[newsletter_signup_box]

Lucky for beer lovers, this iconic journey is riddled with nearby brewery destinations. And the likes of Sierra Nevada, and other regional craft options all aboard, too.

Below are six Amtrak station destinations along the California Zephyr’s beer rail trail. The stops are complete with walkable breweries and savvy independent beer bars nearby — and for devout beercationers, detour options galore.

Naperville, IL

Board the train in Chicago heading west on the California Zephyr. The very first stop yields the unassuming beer hub of Naperville, Illinois.

Walkable: From the downtown Amtrak station is an array of craft beer bars, including Red Arrow Tap Room, Jackson Avenue Pub, and Empire Burgers & Brew where an extensive tap list rotates daily. The Craftsman by Two Brothers Brewing is a hub for craft lovers that boasts the Modern Tavern farm-to-table restaurant, a coffee shop, and The Third Floor craft cocktail bar, and a rooftop patio to boot.

Worth a detour: Solemn Oath Brewing Company is a couple miles west of downtown in a quiet industrial park. Get inside, though, and there’s nothing quiet about this tiny tasting room space slinging Belgian-inspired and barrel-aged beers.

(MORE: Breweries Where You Can Have Your Cake and Drink Beer Too)

Lincoln, NE

Another unexpected beer destination along the California Zephyr route is Lincoln, Nebraska. This college town is notable for having one of the best craft beer bars in the country.

Walkable: Boiler Brewing Company, one of Lincoln’s newest and most talked about craft breweries, in the historic Grand Manse building is a walk away from the downtown Amtrak station. Through the alley and across the street is Happy Raven, named Nebraska’s Best Beer Bar by CraftBeer.com readers for the last two years as part of its search for Great American Beer Bars.

Worth a detour: Guests can experience modern takes on rustic ales like the Rollo Pale Wheat Ale, the Lnk Common warm-fermented lager, Farmhouse Ale, and Saison at White Elm Brewing. Hungry travelers should check out the beer-inspired menu Blue Blood Brewing. Pints of bacon, anyone?

(Related: A Beer Geek’s Travel Checklist)

Denver

After the relatively non-scenic ride to Denver from Nebraska — in comparison to the rest of this journey — travelers along this beer rail trail can rejoice at their stop in Denver. Craft beer is just steps from the train at Terminal Bar. It’s in the recently redesigned, iconic Union Station building in LoDo (Lower Downtown). Terminal Bar has open-air seating for epic people-watching. It’s also easy access to the other curated lineup of shops and restaurants in the station.

Walkable: Wynkoop Brewing, Denver’s oldest brewpub sits just across Wynkoop Street from Union Station. Among many other associations, Wynkoop is Denver’s original home for cask ale.

Worth a detour: Denver’s all-cask ale brewery Hogshead Brewing is in the Sloan Lake neighborhood 2 miles west of downtown. Hogshead has a lineup of traditional English ales to choose from in a comfortable tasting room. There are also regularly carbonated beers for travelers who might not think “warm and flat is where it’s at.”

(Related: My 100-mile Denver Brew Hike)

Dining Car Break

After you’ve refueled in Denver the train hits the Rocky Mountains almost immediately. It’s perhaps the most scenic and definitely the highest altitude of the journey. That means in some cases that it can be the longest part of the journey. So take the time to enjoy craft beer selections in Amtrak’s variety of dining services on the Dining Car, Café Car, Lounge Car and Acela Express (if you’re a first-class passenger.)

Glenwood Springs, CO

This picturesque mountain town in the Roaring Fork Valley sports some of Colorado’s most touted and award-winning beer.

Walkable: Right at the Amtrak station is the Glenwood Canyon Brewpub that brews a diverse lineup of world-class beers and serves a traditional pub menu, with suggested beer pairings to boot. Glenwood Canyon has won 15 Great American Beer Festival medals (most recently a gold for the Shoshone Stout at the 2018 competition) and eight World Beer Cup awards. Glenwood Canyon is attached to a historic inn, The Hotel Denver, that’s one of the anchor institutions of downtown Glenwood.

(More: Breweries Where You Can Have Your Cake and Drink Beer Too)

Also next door to the station is Grind. Check out its 20-tap rotating draft list and one of the best burgers in town. The list of sides and dipping sauces needs its own page on the menu at this joint.

Worth a detour: The Casey Brewing & Blending tasting room is a few miles south of the Amtrak station on Grand Avenue. Casey ferments and ages its beers in vintage oak barrels with a mixed culture of Saccharomyces, Brettanomyces and lactic acid bacteria. Bottles to go are limited (and some have a cult following), and tour reservations are required. All worth it for a taste of these Old World-inspired beers made with 99 percent local Colorado fruit and other ingredients.

Salt Lake City

The next major beer drinking destination along the California Zephyr route is Salt Lake City. The craft scene is expanding rapidly here. And it’s supported by some tried-and-true classics that you can’t miss along this beer rail trail.

Walkable: A nearby year-old brewing company is making a big splash with its beers, gracious attitude, and inventive packaging. Kiitos is all about gratitude, and its company mission is to focus on the conservation of resources. It brews a large spectrum of beers including several hoppy options, Coffee Cream Ale, Coconut Stout, Blonde and Red Ale.

(More: The Precarious Future of Wild Hops of the American West)

If you’re in the mood for another mile walk, don’t miss The Bayou on State Street. You can find Utah’s largest local-centric beer selection there. There’s also a memorable Cajun and Creole-inspired menu with savory alligator cheesecake (yes, that’s a thing) and gumbolaya (jambalaya smothered in gumbo).

Worth a detour: Uinta Brewing is one of Salt Lake’s (and the country’s) largest beer producers, Guests can enjoy an array of Uinta beers, seasonal grub, and shop the brewery’s General Store.

Truckee, CA

The beer haven that is San Francisco awaits. And there’s one more stop along this beer rail trail you shouldn’t skip in anticipation. It’s another quaint mountain town, this one in the Tahoe National Forest — another ideal destination for a beercation.

Walkable: Alibi Ale Works Truckee Public House that opened last year is just around the corner from the station. Alibi Ale Works brews the bulk of its beers in Incline Village, Nevada, on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe. And Truckee is home to the brewery’s pilot system. This live music venue sports 22 frequently rotating Alibi beers on draft.

(Find: A US Brewery Near You)

Truckee’s downtown is home to several craft-centric bars and exceptional eateries. A favorite for beer lovers is the curated tap and bottle list at Old Town Tap. It’s just a couple blocks down from Alibi.

Worth a detour: Check out Truckee’s tastes and tours at some of its larger brewing companies: Truckee Brewing Company, Tahoe Mountain Brewing Co. and FiftyFifty Brewing.

