugula, and grilled balsamic onions.

“Burgers, beer and good times is the recipe and I think it works because of its simplicity,” says Ken Thomas, co-owner of the Moo & Brew Burger and Beer Joint and co-founder of the Moo & Brew Festival. “Beer and burgers go great together – throw in a few good bands and you’ve got a great way to kick off Spring in the QC!”

Shrimp Road Seafood and Craft Beer Festival | Key West, FL | April 20

As ubiquitous as the oyster and stout pairing is, beer and seafood pairings aren’t limited to the aphrodisiac of the sea. The Shrimp Road Seafood and Craft Beer Festival invites foodies to explore the almost limitless combinations of seafood and beer at their second annual festival held on a pier in Key West. Can you think of a more perfect setting for a beer and seafood festival?

(More: Couple Behind Silva Brewing Talks About Sharing a Business)

Expect chefs from top seafood restaurants in the Lower Keys like Fish, Hogfish Bar & Grill, and the Salty Oyster along with a dozen or so craft breweries from South Florida and beyond. In addition to exploring various beer and seafood pairing combinations, there are also cooking demonstrations.

Mission Valley Craft Beer & Food Festival | San Diego, CA | April 27

“We have such a wide variety that it’s difficult to answer,” responds Robert Esparza, one of the partners in the Mission Valley Craft Beer & Food Festival, when asked what exactly San Diego cuisine is. “It’s everything from sushi to tacos and Birthday Bacon.”

What started 10 years ago as a festival to support independent breweries in San Diego (if you can’t fly the independent craft beer seal, you can’t participate), has blossomed into one of the region’s premier food and beer events, featuring upwards of 50 area breweries along with 15-20 restaurants. The event culminates with a judged best food award. Previous winners range from sweet chili chicken wings from Cross Street Chicken & Beer and Birthday Bacon (slab bacon with truffle guacamole, wilted spinach, salsa fresca, and pickled onion) from O’Brien’s.

(Find: A US Brewery Near You)

SAVOR | Washington, DC | May 17

Hosted by the Brewers Association, publishers of CraftBeer.com, SAVOR is heralded by many as the premier food and craft beer event in the country. Each year, 80-plus breweries are selected by a lottery to bring their best for a night of many flavors at the National Building Museum. Pairing a variety of forward-thinking small plates with those beers is Adam Dulye, executive chef of the Brewers Association.

Following the mantra of the Brewers Association, Chef Dulye works with small and independent farms, ranches and fish mongers to create a menu that’s seasonal and local; think food and beer pairings like venison carpaccio paired with a double IPA or popcorn and yogurt panna cotta with a brett saison. Given Chef Dulye’s pedigree as a chef—James Beard Finalist, author of the cookbook “The Beer Pantry,” and coordinator of the Great American Beer Festival’s Paired—attendees never know what to expect.

(Seek the Seal: Post Your Photos on Instagram)

Boardwalk Bites & Brews | Santa Cruz, CA | September 28

Imagine pairing your favorite boardwalk foods like deep-fried Oreos, chocolate covered bacon, or deep fried artichokes with craft beer. You can at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk’s Boardwalk Bites & Brew. The festival organizer invites select boardwalk vendors — many of which are generations old family businesses — to cook up a dish for pairing. Area brewers are encouraged to select, or brew, a beer designed to pair with a boardwalk dish. There’s also a best pairing contest. Last year’s winner was Shanty Shack Brewing’s Tropical Passion Kettle Sour paired with a Thai Chicken Wrap.

Of course, these beer and food festivals are just a start to showcase how beer is the ultimate complement to almost any food, from artisan cheeses to childhood boardwalk classics and fine dining. The next time you’re out to dinner or cooking a masterpiece at home, continue the experimentation. Where you’d normally serve a wine or cordial, substitute in a beer. Or, pair one of each and see which goes best. Hint – the answer is always beer.

The post 8 Great Beer and Food Festivals in 2019 appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

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“The media sensationalized that Wilmington was completely under water, and then they left without showing what it looked like here,” says Ellie Craig, sales and marketing manager at Front Street Brewery in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Three months after the hurricane, Wilmington’s breweries are now feeling the real effects of the storm.

(More: Carolina Breweries Support Communities and Each Other After Hurricane Florence)

“I’m hearing that for most breweries, business is down by 30 percent” says Jeremy Tomlinson, president of the Cape Fear Craft Beer Alliance.

The loss of business in this mostly tourism-based economy has left area craft breweries fearful of what the future could hold if business doesn’t pick up.

A Perfect Storm for Wilmington Breweries

“Business started falling off two weeks prior as people fled the city,” says Rob Robinson, president and founder of Waterline Brewing in Wilmington. “Hurricane Florence ended our summer,” he laments, which is a big loss for a market that relies heavily on tourism traffic.

As Hurricane Florence approached, brewery owners were busy preparing, kegging and crashing beer to prevent as little spoilage and loss of product as possible. “Everybody lost some beer,” says Tomlinson.

(Related: Hundreds of Breweries Tell Sierra Nevada “We’re In” on Wildfire Relief Beer)

For some, that loss was minimal—a thousand dollars for a five barrel batch. For breweries with kitchens, the numbers were much larger.

“It cost us thousands to restock our kitchen,” says Jud Watkins, owner and head oyster shucker at Wrightsville Beach Brewery. Most of that lost inventory, Watkins gave away prior to it spoiling, paying his employees to cook it and deliver it when there was no revenue coming on. “It wasn’t about the numbers but doing right for the community and using our resources. We wanted to send a message to the community that we know we’re going to get through this.”

Inventory losses paled in comparison to larger losses to come. Breweries were closed for upwards of two weeks due to power outages. During that time, they couldn’t brew or sell beer, leading to a loss of inventory and sales. Then, once the power was back on, most of the local bars and restaurants that sold their beer were still without power.

(More: Veteran-Owned Breweries Create Hop Blend)

“Wholesale was hurt,” says Watkins. “While all the breweries were open, restaurants and bars weren’t.”

Even if restaurants and bars were open, there weren’t customers to fill tables and occupy bar stools.

“The city was saying ‘Don’t come back,’” Robinson tells us. Residents who evacuated were stuck outside of the city for weeks because flooded roads weren’t drivable; the state also needed to keep routes clear for aid workers who were repairing utilities.

(More: Escape to These Craft Breweries on U.S. Islands)

“All the hotels were sold out, but their guests weren’t drinking,” adds Tomlinson. “They were working 12 hour days as aid workers — or [staying] there because they lost their house. Tourists couldn’t come if they wanted to.”

Even now that Wilmington is starting to return to normal, business isn’t what it used to be. Weekend tourists who use to drive from Raleigh and Charlotte aren’t returning, and locals don’t have the discretionary income to spend; many are service workers experiencing loss of wages themselves or worried about costs to rebuild their homes.

Wilmington Breweries: We’re Open for Business

Wilmington breweries are working together to let you know they’re open for business. After Hurricane Florence, the future of area breweries depends on filling taproom seats and pint glasses now more than ever.

For beer lovers who live in Wilmington, the answer is as simple as drinking local. It was local breweries who were in the trenches alongside residents and aid workers helping to rebuild the community. Many bars and restaurants are seeing the value breweries bring the Wilmington community and responding. As Mark Anthony Mueller, partner and operating owner at Waterline Brewing states, “We picked up five or six new accounts based on local businesses seeing how much area craft breweries supported the community.”

(Discover: A US Brewery Near You)

If you live outside the area, since most Wilmington breweries don’t distribute outside of the local market, the answer to how you can help isn’t as simple as picking up a six-pack. Instead, Wilmington breweries and the local convention and visitors’ bureau want you to schedule your next beercation in Wilmington.

“The media painted a dire picture of the storm as it made landfall,” says Kim Hoffman, CEO of Visit Wilmington and the Beaches. “While it’s true that we endured a direct hit from Hurricane Florence, our recovery is going very well, and Wilmington and its beaches are already open for business and welcoming visitors! Cleanup efforts are almost complete and should be finished by January. In fact, visitors to our visitor center often comment on how good the destination looks and how remarkable our recovery has been.”

Travel ideas include one of over 50 holiday events, the North Carolina Azalea Festival or Cape Fear Craft Beer Week.

“The biggest thing people can do is come back to Wilmington,” adds Craig. “We have 18 breweries in the area now. You don’t have to go to the mountains to drink beer. You can go to the beach.”

The message is loud and clear—Wilmington is open for business again!

The post Wilmington Breweries Worry About the Future After Hurricane Florence appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

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Like with hurricanes Harvey and Irma in 2017, breweries are walking alongside their neighbors and serving as beacons of hope in times of need by providing water, fundraising and community meeting places.

“Before the storm hit, we gave out free water and ice to anybody who needed it for their storm preparation,” says Rick Grant, general manager of Wrightsville Beach Brewery. “We did this until the power went out and we couldn’t make any more ice. We kept giving out water, though.”

(READ: 2018 GABF Medals Awarded)

After the eye of the storm passed, the brewery quickly resumed their community assistance, cooking up any salvageable food and giving it away to neighbors. They even went mobile with their efforts, sending volunteers with carloads of free food into devastated neighbors.

This Saturday, the brewery is hosting a Wilmington Strong: Hurricane Florence Relief Concert, with proceeds going to Good Shepherd Center, Humble Roots Farm, and local farmers.

The story is similar with Bill’s Front Porch Pub and Brewery in hard-hit Wilmington, North Carolina. Prior to the storm, the brewery filled up its liquor tank with 300 gallons of cold filtered water to give out to neighbors. The brewery also mobilized their food truck the Sunday after the storm, sending it into owners Donnie Stone and Brookes Musser’s neighborhood with free hot meals for residents who had been without power since Thursday morning.

Sometimes, as Stone reminds, the support was simply about being able to open, even if that meant operating with a skeleton crew of owners and top-level management, since most employees evacuated and were having difficulty returning with mass road closures throughout the region.

