While the initial prevalence of hoppy beer is rooted in the crisp and refreshing character that they offer a beer drinker on a hot, summer day, there is no way to limit hoppy beer drinkers’ desires. IPAs are gaining popularity, even in the cold months. To meet this demand, independent brewers have been pivoting toward a seasonal approach to the style, often featuring either botanicals or other adjuncts to make their hoppy IPAs blend in with other festive offerings.

In a season once ruled by decadent stouts and rich abbey ales, now we have spruce -infused and snow day inspired IPAs.

Celebration IPA | Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. | Chico, CA & Asheville, NC

We have to start with the original winter IPA. Not only is Sierra Nevada Celebration one of the oldest examples of an American-style IPA, it’s the oldest example of a winter IPA still in production. Celebration not only channels the West Coast holiday spirit, but it is also one of the most accessible examples of a fresh hop IPA in the country. Fresh hop beers are a bit of a logistical nightmare, but the freshly picked hops offer flavors and complexity their pelletized peers can’t match. Hops age quickly after harvest, so they’re typically pelletized to preserve their flavor characteristics. Fresh hop beers use hops that are lightly kilned and delivered to be brewed with within seven days of the harvest. Although not quite to the level of wet hop beers, this technique preserves some of the expressive contributions of the hops and allows them to be shown in a different light. Using fresh, whole cone hops gives a more earthy and plant like character to the beer, along with the big pine and citrus notes, which most people interpret as tea-like or a hint of chlorophyll.

Finally, despite what you may have heard over and over again, Celebration does not, and has not ever, contained any holiday spices.

Ever the innovators, Sierra Nevada also packaged Holiday Haze IPA for their winter seasonal mix box. This new take on a winter IPA is a full-bodied, hazy, New England Style IPA featuring Citra(R) and Crystal hops is geared to be fruit forward fans to slow things down and take in the good of the holiday season.

Accumulation White IPA | New Belgium Brewing Co. | Fort Collins, CO & Asheville, NC

Brewed as a “direct revolt to the longstanding tradition of brewing dark beers for winter,” New Belgium’s Accumulation is a white IPA directly inspired by the snowfall in Fort Collins, Colorado, where the brewery calls home. White IPAs are a hybrid style combining the grain and yeast character of a Belgian Wit with the tropical and citrus character of modern hops. Stereotypically brewed for the summer season when both IPA and wit beer are their most popular, New Belgium chose to show off the versatility of the style given its more substantial body when compared to an American IPA. They’ve now been brewing and packaging this beer every winter for more than five years.

The wheat and yeast used gives this beer a medium body that fits more with the winter season. The fruit esters of the yeast combine with tropical, citrus and pine notes from the Mosaic and Amarillo dry hopping for a satisfying and hop forward winter beer.

The whole package is a slightly hazy, fruit-forward IPA with a hint of traditional IPA bitterness that fits in perfectly with any winter adventure.

(STYLE GUIDE: What is an American IPA)

Dark Wing IPA | Drake’s Brewing Co. | San Leandro, CA

In contrast with New Belgium’s offering, Drake’s has gone with a black IPA, Dark Wings IPA. Riffing off the popularity of American stouts, Dark Wings offers a rich malt character to go along with the robust hop selection. The black and crystal malts give the beer a full body and a roasted flavor with accents of caramel and coffee. On top of that, brewers chose to showcase Denali along with traditional Cascade hops. This combination gives this dark ale a big, resinous, pine character and just a hint of grapefruit alongside the roasted malt focus in this 7.5% ABV winter seasonal IPA.

Spruce IPA | Alaskan Brewing Co. | Juneau, AK

Plenty of IPAs embrace the piney and resinous character of American hops, but Alaskan Brewing Co. has enhanced the best known and loved example of an IPA with spruce tips working alongside the hops. Alaskan’s Spruce IPA uses Sitka spruce tips, an evergreen tree which Alaskan says “define the rugged coastlines and untamed forests,” that cover more than 56 million acres of land in the state. The spruce tips have strikingly similar flavoring characteristics to some of the traditional noble hops. The spruce tips contribute light and tart lemon zest flavors, slight bitterness, pine and a bit of bubblegum. The hops used alongside the spruce tips are Chinook, Citra, and Denali, adding to the intensity of the pine flavor along with a big citrus character and an accent of berry-like spruce.