The post Beercation By Train: Craft Beer Along The California Zephyr Route appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

[newsletter_signup_box]

You’ll see events and fundraisers at participating breweries in May and June. Hops for Homes, a festival organized by Great Divide Brewing, raised $14,000 for the House that Beer Built over the weekend. All ticket sales from Great Divide’s Hops for Homes Festival directly support Habitat’s partner families in the Globeville, Elyria-Swansea and Westwood neighborhoods of Denver.

“Breweries and taprooms have become community gathering places and we enjoy inviting people out to gather and have a good time in our space, especially when it supports a good cause,” says Matt Sandy, Great Divide’s events & partnerships coordinator.

(READ: Great American Beer Festival 2018 Ticket Sales Announced)

“Giving back to the community is a huge part of the Great Divide ethos and partnering with Habitat for Humanity on Hops for Homes allowed us to make a tangible difference in the neighborhoods where we live and work,” Sandy adds. “For us, as I’m sure it is for other breweries, Hops for Homes was not only an opportunity to help raise funds for an incredible organization but also a team-building exercise– we’re out there together on build days getting our hands dirty.”

Great Divide’s Hops for Homes festival featured 30 local breweries that poured an eclectic array of beers, including the crowd favorite Vivette, brewed with lactose and blackcurrant, from Woods Boss Brewing Company. Beyond the beer, Hops for Homes sported a giant cornhole board, a plethora of food truck options, and an 80’s dance party of epic proportions that broke out in periodic waves throughout the day.

Events like Hops for Homes will contribute to The House that Beer Built’s overall goal to raise $60,000 in 2018 through festival ticket sales and other promotional events taking place at its partner breweries. 

(READ: 11 Breweries with Impressive Menus)

“The mission of this project is to bring the collaborative spirit of the craft brewing community together to do something great,” says Samantha Temple of Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver.

Join the House That Beer Built Events

Throughout the month of May, a portion of Great Divide’s proceeds will be contributed to this effort. Baere Brewing is donating one percent of all sales to support Habitat For Humanity. Launch Pad Brewery will donate $1 from every saison sold.

In June, Epic Brewing is contributing its anniversary party ticket sales to Habitat, and Spice Trade Brewing and Station 26 Brewing Co. will tap beers made for the cause. See more Denver brewery events raising money for the House That Beer Built on Habitat of Metro Denver’s website.

The post The House That Beer Built: Denver Craft Brewers Raise Thousands for Habitat for Humanity appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

[newsletter_signup_box]

Lagers might be light in body or mouthfeel, but they’re not always light in color— as proven by Wibby’s full lovibond of a tap list that includes Helles to Dunkel, and everything in between.

Risk’s business partner and Wibby co-founder is Ryan Wibby, a Boulder native who earned his brewing stripes back east at Ithaca Beer Company and Iron Hill Brewery before he moved to Germany to attend the acclaimed beer brewing school, VLB Berlin.

“I learned how to brew lagers from Germans,” Wibby says.

(LEARN: 75+ Craft Beer Styles)

He added on an internship that allowed him to sponge knowledge from the German brewmasters teaching him the craft. “That’s when I started designing a lot of the recipes that we’re using today,” he remembers.

Wibby headed to Oregon after brewing school to work at Deschutes Brewery’s production facility. A bit disenchanted with production brewing at the time despite how much he enjoyed Deschutes beer, Wibby missed getting his hands dirty in a smaller brewhouse.

“I went on a camping trip with Ted, who approached me about starting a business,” he reminisces. “[At] first [I] said no because it’s too much work and too much risk, but about 1.5 hours and an indeterminate number of beers later, we were telling everyone around the bonfire that we were opening a brewery together.”

The new brewery, which opened in 2015, gave Wibby an excuse to return to his roots in Longmont. It was a ripe beer market, he points out.

(READ: ‘Juicy or Hazy’ Ales Join BA Beer Competition Style Guidelines)

“There are so many knowledgeable beer drinkers here, especially in Boulder where it all started,” he says. “Plus we found the perfect building for our brewery downtown. It allows us to hold events outside, to create the culture and brewery that we always dreamed of.”

Longmont was more than ready for Wibby’s easy-drinking, approachable lagers like the Lightshine Helles and its fruited sister, Lightshine Radler, that’s brewed with house-made raspberry lemonade.

Old World Techniques Blended with American Creativity

The approachability of their beers serves as a gateway to under-appreciated and often misunderstood lagers like their Moondoor Dunkel, which was awarded a silver medal from last year’s Great American Beer Festival® in the Munich-style Dunkel category.

“It’s dark in color but light and crisp in flavor,” Wibby says about Moondoor. “I wanted to mimic a traditional Munich-style dark lager, and I added a little American twist by using cacao nibs. They add more bitterness than sweetness to beer, and accentuate the coffee and malty and roasty flavors of the beer.”

That’s Wibby’s brewing philosophy: old world techniques blended with American creativity and ingenuity. This philosophy came in the form of what Wibby calls his “lightbulb moment” in brewing school. The infamous Matt Brynildson of Firestone Walker was in town for an American hops expo, and he tasked Wibby’s class with brewing a traditional German-style lager beer using the American hops he’d brought with him.

(READ: American Pale Ale: A Style that Changed Everything)

“So we made a strong, red, 17 Plato lager and threw tons of American hops in at the end of the boil,” he remembers. “And I guess it was pretty good because the doctorate students broke into our clubhouse and drank it all.”

Wibby can still recall the only bottle he scrounged from that India Pale Lager batch. “I remember opening it,” he says. “You could immediately tell it was made by an American, with pungent hoppy aroma and malty palatability.”

That recipe has lived on to become Wibby’s India Pale Lager, a red-hued lager with a smooth, malt finish and a pungent, citrusy hop aroma. “But we hopped it up even more for the American market,” he says.

IPL, Moondoor Dunkel, Lightshine Helles and Lightshine Radler are currently available in cans in the Longmont and Denver areas. Seasonal offerings – like Coffee Friends, Moondoor Dunkel lagered on Ozo Organic Blend Ground coffee, and Meat and Eggs Maibock, which is hopped with copious amounts of Hallertau Blanc, Mosaic, Mandarina Bavaria and Huell Melon hop varieties – rotate on draft at the brewery’s tasting room as well.

(MORE: Discover Seasonal Beers)

Wibby Brewing is Poised for Growth 

Poised for substantial growth, Wibby Brewing continues to overshoot its projections each year. The company plans to brew 4,500 barrels in its third year and looks toward long-term development as a regional brewery.

“Longmont has a great reputation within the beer community because of Oskar Blues and Left Hand Brewing,” says Risk. “Our intention is to be the third regional brewery in a town that already supports great beer.”

