“I really didn’t know what direction to go in,” Swanson, 32, says. “After he passed away, it really put things into perspective where you just realize that anything can happen at any moment.”

It was one of those cinematic and cliche “What do I do now?” moments. Looking for a job that would help, however slightly, fulfill a deep void, Swanson began sending resumes out to local breweries. Jester King, a local Austin brewery specializing in farmhouse-style beers, was the first to respond and the craft brewing world is lucky for the cosmic coincidences that paired them together.

Averie Swanson’s Rise at Jester King

The fact that she fell in love with mixed fermentation didn’t surprise Swanson. She graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in biology, so she already possessed a proclivity toward obsessive note taking and experimentation.

“I’m drawn to the exploration of mixed culture,” she says. “In some beer, you can pitch one type of yeast and more or less know what the final product will taste like. Using mixed culture, there’s an unpredictability. I like to call it a ‘collaborative engagement with organisms.’ That’s interesting to me.”

Working at Jester King seemed to be a perfect marriage of this continual pursuit of experimentation and creative autonomy. Swanson can recall the exact day — it was her mom’s birthday — that she felt she’d found her proverbial calling. It was a day spent at the Jester King doing the manual labor of love that so often goes unseen in the world of craft brewing.

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“We probably started at 2 p.m. and ended at 2:30 in the morning,” she says. “We were all working really hard, drinking good beer, and having a good time. At the end of the night, we were eating pizza off cardboard boxes because we didn’t have any plates. It was one of those unique experiences where you’re surrounded by very kind, very smart people. It was just a vortex of creative energy.”

Over the course of Swanson’s tenure, the Austin outfit became a critical darling, commercial success, and certified beer geek destination in the years since it launched in 2011, and Swanson’s tireless work ethic and attention to detail no doubt contributed.

“[Averie is] highly respected for her talent, as well as her academic approach and accomplishments,” says Tim Adams of Oxbow Brewing Company in Maine, another brewery that specializes in mixed fermentation beers. “She’s given great presentations; she’s accredited. She’s regarded as an international authority of mixed fermentation beers. We’re so happy we’ve been able to work with her as much as we have.”

Always the traveler, Swanson has brewed beer in the mountains of Japan and the Italian countryside. In fact, her reputation as a brewer might only be surpassed by her reputation amongst her friends. She’s equal parts adventurous and outgoing, with a tendency to get introspective; She can seem intimidatingly inquisitive and bright, but is quick to laugh and there lies an accessibility in her voice.

“Averie has a universal charisma,” says John Laffler, co-owner of Chicago’s Off Color Brewing, who often appears on Swanson’s Instagram feed. “She’s one of my favorite people.”

“She is so much fun,” says Adams. “She’s open-minded. The way she approaches the world and her art, there’s this kind of trifecta of adventure, intelligence, and being fascinating to talk to.”

Swanson found herself traveling the world and drinking in everything it had to offer. But even when a person is doing what they love and is surrounded by people who share that same energy and enthusiasm, there comes a time to pump the brakes and reassess where the vehicle is headed.

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And so for the second time in her beer life, she found herself evaluating who she was and where she was going. For Swanson, it all added up: Her long-time, long-distance boyfriend lived in Chicago; She’d just passed her Master Cicerone exam in 2018; She had become one of the industry’s more widely-respected voices. The wind was at her back.

In 2018, she left Jester King and Austin behind, and moved to the Land of Lincoln.

“I knew if I took the risk and left, I’d have a lot of momentum,” she says. “It felt like it was the right time for me to quit and move and make a change.”

Her New Chapter in Chicago

She took almost an entire year off to get acclimated into Chicagoland, particularly the food and drinks scene, and to a climate much different than the one she’d lived in her entire life. Then one day, she walked into a brewery.

The way Half Acre founder Gabe Magliaro tells it, the story sounds like a western: Wyatt Earp rolling into town, but instead of a badge and a six shooter, Swanson was carrying a recipe book and an idea. The two spoke in Half Acre’s Lincoln Avenue taproom about her ambitions for Chicago, creatively and professionally, and how her new project–named Keeping Together–can exist within the walls of Half Acre.

Keeping Together essentially allows for Swanson to execute her creative and brewing vision through recipes of her own creation. Magliaro was more than happy to be able to provide Swanson with space within the walls of his own brewery.

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“We’ve known [Averie] for a long time and had a deep respect for who she is as an individual and what she was hoping to accomplish creatively,” says Magliaro. “From all angles, up and down, this is good. Just to be around [the Keeping Together project], to observe what she does, we are very fortunate.”

Keeping Together, which came together in the early summer of 2019, is energizing to Swanson. She’s not working 80 hours a week. She’s been able to reevaluate what she wanted her own life to look like. She’d been jaded with the current state of beer and Keeping Together is her response.

“Beer culture has become something I’m less interested in,” she admitted. “Ticking beers, not interested in enjoying the beers, or the company they’re in while they’re drinking those beers. This is my personal response. I want to make beers that are small batch, enjoyable. I’m making them here in Chicago. There will be a little distro, but if you want to enjoy them, come to Chicago and drink them with us.

“I’m not trying to make serious beer. I chose 750 mL bottles less for the larger volumes and more for the reason that they’re more likely to be shared. I want them on the tables at dinners with friends,” she says. “I enjoy the idea of sharing. It’s not intended to drink [the] entire bottle. It’s something that should be shared.”

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In typical Swanson fashion, she chose to make her grand re-entrance into the beer world overwrought with splashy releases of high ABV bombs in the most antithetical-to-that way: by making a 3% ABV table beer called The Art of Holding Space. All jokes aside, it’s perfectly Swanson, says Magliaro.