Their Spruce IPA won gold this year at the World Beer Cup in the Herb and Spice Beer category, solidifying it as a great example of the emerging sub-style.

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Blizzard of Hops Winter IPA | Troegs Independent Brewing | Hershey, PA

Troegs Blizzard of Hops Winter IPA is their salute to the end of hops season and the growers responsible for the harvest. This slightly hazy American IPA features wheat and pilsner malt for a more satisfying body. Brewers used Centennial, Chinook and El Dorado hops for flavoring and bittering, then followed that up with a dry hopping Chinook and Galaxy.

The end result is a medium-bodied yet crisp IPA with a classic hoppy citrus character, pine, fruity spruce, and a little tropical pineapple. This combination not only adds up to a popular winter IPA, it shows the huge range of flavors that hop growers put at brewers disposal every year that the brewers at Troegs are thankful for.

Spruce Tip IPA | Upslope Brewing Co. | Boulder, CO

After years of brewing and canning a spiced Belgian dubbel for the season, Upslope Brewing Co. made the switch this season to a less traditional beer that is more in line with the Colorado lifestyle. Brewed with hand-picked, Colorado spruce tips, their medium-bodied Spruce Tip IPA features a more intense malt character than you might expect from a traditional American IPA. Cascade and Simcoe hops accent the spruce tips piney notes and add a hint of orange citrus to this winter IPA.

“Just like hearing Christmas music in January, holiday specific beers face challenges once the celebration has subsided,” Upslope Brewing Co.’s Head Brewer Sam Scruby says. “We loved our Christmas Ale, but felt like the window for enjoyment was limited. We know that our fans will drink IPAs no matter what season it is, and we felt like there was a great opportunity to create a unique, winter-inspired IPA that could reliably follow you to the ski slopes, ice walls, hockey ponds, and hot tubs when the snow is falling.”

Double Red IPA | AleSmith Brewing Co. | San Diego, CA

Formerly known as Winter YuleSmith, AleSmith’s Double Red IPA is a fuller bodied double IPA brewed with the winter chill in mind. This 8.5% ABV IPA balances piney and citrusy American hops with a rich caramel malt sweetness. The malt forward recipe makes your beer drinking experience a more substantial affair, but the hop aroma and bitterness doesn’t let you forget that this is a double IPA.

A crowd favorite for good reason, this beer is a past recipient of a World Beer Cup gold medal in the Imperial or Double Red Ale category.

Winter IPA | Peak Organic Brewing Co. | Portland, ME

In the age of New England Style IPA, Peak Organic Brewing Co.’s Winter IPA is a juicy, hazy IPA to brighten up the brisk winter season in the American Northeast. Focusing on bright, fruit forward hops, this beer directly contrasts with most other seasonal IPAs, but it’s also exactly what some people want when the days are short and the nights are cold.

Calypso, Azzacca, and Citra hops give the right mix of tropical and citrus fruit to whisk you away from the winter chill. Simcoe hops add a slight piney character to complement that winter air and aroma.

High Camp Winter IPA | Bale Breaker Brewing Co. | Yakima, WA

Named as a tribute to the lodge at White Pass Ski Resort, Bale Breaker Brewing Co.’s High Camp Winter IPA sticks with the style of beer they’re known for, but adds chocolate malt into the mix. Cocoa and roast malt character combine with pine, dark fruit, and grapefruit citrus notes from HBC 522 and Mosaic hops used for dry hopping for a complex and substantial IPA. Bale Breaker Brewing Co.’s vision of a winter warmer IPA weighs in at 7.3% ABV and 80 IBUs.