As they grow, one thing will always stay the same. “Fresh beer is king,” Risk says. No matter where and how much Wibby distributes, the company will always be committed to serving fresh beer.

There’s nothing better than a fresh, crisp lager, Wibby says. “That’s what I love about lagers – they leave your palate clean and ready for more.”

Wibby Brewing loves lagers so much, they throw an annual summer beer festival around the beer style. “Lagers for Lumber” is Colorado’s only festival dedicated to the lager and attracts lager-focused breweries. The festival is family friendly and also features swimming pools, crafts for kids, DJs and arcade games.

Indeed, the (beer) world is ready for more Wibby lagers.

The post Wibby Brewing: A Lovibond of Lagers appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Pecans

Mississippi’s Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale claims to be the world’s first beer made with whole roasted pecans. There are more pecans found in Abita’s Pecan Ale, made with roasted Louisiana-grown pecans. Others include Ferguson Brewing Company’s Pecan Brown Ale; O’Connor Brewing Co.’s Winter Pecan Porter; Kenai River Brewing’s Naptown Nut Brown; and High Water Brewing’s Sugaree Maple Pecan Pie that’s also brewed with Vermont maple syrup.

Pistachios

If pecans are perhaps the second most popular nuts in beers after peanuts, then pistachios are the nut beer underdog. Still, there are a few breweries using these green cashew cousins in their recipes, including Hop Butcher For The World Milkstachio Pistachio Milk Stout and Black Shirt Brewing Company‘s Bonzo!, a pistachio and lavender rye pale ale.

(READ: Peanut Butter Beers are Nostalgia in a Glass)

Almonds

Almonds are a thing of joy in craft beer recipes, especially when there are Mexican horchata flavors involved. The Almanac Beer Company’s Horchata Almond Milk Stout is brewed with a blend of dark malts, oats, lactose and almonds before it’s finished with whole vanilla beans and Vietnamese Saigon cinnamon.

More exotic flavors abound in Forbidden Root’s Cherrytree Amaro, a beer that pays homage to the Italian liqueur Amaro with the addition of cherry stems and almonds.

Hazelnuts

It’s no surprise that a lot of Oregon breweries experiment with the official state nut. In Newburg, Wolves & People Farmhouse Brewery sits on the historic Springbrook Hazelnut Farm. The inspired brewery just collaborated with the Oregon Truffle Fest on La Truffe, a “table stout” called such for its sessionable 4.7 percent ABV. It was aged on farm hazelnuts and Oregon white truffles.

In Portland, Stub’s Old Crow Hazelnut Porter is a Bridgetown classic, a winter ale created with locally grown hazelnuts from Alameda Brewing. In Newport, Rogue Ales bottles the Hazelnut Brown Nectar, a recipe written by homebrewer Chris Studach who added a Northwest twist to the classic brown ale style.

Outside of Oregon, Great Lakes Brewing Co. in Ohio creates its traditional English Brown Ale, Buzzcut Nut Brown Ale, using hazelnuts and honey and Whalers in Rhode Island makes a hazelnut cream stout.

(COOK WITH BEER: Find Hundreds of Recipes)

Chestnuts

That aroma of chestnuts roasting by the open fire isn’t exactly new for craft beer. In fact, a number of breweries have tried their hands at chestnut beers, including the Flying Fish Brewing Co. Exit 8 Chestnut Brown Ale, and Ground Breaker Brewing, a gluten-free brewery that uses hazelnuts as a replacement for barley in Gluten-Free Pale Ale. This nut category would not be complete without the famous Winged Nut Chestnut Ale from Urban Chestnut Brewing Company.

Macadamia Nuts

On the mainland Six Rivers Brewery crafts a Macadamia Nut Porter and on the Big Island of Hawaii, Big Island Brewhaus serves the Big Mac Nut Brown Ale that’s brewed with toasted Big Island-grown macadamia nuts and molasses.

Coconuts

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration defined coconuts as a tree nut, and they’re prevalent among craft brewery recipes. Coconut can complement a number of beer styles, too, including dark beers like stouts and porters (think Maui Brewing’s Coconut Hiwa Porter), brown ales (like the Blackrocks Brewery Coconut Brown) and even hoppy beers (such as the Denver Beer Company Maui Express IPA). Want more coconut? Here are eight additional beers.

Black Walnuts

Black walnuts have made their way into an array of beers over the last couple of years, such as Perennial Artisan Ales Black Walnut Dunkel and Fort George Brewery Polish’s Black Walnut Stout. Scratch Brewing in Illinois is known to experiment with this beer addition — and many other nuts as well.

(CHART: Beer & Food Pairing Guide)

In a Nutshell

Brewing with nuts imparts complex sweetness, earthiness and mouthfeel to beers. Craft brewers swear by them as an ingredient that creates deep nuance. And they are a versatile addition that spans beer styles. So the next time you order that pistachio stout or that black walnut dunkel, savor its unprecedented flavors. It’s fortunate that some brewer was nuts enough to try it in the first place.

The post Breweries Go Nuts Creating Nut Beers Beyond Peanut Butter appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

In honor of the Valentine’s Day, we ask beer power couples share their advice for staying in love and in business.

Deborah and Dan Carey, New Glarus Brewing | New Glarus, Wisconsin

Deborah and Dan were married for a decade before they started New Glarus Brewing, during which they say they learned to understand and respect each other’s strengths, weaknesses and work rhythms through projects like remodeling and construction.

“We have a clear division of labor,” Deborah says. “Dan is equipment engineering, raw materials, process and recipe. I am building design, investors, finance, distribution, marketing legislative and legal matters. We work collaboratively on the beer calendar and personnel issues. Whoever is charge has the final say.”

Deborah and Dan run their world based on four rules: 1. Respect each other; 2. Date each other; 3. Maintain a sense of humor; 4. Enjoy the journey.

“People would be surprised how fast we move together — like a left and right hand in harmony — because of trust, checked egos and clear communication,” Dan says. “Can I add that I’m married to the kindest, smartest, most patient, least judgmental and hardest working person I know?”

(VISIT: Find a U.S. Brewery)

Natalie and Vinnie Cilurzo, Russian River Brewing Company | Santa Rosa, California

Another beer power couple that has stood the test of time are Natalie and Vinnie Cilurzo at Russian River Brewing. They say their roles at the brewery are so different that they often go all day in the 10,000-square-foot facility without seeing each other.

“We have very different roles in the day-to-day operations, which helps us stay out of each other’s way,” Natalie says. “Very important to note is that our offices are on opposite sides of the building!”