(MORE: Drake’s Brewery Shows Off ‘The Barn’ in West Sacramento)

“We were one of the first restaurants to open,” says Stone. “We had a chance to feed linemen and first responders with a hot meal and a cold beer.”

Mike Barlas of Wilmington’s Flytrap Brewing agrees. He and his family hunkered down in the brewery during Hurricane Florence. Once it passed, he and his wife worked tirelessly to be ready to open as soon as the power turned on. They re-opened the Tuesday after the storm with just the two of them behind the bar — the rest of their staff was evacuated.

“Once we were able to re-open, we had people coming in that needed air conditioning, to charge a phone, and just talk. It was really powerful. A lot of people lost their houses,” he tells us.

Recovery aid for Wilmington extends far beyond homegrown breweries. Fullsteam Brewing in Durham and Legion Brewing in Charlotte both led fundraisers and drives to support relief efforts. “We support local farmers and purveyors throughout the state in our food and beer offerings. We also want to support our neighbors across the state,” says Brittany Smith, marketing manager of Legion Brewing.

Hurricane Florence Badly Damages New Brewery

In some instances, the aid was about breweries helping breweries. As Hurricane Florence approached, Tidewater Brewing was awaiting their permit to open as Wilmington’s newest brewery. Yet, mother nature had other plans, blowing open the brewery’s doors and tearing off the roof.

“What happened to them really hit home for us because we know what it’s like to put everything on the line.” Lybbi Roth, Bold Missy Brewery

“The brewing equipment is salvageable, but the building infrastructure is a complete loss,” says Ethan Hall, president and chief operating officer.

While the business and the building were both insured, Bold Missy Brewery in Charlotte hosted a fundraiser to help fill the plugs of items not covered like glycol lines.

“What happened to them really hit home for us because we know what it’s like to put everything on the line to try and see your dream come to fruition,” says Lybbi Roth, taproom manager. “There are so many great relief efforts in our community for hurricane victims, and we wanted to specifically do something to show support for another member of the NC beer community who is experiencing such a horrible situation.”

There’s also a Go Fund Me page to help the brewery rebuild.

(VISIT: Find a U.S. Brewery)

Even through his loss, Hall reminds that they weren’t alone in feeling the effects of Florence. “There are other breweries down here that experienced loss. Nobody had a generator to keep their beer cold, and some of them lost inventory. Ironclad lost their roof and has water damage, too. We just happened to be the one with the most catastrophic damage.”

The post Carolina Breweries Support Communities and Each Other After Hurricane Florence appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

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Jester King Brewery in Austin, Texas

Jeffrey Stuffings founded Jester King Brewery in 2010 on a small tract of land leased from a ranch outside of Austin. His inspiration:To create a brewery that modeled the farmhouse ales of western Europe, brewing beer that he describes as inextricably linked to place and time.

“We had a quest for authenticity with our beers,” Stuffings says. “A lot of beers marketed as farmhouse use water that is manipulated, and grains and hops that come from the same place as everywhere else.” Not so with Jester King. Its water comes from the property’s well, the grain comes from central Texas farmers, hops are dried in the brewery barn, and many of the adjuncts are grown either on the property or by local farmers.

(MORE: Jester King Founder Speaks Out on Beavertown/ Heineken Deal)

While the brewery’s geographical footprint has grown over the years from that small plot of leased land to now owning all 165-acres of the ranch, its barrelage output has not. It’s capped at 2,000 barrels a year. “To make beer the way we want to, by capturing terroir, we need to stay this size,” Stuffings says.

That doesn’t mean Jester King doesn’t have visions for the future. The brewery just focuses more on the land than the beer.

“The area around us is becoming more and more residentially developed and commercial development is catching up,” Stuffings says. “It’s feeling less and less rural. Now that we own all 165-acres, we want to create non-obtrusive, sustainable fun.”

Next month, Jester King plans to open free hiking trails to the public and is in the works of opening its own restaurant. Other future plans could include camping, cabins, a cheese shop, a butcher, a winery and a meadery.

“There’s some altruism in terms of preservation. We want to create something that is sustainable for a lifetime if not longer,” Stuffings says.

Upright Brewing in Portland, Oregon

So far, 2018 has been a big year for Portland’s Upright Brewing. It won two medals in the highly contested Oregon Beer Awards — a silver for its Dirty Passport smoked lager and a gold for its mixed fermentation Pathways Saison. Yet, with all eyes on the 9-year old brewery, founder Alex Ganum plans to do something almost unprecedented. He plans to shrink barrel output from 1,200 barrels a year to 1,000. His decision comes down to two factors: lifestyle and beer.

“There’s something to be said about being small and still doing more hands-on work,” Ganum says. “I can’t tell you how many times I talk to brewers who started small and are now at 15,000 barrels. They’re stuck behind a desk all day not using their hands. They’re managing 30 people instead of three. That’s just no fun.”

Instead, Ganum is proud of the fact that his brewery only employs three people, and they each have their hands on everything.

(Analysis: Hemp Ales Grow in Popularity as Brewers Aim for New Flavors and Awareness)

“We’re not in it to make a million bucks,” Ganum says. “It’s a lifestyle thing. I want to make sure we (my guys and I) can live comfortably in Portland with reasonable hours, flexibility and weekends off. We can drive to work with smiles on our faces.”

A lot of that fun has to do with a focus on the beer. As Upright moves to a more taproom-centric business model that many breweries today are shifting toward, the brew team is focusing more on its barrel program.

“We want to keep the tap list as interesting as possible,” Ganum says. That philosophy even extends to the brewery’s flagships, like the Pathways Saison, made from different barrel-aged pale saisons. Even its flagship IPA — Supercool — can’t be normal.

“It’s fermented with two saison yeasts in an open fermenter,” Ganum says. “It’s unique but just accessible enough for IPA drinkers.”

Looking toward the future, Ganum sees more of the same. “People just expect that you want to expand. We’re way more focused on having a good time. In our ideal world, we’re setting this place up to rock out for decades and riding it out for our whole lives.”

Double Barley Brewing in Smithfield, North Carolina

Double Barley Brewing wears its heart on its logo with the company slogan of “Small Town, Big Beer.” It is why you’ve probably never heard of Smithfield, North Carolina. For the Western North Carolina uninitiated, it’s a blip off of Interstate 95. “We chose this spot to become more of a destination brewery,” says Cheryl Lane, whose business card reads Head Trouble Maker.

The brewery — which specializes in high-ABV and dark beers — opened in 2013. It saw tremendous growth in those first few years. Then, as competition in North Carolina increased and shelf space became more coveted, the brewery experienced the slowdown felt by many. That is fine by Lane, who, along with her husband, Larry, opened the brewery with the idea of it becoming a community space. “We designed the brewery to bring people together,” Lane says.

Thus, Double Barley offers its second-floor event space to community groups like the Junior Women’s League and Adopt-A-Cop for free. The brewery also hosts charity events each month, works with local farmers and food purveyors to source ingredients for both the brewery and the kitchen. And offers up walls for local artists to sell their wares. “The advantage of having your own business is creating the environment you wanted when you were working for someone else,” Lane says.

(Find: A US Brewery Near You)

The focus on the taproom also allows Double Barley to keep it fun by hosting events like the recent Thrilla Fight Series, where the brewery paired variants of their popular Thrilla In Vanilla Porter against each other. Other unique events include a barbecue cookoff for charity, Christmas in July, GOUGE Wrestling, pet adoptions and more.

“It’s different for us,” says Lane on the brewery’s future. “We have a full life with family. When I was young, I didn’t mind working hard. Now, we want to grow to the point where we don’t get divorced or die of a heart attack.”

Jackie O’s in Athens, Ohio

“Even though we crossed that 15,000-barrel threshold to be considered a regional brewery, we still don’t consider ourselves to be a regional brewery,” says Art Oestrike, founder of Jackie O’s. Instead, he prefers the moniker of Ohio’s brewery. “If 95 percent of our beer stays in Ohio, that’s perfect.”

In fact, many regional breweries are surprised to learn that Jackie O’s, which employs more than 120 full and part-time workers in southeast Ohio, is as large as they are.

“People are shocked that we brewed 6,000 barrels of Mystic Mamma last year,” Oestrike says. “They don’t believe it’s possible because we don’t send any of it out of state. But, it’s in several thousand accounts in Ohio.”

Becoming Ohio’s brewery wasn’t something that Oestrike planned in 2005 when he bought what was then O’Hooley’s, a brewpub. He has a rabid fanbase of Ohio University alumni to thank for his success. “More than 60 percent of OU students find themselves back in Ohio within a year of graduation,” Oestrike says. “A couple of homecomings in a row, people were begging for our beers.”

Even with recent success, Oestrike has put the brakes on growth in 2018. Instead of investing in quantity, the brewery is dialing it back and focusing on quality. He is installing a better bottling line, a centrifuge and a pasteurizer.

“I can’t believe we don’t have any stainless-steel tanks on order for the first-time in five years,” Oestrike says.

It’s all in an effort by Oestrike to build a legacy.

“Do we get a little jealous when a brewery that’s only two or three years old is brewing more than us?” Oestrike says. “Yes. But I don’t want that debt. I want to be here in 20 years. We live in a very impoverished area and we want to make an impact. Two of our employees bought houses this year.”

Two years ago, Jackie O’s launched a health care plan, one of the biggest employers in the area outside of the state to do so.

And that’s where Oestrike sees the future of Jackie O’s. It’s not in opening brewpubs throughout the state, but in creating opportunities in Athens County and southeast Ohio. Whether that is at the brewery’s farm or with offshoots like the bake shop, Oestrike says only time will tell.

The post 4 Small Breweries Happy to Stay Small appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

As craft beer continues to star in more and more special occasion dinners, so, too, is it finding its way onto the dessert menu. And not just in stout or porter form, either. You can pair sweet treats with everything from pilsners to Berliner Weisses and scotch ales.

Below are nine beer and dessert pairings to help keep your Valentine’s Day exciting.