“The beer is not a huge exclamation point,” he says. “Everything is intentional for her. She wanted to invest in nuance and subtlety—come out with a bang without having the beer be incredibly loud. [It] says everything about how she wants Keeping Together to be. This is the type of liquid she wants to make. She’d rather them exist peacefully within someone’s day.”

“[The Table Beer] is a bold and interesting choice,” notes Laffler, perhaps Swanson’s most ardent cheerleader. “It’s one of the things I respect about her. It’s a style most people won’t give a f*** about. The trends she’s looking at aren’t mainstream trends. The Chicago brewing scene is very current, very trend following. For me, having one more of those people who goes against that, who is good at it, and who I love? I’m very happy.”

“I’m very fortunate to make the beer I want to make in the way I want to make them,” Swanson says with characteristic modesty. “There’s not a huge risk. It’s a dream come true.”

The post Brewer Averie Swanson Starts a New Chapter in Chicago appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

“Culturally, beer is a part of us,” says Denise Ford-Sawadogo, co-owner and general manager of the brewery. “My husband [and head brewer/co-owner] Leo is from West Africa, where there is just a wealth of culture.”

Ford-Sawadogo acknowledges that in West Africa, it’s traditionally the women who do the brewing. But her husband is a chef by training and has a vast knowledge of the fruits, plants, herbs, and ingredients that are unique to that part of the world. Ford-Sawadogo was born in Brooklyn, the first in her family to have been born outside their native Jamaica, and grew up on Long Island in a household dominated by kitchen smells of hibiscus and coconut.

“We and our beer are very inspired by our culture,” she says.

For evidence, look no further than Baobiere, a golden ale from Montclair Brewery which is a mainstay on tap and is packaged in cans. Baobiere is brewed with fruit from the baobab tree, a tree native to parts of Madagascar and Africa, and is often referred to as the “Tree of Life.”

“Only Leo would know about [brewing with] that fruit,” she says, laughing.

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In fact, the brewery’s beer menu is typically full of beers that reflect their upbringing from Hibiscus Dream, a pale ale brewed with the flower. Kingston Porter is a beer named for Jamaica in honor of Ford-Sawadogo’s family history.

Denise and Leo recognize there aren’t many Caribbean or West African natives in the U.S. craft brewing world, but Denise says that motivates them to make sure everyone feels welcome and comfortable coming into the brewery.

“We pride ourselves on making our guests feel comfortable,” she says. “We are appealing to larger audiences.”

Montclair Brewery’s Black History Month Beers

Staying true to their vision to connect with culture through craft beer, Montclair Brewing is releasing a series of beers for Black History Month that pays homage to some of the black Americans that created lasting cultural legacies. For the husband and wife, Black History Month is a chance to “openly and proudly honor all the great accomplishments that people of African descent have contributed to the world,” Ford-Sawadogo says.

“We are aware of these great accomplishments all year round, but February gives us the platform to elevate the message.”

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Sawadogo created Tubman Railroad Strawberry Ale as a nod to Harriet Tubman’s favorite snack. The brewery is also releasing a beer honoring Larry Doby, the second player to break the Major League Baseball color barrier when he was signed to the Cleveland Indians in 1947, a few months after Jackie Robinson started for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He spent the years at the end of his life in Montclair.

“Doby is a historical figure,” Ford-Sawadogo says. “He is not as well-known as Jackie Robison, but there are tons of achievements. Plus it is the Negro League 100th anniversary this year. We thought this is the year to honor someone from that league.”

Other beers Montclair Brewing is offering during Black History Month are the Motherland, a gluten-free beer made with sorghum, a traditional style of beer brewed in Africa, and the MB Pecan Stout, which connects the history of African-Americans and pecans. A former slave, known only as Antoine, is regarded to have developed the technique used to grow pecan orchards.

The husband and wife duo have also planned to honor their culture by hosting a series of events featuring weekly acts that celebrate music of the African heritage like reggae, hip-hop, and calypso. Ford-Sawadogo believes that music, like beer, can connect people.

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“We think our music helps [bring people together],” she says. “Musicians have a following, so they come into our brewery and get introduced to craft beer. For many people, it’s their first time in a brewery. It’s an opportunity for us to tell them about what we do.”

Music and beer can be the bridge between people who may not typically be seated at the same table, taking in a culture that might not be their own.

“And whether you’re a person who goes to breweries on weekends or if you’re a person just coming to see a band you like, we want everyone to feel welcome,” Ford-Sawadogo says.

In many taprooms, the beer can inspire the culture within the walls. At Montclair Brewery, the Sawadogos are intent on making the opposite true.

The post Founders of Montclair Brewery Celebrate Culture Through Craft Beer appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

While beer geeks can attend stout releases virtually weekly, to understand the context of the Mott the Lesser release, first you’ll have to learn about Kate the Great and “Kate Day,” the OG of beer release days. Before pre-dawn lines became the norm in craft beer, there was Kate Day: a once a year event at a small New Hampshire brewpub that took place in the frigid early spring to celebrate the release of a 12% ABV Russian Imperial Stout.

‘Kate the Great’ Crowned as Legendary Beer

In spring 2008, at The Portsmouth Brewery, then-assistant brewer Tyler Jones came to work on the morning of the annual release day for a beer called Kate the Great. The beer was packaged in 22 oz. bottles, hand-capped, and adorned with handwritten labels. Each transfer from tank to bottle netted around two-and-a-half cases.

As he’d done countless times before, Jones walked the two cases through The Portsmouth Brewery restaurant and into the shop, where he placed them atop the counter to be loaded into the cooler.

“Walking through the brewery, I could feel the eyes on me,” says Jones, who is now a co-founder at Oxford, Connecticut’s Black Hog Brewing. “It wasn’t normal.”