The Cilurzos work together on strategic matters, but usually out of the office. “Most of our biggest decisions are made away from the brewery, either on long trips or at home,” Natalie adds. “It is our only uninterrupted time for meaningful conversations. Sometimes we bounce ideas off our cats who are great listeners most of the time!”

Bryce and Ian Clark, BRU Handbuilt Ales & Eats |Boulder, Colorado

“Working with your main squeeze is a lot like … dancing the tango?!” says Bryce Clark, who runs Boulder’s BRU Handbuilt Ales & Eats with her husband, Ian. “We’ve been doing this whole work/marriage thing a long time.” The duo also heads up the ice cream shop next door, Heifer and the Hen.

“It started with house projects where you learn very quickly how to work together, otherwise you might drop a saw on your big toe– promise this didn’t happen. Our key to staying in love and in business is pretty simple. Communication (always a must) and appreciating and trusting what the other person is really good at. Oh, and knowing when Ian is hangry and just needs to eat before further discussion,” Bryce says.

Emily and Evan Watson, Plan Bee Farm Brewery| Poughkeepsie, New York

Communication is key, says Emily Watson who runs Plan Bee Farm Brewery with her husband, Evan. They’re honest about the fact that running a beer company together is challenging, especially because that business is just one aspect of their work at their farm property.

“Bettering our communication skills with one another has saved us a lot of time and energy,” Emily says.

Sarah and James Howat, Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales | Denver

“James doesn’t like to talk business first thing in the morning, but I’m right to it the second I’m up, or at least thinking of work right away,” says Sarah, who owns and operates Denver’s Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales with her husband, James.

Her advice: “Observe and learn how the other person communicates and try your best to compromise on what works for the both of you. Instead of laying everything on him while he’s trying to get ready for the day, I make notes to myself and send him a message later or put them in our task management app. This is a constant learning process.”

James chimes in. “Definitely making sure we have set roles and trusting that the other person can do their role is huge. Making sure we decide things before we bring it to an employee meeting or employee Slack chat so one of us doesn’t say, “OK we are going to do this” and the other one of us is like, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” And everyone that works for us is like, “What is going on?” So yeah, we try not to undermine each others’ decisions in their role.”

Leah and Nathan Huelsebusch, Taxman Brewing Co. | Bargersville, Indiana

This dynamic duo is all about dividing and conquering.

“We’ve defined our roles based on our skill sets and empower one another to make decisions as such,” Leah says. “Being respectful of those boundaries is very important. You also have to draw lines in order to have any sort of work/life balance. This means being willing (and able!) to turn it off and stop being colleagues; first and foremost, we’re best friends.”

“You have a tendency to be hardest on the ones you love,” Nathan adds. “Working with your spouse is a delicate thing because it requires you to remove emotion from the equation and not bring workplace stress into your personal relationship. At the end of the day, we love each other very much and know that we are always looking out for one another’s best interest and the interest of our business. We try to celebrate the small victories throughout the day, and not let tension build up that divides us.”

Colleen and Chad Kuehl, Wander Brewing| Bellingham, Washington

Running a small brewery is like having an additional full-time member of your family, says Colleen and Chad Kuehl, “but you can’t hand it over to a babysitter or dog watcher.”

“Be prepared to tend to it constantly,” Colleen says. “We were at the brewery every day for the first eight months of our startup.”

A lot of brewery owners can relate. When you can get away, the Kuehls advise, make sure you unplug. “The technology available today on your smartphone is an amazing thing, but it also makes it difficult to disconnect from the brewery and recharge your batteries,” Colleen says.

(COOK WITH BEER: Find Hundreds of Recipes)

Emily Bruno and Julie Verratti, Denizens Brewing | Silver Spring, Maryland

“I find I am always discovering things about Julie through our professional relationships and interactions that I was never that familiar with prior to opening,” Emily says. “I’ve learned a lot about Julie — her charisma and personality — through how she approaches all of our business relationships. That’s pretty cool.”

Emily Bruno and Julie Verratti are co-owners with their brother-in-law Jeff Ramirez.

“Working with family members is a great idea, as long as everyone is in it to win it,” Emily adds. “Jeff is our brother-in-law, but he’s our brother at heart, and there’s nothing better than partnering with people that you care about professionally and personally. It makes any small stuff inconsequential, and it makes the big stuff really matter.”

Kim and Paul Kavulak, Nebraska Brewing Company| Papillion, Nebraska

“We try to have fun while taking our business very seriously,” says Kim.

A sense of humor has helped to keep her and her husband, Paul, in business for 10 years. So has the acceptance that work and home may never be completely separate.

“We try, somewhat unsuccessfully, to leave business at work and not bring it home,” she says. “That still hasn’t worked. Then, we tried to set some boundaries within the house, which still hasn’t really worked either. Some days, one of us has to relocate work space, and that’s mostly for everyone’s sanity.”

(TRAVEL: Plan Your Next Beercation)

Tina and James Pachorek, Lost Highway Brewing Company | Centennial, Colorado

This dream team launched Denver’s legendary Belgian beer bar Cheeky Monk after five years of marriage. They have since created Lost Highway Brewing Company in Centennial, Colorado. They’ve now been in the beer business for sixteen years and had three kids along the way.

“Bottom line for us, our family always comes first,” Tina says.

“When I was fresh out of college and starting my career I had this Never Date Anyone You Work With motto. Well, I guess we all know rules are meant to be broken, and this is certainly one I am glad I broke. Doesn’t mean I still wonder what the hell was I thinking working with my husband for 15-plus years. At the end of the day, I know I can still sit down and have a craft beer with my best friend. Now, it just happens to be one we make.”

“No holy grail”

All of these couples can attest to the fact that just like craft breweries, every relationship is nuanced in different ways. Just like brewers crafting batch after batch, they’ve made mistakes along the way and learned from them.

Natalie Cilurzo put it best — “There is no holy grail to the secret of a successful marriage and business partnership.”

That may be the case, but at least there can be a lot of great pints of beer.

The post Couples Share Advice on Running a Brewery and a Business appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Limey Unicorn, a new beer from Denver’s original brewpub was made in collaboration with FrictionLabs and White Labs, and it was indeed brewed with rock climbing chalk.

“It all started with a joke between myself and Wynkoop brewer Jason Lima that we could use the chalk we use at the brewery to climb with if we ever ran out of normal climbing chalk,” says Wynkoop brewer Charles McManus, who keeps in shape for his brewing job with rock climbing. His team recently took first place in the Colorado Brewers Climbing League.

“Brewing chalk is Calcium carbonate, and we use it and a variety of other salts and minerals to adjust the water chemistry for different styles of beer.”