With the ever growing popularity of hops and development of brewing techniques around them, the IPA landscape is perpetually in motion. The use of spruce alongside the hops is a shoo-in for a new winter favorite, and fuller bodied, more satisfying hazy IPAs fit the bill for cozy cabins.

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As beer drinkers’ tastes shift, we’ll see how their favorite style transforms to match. There are already sub-categories of IPAs to compete with almost any style of beer, from Belgian to black, hoppy beer has no bounds.

The post 9 Winter IPAs to Try This Season appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

On the heels of the explosion in popularity of New England Style IPAs, there is a new sub-genre of the classic American India Pale Ale, the Brut IPA. While the invention of the New England IPA in beer history is hazy, the origin of Brut IPA is crystal clear. And it begins with brewer Kim Sturdavant.

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Sturdavant began brewing at Social Kitchen and Brewery not long after the San Francisco brewpub opened its doors in 2010. Since then, Sturdavant has taken pleasure in experimenting with hops, grain and yeast.

Recently, one of the experiments resulted in the first-ever example of a Brut IPA.

(MORE: The New England Style IPA, The Anti-IPA)

Creating the Brut IPA

Drawing its name “brut” from champagne, the style is an exceedingly pale, dry and hop-focused IPA.

There is some brewing science behind the new beer’s creation. Amyloglucosidase is an enzyme that is commonplace in craft breweries. It is used to break down sugars derived from malt in high-gravity beers such as imperial stouts and triple IPAs. This aides the yeast in consuming more of the sugars during fermentation. It allows beers to bulk up their alcohol content without being syrupy and thick. What isn’t common is the use of this enzyme in a lower-gravity beer.

The term brut refers to the dryness. Across beverages, dryness is dependent on the residual sugars left after the yeast has consumed it. By using the enzyme in an already dry style, a brewer can get the amount of residual sugar, typically measured in degrees Plato, down to 0°P or close to it; the lower the gravity, the dryer the beer.

(MORE: Defining Gravity and Degrees Plato)

Sturdavant was brewing a triple IPA recipe and had some of the enzyme on hand when he decided to try an idea he’d been bouncing around for a while. If the enzyme could get a high-gravity, triple IPA down to 0.5°P, it was possible that it could get a standard IPA down to 0°P. He was excited about the prospect of a super dry, crisp and refreshing IPA.

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“What if I made an IPA strength beer that finished at 0 Plato? Make it as champagne-like as possible; spritzy, really light colored, all fruity hops and just super crisp. I thought it sounded good, so I did it,” Sturdavant says.

Adventure in Invention

Since that initial experiment, the goal has stayed unchanged. But the execution has been tweaked with every iteration. Sturdavant’s goal remains the same from batch to batch; a bone-dry, ultra-pale colored, crisp, hop-forward beer focused on fruity hops.

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Getting there is always an adventure. The day I met up with Sturdavant at Social Kitchen, Putting on the Spritz was the Brut IPA on tap. Hopped with all El Dorado, the experimental aspect of this batch was that it was made with 40 percent flaked corn. The corn wasn’t there to reduce ingredient costs like some might suggest. Sturdavant is just focused on getting the beer to be as pale in color as possible. He’s debating other alternative sugar sources for the upcoming batches, like agave nectar and honey, which will lessen the color even more.

As word of his experiment spread throughout San Francisco, curiosity was piqued and other brewers visited during the first week it was on tap. Just as the initial batch had proven popular among Sturdavant’s regular customers, area brewers from the likes of Cellarmaker Brewing Co., Magnolia Brewing Co., and Triple Voodoo Brewery loved the bright and new take on an American IPA. They wanted to try their hands at the new style.

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Sturdavant gave them his full blessing, on one condition. He wanted all of the brewers to label the style as a Brut IPA.

Branding the Brut IPA

“Let’s all call it a Brut,” Sturdavant says. “By keeping that name consistent it actually finds a way to pick up momentum as a style… Let’s see if we can make a style, that’s like a new style birthed in San Francisco, and so it worked. The strategy worked.”