When Jones got back downstairs, the phone rang. They needed more Kate. When Jones insisted he just dropped off two cases, he was shocked to find out they had sold out.

“That’s f**king weird,” he said. “Okay, you have to give me like a half an hour, 45 minutes.”

It became mythologized and sought-after on every beer trading board imaginable. The legend of Kate the Great was born.

“It was the first beer that people lined up for,” says Tod Mott, the recipe’s creator, who was The Portsmouth Brewery’s head brewer at the time. “Now, with technology and social media, people are just herded to the release of the next Holy Grail.”

“It really blew me away the first time people lined up,” says Mott. “Oh my God, [it was] insane.”

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Artistry of ‘Kate the Great’ Brewer Tod Mott

At that time, as is true now, New England beer drinkers would be hard-pressed to find a brewer more revered than Mott. Kate the Great was a recipe that Mott had been developing for years, beginning at the long-gone Commonwealth Brewing Company in Boston. Kate the Great was, in December 2007, rated the No. 1 beer in the United States by Beer Advocate and No. 2 in the world, and still lives in infamy.

“When that accolade came out, we knew we needed to brew another batch,” he says. “We doubled our production. When it blew out in a month I thought, ‘We’re in deep sh*t.’ It used to last a few months and we were selling it in f**king growlers.”

“The reason it is great is because of what Tod is as a brewer,” says Jones. “He’s a true artist. He’s really known for these beautiful malt bills in his beers.”

The original Kate the Great beer was ahead of its time. It was a recipe being “tweaked at every spot” he worked, Mott says. Even though it wasn’t billed as a barrel-aged stout, it utilized port wine-soaked oak spiral from a nearby distillery. Before barrel-aging became the norm, Mott understood the alchemy that would make the beer better. And beer lovers responded by lining up before the sun came up in the cold each spring. Drinkers lined the streets for their allotment of Kate the Great.

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The limits of a small brewpub made it tough to defend having an imperial stout take up so much tank space regardless of how good it was. Mott used this to his advantage.

“When it blew out in a month I thought, ‘We’re in deep sh*t.’” Brewer Tod Mott

“We could make this beer once a year, enjoy it, but then we’d have another year to think about how to make it better,” says Jones.

In 2009, the beer sold out in a day, both in bottles and on-tap (much to the chagrin of locals, who flooded the brewery’s website with complaints). The system changed annually to get Kate into the hands of as many customers as possible. In 2011, the brewery sold scratch-off lottery tickets for $2 apiece at 10 per person per day. Scattered throughout those tickets were winners that allowed for purchase of bottles. The next year, the brewery moved the format of the beer from 22 oz. bottles to 11.2 oz steinie bottles (and reduced the price), thus essentially doubling the amount of bottles available. One year, there was even a literary contest where writers were asked to pen a poem that was judged by Portsmouth Brewery employees. Winners received a bottle for their superior literary chops.

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In 2012, Mott, who’d been brewing professionally for the better part of two decades, decided it was time to move on from The Portsmouth Brewery to open Tributary Brewing in 2014. The Portsmouth Brewery owned the naming rights to Kate the Great, so the empress was laid to rest when Mott departed. Jones took over for Mott and, while he didn’t shy away from brewing an imperial stout, Kate the Great was no more.

The recipe — which evolved at every professional brewing stint and from Boston to Maine — lives on with Mott the Lesser.

Mott the Lesser’s More ‘Civilized’ Release

At the Mott the Lesser release, it would be difficult to find people lining up solely out of “Fear of Missing Out.” It’s not the social media crowd getting its filtered photos into everyone’s feed.

“The crowd at these releases is experienced beer drinkers,” Mott says. “The whole thing about Mott the Lesser is that it’s civilized. No one needs to get out early in the morning. People show up at four in the afternoon and will get the beer.”

This is the 10th release of the beer, and Mott said that he’s got all 10 versions. He’s going to do a staggered release of all 10 versions in the coming weeks. As for this iteration:

“It’s a beautiful beer,” he says.

The post Before Mott the Lesser, There was the Legend of Kate the Great appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

“It’s either ‘I’m not sure what else we’re supposed to be doing with our time’ or a long con to get a brewery cat,” he says.

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Laffler is a small, wiry man with glasses, a beard, and long, wild black hair. He possesses an eccentricity and an hyperactivity that leads from one activity to the next. Pour an unfinished beer off the foedre, tell an off-beat anecdote, or disappear and reappear with an armful of Miller High Life. Off Color, a term that conjures eccentricity, is an appropriate name for the brewery, co-founded by Laffler and Dave Bleitner.

John Laffler and the ‘Magic’ of Yeast

The pair met at the Siebel Institute in 2008 and helped out at Metropolitan Brewing when it opened. Laffler went off to Goose Island and Bleitner to Two Brothers before opening their own spot in 2013.

“A lot of what we try to do is take an avant-garde approach to brewing and looking for how we can push the craft forward in terms of fermentation studies, trialing unique yeasts, bacterias and techniques,” Laffler says.

Off Color’s beers are distinct, delicate and, ultimately driven by yeast. Laffler calls it the lone aspect of brewing “where there is still an element of magic happening in an otherwise relatively industrialized process.”

“… there is still an element of magic happening …” John Laffler, Off Color Brewing

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Its most ubiquitous brand, farmhouse ale Apex Predator is a perfect example. Driven by the yeast, it’s a crisp, esthery homage to the classic Belgian saison. And it’s completed in an Off Color twist with a subtle influence of dry-hopping.

Laffler and Bleitner’s outfit released just shy of 7,000 barrels of beer in 2018. But they’re far from a brewery focused solely on funky, tart and dry farmhouse ales. Their most sought-after brand is a Russian Imperial Stout called Dino S’Mores made with graham flour and marshmallow fluff.