(VISIT: Find a U.S. Brewery)

This joke became a reality through his brewing and climbing networks, which tend to be tightly interwoven. He told his friend, avid climber, and White Labs representative JoAnne Carrilli-Stevenson about the idea. She told Kevin Brown, founder of the FrictionLabs climbing chalk company. Soon enough McManus was writing a recipe for an English-style ale brewed with FictionLabs Unicorn Dust and British Ale yeast donated by White Labs. They named it Limey Unicorn — “limey” is slang for British person, and unicorn as a nod to the chalk’s name.

Wynkoop cuts its teeth producing English-style beers and has a long history of cask offerings, so it was only natural that this chalk beer fall into that stylistic category.

“We use chalk specifically on a lot of our British ales because these styles hail from regions with a naturally higher amount of Calcium and carbonate,” McManus explains.

“The FrictionLabs chalk is not only food grade but pharmaceutical grade as well, which makes it a superior product” McManus says. “It’s not Calcium carbonate but instead Magnesium carbonate, which is another mineral we use, so we decided to go for it. As with most of our brewing salts, we added it to the kettle at the beginning of the boil.”

(INFOGRAPHIC: How to Choose the Right Beer Glass)

On brew day, the FrictionLabs crew joined Wynkoop’s brewing team for the process — and a mash rest climbing session.  “During the hour rest we took the whole team down into our basement and had a climbing session on the natural features found on the 200-year-old stone walls,” says McManus of Wynkoop’s historic building. “It was super rad and couldn’t have been more appropriate.”

Limey Unicon is brightly hued and smells earthy like fresh rain. It’s medium-bodied with pillowy mouthfeel. “The chalk lends a distinctly crisp finish to the beer,” says McManus.

The chalk might also be a conversation-starter about a critical but often forgotten component to brewing beer: water chemistry.

“The chalk in the finish of Limey Unicorn is characteristic of the water profile of the mineral-rich region where we drew inspiration for it, and our brewery. We think that this beer will bring attention to water chemistry — and the fact that it can make or break the overall effect of a delicious brew.”

Limey Unicorn will tap at Wynkoop Brewing in February and will be served in March at Collaboration Fest in Denver.

The post Limey Unicorn, a Beer Brewed with Rock Climbing Chalk appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

“Nathan ordered that beer and it sealed the deal for me,” Leah Huelsebusch says.

“I was impressed by her beer fridge,” adds Nathan, now her husband and business partner at Taxman Brewing. “There was Sierra Nevada and Rogue Dead Guy Ale in there.”

Just 21 days after their wedding, Leah and Nathan Huelsebusch moved to Brussels. Nathan had a gig working there as an international tax manager.

(READ: Winning a Medal at the Great American Beer Festival is All About Style)

Brewing Ideas in Europe

“Belgians weren’t really our styles at first,” Leah says.

But through osmosis, they developed an affinity for Belgian beers and brewing, and the flavor created by Belgian yeast strains.

Leah and Nathan traveled throughout Europe and took note of the abundance of local breweries.

“Each little town had its own [brewery] that brewed wonderful beer and never put food on the back-burner,” Leah says. That comes from the European focus on food and community, she adds.

It’s something that largely influenced the mission at Taxman Brewing, the culmination of the Huelsebuschs’ travels and love of Belgian beer. It’s where their story continues.

Leah, Nathan and their business partners, Kirby and Colin McCloy (Nathan’s sister and brother-in-law), are proponents of craft malt and farm-to-table food.

“Local sourcing is key for us even though it’s more difficult to work with an array of farmers instead of one big distributor,” Leah says.

(READ: How I’m Approaching Craft Beer in 2018)

Taxman Brewing Takes Food Seriously

Taxman represents a newer breed of brewpub that approaches the menu with as much care and craft as its beer. It’s dedicated to providing pairing opportunities. Many of these food-focused breweries are taking shape in metropolitan areas. But Taxman’s home of Bargersville, Indiana, has a population of just more than 7,000, and its total area is less than 5 miles.

When Leah and Nathan returned from Belgium they ended up taking jobs in central Indiana.

“We found ourselves as a young couple with no kids traveling outside of our local community for good beer, and independently owned anything,” Leah says. “Taxman was our answer to this problem.”

“This is our community, and we wanted to be a part of a town that needed development and growth,” Nathan says. “There are not a lot of freestanding old buildings around here. We had an opportunity to take a structure built in the early 1900s and give it a new life, to add to the community.”

(COOK WITH BEER: Find Hundreds of Recipes)

Simple and Approachable

So that’s just what they did. They launched Taxman Brewing in 2014 on South Baldwin Street in downtown Bargersville, which is seven consecutive buildings. It offers a farm-fresh menu and a diverse lineup of Belgian-inspired beer. They knew a menu that was too gastronomical or beers that sounded too exotic wouldn’t resonate with otherwise macro-drinking locals, so they kept it simple.

A great example of that simplicity is the Gold Standard Abbey Blonde Ale. It’s a quaffable rendition of a Belgian-style blonde with a light, dry body blend and subtle malt flavors that are neither too sweet nor too ester-forward. It’s great table beer for just about every item on Taxman’s European-inspired menu that includes frites, a rainbow of house-made sauces, grass-fed beef burgers and a section dedicated to mac and mussels.

Taxman also brews a farmhouse ale, a Belgian-style dubbel, a tripel, a quadrupel and a Belgian-style IPA as part of its flagship canned lineup, with rotating canned and bottled beers. And there’s even more draught-only batches that fuel the taps at Taxman’s two locations. They have their original brewery and gastropub in Bargersville and a Brasserie and Taproom that they opened in Fortville in summer 2017.

(LEARN: 75+ Beer Styles)

Certainty of Taxman’s

The goal for all of Taxman’s beers is approachability, Leah and Nathan say. 

“We don’t like beers that are super cloying, or too ester-forward,” Leah says. “When we were homebrewing in Belgium, it was largely because we missed the hop profile of American styles. At Taxman we’re brewing traditional styles with a little bit more hopping on late additions.”

A lot of the customers who walk through our doors are new to craft beer and farm-to-table food, Nathan says.

Educating Indiana

“Central Indiana’s exposure to Belgian beers is somewhat limited. So we took a step toward our customer and decided that too much ester profile might not bring them back for another pint,” Nathan says. “We know we’re in Bargersville, in Indiana, in the midwest. So we have to consider our audience without compromising our concept. We are very intentional with the descriptions we use on our menus. We want to ensure that food and beer description do justice to the culinary techniques and beer styles but also convey approachability.”

Leah says that the aim at Taxman is for “anybody to walk in at any beer level and have a great experience.”

After traveling through Europe, moving to Indiana, opening a brewery and a taproom and sharing countless goblets of Belgian beers, Nathan and Leah are still crafting their love story. But now they’re sharing it with anyone who comes to Taxman’s and orders a pint — and maybe a burger too.