(INFOGRAPHIC: Beer & Food Pairing Guide)

IPA with Carrot Cake

For starters, let’s look at a pairing that is quickly becoming the new imperial stout-and-chocolate of dessert pairings: IPA and carrot cake. The pairing works well because of the way the hop bitterness and sugary sweetness balance each other out. A great example is Surly Brewing’s Furious IPA and a classic carrot cake.

“Carrot cake and our Furious IPA is one of our favorite beer pairings because of the unexpected nature of it,” says Ben Peine, executive chef of Surly Brewing. “There’s a lot of natural sweetness from the carrots, plus the whole thing is buried under a thick layer of sweet, tangy cream cheese frosting. Pairing it with another sweet beer would overwhelm your entire dessert experience. The key to pairing beer with this cake is balance. Furious is that beer – it’s snappy and bitter with lots of citrus/floral components coming from the addition of bright hops.”

Double IPA with Orange Almond Cake

Further along the hop intensity line is Good City Brewing’s suggestion of their Reward Double IPA with the house specialty Tunisian Orange Almond Cake. Here, the beer both complements and contrasts the citrus and rich chocolatey layers of the dish.

“We really enjoy how orange flavor pairs with Reward,” says David Dupee, co-founder of Good City Brewing. “In fact, we run a weekly cask program in the taproom, and one of the most popular cask offerings to date is Reward with orange peel. It’s no surprise, then, that the orange character in the almond cake dessert nicely draws out and showcases Reward’s unique citrus and tropical notes.”

Finishing the orange almond cake is a chocolate imperial stout ganache that washes down nicely with the citrus-forward DIPA.

(READ: Beer and Cheese Style Guide)

Scotch Ale with Bread Pudding

Still fixated on pairing a malt-forward beer with your Valentine’s Day dessert? Try a Scotch ale. The style’s strong caramel malts and hefty body mesh up with rich desserts like bread pudding. Great Divide Brewing suggests pairing their Claymore Scotch Ale with a bourbon bread pudding.

“The toffee and caramel notes of the beer go hand in hand with the sweet, buttery and nutty flavors from the bread pudding,” says Maureen Cherrett, marketing project manager at Great Divide Brewing. “The addition of bourbon adds that extra decadence to make the pairing that much more rich and indulgent.”

Coffee Blonde Ale with Bread Pudding

Schlafly Beer counters Great Divide’s bread pudding suggestion with their Double Bean Blonde.

“Schlafly’s Double Bean Blonde Ale finds its ideal mate in the best bread pudding that you can find,” says Stephen Hale, Schlafly Beer’s founding brewer. “Rich, dense and luscious, notes of cinnamon and dried fruit commonly found in bread pudding complement the chocolate and coffee flavors of the beguiling Double Bean Blonde.”

Schlafly Beer’s Double Bean Blonde is brewed with cocoa nibs and blended with a coffee toddy of beans from Kaldi’s Coffee. The result is a golden ale that is quite deceiving in color as the flavor delivers big coffee and chocolate notes that are very reminiscent of a stout.

Czech Pilsner with Strawberries and Cream

On the lighter side of the dessert pairing chart is a classic Czech Pilsner with a fruit-forward dessert. The lighter dessert and beer combination is a pleasant way to end a hearty dinner. The carbonation and clean flavors of a pilsner also help to cleanse the palate for what’s to come later in the evening. Summit Brewing suggests their Dakota Soul Czech Pilsner with a simple plate of strawberries and cream.

“This classical Czech Pilsner has a mild bitterness and floral, slightly citric aroma qualities,” says Damian McConn, head brewer at Summit Brewing. “It should pair well with any subtle fruit-based dessert, such as strawberries and cream.”

(COOK WITH BEER: Find Hundreds of Recipes)

Saison with a Pear Tart

Another less aggressive beer and dessert pairing is a saison with a fruit tart like Big Ditch Brewing’s Beautiful River Saison and a pear tart. The fruity esters of the yeasty farmhouse ale call out similar flavors in the fruit-forward dessert.

“I’d suggest using our Beautiful River Belgian-style Saison, which is a balanced saison bursting with lots of pear-like esters, with a pear tart, which should obviously be complementary,” says Matt Kahn, the brewery’s president and co-founder. “The sweetness from the tart [is] cut by the dryness of the beer, and the pilsner malt backbone goes really well with the sweetness from the crust.”

Berliner Weisse with Fruit and Vanilla Tart

Another option with a fruit tart is a mildly sour beer like Berliner Weisse. The refreshing nature of the beer, along with its bright sour notes, make the flavors of a tart dance.

West Sixth Brewing suggests their porch pounder Meadoweisse Berliner Weisse to pair with a fruit tart. “The acidic and tart profile of our Berliner Weisse lends a complementing and balancing character to the sweetness of a fruit tart,” says Dale Bugay, one of West Sixth Brewing’s brewers. West Sixth takes their suggestion a bit further and recommends rounding out the pairing with the addition of a traditional fruit syrup to the beer to help make your date a little less sour.

Belgian-style Tripel with a Peach Cobbler

Catawba Brewing suggests pairing a classic southern-influenced peach cobbler with their LD’s Belgian Tripel – part of the brewery’s Specialty Series – for a flavor experience that is both complex and balanced all at once.

“This abbey-style golden ale is extremely versatile in food pairings, with complex flavors and aromas ranging from apple, pear, banana, clove, peppery spice and noble hop earthiness,” says Brian Ivey, marketing director at Catawba Brewing. “Like a fine wine, this beer is well-suited to enjoy with savory courses, also, but we particularly like the way its flavors enhance a dessert pairing of peach cobbler with vanilla bean ice cream.”

(LEARN: Beer 101 Online Course)

Mexican Chocolate Old Ale with New Mexican-style Sopapillas

Leave it to Arizona-based Tombstone Brewing to add a little southwestern spice to heat up your night by suggesting their Mexican Chocolate Old Ale with New Mexican-style Sopapillas. Sopapillas are deep fried pillows of dough found throughout Latin America. They’re also quite popular in New Mexico, where the pastry isn’t stuffed with meat, cheese and peppers, but instead topped with honey, cinnamon and whipped cream.

“Our Mexican Chocolate Old Ale features an abundance of rich hatch, New Mexico green chile flavor,” says Matthew Brown, owner of Tombstone Brewing. “New Mexican-style sopapillas are puffy little dough pillows with a pocket inside. It’s a great vehicle for all sorts of other flavors, and in this case the classic chocolate, vanilla and chile flavors are provided by the accompanying beer rather than a filling. A traditional honey drizzle adds a little sweetness to a fried bread that’s never cloying (and often even borders on savory), and the cinnamon whipped cream ties everything together, complementing the beer and sopapilla by adding not just a creamy component to the course overall, but filling out the spice profile with another traditional ingredient often used in both Mexican chocolate and New Mexican-style sopapillas.”

Don’t Like Any of the Above Suggestions?

Then be creative and blaze your own dessert and beer pairing trail! Just remember a few easy-to-follow rules to make sure that Dave Matthews Band CD keeps playing through to the good parts.

First, consider how sweet the dessert is. A sugar bomb can overpower your beer or throw other flavors way out of whack much like the way intense hops can with a savory dish. Second, match intensity. Neither the beer nor the dessert should overpower the other. For example, notice how lighter, less intense beers were paired with fruit-forward desserts, and an intensely flavored beer like a scotch ale was paired with bread pudding.

Third, think about complementary and contrasting flavors while still considering the rules above. A good example is Good City Brewing’s Reward Double IPA with an orange almond cake. The citrus notes of the beer complement the orange flavors of the cake and balance the contrasting chocolate ganache for a complete dessert experience.

Finally, remember it’s beer – so have fun!

The post How to Pair Beer with Desserts That Aren’t Chocolate appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

But the brewery’s name goes beyond a coy play on the owner’s twin status. Inside the taproom, Mirror Twin offers three pairs of beers that are mirror twins of each other – meaning the recipes are identical except for one ingredient. It’s a fun twist on traditional taproom offerings, and as DeFranco will tell you, the beers naturally generate a ton of questions from his customers – and that’s exactly what he wants.

(LEARN: Get to Know 75+ Popular Beer Styles)

Twin Beers Spark Conversation

When I stopped into the brewery with my wife, we ordered twin pints – a Red Blooded American and a Red Bretted American. Both recipes were identical red ales except for the yeast strain; Red Bretted American was brewed with Brettanomyces. Mirror Twin also offered twin IPAs and witbiers at our visit.

“More people want to know where their beer is coming from and how it’s made,” says DeFranco. “Our twins give them a little taste of two different beers that are identical and different at once.”

The twin beers also spark a lot of conversation in the taproom. “OMG. That’s so cool!” jokes DeFranco of their reaction. “It’s fun to see people as into it as you are.”

The mirror twin beers are more than just a novelty item — they are DeFranco’s way of engaging in conversations with customers about how a subtle difference makes a huge flavor impact. Although he will warn you, he tends to geek out.

(READ: The New England Style IPA is The Anti-IPA)

“It’s not on purpose. I’m just so passionate,” DeFranco tells us.

Twin beers are just one way DeFranco helps educate customers about beer. Each month, he also works with a local homebrewer to scale up their recipe from a five-gallon system to Mirror Twin’s production system. The process and recipe changes often fascinate homebrewers, much like the twin beers do with beer drinkers in the taproom.

“Some are like, ‘You have to do this every day!?’” says DeFranco.

Lawyer-Turned-Brewer

Working with homebrewers is a nod to DeFranco’s own start as a homebrewer-turned-pro. He started homebrewing while studying law at Southern Illinois University.

When he graduated from law school in 2013 and moved to Lexington, he brought his new hobby with him and began working at Alltech Lexington Brewing & Distilling Co. – the brewers who make Kentucky Ale – while waiting to take the Kentucky bar. When other future attorneys were studying for the bar, DeFranco was cleaning kegs on the midnight shift.

After passing the bar he left Alltech, but not for a corner office job with a high-powered law firm. Instead, he took a job as an assistant brewer at Blue Stallion Brewing, one that DeFranco reassures didn’t require the night shift.