“We’re definitely more of a niche brewery for yeast nerds. But we take a lot of pride in making nuanced, delicate beers that are appealing to even those folks who don’t usually like beer,” Laffler says. “[I] like to think we make pretty beers.”

Collaborations Put Off Color Brewing on the Map

The beer that gave Off Color some notoriety was the collaboration it did with Miller High Life named Eeek!. The Off Color crew collaborated with the brewers at Miller to re-interpret the beer by brewing the Miller High Life recipe, but inoculating the beer with Off Color’s wild yeast. The brewery did a similar thing with Portland, Maine’s Allagash Brewing, where they brewed a version of Allagash White, added lemons, and a wild yeast to create — pun intended — a wildly different beer.

“We’re very conscious that the landscape of American craft beer is built on the work of those in the past. And we like to build on that framework with them as a way of paying homage to the folks who have greatly influenced us,” Laffler says. “It’s also important to us to do it as a collaboration with them, not just co-opting their work.”

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Moving forward, Off Color is going to focus on a number of, well, off-color projects. Laffler says they plan on releasing more foedre beers in 2019, as well as continuing work on a mix fermentation sake. There’s a new year-round beer in the works called Very, Very Far. It will incorporate an “odd-ball” yeast used in white wines like Chenin Blanc called “Torulaspora Delbruekii.”

“For us, that’s much more interesting than figuring out a novel way of blending the same three trendy hops together,” Laffler says.

When the Weirdness Pays Off

In 2018, Off Color introduced what could be a game-changing packaging format. It introduced some of the brewery’s higher ABV or “unusual taste profile” beers in 250 mL bottles with a goal of offering a “lower price, which makes the more approachable single serving size a better cost per ounce deal too. More beer, less money,” says Ben Ustick, Off Color’s media relations guru.

They also opened a taproom called The Mousetrap. It’s a small, cozy place with dim lighting, high-top tables, no televisions, and a view into the barrel room. True to brand, it is a place of eccentricity and weirdness. It’s not uncommon to see someone — perhaps even a beer writer and his friend — wearing a dinosaur and tiger costume. Also true to form, very few people even batted an eye at this behavior.

“Yeah…we’re a pack of strays,” Laffler says. “I think folks have just gotten used to it by now.”

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Laffler says the brewery spent a lot more money last year to make less beer.

“We’re very happy being the size we are at now,” he says. “Our [full-time employees] have health insurance, there’s room for everyone to grow in their profession and have creative input, and we’re not trying to force a bunch of volume into an oversaturated market and focus on making our beer better instead of making more of it.”

The post Off Color’s Quirky John Laffler Finds ‘Magic’ in Yeast appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

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And like any adventure, part of the fun is the trip. We love our neighborhood spots because they’re easy to get to. They’re familiar. We have a favorite seat. But there’s nothing like grabbing a friend, getting a playlist or a podcast dialed in, and hitting the open road.

There’s something to be said about a road trip, especially in New England that hits the backroads more than Main Street. So while we have plenty of love for Tree House or Allagash, and the independent breweries in the greater Boston area, they won’t be found here. There are established players, but there are also some hidden New England breweries that are only found through the exploration of this historic region. There’s both coastline and winding, foliaged-lined roads. There are tiny, scenic small towns and as much diversity in beer styles as there is in geography.

Fall’s Ultimate New England Breweries Road Trip: Rhode Island

Tilted Barn | Exeter, RI

The Ocean State may be the smallest in the country, but Rhode Island has begun to do big things with beer. Tilted Barn in Exeter is as far away from the beach at Rhode Island can get. It’s on 30 acres farmland and, as owner Matt Richardson notes, “a half-mile from any main road, in a century-old barn. It’s hard to picture a better place to enjoy a beer.” Every Saturday, there’s food trucks to help wash down pints of hazy IPA and double IPA. Richardson is most proud of his “less is more” approach, particularly with regard to the brewery’s blonde ale series. It aims to showcase an individual hop each version. A beer called Spruce is one of Tilted Barn’s most popular. It’s perhaps one of the country’s only wheat beer to draw a line. It’s brewed with spruce tips from Christmas trees and brewed only once a year.

Fall’s Ultimate New England Breweries Road Trip: Massachusetts

Honest Weight | Orange, MA

Arguably the prettiest drive through the state is Route 2 through the northern parts of central and western Massachusetts. From Walden Pond in Concord through tiny little hamlets westward, it’s a drive that’s picture-perfect New England. Just off that ampersand-shaped throughway is Honest Weight on Route 2A, a minuscule brewery in an old mill building on the Millers River. Honest Weight specializes in small, low-ABV hoppy beers, and barrel-aged farmhouse ales with Brett. Drinkers won’t find big, bombastic IPAs here. They’ll find a relaxed atmosphere with a local-vibe and delicate, balanced and delicious beers.

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Brick & Feather Brewery | Turners Falls, MA

Travel a bit more west on Route 2A and you’ll come to the tiny village of Turner’s Falls (pop. 4,470), in the town of Montague. We have a soft spot for small New England villages and this one happens to brew great beer. Brewing on an equally tiny, seven-barrel system, Brick & Feather was born in 2015. The small batch brewery fits the small batch community, and its attention to craftsmanship is evident in every pour. Take the drive to try Letters from Zelda, a ridiculously delicious and delicate-bodied IPA, but don’t sleep on Ode to the Afternoon Crew, a 4.9% cream ale. This place could aptly appear on a “Greetings from New England” postcard.