The post Taxman Brewing Brings Belgian Flair to Central Indiana appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

[newsletter_signup_box]

Whether you’re on beercation or traveling for work – and even if you’re sleeping in a bunk or a tent – there’s a beer hotel for you. Here are more than 20 breweries that provide pillows after their pints.

(SEASONALS: 2018 Summer Beers)

A Bed with Your Craft Beer

Fredericksburg Brewing is among a number of hotels and lodges where beer is also brewed across the country. In addition to its Edgefield, Oregon, location, McMenamins brews beer at several historic hotel locations, including the Old St. Francis School Hotel in Bend and the Kennedy School Hotel in Portland.

Another immersive beer-and-lodging experience awaits you at the utopian Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee. The brewery is just one feature of the resort in Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains, which boasts an award-winning executive chef, a world-class wine cellar, spa treatments, paddle sports, fly fishing, horseback riding, archery and more. Here, guests can enjoy award-winning beers made by Head Brewer Daniel Heisler in a small dairy barn that used to be used for sheep milking.

More breweries with beds onsite include Glenwood Canyon Brewing Co., which is located on the first floor of Hotel Denver in Glenwood Springs, Colorado; New Hampshire’s Woodstock Inn, which is home to a 7-barrel brewing system that serves its house beers; and the Snowy Mountain Brewery, which brews its beers at the Saratoga Hot Springs Resort in Saratoga, Wyoming. You can also find beers that come with beds at Wisconsin’s Brewery Creek Inn, Napa Valley’s Calistoga Inn Restaurant and Brewery, Jasper Murdock’s Alehouse at the Norwich Inn in Vermont, New Mexico’s Taos Trail Inn, North Country Brewing Co. at The Harmony Inn in Pennsylvania, the Seneca Lodge in New York and the Sneaky Tiki Brewery at the Lake Texoma Lodge & Resort in Oklahoma.

(READ: How to Host Your Next Bottle Share)

Breweries that Have Opened Their Own Hotels

Dogfish Head took the hospitality world by storm when they opened the Dogfish Head Inn in Lewes, Delaware. Here, guests can enjoy in-room growlers, beer-infused soap, coffee brewed with barley, VIP tours of the brewery, and VIP seating at two of the brewery’s restaurants, Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats and Chesapeake & Maine.

In Kinston, North Carolina, Mother Earth Brewing is paying homage to the city’s roots with the Mother Earth Motor Lodge down the street from the brewery. This hotel, formerly known as Kinston’s Midtown Motor Lodge, is helping to revitalize a once-thriving nightlife destination with beer for sale at the front desk and an onsite mini-golf course to boot.

In 2018, Stone Brewing plans to debut the Stone Hotel in a renovated historic building adjacent to Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens in Escondido, California. Stone promises some serious wow factor at this new establishment, with three onsite bars for special tappings and events, complimentary beer upon check-in, in-room growler delivery and more.

(BEER TRAVEL: Plan Your Next Beercation)

Airbnb & Hostels

“Got Beer?” asks the headline of Riff Raff Brewing’s Airbnb listing in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. The brewery owners have installed two apartments atop the brewpub, which is just blocks away from Pagosa Hot Springs’ iconic The Springs Resort & Spa. This family-friendly Airbnb also invites four-legged friends to stay the night and accompany their owners next to the fire pit on the brewery patio.

Although not affiliated with the Sweet Peas Hostel in Asheville, North Carolina, the Lexington Avenue Brewery (known locally as LAB) shares a building with a cozy downtown hostel. The brewpub boasts an array of beer styles, a full dinner menu, and a late-night food menu to boot. Nightcap opportunities abound.

Camping & Glamping

Funky Bow Brewery is located on a 25-acre organic farm in Lyman, Maine, where the owners have installed an on-site yurt that they rent out via Airbnb.

“On the outside, it looks like a yurt, but go inside and it looks like the Ritz-Carlton,” says owner Paul Lorrain. The yurt comes complete with a deck, a fire pit, hammocks, a wood stove and a composting toilet. It attracts visitors from all over the world –and it books up quickly.

(BEER TRAVEL: 9 Airports with Breweries)

Add a beer blanket to your remote camping trip at the log cabins at Roughwoods Inn and Cafe in Nenana, Alaska. This brewpub has 6 motel rooms where you can retire after enjoying their three German-style beers (brewed 35 gallons at a time) on tap: Pilsener, Oktoberfest, and hefeweizen. Roughwoods stays busy in the summer, quiet in the winter, hosting a large number of European visitors seeking German flavors from back home.

From roughing it in remote cabins and glamping in yurts on farms to downtown hotel amenities like in-room growler service and beer soap, these breweries make any beercation better. They put as much care into their hospitality as they do their liquid craft to deliver travel experiences you’ll be telling stories about for years to come.

The post Bed & Brew: 20+ U.S. Breweries with Beer Hotels appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Downtown Greensboro Restoration

Walk down West Lewis Street in downtown Greensboro and it’s clear this area of town has undergone recent change. Remnants of the railway town’s dingier days remain, but they’re now intermixed with the urban garden at the Greensboro HQ shared workspace, and the industrial chic patio at the newer Boxcar Bar + Arcade. Just past Fainting Goat Spirits is Gibb’s Hundred Brewing Company, where the renovation on West Lewis all began.

When co-founders Mark and Sasha Gibb opened their doors in 2014, there wasn’t much to see on West Lewis, and definitely not anything to drink. Gibb’s was the first business on the block and the second brewery to open in Greensboro; Natty Greene’s Brewing Co. was the first. Now there are five downtown with more on the way. That was the goal— making Greensboro an approachable destination for craft beer.

Before the Gibbs set up shop, only brewpubs that served food could legally open in downtown Greensboro. Production breweries, no matter the size, the city’s zoning laws relegated them to industrial areas. Mark and Sasha convinced the city otherwise and the beer culture has since burgeoned.

(BEER TRAVEL: Charleston | Michigan | San Diego)

Gibb’s Focuses on the Easy-Drinking Beer Styles

Approachability is part of Gibb’s Hundred’s shtick. The brewery is set in a modest brick building, with a patio that overlooks the railroad just a couple hundred feet away. Inside there’s a comfortable tasting room that has just the right balance of family friendliness and darkened tavern mystique. And then there are the beers.

The Gibbs didn’t want to make the hoppiest beers; they didn’t want to make the sourest beers or the highest alcohol beers. They wanted to develop a brewery that had true-style beers.

Gibb’s is well-known for The Guilty Party ESB, which won a gold medal at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival® in the Extra Special Bitter category. It’s fermented colder for this beer’s English yeast strain, and it comes out more malty caramel without too much bitterness or fruitiness.