(BEER TRAVEL: The Rising Tide of Alabama’s Gulf Coast Craft Breweries)

Focusing on Approachable Beers 

Mirror Twin typically has 15 of its own beers on tap. In addition to the twins, you’ll see beers DeFranco describes as “approachable.” In a young craft beer market like Lexington’s, he wants to draw in non-craft beer drinkers – not shock their palate.

“Even non-IPA drinkers like our IPA. Of course, some customers will say it’s not hoppy enough,” says DeFranco. “It’s 3:1 on like to unlike.”

Drinkers looking for something a little edgier can opt for the double IPA, which DeFranco brewed based on customer demand.

“We want people to tell us what they want. We had a lot of requests for a DIPA, so we made one,” says DeFranco.

(READ: Brewers Association Releases 2017 Midyear Report)

Lexington’s ‘Must-Visit’ Warehouse Block

Mirror Twin is located in Lexington’s Warehouse Block, which was featured in the New York Times as a must-visit neighborhood in the South. Besides being home to a brewery, the once dilapidated Warehouse Block is also home to trendy restaurants, bars, boutique fitness centers and locally owned stores.

Patrons don’t have to leave the taproom for a bite to eat because Mirror Twin is also an accidental brewpub.

“We weren’t planning to serve food,” says DeFranco. “But zoning required us to be a brewpub.”

So, DeFranco and his partners reached out to a popular local food truck, Rolling Oven Mobile Pizzeria, and offered them a permanent home. Of course, DeFranco is experimenting with the sharing of yeast strains with their tap-roommates in the name of education.

The post The Mirror Twin Who Brews ‘Twin’ Beers appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

The lumpy, lemony looking citrus fruit is commonly found in Japan, Korea and parts of China. Yuzu’s large seeds make it difficult to eat, but its strong juices and bitter zest find their way into a variety of culinary recipes. Up until recently, the fruit was off limits to brewers as any recipe using yuzu required special approval from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). In 2015, the TTB added yuzu fruit to its list of ingredients exempt from special approval.

(BEER TRAVEL: Plan Your Next Beercation)

This is where the explanation takes a turn towards the complex. None of the brewers we talked to had the same description for yuzu’s flavor. Some describe the fruit with lemon character, others say it’s similar to a mandarin orange and a few pointed to a likeness to grapefruit. Some said the fruit was complex, while one brewer labeled it as one-noted. Chalk it up to everyone’s unique palate experience.

The one thing everyone could agree on is that the adding yuzu makes for a refreshing summer beer, whether it’s the pith or the juice they’re using and whether the beer is an IPA, lager or saison. Here are nine to try before summer beers disappear.

YIPA | Cheboygan Brewing | Cheboygan, MI

YIPA, a double IPA brewed with yuzu, from Cheboygan Brewing is the brewery’s second beer brewed with the Asian fruit. The first, Yuzu, was met with mixed reviews.

“The biggest hurdle in the beginning was what the hell is yuzu,” says Mike Eme, head brewer.

The brewery’s second time around with the fruit has been met with a much more open reception.

“It’s a clean flavor, and judging by how much of this double IPA I am going through, it seems to be bringing a smile to people’s faces … Well, that, and it’s 8.2% ABV,” says Eme.

Eme finds the beer to be the perfect combination of a West Coast IPA and a juicy New England IPA by using yuzu to enhance the dankness without adding bittering and to lend citrus aromas. Pour yourself a glass of YIPA as the little ones set to roast their marshmallows and say goodbye to the evening.

Yuzu Fierce | Off Color Brewing | Chicago

Yuzu Fierce, a Berliner-style Weisse from Off Color Brewing, has been quite the summer hit. Head Brewer and Co-Founder John Laffler calls it their “Summer Dino s’mores,” after the popular one-off that has since become a perennial winter seasonal. Yuzu Fierce has been met with the same reception.

Using yuzu aligns with a trend that Off Color has been following.

(LEARN: Everything You Want to Know About Fruit Beers)

“We use a lot of fancy Asian citrus fruits and love the interplay between the bracing acidity, brightness and perfume in yuzu specifically,” says Laffler. “It has a very nice complimentary and contrasting flavor balance. Definitely in the same realm as the lemon rind notes we get from our house lactobacillus fermentation, so it’s an obvious couple. Yuzu’s perfume is a pleasant additive aroma to the beer’s lemon lime-ish flavor profile.”

The beer’s low alcohol level – 3.8% ABV – make it a refreshing pairing for an afternoon of summer play.

Fugli Fruit IPA | Oskar Blues Brewery | Longmont, CO, Austin & Asheville

Oskar Blues began experimenting with yuzu back in early 2016.

“We brewed a beer with our friends at YO-HO Brewing in Japan. We combined our IPA recipes and used our favorite hop, Mosaic. Yuzu was used to tie the beer to Japan. In the end, we were blown away with the results,” explains Tim Matthews, head of brewery operations.

Oskar Blues continued to experiment with yuzu and the recipe until they came up with Fugli Fruit IPA.

“We wanted to build off the YO-HO IPA for a summer beer, so we trialed a bunch of different citrus, including mandarin, kaffir lime, even tangelo. We decided to still feature Yuzu, but found these two other citrus infusions – Ugli Fruit and Rangpur – that did amazing things alongside yuzu.”

The result is a fun, exotic tasting IPA that would taste great with a game of cornhole.

Clementina | Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales | Dexter, MI

In Clementina, a sour saison from Jolly Pumpkin, the brewer opts to impart the bitterness from the yuzu peel and combine it with lime peel, coriander, pink Himalayan salt and clementine juice. Brewers then age the beer in oak barrels for 11 months.

“The yuzu is rather mellow in Clementina because we’re only using the peel,” says Iain Kyle, event coordinator at Jolly Pumpkin. “It provides some bitterness and blends in well with the sweet clementine juice.”

Jolly Pumpkin came across yuzu purely through experimentation.

“A lot of citrus flavors work with the yeast culture that we have without being overpowering and in your face. It follows the trend we’re on with limes, lemons, oranges, clementine and now yuzu.”

Clementina is a symphony of fruit flavors alongside a funky mouthfeel that pairs perfect with a summer evening.

(READ: Offbeat Places to Drink Craft Beer)

Tropic of Yuzu | Samuel Adams | Boston

“Yuzu is a very aromatic fruit that provides a juicy, citrusy punch with hints of tangerine and grapefruit,” describes Megan Parisi, Sam Adams nano-brewery head brewer. “For our Tropic of Yuzu, yuzu makes for a really refreshing, thirst-quenching brew for summer with an exotic citrus flavor.”

In addition to yuzu, Samuel Adams also added grains of paradise, a pungent African pepper with hints of citrus itself, to the ale. The combination of wheat, yuzu and grains of paradise produces a beer with a crisp mouthfeel along with a balance of citrus and spices. It’s an ideal beer to welcome friends to your cookout.

Yuzu Lager | 7venth Sun Brewery | Dunedin, FL

7venth Sun took a departure from the rest of the breweries on this list and opted to impart yuzu into a lager. Justin Stange, 7venth Sun vice president and brewer, cites an experience not in Japan but in Denmark for his brewery’s unique twist.

“I visited a ramen restaurant in Copenhagen owned by Mikkeller that was serving a yuzu lager and found inspiration there,” he tells us. “Being a fan of ramen and spicy soups in general, I felt the flavors in this beer would match well with that type of food.”

Yuzu Lager is heavy on the yuzu.

“It’s almost difficult to recognize the base beer as the yuzu is so forward,” says Stange. “It creates the sensation of drinking a tart beer at the level we use the yuzu.”

While Stange may pair the beer with a spicy Asian soup, try it alongside spicy BBQ ribs.

Garden of Hell Chicken Pale Ale | Insight Brewing | Minneapolis

The Garden of Hell Chicken Pale Ale from Insight Brewing is part of their year-round lineup. Ilan Klages-Mundt began experimenting with the fruit when he was living in Japan.

“I started brewing in Japan and had a Yuzu tree in my backyard,” he says. “It looked like a little lumpy lemon. I didn’t know what it was, so I tasted one. It was a mixture mandarin orange and grapefruit. I decided to brew with it.”

Klages-Mundt uses the full fruit in his pale ale, from the pith to a puree of the juicy meat.

“The fruit accentuates the hops, almost likes its own breeding program. They play well together, like lemon in a shandy. It brings out a little sweetness, a little fruitiness and a little bitterness,” says Klages-Mundt. Think hot off the grill hamburgers.

(BEER NEWS: Would You Get a Tattoo for Free Beer?)

White IPA with Yuzu | Sierra Nevada Brewing | Chico, CA & Mills River, NC

Sierra Nevada’s White IPA with Yuzu was brewed in collaboration with Japan’s Hitachino Nest Brewery and is part of their Beer Camp on Tour Pack. The two breweries took Hitachino Nest’s most popular beer, a white ale, and added both an American and Japanese influence – hops and yuzu.

“Flavorwise, white ales have a citrus component, usually bitter orange peel,” says Abe Kabakoff, Sierra Nevada’s collaborator with Hitachino Nest. “Replacing the bitter orange peel with yuzu gives the beer a much more distinct citrus flavor.”

Much like Insight Brewing, Sierra Nevada relied on yuzu for that hoppy bitterness.

“The yuzu bitterness also allowed us to aim low on our IBUs and still have an aromatic beer,” he explains.

Thus, the brewery could incorporate nutmeg and coriander commonly found in white ales yet would normally clash with hops in an IPA.

The White IPA with Yuzu is a great match for that day out on the lake.

Matcha Super Green Yuzu IPA | Red Brick Brewing | Atlanta

Red Brick Brewing doesn’t use yuzu fruit itself but uses a tea blend that includes yuzu.

“We wanted to brew an IPA with a unique characteristic,” says Garett Lockhart, brewery president and brewmaster. “Our tea provider sent us a ton of options. After brewing a bunch of test batches with different teas, the yuzu blend really stood out to us. The yuzu brought a unique bright citrus character that we couldn’t get from domestic citrus.”