Stone Cow Brewery | Barre, MA

“The brewery saved the farm,” says Sean DuBois of Stone Cow Brewery. Currently in its fifth generation of operation, DuBois says they have no intention of stopping milking cows. The beer is just another option at Stone Cow along with killer food and family-first entertainment. The farm’s flagship, Roll in the Hay IPA, is a throwback to the days of an IPA that can be super citrus and floral in the nose, and have that bitter backbone. The milk stout, another menu mainstay, is soft and pillowy with a ton of roasted malt complexity. The best part? Bring your family. There are acres of land with grazing cows, a playground, and tons of space in the barn to dance along to the tunes of the local musician of the day.

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Notch Brewing | Salem, MA

I wasn’t planning on including anything on this list that is a city. But if we’re talking about destinations within New England in the fall, you have include the place that might provide the most New England experience of them all. As the city that’s infamous for its 17th century witch trials, Salem is the epicenter of Halloween and the October is cordoned off for festivities. Notch, on the banks of the Salem Harbor, is a biergarten worth visiting. New England brewing OG Chris Lohring and his crew are an American session brewery, and only make beers under 4.5% ABV. There’s zero sacrifice for flavor. This low-key place might be the best brewery in the state, and its taproom is always packed. Get a stein of anything from a hazy IPA to a triple-decocted lager. It does not disappoint.

Fall’s Ultimate New England Breweries Road Trip: New Hampshire

Moat Mountain Smokehouse & Brewing Company | North Conway, NH

Downtown North Conway is a time machine through New England. There’s a restored railroad station and quaint storefronts, and options to snowshoe or snowmobile through the White Mountains National Forest. After indulging in some New England charm or outdoor activity, saddle up to nearby Moat Mountain Smoke House & Brewing Company. They’ve been canning their beers since before it was cool. And they do a variety of styles from a sweet Czech pilsner to a robust brown ale to, yes, a New England IPA. Don’t shy away from the meat either. The bison nachos are incredible.

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Kettlehead Brewing Company | Tilton, NH

A half hour north of New Hampshire’s capital, Concord, is the beautiful Lakes Region. The area stuns in the summer with its crystal clear lakes, but astounds in the fall with its rich foliage on the drive north up Route 93. It’s just far enough north, too, that the out-of-state leaf peepers have turned around. Hop off exit 19 to Kettlehead Brewing, a relative newcomer, for both lunch and a couple beers. There’s no specializing here. Kettlehead does everything from lagers to IPAs to sour beers.

Fall’s Ultimate New England Breweries Road Trip: Maine

Oxbow Brewing Company | Newcastle, ME

Sure, there’s the bottling and blending facility down in Portland, but the true American farmhouse experience comes by traversing the pot-holed dirt roads along the Sheepscot River, passed Cowshit Corner to Oxbow’s home in Newcastle, where they’re brewing farmhouse ales in an actual farmhouse. Surrounded by 16 acres of hiking trails, this place feels miles away from civilization and, in some ways, it is. Get warm with a mixed-fermentation saison in the refurbished barn. Or enjoy a Barrel-Aged Farmhouse Pale Ale the way it should be enjoyed: Bundled up in a sweater, in a chair outside in the crisp Maine air.

Tributary Brewing Company | Kittery, ME

There’s perhaps no better drive in New England than along coastal Maine. Once the tourists return home post-Labor Day, the traffic thins out and views of the Atlantic stretch for miles. Less than a quarter mile from the Piscataqua River is Tributary Brewing, where New England brewing royalty Tod Mott calls home. There’s an anachronistic quality to Tributary’s beer list, on which will you find actual diversity. Stouts, browns, porters, IPA, and kolsch, all done to stylistic perfection. Mott the Lesser is an imperial stout that gained notoriety when it was called Kate the Great. And it’s just as good — if not better — now.

(MORE: 2018 Great American Beer Festival Competition Winners Announced)

Fall’s Ultimate New England Breweries Road Trip: Vermont

The Alchemist | Stowe, VT

Stowe, with its covered bridges and mountain views, is a quintessential New England town. In the winter, tourists come to enjoy the world-class skiing and dine out in quaint, cozy restaurants. A stop in Stowe, at least from a beer lover’s perspective, is incomplete without stopping by The Alchemist’s mammoth facility, which opened in 2016. The makers of Heady Topper, the original beer you-just-have-to-line-up-for, serves samples of whatever is on tap. But they will send you home with cases of beer including an award-winning American stout named Beezlebub or the “Is it better than Heady?” single IPA Focal Banger.

Hill Farmstead | Greensboro Bend, VT

It should warrant mention that the drive alone through rural Vermont back roads in the middle of autumn is incentive enough to drive to Hill Farmstead, the beer mecca in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Come for the views, of course, but stay for the beer. While hops are king in New England right now, Shaun Hill’s Farmstead ales are beautifully balanced and as well-crafted as well as any in the world. Try Arthur, Anna, Vera Mae, or … Well, just try them all.

(READ: Brewpubs with Impressive Menus)

Lawson’s Finest Liquids | Waitsfield, VT

For a long time, the only way to get Sean Lawson’s Finest Liquids was to wait outside the handful of country stores in Vermont on a certain day and hope you were lucky. You had no control over what beer came out of the truck and placed onto shelves. This all changed when Sip of Sunshine and Super Session began getting contract brewed at Two Roads in Connecticut. It expanded Lawson’s accessibility. But our access is suddenly much greater. With the fall 2018 opening of a taproom, Lawson’s is able to entice drinkers with both old favorites and new beers.

Fall’s Ultimate New England Breweries Road Trip: Connecticut

Fox Farm Brewery | Salem, CT

Fox Farm feels removed from the hustle of the major arteries that flow through Connecticut. In part, it’s because it is. Located on 30 acres of woodlands, the brewery is housed in a barn erected in the 1960s. “We put a lot of emphasis on experience and service,” says Zack Adams, owner of Fox Farm. But he adds that great beers comes first. Fox Farm has garnered acclaim for its hop-forward offerings like Burst and Dalily. But Adams is proud of the farmhouse ales and unfiltered lagers. “Our name is actually a nod to the original Fox family farm, the farmhouse for which is just down the road from the brewery,” Adams says. “The nearby open fields are now home to our family’s vineyard. We utilize the grapes in a number of our mixed-culture fermented and clean beers.”