(READ: Would You Get a Tattoo for Free Beer for Life?)

The Guilty Party is one of Gibb’s most popular beers, along with the Blind Man’s Holiday Pale Ale. It’s a citrus-forward, tropical beer that tastes like a crisp pale ale but smells like a dry-hopped IPA. With a strong Vienna and Marris Otter malt presence and the juicy pungency of six hop varieties, this hits the sweet spot between pale ale and IPA – “just like our hometown of Greensboro hits the sweet spot between the coast and the mountains,” the beer description says.

Try at Least Two

Gibb’s also brews the Mosaic and Crystal-hopped Monkeysphere IPA and the West Coast-style Shearing the Wolf IPA, as well as a saison, a wheat beer, a milk stout, an imperial stout, and an imperial Berliner Weisse. All of the beers are brewed with subtlety and drinkability in mind. 

“I want you to want at least two of them,” said John Priest, the brewery’s first head brewer. “I think that should be every brewer’s goal— people saying I want to order another one of those beers once I finish this one.”

(READ: Adidas Launches Shoes Made for Beer Festivals)

Currently under the leadership of Head Brewer William Brown, Gibb’s Hundred cans The Guilty Party ESB. Cans of The Blind Man’s Holiday Pale Ale and the Monkeysphere IPA will be available soon. The bulk of Gibb’s Hundred beers, though, are still sold in-house.

“We’ve always wanted to be a community brewery,” says Mark, who’s also a proud history buff. The brewery name Hundred comes from a term used to designate land regions in the 1800s. “They were often home to county courthouses that handled small jurisdiction, back in Thomas Jefferson’s days of small government that was close to the people.”

“A hundred was a subdivision of a country that supported homesteads,” Mark adds. Arguably Gibb’s Hundred is doing just that.

The post Gibb’s Hundred Brewing Helps Transform Downtown Greensboro appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

When you’re in a great beer town like Hood River, Oregon, or Austin, Texas, it’s easy to stay central and hit the iconic places.

But sometimes it pays off big time to travel off the beaten path.

If you’re seeking more off-the-radar experiences, you can bet any major beer town is surrounded by craft breweries outside the city center that are well worth a detour.

These breweries are located on the outskirts. Chances are, these become the stand-outs you remember most. Here are a few breweries you’ll want to visit.

(PLAN A TRIP: Beercation Destination Guides)

Garrison City Beerworks | Dover, New Hampshire

Want more hops? Twenty minutes Northwest of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is Garrison City Beerworks. It’s a brewery that’s focused on juicy, unfiltered New England-syle IPA, and worthy of a detour. Don’t miss the String Theory Pale or the Equilateral IPA, both of which are available in cans to pack along the rest of your journey.

“There are so many great beer meccas in the New England area, and even though we usually think of them as Boston and Portland, Portsmouth now has to be counted in that same vein,” says Garrison City Beerworks Co-Owner and COO Andy Gray.

He sees “quite a few” beer travelers, and notes the number increases every month. “I am seeing them come from all over Massachusetts, especially the North Shore and the Somerville/Cambridge area. We get a number up from Connecticut. More and more I’m seeing craft beer folks come down from the hub of Portland or its surrounding areas to check us out.”

Brew Gentlemen | Braddock, Pennsylvania

“You can tell who they are,” says Matt Katase. He’s the Co-Founder and CEO at Brew Gentlemen in Braddock, about 15 miles east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — and “they” are the visitors who travel to the brewery.

“They come with a collection of mismatched growlers from other popular breweries,” he jokes.

They’re usually in line for fills of the brewery’s sought-after flagship named after their town, General Braddock’s IPA, which in recent years has become a textbook example of New England-Style IPA.

Brew Gentlemen Head Brewer Zach Gordon is constantly tweaking the General Braddock recipe for improvements, which yields an array of tasting room exclusive one-offs that guests can’t find elsewhere.

Brew Gentlemen sees a lot of visitors from Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and the occasional die-hards from Ohio and New York.

“Especially during the holidays, bottle releases and summertime,” says Katase.

(LEARN: Beer 101 Course)

Fonta Flora Brewery | Morganton, North Carolina

Forty miles east of Asheville, Fonta Flora Brewery is making coveted, agriculture-inspired beers on sleepy North Green Street in downtown Morganton. While it’s close to Asheville, Fonta Flora owner Todd Steven Boera says most of the traffic comes from Charlotte and Durham, instead.

“Often folks are looking for a bit of a reprieve from the big city, so people from Charlotte and the surrounding area come to the foothills. They have an incredible nature experience in the Linville Gorge and then visit us on the way home,” he tells us.

Beyond the state of North Carolina, Boera says that Fonta Flora has a lot of visitors from the Southeast — especially on bottle release days — and the occasional international guest, too.

“Honestly the coolest part about out-of-town visitors is a lot of those folks are brewers,” he says. “They come to talk shop.”

Jester King Brewery | Austin, Texas

While Jester King Brewery is technically in Austin proper, you’ll feel far removed from a city once you arrive. The 20-minute drive west to the brewery puts you in the Texas Hill Country, where you can enjoy your beers while watching animals roam the brewery’s farm.

This picturesque farmhouse brewery is everything it’s cracked up to be and more. The beers and wood-fired pizzas are served open-seating, picnic-style across this estate, where on a daily basis guests come from across the country to taste the likes of Noble King, Bonnie the Rare, and Methode Gueuze.

Much like Fonta Flora, some of those guests are brewers themselves who come to work on collaborations — most recently Wolves & People Brewery out of Newburg, Oregon, came to brew a Biere de Garde.

(MORE: 6 Churches Turned Craft Breweries)

Comrade Brewing Company | Denver

Denver beercationers are flocking to Comrade, a brewery southeast of town that’s often noted as crafting some of Colorado’s best IPAs. They come en masse for Superpower IPA, says owner David Lin.

“That’s always the first beer visitors order,” he says. “Regulars too. Only when they’ve had their Superpower can they move on to our other styles.”

One of the others styles is Yellow Fever, Comrade’s gold medal winning beer in the Chili Beer category at the 2016 World Beer Cup.

Comrade’s location outside of downtown Denver is also advantageous for travelers with four-legged friends. Despite the city’s crackdown on dogs at breweries, your best friend can still join you at this one.

(READ: 7 Offbeat Places to Drink Craft Beer)

Everybody’s Brewing | White Salmon, Washington State

The brewery that might earn the title of the fringe brewery in the United States is Everybody’s Brewing. It was the area’s best-kept secret when it opened in 2008, and now it’s known for having the best view of Mt. Hood in town.