The unique combination of yuzu and tea have made Matcha Super Green Yuzu IPA a taproom favorite that would also pair well with a day on the golf course.

The post The Summer of Yuzu Beers: 9 to Try Before They’re Gone appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Craft beer drinkers can’t wait for the party that accompanies a bottle release like Cigar City Brewing’s annual Hunahpu Day. Others look forward to the mystique surrounding the extreme rarity of the beer like that of Russian River Brewing’s Pliny the Younger. Some enthusiasts are in it for the bottle trading; they want to see exactly what that extra bottle of Jester King Brewery’s Atrial Rubicite will land them.

Yet, the underlying question remains: Why can’t you buy these special release beers year-round?

Brewers tell us quite a few factors come into play.

Special Releases are Difficult to Brew

The most popular reason why a brewery decides to hold a recipe as a special release is difficulty in the brewing process.

“It comes down to capacity and manual labor,” says Neil Callaghan, El Lector at Cigar City Brewing, creators of the previously mentioned Hunahpu Imperial Stout.

“It’s a triple mash beer on a 30-barrel system. It takes three times longer for us to make it than Jai Lai, our bread and butter.”

Chad Henderson, head brewer at NoDa Brewing, says the same about Hop Cakes, the brewery’s double IPA brewed with maple syrup.

“It’s hard to make from a time management point of view. The maple syrup is taxing. The hop additions take time. The ingredients are expensive. If we brewed that beer on a regular consistency, we wouldn’t have anyone left on our staff.”

(LEARN: Interactive Beer Styles Guide)

Low Yields

On top of the difficulty in brewing, most special release beers also result in lower yields – meaning all that effort and extra expenses in ingredients produces less beer.

“It takes six batches of Hop Cakes to fill our fermenters when it normally takes only four with a regular beer,” says Henderson.

Vinnie Cilurzo, owner and brewer at Russian River Brewing, agrees. “We only make Pliny the Younger once a year because it takes twice as long to make and the yields are almost 50 percent less than a conventional batch of beer, so from a production standpoint, it just isn’t possible.”

Jeffrey Stuffings, owner of Jester King Brewery, experiences those same low yields with his highly coveted refermenting fruit ales, whose releases are the brewery’s biggest of the year. All that fruit soaks up a lot of beer.

(READ: What’s Old Is New: Coolships in American Craft Brewing)

Lack of Storage Space

Storage is another huge issue when it comes to special release beers. Those barrels take up valuable space in often cramped brewhouses.

“We turn over barrels once or twice a year, whereas we can turn over stainless steel once every six to eight weeks,” says Stuffings.

It’s not just barrel aging that takes up space, though: sometimes the ingredients eat up valuable square footage.

“The wildflower honey we use for our Honey Rye Ale is harvested only once a year,” says Jason Ford, head brewer at Left Nut Brewing. “Honey has a long shelf life, theoretically. You don’t want to miscalculate the honey though as that’s economics of storage, and the potential it won’t get used.”

Access to Special Ingredients

Some beers are brewed as annual releases due to the harvest season of ingredients – be they fresh hops, fruits, vegetables, or herbs. An example is one of NoDa Brewing’s other highly sought after releases, Sticky When Wet Fresh Hopped IPA.

“It’s completely based on the hop harvest season, which occurs once a year,” says Henderson. “We brew it the day we get the wet hops.”

The same seasonal driver also affects Jester King Brewery’s ability to brew their refermenting fruit ales year-round.

“We can only brew the beer when the fruit is in season for that peak freshness,” says Stuffings.

(PLAN AHEAD: Beer Travel Destinations)

Another example is the cost of pecans for Left Nut Brewing’s Shade Tail Nutty Pecan Ale.

“Access to the raw materials is the challenge,” Ford says. “The pecans are prevalent but good pricing is not. They can range from $2 a pound to $6 a pound. To get some return, we need to purchase ingredients as economically as possible.”

Higher Costs

All of the previous factors drive up the cost of brewing special release beers. While the breweries can easily escalate the price to match increased production costs, most breweries want to keep beer prices as accessible as possible, even for special releases. Thus, many are sold at extremely lower profit margins or at losses.

“If it was just bean counters running the brewery, they wouldn’t allow us to brew Hunahpu,” says Callaghan. “Jai Lai keeps the lights on, Hunapuh doesn’t.”

“We have three hoppy flagships already – Par 4 Session IPA, Jam Session Pale Ale, and Hop Drop ‘N Roll IPA – plus several hoppy seasonals. Offering Hop Cakes year-round would cut into our other brands,” says Henderson.

Those higher ABV special release beers often sell for the same price as lower ABV offerings. Given the higher gravity, customers order less beer. “Customers will spend less drinking in the taproom on beers that cost us more money to brew.”

And Then There’s Marketing

Even if the stars aligned and breweries had ample space, enough staff to handle the most difficult of brews, and access to fresh ingredients year-round, many brewers don’t think special release beers are marketable as a flagship.

“Even if we could make as much Hunahpu as Jai Lai, its market isn’t there,” says Callaghan. “It’s too big of a beer. You’d never find it for sale in a supermarket year-round.”

“There’s a seasonality to beer due to weather, seasonal food, etc. That heavily drives what we decide to release and when. Our Castle Stormer Scottish Ale wouldn’t sell year-round,” says Mario Mastroeli, founder of Granite Falls Brewing.

Finally, as Cilurzo states, there is the scarcity factor. “I also think by only doing the release once a year, it makes it special. Think about Christmas. Would Christmas be as special if there were several Christmases a year? Probably not.”

(READ: Are Long Beer Lines Worth the Wait?)

Why Brew Special Release Beers?

Given the difficulty and costs associated with brewing a special release beer, why brew them in the first place? For all breweries we interviewed in this article, the answer was the same: for the customer.

“We brew Hunahpu to keep it special as an anniversary beer. It heralds the new year for us, our customers, and our community,” says Callaghan.

“It is really flattering to see this from our eyes. Every year I’m humbled beyond belief that folks will wait in line for one of our beers. It is this loyalty from our guest that really drives our staff,” Cilurzo says.

The post Why Can’t I Buy that Special Release Beer Year-Round? appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

They expected the venture to be difficult in the same way it is building any business, but what they didn’t expect were the regular threats, including “You’re going to hell,” hurled their way.

“There’s no blueprint for this. We had to build the brewery and educate the county,” Mario says.

(LEARN: Get to Know 75+ Beer Styles)

But the Mastroelis, faithful Southern Baptists, pressed on. Granite Falls Brewing opened in 2013 with a devotion to their local-minded mission and a plan to convince Granite Falls, population 4,703 in the heart of the Bible Belt, that brewing beer was not evil.

Granite Falls Brewing Aims to ‘Grow Local’

Local isn’t just a buzzword for the brewery.

“Granite Falls Brewing’s on-premise tagline of ‘Grow Local’ captures our firm commitment to search upstream and downstream for local and regional partnering opportunities,” Mario says. “Communities are like companies: the ship rises and falls together. Buy local products and you’re supporting local job growth and in-state job retention.”

“Communities are like companies: the ship rises and falls together.” Mario Mastroeli, Granite Falls Brewing Founder

The city was devastated when the textile mills closed. Afterward, the North Carolina Department of Commerce considered it “Most Distressed” region from 2007 to 2014.

Caldwell County is currently designated by the state as “Less Distressed,” and that’s largely because of an expansion of Google’s data center in nearby Lenoir. But Granite Falls Brewery and its gastropub restaurant deserve a hat-tip for some of the economic development that has spurred growth in the region.

(EXPLORE: Find a Brewery)

When the brewery bought its building from Pepsi Cola it housed 11 employees. Today, 41 people are busy working in that same building. And Granite Falls Brewing prides itself in paying above-average wages for its employees from dishwashers to brewers.

The brewery also does its part to give back to the community by supporting charities like Caldwell County Big Sweep Waterways Cleanup, Hickory Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Adopt-A-Puppy Events, Communities in Schools of Caldwell Tools for Schools, Meals on Wheels, Toys for Tots and Special Olympics of NC.

While a good portion of its charitable work — volunteer hours and use of delivery vehicles for Meals on Wheels, for example — isn’t accountable in a dollars, Granite Falls still totaled $61,000 in monetary donations in 2016.

Focusing on Local Benefits Everyone

“Our goal is to put good beer in the hands of great people,” Mario says.

He does that by sourcing local ingredients for both the brewery and the kitchen whenever possible. Granite Falls Brewing proudly boasts its local producers in its Economic Impact Statement, written to persuade other small Southern towns to welcome breweries.

The local focus has paid off: Granite Falls Brewing has won seven medals at the 2017 Carolina Championship of Beers for its lineup, which covers everything from blondes to IPAs to wild fermented ales.

This success has helped the brewery grow from producing 1,700 barrels in 2016 to an estimated 3,500 barrels in 2017 with a distribution footprint in most of North Carolina and parts of South Carolina.

The kitchen has experienced equal success, earning the title of Best Restaurant in Caldwell County in 2016 by the Hickory Daily Record for its pub-fare-heavy menu, which features many beer-enhanced recipes.

The brewery’s events, including free concerts, “arts in the Bar” and darts, are big draws for locals.

“Food, darts and music — we do it all because we’re all there is to do,” Mario says.

(READ: What is Craft Beer?)

Winning Over Local Residents

A recent visit to Granite Falls Brewing at noon on a Sunday seems to indicate that their mission to win over locals with its positive impact on the community is working: a line of thirsty and hungry customers wraps around the side of the building.

In its Economic Impact Statement, Granite Falls contends that “the Lord does not detest a drinker.” That’s something beer-making monks around the world would raise their mugs to — and now some Granite Falls residents might even agree.

The post Granite Falls Brewing’s Uphill Battle to Change Local Perception appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

There are nods to a rich past as a beer mecca throughout the city that was once home to four of the world’s largest breweries – Miller, Pabst, Schlitz and Blatz. In fact, as you drive through Milwaukee looking up at the massive brewery campuses that still dot the landscape, you can almost smell the sweet scent of wort boiling.