Kent Falls Brewing Co. | Kent, CT

In a town that houses luxurious second homes of NYC old money and an elite private school, Kent Falls is likely the most prolific brewery on the list. The owners live on the working farm, where hops are grown and where animals roam. In the tasting room, it makes sense to grab one of the juicy IPAs with names like Awkward Hug and Send It! But on a picnic table enjoying the serenity of the farm, grab one of the beautifully crafted farmhouse ales, which are delicate, balanced and refined. Try Senescence, brewed with birch leaves, chardonnay grapes and Kent Farms’ own native yeast.

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OEC Brewing | Oxford, CT

The Ordinem Ecentrici Coctores isn’t an exact Latin translation into “Order of the Eccentric Boilers,” but we’re going to give it a passing grade because its beer is so good. The brewery uses Old World techniques of barrel aging and blending to create one-off blends. The various styles can be tart, funky, downright sour, but all degrees of complexity. Not just sticking to one style, OEC also gets a little wacky with “standard” beers, like a pale ale brewed with wild yeasts and an oak-aged lager. When it comes to message boards volume, you won’t hear much about OEC. But take the trip and you’ll see why those who do know are keeping so quiet.

From an aesthetic standpoint, New England in the fall is second to none, with its rich history and natural beauty. It’s only right that the scenery is taken in on the way to some of the best beers in the world.

The post Epic Fall Road Trip: New England Breweries Off the Beaten Path appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

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In a world where growers and wholesalers have been able to use technology to bend the laws of space and time in order to give us our seasonal produce year round, going to the farm is an anachronistic pleasure. The benefit of supporting a local business aside, there’s something magical in squeezing and examining fresh tomatoes, amidst the imperfections only a family farm can produce, for the best ones for tonight’s salad.

MORE: 2018 Summer Craft Beers: IPAs, Lagers, Fruit Beers and More

In the beer business, the term “seasonal” has become synonymous with limited release, rather than a reflection of actual seasonal brewing processes and ingredients. Bound by constraints of time and the availability of ingredients, seasonal beer reflects more the type of beer a brewery thinks we should drink (see: lighter, low-ABV beers in the summer; heavier, darker seasonals in the wintertime). This isn’t the breweries’ fault, but it lies in the challenge of being at the behest of agriculture. Sometimes the crop is too big; sometimes it is too small. Sometimes it comes too early; sometimes it doesn’t come at all.

It’s much more practical to rely on the basic format of giving beer drinkers a style of beer more amenable to the weather. That said, there are breweries that are undertaking the challenge to utilize localized and seasonal ingredients in their beer. And just like nothing tastes better than a farm-fresh tomato in the summertime, craft breweries around the country are banking that there will be nothing better than a beer that takes advantage of what grows around them naturally.

Blackberries (Long Trail Blackbeary Wheat)

“For almost 20 years, the release of Blackbeary Wheat has helped mark the start of summertime for craft beer fans around Vermont,” Long Trail co-head brewer Sam Clemens says.

In New England, the Long Trail Blackbeary Wheat is a bit of a cult favorite. The summertime favorite went into hibernation before what the brewery called “unprecedented demand” inspired its return in 2016.

The beer was inspired by the mid-1990s’ heyday of breweries producing fruited wheat beers. Long Trail would garnish theirs with fresh blackberries and feature the beer at craft beer fests all over New England.

Anyone who went to college in Vermont in the early 2000s remembers the beer as a critical part of his or her entry into craft beer. It’s a sessionable beer, light in body and bitterness that helps balance the sweet, fruity blackberry character.

Plums/Pluerries (Allagash Shiro’s Delight)

Shiro’s Delight is a blend of two beers, actually. The Belgian-style base beer, Interlude, is aged over plums and pluerries (a hybrid of plums and cherries), and those two beers are then blended together. The plums and pluerries are of multiple varieties, but one varietal was called “Shiro,” the other “Delight” – hence the name, “Shiro’s Delight.” Allagash has been using fresh fruit in their beer for years, but it’s not without challenges.

“Whenever we’ve added fruit to beer, it’s been fresh fruit,” brewmaster Jason Perkins says. “We’re exclusively working with seasonal ingredients. We’re getting fruit and within hours, it’s being brewed.”

Allagash is beholden to what the land gives them, which could be a surplus or nothing at all.

“Even when everything goes well, there are challenges,” he says, “but you can’t replace the freshness and vibrancy of these fruits.”

Limes (Schlafly Paloma Gose)

St. Louis mainstay Schlafly’s 2018 Cellar Selections are going in the direction of beers the mimic the complexity of a cocktail. The Paloma Gose is, at 4.5% ABV, a beautifully tart beer that’s light enough to drink all day. It will remind drinkers of having a well-made margarita. The lime and the tartness of the style don’t mix as much as they do interact with one another, each a mutually-prevalent player in the flavor of the beer.

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“With low alcohol and hop profiles, it’s a cocktail disguised as a wonderfully balanced beer,” founding brewer Stephen Hale says.

Schlafly continues to impress with their one-off series. The innovation to craft a Mexican-inspired and German-style hybrid beer will impress drinkers. The Paloma Gose is also available in 750ml bottles, which makes this refreshing summer beer perfect to share.

Passionfruit (Modern Times Fruitlands)

Not to get too Gose-forward, but any beer list about seasonal ingredient must include this gem by San Diego’s coolest brewery, Modern Times.