Only thing is this brewery’s not in town– it’s across the Columbia River Gorge (also the Oregon-Washington border) in White Salmon, Washington. The brewery is a five-minute drive and $2 bridge toll away from Hood River.

“I would say that most of the beer travelers that we get are coming in from about a 250-mile radius to visit the Hood River for breweries or adventure,” says Everybody’s Brewing Owner Doug Ellenburger. “It’s quite the mix on how people hear of us. They may have had our beer on tap or in the cans anywhere in the Northwest. A lot of local breweries, restaurants, hotels, and just locals recommend us for the views, service, great food and beer.”

It’s true — beyond the breathtaking view, Everybody’s is serving up some of the Northwest’s most inspired food menu items (think homestyle porter meatloaf, peanut butter burgers, and an entire menu section dedicated to burritos). You’ll also find some of the more aromatically hop-forward, lighter grain bill-IPAs in the region. Everybody’s also crafts the patio-worthy Local Lager, offers a variety of other ale styles on tap, and is dabbling in sour beer production to boot.

Solemn Oath Brewery | Naperville, Illinois

Chicago beer tourists shouldn’t miss Solemn Oath Brewery 35 miles west of the city in Naperville.

This brewery and tasting room is tucked away in a modest industrial space that might confuse your map app ever so slightly. Keep looking because delicious beer awaits.

It’s tough to choose from the long list of Belgian-inspired and barrel-aged beers, especially because Solemn Oath has a three serving limit (a full pint or flight is considered one beer), but you can also take bottles to go. Also of note: this brewery does not accept cash or tips, but if you’re so inclined so can buy a beer for your bartender.

Save

The post 7 Breweries Worth a Detour appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

No, there’s no need for mass chaos around a hop shortage, and no your favorite IPA beer isn’t going extinct anytime soon. Breweries large and small, though, have been forced in recent years to find inventive ways to utilize more and more varietals of this beloved crop in small doses.

One solution for navigating expensive, coveted hop contracts is to experiment with newer hop varieties. Breweries across the country are developing rotating hop beers and series of beers that feature new hops each brew. This rotation grants brewers more access to hop varieties and ultimately gives beer drinkers more options.

(MORE: Brewers Association Releases Top 50 US Craft Breweries)

Experimental Hops Bring Flexibility to a Flagship Beer

At Boneyard Beer in Bend, Oregon, the majority of beers brewed belong to the IPA category (RPM IPA, anyone?), which means a major focus on sourcing hops.

“Quite honestly I built RPM to hedge against volatility and hop supply, hop flavor, and hop pricing,” Co-Owner and Brewmaster Tony Lawrence says earnestly. “We have five or so different hops in RPM at just about equal percent by weight. Some are the supermodel designer hops that are 10 dollars a pound and they’re volatile. They’re not always available or their harvest year isn’t of the quality you expected from them … and the other hops are bet on what the farmers are planting.”

Those five or so hops that RPM is built from, Lawrence says, can be swapped out depending on harvest, availability and price.

“Now as certain varieties become unavailable and the price point becomes too high, I can probably find another hop and mix that into the solution,” Lawrence says, “and each rendition of the recipe still tastes just like RPM.”

The RPM hop bill was built from an economic standpoint, Lawrence explains. That model has proved sustainable for the company’s flagship beer, which represents a huge percentage of Boneyard’s production. The brewery has expanded into a large production facility with a 50-barrel brewhouse, on which Lawrence and crew plan to experiment with new hop varieties.

“The consumer just wants new beer all the time,” Lawrence says. “Now that we’ve covered our home bases we’re getting ready to have some fun with some new hop varieties, some new hop concepts, whole flower hops, whimsical applications and techniques … anything we can think of.”

(MORE: Blood Alcohol Content Calculator)

No Recipe is the Same Twice

In Asheville, North Carolina, Burial Beer Co. rarely serves the same beer twice, especially when it comes to IPA.

“We try everything; no one recipe is the same twice,” says Co-Owner and Head Brewer Tim Gormley with pride. “We’re playing around with different hop varieties, timing and temperature, yeast, blending yeast … we’re in the ever-going quest to find the perfect IPA while remembering that ‘perfect’ is in the eye of the beholder.”

Burial’s canned Ceremonial Session IPA features a different hop variety each batch. “This beer has a lot of complexity and body for such a low gravity beer, and it’s made more complex with each different hop we use,” Gormley says.

As some hops get more and more difficult to obtain, he continues, this beer series gives Burial flexibility. Not to mention customers love tasting the differences from batch to batch.

“Ceremonial is the future of IPA,” he proclaims.

Brewers Play with Variables from Hops to Brewing Techniques

Another brewery bringing IPA into the future is Cannonball Creek Brewing Company in Golden, Colorado. Well-known for its multiple award-winning Featherweight Pale Ale and recent Great American Beer Festival^® winner Trump Hands Session IPA, Cannonball Creek lives up to its reputation as a hop-centric and hop-savvy brewery.

(MORE: How I Got a Job in Craft Beer)

In an effort to continue educating themselves about the crop and to keep multiple IPAs on tap, the brewers at Cannonball Creek created Project Alpha. Each batch of this IPA represents different hop variety, hopping techniques and grain bills.

“The thought process was that we would change specific variables across batches, discover what we thought worked the best and then apply those techniques/ingredient choices to make our house IPA the best IPA we could possibly produce,” says Co-Founder and Head Brewer Brian Hutchinson.

Hutchinson and crew have experimented with a multitude of hops— Citra, Galaxy, Mosaic, Mandarina Bavaria and Simcoe to name a few.

“One of my favorite newer hop varietals is Hallertau Blanc out of Germany,” he says. “It has wonderful aromas of tropical fruit and white grapes balanced by a pleasant herbal character reminiscent of lemongrass.”

Hutchinson believes that experimental hops brings something unique to the table.

(MORE: Beer Styles Beginners Should Try)

“Often the most interesting hop profiles are achieved by identifying the individual characteristics of each hop and then figuring out how to blend varieties to achieve the most balanced and dynamic flavor profile,” he says.

Hutchinson preaches to the craft brewer choir when he says, “I absolutely believe that experimental hops will have a significant impact on the flavor profiles of future IPAs. Not only do they allow for flexibility, but as certain experimental hops become the next big mainstream hop (à la Mosaic), they allow for breeders to identify what characteristics brewers are looking for and tailor their genetic programs accordingly.”

Experimental hop exploration isn’t just creating sustainable business models and pleasing curious consumer palates, it’s also providing vital feedback and research for hop growers. It seems these brewers are on to something, and they’re keeping us on our toes anticipating each batch.

The post Are Experimental Hops the Future of IPA? appeared first on CraftBeer.com.