(10 Craft Beer Festivals in 2017)

Today, those original brewery buildings stand proud as converted office parks, student dormitories and a new hotel. Yet, their cream-colored bricks speak of a past that the city’s new crop of craft breweries are trying to retell. With 25-plus craft breweries and plenty of historic beer markers, Milwaukee just might be the ultimate place to take a beercation.

Milwaukee Beercation: Brewery Tours

Lakefront Brewery’s tour has been called one of the most entertaining brewery tours in the country. Not only do your guides teach the nitty-gritty of brewing beer, they also entertain along the way. All guides are local comedians or actors, and the tour ends with the crowning of the Bunghole Queen while the crowd sings the theme song to “Laverne & Shirley.” We recommended you reserve a spot in advance. After the tour, be sure to stick around for a pint or two in the massive German-style beer hall, or, if the weather permits, grab a seat along the Milwaukee River.

Milwaukee Brewing Company offers another craft brewery tour you won’t want to miss. The self-paced, interactive, beer-in-hand tour provides plenty of opportunity to quiz the brewers on their unique beers and try samples from the brewery scoundrel’s stash. This is another one where you’ll want to reserve a spot before you go.

Milwaukee Beercation: Brewing Innovators

A great starting point for a tour of Milwaukee’s small and independent craft breweries is in Walker’s Point neighborhood, which is also the home of Milwaukee Brewing Company. Once you’re done with the tour, continue to MobCraft Beer, the world’s first crowdsourced brewery. Every month, the brewery hosts a recipe competition where anyone can submit an idea. The beer recipe with the most pre-orders wins and winds up on tap in the brewhouse. Visiting the brewery is a fun way to see how far the creative limits of beer can be pushed. Alongside crowdsourced beers like a cocoa, coffee, cayenne and vanilla stout or carrot cake ale are the brewery’s flagships, which tend to be just as unique as the crowdsourced offerings.

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From MobCraft, head south on 5th Street for two blocks to Brenner Brewing, where owner Mike Brenner uses his skills as a brewer to help fund and promote the local art community. Attached to the brewery is a gallery to peruse while you sip. You can find the work of many of the artists featured in the gallery on Brenner Brewing’s labels. Continuing farther south on 5th Street is Urban Harvest Brewing. The nano-brewery is housed in an old theater with the original seats still in place.

North of downtown near Lakefront Brewery is another cluster of breweries. Good City Brewing is renowned for its hop-forward beers and innovative kitchen. Like Minds Brewing features creative sours like its Amarillo Brillo, a charred grapefruit barrel-aged sour, and offers a menu designed by former partner Justin Aprahamian, a James Beard award-winning chef.

On the outskirts of Milwaukee is Sprecher Brewery, which opened in 1985 as one of the leaders in craft beer. Sprecher brews a wide-range of well-executed European-influenced beers alongside American favorites.

Milwaukee Beercation: Hotel, Food and More

As a hotel rewards points junky, I will tell you that Milwaukee is a city where you’ll want to forget about loyalty perks and stay in a hotel that tells the city’s story. And what come to mind first for your beercation is the Brewhouse Inn & Suites. Housed in a former Pabst Brewery building, the hotel has massive copper vats filling the atrium and authentic industrial piping that add a unique touch to many of the rooms.

(Are Experimental Hops the Future of IPAs?)

Don’t overlook the motorcycle-themed Iron Horse Hotel as Harley Davidson is just as synonymous to Milwaukee as beer, brats and cheese. As an added bonus, the Iron Horse Hotel is located within blocks of several craft breweries in the Walker’s Point neighborhood.

With the city’s beer-soaked history, much of the food pairs well with brews. Some recommended restaurants, all of which pour local craft beer, include Mader’s for authentic German cuisine; The Vanguard for house-made sausages; Wisconsin Cheese Mart and the Uber Tap Room for beer and cheese pairings; and Five O’Clock Steakhouse for an original supper club experience and an authentic Milwaukee Sweet Old Fashioned.

While you’re in town, maybe catch a baseball game. The team is called the Brewers, after all.

The post Craft Beer Travel in the Original Beer City: Milwaukee appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

“You just don’t make a batch and hope it turns out okay. Each batch has to be of high quality and consistency,” Stutrud says. “It’s got to deliver what you say you’re going to deliver to customers.”

It’s a topic Olde Mecklenburg Brewery in Charlotte surfaced publicly through the “Now You Know Better” billboard marketing campaign in mid-2016. While the billboards struck some people as too strongly-worded, the brewery says the intent was to bring the discussion to beer lovers’ attention. Ryan Self, the brewery’s sales director, says Olde Meck wants all breweries to produce the best beer possible.

(MORE: What Is Craft Beer?)

“I need consumers to try other craft beers and like it,” Self says. “If they don’t, they’ll go back to what they know.”

Self says OMB holds itself to the same high standards because every drinker is important. “If they have one bad Copper [OMB’s flagship beer], we’ll never get them back. They’ll go back to their old familiar.”

The “old familiar” is the reason highways and shopping centers are littered with chain restaurants — it’s what consumers perceive as reliable. The same goes for beer.

While bigger breweries have access to state-of-the-art labs and can afford PhD level microbiologists, that doesn’t mean a local brewery can’t implement similar, yet affordable procedures. The Brewers Association offers a Quality Priority Pyramid that gives brewers a broad overview of how to structure a quality control program.

There are many effective practices brewers use to produce consistent results. Here’s a closer look at four measures craft brewers are taking right now.

1. Host Daily Sensory Tastings

The first logical step in determining the quality of a beer is for a brewery to know what their beer tastes like so they can spot variances in recipes across batches or catch off-flavors introduced through infection. You don’t want to rely on one person’s palate, as they may be too emotionally tied to the product. Instead, breweries can implement a multi-person sensory panel like industry veteran Brian Helton initiated in his three-month-old brewery, Helton Brewing in Phoenix.

“My goal was to establish a quantifiable progression of quality in our product. We all have certain weaknesses and strengths in our flavor and aroma perception. We are able to use the panel to their strengths to identify any issues we have in our production or recipe development,” says Helton.

The key is to train employees on how to spot off-flavors, which is easy to do according to Kevin Drake, owner and founder of two-year-old Alibi Ale Works in Incline Village, Nevada. He knows the importance of starting a sensory panel. “We spent $200 for an off-flavor kit and introduced the flavors into samplings of beers,” says Drake. “It helped employees know what to look for in our regularly scheduled sensory panels.”

DraughtLab, a beer sensory app for both iPhone and Android, provides a free platform to measure feedback and data provided by sensory panels. Brewers can then see what adjustment need to be made to a recipe or determine if larger quality issues need to be addressed.

2. Install a Lab

Those larger quality issues often require a lab for further analysis. Labs are not as expensive to install as most breweries think and can be pivotal in delivering consistent beer. Helton says installing a lab was paramount.

“Brewers rely on their friends and family to blow up their ego by saying how great their beer tastes. But without any type of data, how can the brewer move forward with being consistent and know their product is clean?” he says. “Cost is always an issue with a startup company, and we were only able to afford a couple key items in our lab. I started my lab with a microscope, hemocytometer, the best pH meter I could afford, incubator, stir plate, and a heat plate.”

Alibi may have started without a lab but quickly added one when the brewery began packaging. “Without it,” Drake warns, “it’s only a matter of time before there’s a major issue.” Now, he measures everything, even if he doesn’t know what the numbers mean yet. “It’s like when I was homebrewing; I kept these thorough logs filled with numbers that meant nothing at the time. Eventually, they did though, and I was able to look back at why a beer turned out so awesome.”

For problems that extend beyond what a start-up brewery’s basic lab can determine, don’t be afraid to reach out to bigger breweries for support. For example, Summit Brewing is happy to test beers and offer troubleshooting consultations free-of-charge.

(MORE: 6 of America’s Best Resort Towns for Craft Beer)

3. Maintain a Consistent Recipe

It sounds simple, but maintaining a consistent recipe is difficult with the rising cost of ingredients and sometimes limited access to ingredients. It’s important for a small brewery to understand the importance of combating both as the brewery’s brand is tied to the consistent delivery of the same flavor with each can, bottle or pint. This may mean increasing the price of the beer as costs rise or accepting lower margins. Both are far less costly to a brewery’s brand image than an inconsistent recipe.

Much more difficult to combat is access to ingredients as Blue Pants Brewery in Huntsville, Alabama, experienced when the brewery encountered a shortage of Citra hops for their flagship IPA.

“Citra became very difficult for us to find, but we tried to achieve the same tangerine and lychee flavors that you get from those hops. To do so, we have found ways to use a particular yeast strain’s ester profile and its’ ability to bio-transform hop oils to achieve a similar flavor profile to what would normally come from Citra,”Blue Pants former head brewer Weedy Weidenthal explains. “In test batches, I even handed a beer that was brewed with Cascade, Columbus, and Bravo to a well-respected taster who commented that it was obvious that I used a heavy dose of Citra, not knowing that I had no Citra whatsoever in the batch.”

4. Don’t be Afraid to Dump a Beer

While this may sound like an expensive undertaking given cost of goods and man-hours to brew a beer, far more costly is the negative hit to both the brewery and the industry’s reputation. This is something Summit’s Stutrud constantly preaches. Never, he warns, turn that beer into what he describes as “beer du jour” in the form of a “special release” or “tasting room only” beer.

Consumers should be assured the efforts to get the best beer to market go well beyond the four we spotlight today. As OMB’s Self says, “We need to, as brewers, both look in the mirror and demand better of ourselves and our peers. It is simply no longer enough to be craft, nor is it enough to be local. You need to be world class in execution.”

The post Measures Craft Brewers Take to Maintain Consistency in Beer appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

“Everybody likes to talk about starting a brewery over a beer, but when I showed up with my hand out asking for money, they scattered,” recalls Stutrud. Compare that to today’s climate where almost everyone seems to have a friend invested in a local brewery.