The Passionfruit Fruitlands is billed by the brewery as a “wall-to-wall tropical fruit fiesta,” and features a juiciness that fuels sustained good drinking over a warm day at the beach. Tartness is there, but the beer isn’t too acidic to the point of being sour. The pilsner malts gives the beer a wheat backbone that really ties this beer together.

While the hop-forward brews from Modern Times may get the acclaim (and deservedly so), Fruitlands showcases the brewing talents as a beer the lets the seasonal ingredients be the star.

Raspberries (Hardywood Park Raspberry Stout)

Granted, summer isn’t really stout season, but for this there might have to be an exception. The Raspberry Stout made by the folks at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery down in Virginia is an imperial stout made with cacao nibs and locally-sourced raspberries.

It’s big and decadent at 9.2% ABV, but possesses a slightly tart-but-sweet finish that brings the imperial stout from being an inside beer to being the kind of summer beer that you can drink at the end of the night with friends by the fire.

Cucumber (Flat 12 Cucumber Kolsch)

Fresh cucumbers in a salad, a glass of water or on a sandwich are a summertime game-changer. They’re not missed when they’re absent, but their presence kicks everything up a notch. A well-made kolsch, too, is a great addition to a summer beer lineup.

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The Indiana brewery’s combination of the two is a welcomed expansion to the beer world. Cucumber interacts well with a crisp malt base. The star of the show is the vegetable, a role it’s unaccustomed to playing, but it works well here – especially if you like cucumbers.

Apricots (Cascade Brewing Apricot)

Every year, the crew at Portland, Oregon’s Cascade Brewing follows the harvesting calendar to ensure their beers get the freshest fruit for their highly-regarded sour beers. The apricot sour is the best of the bunch, hovering around 7% ABV, depending on the season (higher temps yields higher alcohol content). The base beer is 100 percent blonde ale, aged for eight months in neutral oak barrels and aged for an additional six months with apricots.

The result “doesn’t come off as super oaky,” Cascade’s lead blender Kevin Martin says. “It’s got lightly toasted malts. It’s bright and intense. It’s like biting into fresh apricot.”

The key, according to Martin, is not to rush the beer. “We only release them when they’re coming into stride,” he says. “They’re ready to drink right away.”

Martin suggests pairing Apricot with a lighter meat like grilled pork chops or herbed chicken.

Berries (Creature Comforts Athena Paradiso)

Athens, Georgia’s Creature Comforts ethos is built around curiosity and the creation of artisan ales through those endeavors. This brewery is well known for their inclusion of locally-sourced grains and ingredients like honey, as well as their hop-forward beers.

In Athena, their year-round Berliner Weiss, the term “paradiso” is affixed to create an image of paradise by way of fruit addition. The tart cherry, raspberry and cranberry is the 2018 version of Athena. This fruit-forward beer is more akin to drinking an alcoholic jam, only without the seeds. Drinkers will definitely feel as if they’re sipping in season with Athena Paradiso.

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Peaches (Logsdon Farmhouse Ales Peche ‘n Brett)

Peaches can be the quintessential summer fruit. Perfectly ripe, it’s hard to eat a great peach without the juices saturating clothing and making faces and hands sticky.

Logsdon Farmhouse Ales‘ Peche ‘n Brett is the best peach beer available, and judges at the Great American Beer Fest and the World Beer Cup have agreed. Funky and dry, this beer masks its 10% ABV behind the subtlety of the peach. Perfect for a summer picnic, and much less messy.

Hot Peppers (Masthead Jalapeño IPA)

According to Frank Luther, the mastermind behind Cleveland’s Masthead Brewing, the inspiration for the Jalapeño IPA came from a pizza joint in Asheville, North Carolina.

“It nailed the balance between heat and that fresh jalapeño flavor,” he says. “After a long bike ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway, it was exactly what I needed.”

And so he took the idea back home to the brewery where, after a couple dumped batches, he too nailed that balance. This beer sticks true to its pizza roots: he roasts fresh jalapeños in the brewery’s pizza oven and runs them over to the brewery where the brewers toss them in.

Rhubarb (New Glarus Strawberry Rhubarb)

The description of this beer, “Teased from the loam by the kiss of the sun,” is appropriate because it reminds us of the sweet summer days winding down into the evening as we devour some combination of sweet pie made farm fresh ingredients. Not to wax too nostalgic, but it is this beer’s simplicity that makes it a perfect summer drink: lightly tart, effervescent, and balanced between the strawberries and the rhubarb.

It’s also a great beer to pair. It’s versatile enough to accompany anything from a garden salad to grilled chicken (or both), and can be used to pair with an appetizer like a soft cheese or alongside the ultimate summer standard vanilla ice cream.

In the summer, we tend to treat ourselves. We both indulge and relax. We get outside a little more and pick up books we’ve been meaning to read. Trips to the ice cream stand aside, we tend to eat a little better, too. It’s only right that we drink a little better as well.

The post Summer Ingredients Found in Summer Craft Beers appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

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Seasonal seafood shacks in New England are a time-honored tradition. When they open (alongside their cousin, the ice cream shack), usually around Mother’s Day, they announce the arrival of the simple pleasure of summer. The last of the persistent snow is far behind. The mud of spring has dried up. These tiny shacks dot the coastal New England landscape from Rhode Island to Maine. With our view of craggy coastlines and seagulls plummeting seaward, it’s seafood season.

My wife is a middle school teacher, so come summer her calendar is cleared. We fill those happily-emptied voids with day trips to keep our bellies filled with clam bellies. We ride the coastline with the ocean to our right finding seafood shacks that specialize in anything from (lobster) rolls to (onion) rings, from fresh corn to fried anything.