(MORE: 5 Reasons Independence Matters to Brewers)

In his realist and jovial manner, Stutrud justifies their reaction back then. “I was just a knucklehead from North Dakota with a background in family psychology, dealing with chemically dependent adults … Starting a brewery in close-knit St. Paul was a tough sell.”

Yet, Stutrud rolled up his sleeves to get started.

Opening a Brewery in the Twin Cities Against Good Advice

His training began several years before he eventually quit his job in clinical social work to open Summit Brewing. He spent his free time researching what it took to start a brewery and enlisted mentors like Charles McElevey, a consulting brewmaster from Redhook Brewery’s early days, and brewmaster Fred Thomasser of Schmidt Brewing, whose grandson, Tom Thomasser, now works at Summit as their chief operations officer. Likewise, Stutrud spent his vacations apprenticing in breweries.

Eventually, he assembled a group of investors crazy enough to help him open Summit Brewing. It wasn’t with the encouragement of what was then the Brewers Association of America though. When Stutrud requested an application, the executive secretary, William O’Shea, cordially responded with a letter that accompanied the requested application. In the letter, O’Shea stated:

Thank you for your letter, and I note that you are working on a feasibility study on establishing a Micro-Brewery in the Twin Cities area. Please note that I am not encouraging you to do so (open a brewery), because it is a long and hard road you are planning to go down.

Today, his brewery, which had to fight to see its first tap, produces 130,000 barrels a year and is the second largest brewery in Minnesota after August Schell Brewery. Summit also ranks as the 29th largest craft brewery in the United States, according to data from the Brewers Association. But unless you live in the Upper Midwest, you’ve probably never heard of them because 75 percent of their beer is sold in Minnesota, as Stutrud believes strongly in the regional brewery.

(MORE: Girls Pint Out Leaders Share an Insider’s View)

Access to Market in the 1980s

Obtaining the success and respect Summit Brewing receives today wasn’t easy.

It was so different back then. When new brewers talk about access to market and difficulty getting their beers to consumers, there’s no comparison between the opportunities that exist today as to what it was like in the early to mid-80s. Most bars only had six taps and those were dominated by the major players who were in lockstep with the distributors.

The first keg they sold in September 1986 was an English-Style pale ale in a city known for their love of lagers. “We weren’t renegades. We were deviants,” says Stutrud. “If an extra pale wasn’t shocking enough to most people’s palates in the neighborhood, we then offended them even more by coming out with something as aggressive as a porter.”

Summit was so different that no wholesaler would represent them nor would chain restaurants or sports bar offer them a tap. “We aligned ourselves with independent restauranteurs and clubs that appreciated boutique wines,” says Stutrud. Fortunately, their appreciation translated into boutique beers as well, and Summit Brewing boasted 50 accounts in their first six months.

Stutrud likes to contrast that to today’s market. “It was so different back then. When new brewers talk about access to market and difficulty getting their beers to consumers, there’s no comparison between the opportunities that exist today as to what it was like in the early to mid-80s. Most bars only had six taps and those were dominated by the major players who were in lockstep with the distributors.”

An Emphasis on Training and Quality

I sense both bitterness and pride as I talk to Stutrud. Not bitterness in the sense of resentment towards new competition. Stutrud clearly welcomes new breweries into the marketplace. Many local breweries turn to him when they need advice or have issues that require Summit’s extensive lab. He’s happy to assist them free of charge by offering a spec of their beer to pinpoint issues and a consultation to help fix the problem.

However, I sense bitterness towards the growing disregard by some towards brewing as a profession. “This is a profession. If you’re going to get into this profession, training and experience is paramount.” He continues by explaining that he wouldn’t open a law office without the proper education and certifications. A lawyer shouldn’t become a brewer without doing the same.

Instead, he’s seeing a trend where the fundamentals of brewing are getting lost in the name of creativity in what some describe as creating jazz. “It’s bullshit. Jazz is one of the most structured forms of music. That moment of creativity is based on understanding the foundation of the structure. This kind of shit drives me nuts. A lot of customers are paying for individual brewers learning curves. And that’s not the core ethics of my profession. The core of my profession is that you give the customer what you know you’re giving them and that it’s been verified. It’s not ‘I wonder what this batch will do.'”

That structured creativity is found in Summit’s Unchained Series. With each release in the series, he allows one of his brewers — all of whom have four-year degrees plus advanced brewing certifications — complete autonomy of a limited production beer. The brewers spend months researching and vetting the beers before the liquid ever touches a customer’s lips. A perfect example of that innovation is the current offering in the series, the Zingiber Cream Ale, an ale and lager hybrid brewed with ginger.

(MORE: 5 Questions Brewers Wish You’d Ask During a Tour)

At the same time, Stutrud is quite proud of the perfectly brewed traditional beers that Summit is known for, like the Keller-Pils we began our interview with and that you’ll find in Summit Brewing’s 30th Anniversary Series. “I love it when people say, ‘Ah, Summit, they’ve been around 30 years. They’re so consistent, they’re so traditional.’ I’m like, ‘Thanks for paying attention. That’s what we’ve been trying to do for 30 years.'”

Summit Celebrates 30 Years

Leading up to the 30th anniversary, Summit Brewing released four limited edition beers, including a double IPA and the aforementioned German-Style Keller-Pils.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKJjM8PBrTy/?taken-by=summitbeer&hl=en

The festivities took place at the brewery on September 10. Bob Mould headlined the party with various other artists like Bully, deM atlaS, Bad Hats, Apollo Cobra and Nooky Jones taking the stage.

Of course, the best way to celebrate Summit Brewing’s 30 years of achievement is to raise a pint or two of Summit Extra Pale Ale, the beer that helped get the brewery started and can still be found in most Minnesotans refrigerators.

The post Summit Brewing’s Straight-Shooter Mark Stutrud on 30 Years as a Craft Brewery appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

The Jacksonville beer scene has long been home to breweries (Anheuser Busch and a handful of brewpubs associated with Gordon Biersch), but none were locally owned. It wasn’t until 2008 that a local brewery, Bold City Brewery, appeared on the scene. Now, the laid back beach community can sip big IPAs and brown ales — two of Jacksonville’s favorite styles — after a day of surfing or soaking up rays.

Jacksonville Beer Scene Highlights

1. Bold City Brewery

Bold City Brewery takes its name from Jacksonville’s own nickname, the Bold City, and the bold move it took for mother and son team, Susan and Brian Miller, to open Jacksonville’s first locally-owned brewery. The two quit their full-time jobs to pursue their dream of entrepreneurship aided by Brian’s successful run as a homebrewer. With the encouragement from friends who were drinking his homebrew — not just because it was free but because it was good— he left a secure job with a family of four and a mortgage depending on him.

Today, both Jacksonville locals and tourists alike can raise a can of Killer Whale Cream Ale or Duke’s Cold Nose Brown Ale to the duo that helped make Jacksonville’s flourishing craft beer scene happen.

2. Intuition Ale Works

Opened two years later and less than two blocks away from Bold City Brewery is one of Florida’s fastest growing breweries, Intuition Ale Works. At least the breweries are neighbors for now. Construction is currently underway for a new facility near EverBank Field. The new digs will include a 4,230 square-foot rooftop beer garden, 30,000 square feet of brewery space, and a 30 barrel system. Customers can expect the same innovative beers focusing on barrel aging, Belgian yeast strains and sour programs alongside standards like People’s Pale Ale.

With a restaurant also in the works for the new location, Intuition will be the Jacksonville destination for craft beer before, after and most likely during Jaguars football games.

3. Kickbacks Gastropub

It seems fitting that one of the most impressive and aggressive bottle cellars I’ve ever seen is located a stone’s throw from Intuition and Bold City underneath Kickbacks Gastropub. The gastropub offers a wide range of food covering everything from poutine to banh mi to vlaamse stoofkarbonaden. The over 200 taps are just as varied, offering local favorites alongside an impressive collection of Belgian libations.

The real gem though is the bottle cellar. For a long time, the 2,500 square feet of catacombs served more as show and tell space as owner Steve Flores amassed a collection of over 100,000 bottles and kegs of vintage beers. Now, many of those beers are sold in the Belgian-themed beer bar located next to the beer cellar. Guests can even pull aside some beers in a rented beer locker.

4. Aardwolf Brewing Co.

While Aardwolf Brewing Co. may be one of the newest additions to the Jacksonville beer scene with their location in the trendy San Marco neighborhood, they didn’t enter the scene quietly. Within two years of opening, Aardwolf won bronze at the Great American Beer Festival in the Belgian-Style Blonde or Pale Ale category with their Belgian Pale Ale.

The brewery is continuing to push the limits with an aggressive barrel-aging and sour program in the works. It’s an awesome brewery to visit for the location alone: an old railroad ice house.

5. BREW Five Points

BREW Five Points is a unique blend of craft beer and espresso bar in the Five Points Neighborhood that carries an interesting variety of local craft beers alongside roaster curated coffees. While BREW only has four taps, owner Jack Twatchman makes sure they pack a mighty punch with beers that are fun and unique. If you can’t find anything on tap, chose from one of the 70 cans or bottles.

BREW takes the same care in their coffee bar, which serves coffee from Intelligentsia out of Chicago. Sometimes that coffee ends up in a craft beer like the Hipster Speedball, a tasty concoction of Intuition’s King Street Stout mixed with cold brew coffee. BREW also recently rolled out a food program serving breakfast food with a majority of the ingredients coming from local organic farmers.

6.Really Good Beer Stop

No visit to a city is complete without picking up some craft beer souvenirs. Really Good Beer Stop on Jacksonville Beach is a great spot to do just that. The shop offers a variety of beers from around Jacksonville and Florida that you’ll be sure to impress your friends with at your next bottle share event.

7. Engine 15 Brewing Co.

Moving out towards the beach are a few breweries that are introducing beer to a market that typically only drank large light beer. Engine 15 Brewing Co. was the first locally owned brewpub to open on the beach. Alongside their own offering of artfully brewed American craft standards, the brew pub also serves a variety of hand selected craft beers from Florida and beyond. The food menu offers fun selections to pair with beer like the not to miss Frito pie.

Engine 15 actually has two facilities in town. At the previously mentioned Jacksonville Beach brewery, they brew one-off and seasonal beers. The downtown location is mostly a production brewery with plans to open a beer garden and event space later this year. The downtown brewery focuses on Engine 15’s core offerings and their cider and mead production.

8. Green Room Brewing

Engine 15 Brewing may have been the first locally owned brewpub on the beach, but Green Room Brewing was the first craft brewery on the beach. That designation comes with a different set of licensing and red tape. The surf-inspired brewery has attracted a following of locals that helped the brewery grown by 200 percent in their first year alone.

While the year round standards like Pablo Beach Pale Ale and Shaka Stout are crowd pleasers, locals go nuts for Quetzalcoatl, an imperial red ale brewed with chocolate, cassava root, serrano, and poblano peppers. Green Room is also a great spot to play a heated game of ping-pong.

9. Hoptinger Beer Garden and Sausage House

Just because most breweries and bottle shops close early doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to enjoy a craft beer after 10 p.m. Jacksonville Beach’s Hoptinger Beer Garden and Sausage House offers 60 different taps alongside a food menu filled with great late night munchies. Think beer poached locally made bratwurst topped with a fried egg, bacon, sage, and Jon Boat bacon mustard. Hoptinger stays open until 2 a.m.

10. Veterans United Craft Brewery

Jacksonville’s newest brewery, Veterans United Craft Brewery, is evidence that the Bold City’s craft beer movement has no intention of slowing down anytime soon. The brewery is located on the Southside of Jacksonville and right now focuses on seasonal rotations along with four core beers: Raging Blonde Ale, HopBanshee IPA, Scout Dog 44 Amber Ale, and Buzzin’ Bee Honey Rye Wheat. Veterans is also one of only three breweries in the area that can their beer, making it easier to enjoy craft beer at outdoor spots where no glass is allowed.

The post 10 Must-Visit Beer Stops in Jacksonville appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

When the analysts began to pick apart the results of the day’s games and assess which teams they thought deserved a spot in the playoffs, and in which order, I couldn’t help but think how the top ten college football teams would measure up in a College Craft Beer Playoff.

College Craft Beer Playoff Ranking Criteria

In my quest to determine the College Craft Beer Playoff, I examined the top ten college football teams according to five beer-related areas:

1. Number of craft breweries
2. 2015 Great American Beer Festival medals
3. Oldest craft brewery in town
4. Closest brewery to campus
5. Number of classes in brewing or fermentation sciences

The Break-Down

Just like the College Football Playoff Selection Committee, the criteria was part art and part science.

1. Number of craft breweries

For brewery count, I used the Brewers Association’s brewery locator and only counted breweries in the city itself. I didn’t dig further into micropolitan statistical areas (µSA) as the boundaries are always questionable. Some colleges were hurt by this.

For example, while Michigan State’s East Lansing metro area may boast six breweries (eight if you count Charlotte and Mason in the µSA), only one is located within the city limits of East Lansing. The same goes with Notre Dame and South Bend. Two breweries are located within the South Bend city limits with a potential of seven more depending on how far out the µSA is defined. This may sound unfair, so we’ll call this craft beer’s version of strength of schedule.

2. 2015 Great American Beer Festival medals

The medal count scoring is pretty cut-and-paste. A brewery either won a 2015 Great American Beer Festival or not. Of the 29 breweries located across our top ten football schools, only one brewery has won a medal in 2015. Columbus, Ohio’s Elevator Brewing won bronze in the American-Style Wheat Beer category for Mogabi Wheat Ale.

I asked Dick Stevens, owner and elevator operator at Elevator Brewing why they were the only brewery to win a GABF medal amongst the top ten college football schools: “It’s your list,” Stevens said. “There are a lot of great breweries in college towns that don’t have a top football program this year. Terrapin in Athens, Georgia comes to mind. Also, a lot of the breweries are new. In the first two years of operation, most haven’t nailed brewing yet.”

He’s right. The lack of award winning beers has more to do with the newness of breweries located near college campuses. Of the eight schools in the college football top ten with breweries, only four have breweries older than four years old.

3. Oldest craft brewery in town

To qualify for points here, a brewery has to be operating today. I’m not interested in the oldest pre-Prohibition era brewery. Sorry, but a town still stuck in archaic Prohibition laws doesn’t deserve a bump in the rankings. A targeting call perhaps?

4. Closest brewery to campus

I used Google Maps to determine brewery proximity to the college. This, too, may hurt some schools as Google Maps defaulted to the admissions office. For some colleges, the office is in the center of campus; for others, it’s on the edge of the school property. Let’s call this a block in the back.

5. Number of classes in brewing or fermentation sciences

Lastly, I examined how many classes the university offers in brewing or fermentation sciences. At first, I looked at majors, but none of the top ten football schools offer a major in either topic. I was pleasantly surprised to find classes at four of the colleges, though, including Stanford, which lacks a single brewery in town.

Enough about the officiating. The game is played on the field. Or, in our case, the brewery.

Clemson Gets No Love

Much like in the sports columns of Monday morning quarterbacks, Clemson gets no love in our college craft beer discussion. In fact, the undefeated Tigers move from the number one spot in the College Football Rankings to dead last in the College Craft Beer Rankings.

Alas, when it comes to craft beer, Clemson neither has a single brewery in town nor do they offer any classes in brewing or fermentation sciences. This lack of a craft beer industry is not for a lack of want.

For the Clemson versus Notre Dame Game, the famed Esso Club collaborated with Brewery 85 to brew a craft lager for the game. The beer, called Esso Club Lager, has remained on the menu since. Esso Club Lager is one of the bar’s first attempts into what General Manager Candice Bell hopes is a growing selection.

“When it comes to craft beer bars in Clemson we have Nick’s, and I’d like to say us, but our craft program is so new,” says Bell. She cites a growing number of requests from students, locals, and visitors to carry more craft beer.

Robbie Hughes, store manager at Wall of Beer in Clemson, which offers 100 varieties of packaged craft beer and 20 taps for growlers fills, sees a similar growing interest in craft beer. “A lot of students come in for PBR and leave with a mix-six.”

Still, Clemson lacks its own craft brewery. The nearest brewery, Carolina Bauernhaus Ales, is 17 miles away in Anderson, South Carolina. Perhaps the lack of a craft brewery is the reason Clemson fans hang onto to their 1981 College Football Championship like it was yesterday.

The Final Four

Of the four College Football Playoff teams, one qualifies for the College Craft Beer Playoff—Michigan State. While the Spartans only have one brewery in East Lansing (that flag hurts, doesn’t it?), the brewery, Harpers Restaurant and Brewpub, is located a tenth of a mile from campus, earning MSU a first place spot under the distance category.

That brewery is also the third oldest brewery on this list, opening in 1997. Also, MSU ranks number one for most classes offered in brewing and fermentation sciences.

Alabama and Oklahoma fall right outside the Craft Beer Playoff at five and six. Both schools have relatively young craft beer scenes. Oklahoma’s only brewery, (405) Brewing, opened in 2015, and the oldest of Tuscaloosa’s two breweries, Druid City Brewing, opened in 2012.

Bo Hicks, co-owner, and brewer at Druid City Brewing, only expects craft brewing to increase in Tuscaloosa. The third brewery in town is slated to open any day now. Also, Hicks has hopes to work with the university to create classes on brewing and fermentation sciences.

“There is a lot of opportunity for a graduating student to land a job in craft beer if they know the science behind yeast,” said Hicks.

Until then, Druid City has fun with the proximity to campus. A chalkboard in the brewery is often covered with a mural poking fun at football opponents or heralding the success of the Crimson Tide.

If the College Football Playoff teams were to match up based on their craft beer scene, Florida State and North Carolina would occupy the three and four spots with a tie. Florida State lists four breweries in Tallahassee. The oldest, Proof Brewing, opened in 2007, demonstrating that FSU was an early adopter in the growth of craft beer. The closest brewery is a little over a tenth of a mile from campus, landing FSU in the number two spot for distance to campus.

While Chapel Hill only has two breweries, both are from the mid-90s, ranking the Tar Heels at number two for oldest brewery. Chapel Hill’s playoff spot was also boosted as Top of the Hill Brewing is the same distance from campus as FSU’s Grasslands Brewing. As mentioned above, Michigan State makes the playoffs and occupies the two seed, leaving the College Craft Beer Playoffs with only one spot to fill.

The Winner: Ohio State University

Unlike the 2002 National Championship Game, the Buckeyes didn’t need the boosters to call in a late flag in double overtime to secure the title. The Buckeyes demolished the college craft beer field with 16 craft breweries in town (not counting chains Gordon Biersch and Hofbrauhaus, or Budweiser’s local facility).

Within the strong pack of breweries, Columbus Brewing Co. is the oldest brewery of any town on the list dating back to 1988. Even if we considered pre-Prohibition breweries, OSU would likely still win. The original Columbus Brewing opened in 1830.

And, OSU is the only school on the list with the previously mentioned 2015 Great American Beer Festival medal. Finally, OSU helps keep the brewing industry in Columbus alive with two classes focused on brewing and craft beer.

The state itself has also helped the growth in craft breweries.

According to Stevens, “The liquor board encourages breweries to open.”

One way they’ve done that is by lowering the annual operating fee from $3,906 to $1,000 for craft breweries. “The lower cost helps a lot of younger people start up.”

As a proud graduate of Ohio University, it pains me to say this, but I heartily raise my mug to The Ohio State University for cultivating an amazing craft beer scene. Alas, I must admit that Columbus Brewing’s Pale Ale was my go to beer in college when my budget could afford it. Although, perhaps this glass should be filled with Elevator Brewing’s Bleeding Buckeye Red Ale.

College Foot Craft Beer Rankings

1. Ohio State
2. Michigan State
3. North Carolina
4. Florida State
5. Oklahoma
6. Alabama
7. Iowa
8. Notre Dame
9. Stanford
10. Clemson

The post The College Craft Beer Playoffs appeared first on CraftBeer.com.