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Because these places are often seasonal — meaning they operate only during certain months of the year — liquor licenses can be more of a nuisance than a necessity. The way around this is to have a business that allows customers to bring their own beer.

And with the advent of craft beer going more mainstream, the coolers we bring to those salt-soaked picnic tables are filled with more beer options than ever before. It’s about finding the right beers to pair with the freshest seafood we can find.

Fish & Chips

Nothing pays homage to New England’s English roots than the traditional fish and chips. It’s a classic dish that’s easy to find, but harder to master. We prefer it in chunks — rather than an entire breaded filet — served wrapped in a newspaper with thick-cut fries and a side of malt vinegar. Just leave the bottle. For a beer, keep it old school with a nice light porter or stout, or an English-style bitter.

Beer Pairing Suggestions: Mayflower Porter, Riverwalk Uncle Bob’s, Cisco Whales Tail Pale, AleSmith Nut Brown Ale

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Fried Clams

We’re not talking strips here. We’re talking those full-bellied, sweet and briny mollusk that are deep fried, providing that crunchy contrast beloved by all. You’re going to want something to cut through the crunch and the grease of those fried clams. As you’re in New England, grab a New England IPA (we swear they’re not that hard to find here). Fresh seafood with fresh IPA is the best pairing there is.

Beer Pairing Suggestions: Tree House Julius, Bissell Brothers Substance, Austin Street Neverender

Lobster Roll

Being a little biased here, my favorite lobster roll comes from the Clam Shack in Kennebunk, Maine. When I’m sitting at those picnic tables, enjoying a lobster roll with both mayo and warm butter, the only beer I want to drink is Allagash White. The lobster in itself is decadent and sweet. I want a beer with a little spice and not too filling. Allagash’s flagship is perfect.

Beer Pairing Suggestions: Allagash White, Newburyport Plum Island White, Dogfish Head Namaste, Port City Optimal Wit

Boiled Lobster Dinner

Sometimes a lobster roll just won’t cut it. That’s when the traditional lobster dinner comes into play. A pound and a quarter lobster is enough. Pro-tip: Please, don’t go bigger than that. Ask any lobster expert and they’ll tell you that’s when the meat is at its best. Telling me you got a four-pound lobster is admitting you’re a sucker who got duped into spending more than you should have.

Beer Pairing Suggestions: Sixpoint Sweet Action, Harpoon Summer Ale, Brooklyn Summer, Narragansett Summer Ale

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Scallops

In the summer, scallops are aplenty in New England and they can be fried or part of a high-end pasta dish with olive oil and herbs. In either case, I love pairing scallops with something on the lighter spectrum, whether it’s wine or beer, but also something with a bunch of nuance and flavor to stand out on its own.

Beer Pairing Suggestions: UFO Hefeweizen, Bell’s Oberon, Modern Times Fortunate Island, Suarez Family Brewing Crispy Little

Mussels

Mussels is another quintessential summer time dish because of its presentation. They’re meant to be enjoyed with a bib, truly. Served in a large bowl opposite another large bowl (for discarding the shells), mussels are enjoyed best over a broth made of white wine and shallots is a meal where you can really get your hands dirty. Mop that broth up with a grilled baguette and wash them both down with something truly quaffable.

Beer Pairing Suggestions: Notch Session Pils, Night Shift Nite Light, Firestone Lager, Schlafly Hoppy Lager

Shrimp

Shrimp continues to be one of the most popular seafood dishes because of its versatility. It can be part of salads or pasta; It can be cold or warm. In the summertime in New England, it is a staple of both traditional New England seafood boils and the crowded, greasy fried seafood plates. Because it’s so easy to eat many of these critters, it’s best to grab an easy-drinking pilsner so as not to fill yourself up.

Beer Pairing Suggestions: Jacks Abby Post Shift, Firestone Walker Pivo Pils, Sam Adams ’76, Urban Chestnut Stammstich, Suarez Palatine Pils.

Steamers

We’re going to separate steamed clams (or “steamers”) from oysters and other clams because these are soft-shelled delicacies that are steamed and served alongside broth and butter. They’re a decadent, regional treat meant to be messy and devoured en masse. As such, our gluttony shall be indulged by accompanying a plate of steamers with something big like a double IPA.

Beer Pairing Suggestions: Alchemist Heady Topper, Foam Brewers Built to Spill, Lawson’s Finest Sip of Sunshine, Lone Pine Brewing Co. Tessellation.

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Onion Rings 

No, onion rings are not seafood, but they’re a mainstay on the menu of any roadside seafood shack worth its salt. The best onion rings are of the crispy variety, with batter falling off in flakes to expose bubbled up yellow onions. They’re salty and glorious and should be paired with another style of farmhouse ale, this time the ones that aren’t so tart, but add a little spice and/or hop notes.

Beer Pairing Suggestions: Boulevard Tank 7, Blackberry Farm Classic Saison, Creature Comforts DaySpring, Brewery Ommegang Hennepin

Oysters/Clams

Nothing says summer like a plate of oysters on the half shell, hand-shucked in front of the table. Whether you’re inclined to slurp them as is or with horseradish or a mignonette, there’s a beer to go with it. For our money, the Damariscotta River ones in Maine are legendary. Pair them with any balance, nuanced farmhouse ale.

Beer Pairing Suggestions: Hill Farmstead Anna, Oxbow Barrel-Aged Farmhouse Pale Ale, pFriem Barrel-aged Saison, Allagash Resurgum.

Like anything, the summer season is fleeting, but as long as there is a cooler packed with cold beer, it’s easy to hold onto the sunshine for as long as possible. While a New England seafood shack tour doesn’t necessitate New England beers, it helps. Grab some friends and crack open a lobster tail and a tall boy at the same time.

The post Craft Beers to Feed Your New England Seafood Obsession appeared first on CraftBeer.com.