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The initial Brut IPA recipes have built a fanbase. Sturdavant has heard from people all over the world who want to try to make the style. Brewers from the Czech Republic, Russia, France, England, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and more have all reached out to Sturdavant about their take on his new style.

Larger craft breweries like Drake’s Brewing Co. and New Belgium Brewing have already started packaging their own Brut IPAs for mass distribution.

It is a testament to the current golden age of independent breweries. Not only do we have new styles fighting for the spotlight, but we can also identify single brewers who are creating truly original beers.

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“It’s cool, yeah, it’s fun, I feel pressure to make a really good one. I really do, I want to make sure that mine is up to snuff,” Sturdavant says.

Keeping the Right Recipe

As the creator of the style, Sturdavant is humble. Like any brewer, he just wants to make beer that people enjoy.

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

The front door of Social Kitchen and Brewery advertises that it’s the “Home of the Brut IPA.” With such fanfare, he wants to do as much for the style as he can and portray it in the best light. It’s been picking up steam within the industry, but it’ll take much more for it to gain notoriety with mainstream craft beer drinkers.

His main concern is letting the ABV creep up too high. He says the sweet spot is between 6.5% and 7% ABV. The main idea behind the style should always be to make a dry, refreshing, super hoppy beer. With a higher ABV and a more boozy taste, beer becomes perceivably sweeter. That would make it easier to confuse the new style with a West Coast IPA.

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While he’s not planning police other brewers using his style’s name, Sturdavant would still like it to remain easy to differentiate.

Will Brut IPA Compete?

With the Brewers Association’s (BA) recent addition of the Juicy or Hazy IPA to the Great American Beer Festival competition, perhaps a similar fate is in store for Sturdavant’s style.

“It’s not really a goal, but it would be cool if it happens,” Sturdavant says.

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He says the current examples of the beer are different enough from an American IPA to be considered a different category, but it depends on how the style continues to evolve.

If he is the only one making them next year, why would they bother? But if brewers keep on making bone dry, hoppy beer for competition, the BA would need to consider it.

Regardless of competitions, Sturdavant just wants to see more of these beers around because they’re usually what he would like to be drinking.

The post The Birth of Brut IPA appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

For much of history, women were responsible for the majority of beer brewing, as it fell in with other responsibilities around the home. The current male-dominated brewing industry would likely be considered very odd by many cultures of the past and some cultures that still hold these traditions.

Women’s connection to the history of beer is especially evident in the correlations seen between medieval female brewers (brewsters) and the modern-day witch. Here are a few examples:

• Black cauldron: brew kettle filled with boiling wort.
• Cat: brewers often kept a cat to keep rampant rodents out of their grain storage.
• Broom: an ale stake was displayed above the door of a brewer with ale for sale. It consisted of a rod with many smaller sticks tied onto one end and happened to double as a broom for cleaning the shop.
• Pointy hat: When brewers took their ale to market, they would wear tall pointed hats in order to stand out from the crowd and be easily visible.

Pretty spot on, right?

As the demand for beer grew, brewing was moved out of the home. Since laws in those times prevented women from owning property and starting businesses, the industry became dominated by men as they opened larger-scale brewing operations. Over time, the imagery associated with the brewster became morphed into our modern day Halloween costume.

Thanks to the folks at Grand Teton for shedding some light onto the role that women have played throughout brewing history—and thanks for the beer! As the craft beer industry continues to grow, we need to embrace women’s important role in the history and future of craft beer.

The post What Do Witches and Brewers Have in Common? appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Looking around the site, you’ll learn a variety of information about the history of Oktoberfest and learn why this beer—which is a collaboration with Brauhaus Riegele of Augsburg—is so important to Sierra Nevada. After you click around a bit, you might notice a visitor has popped in the middle of the navigation bar, meet Kenny.

Kenny is the hero in a game Sierra Nevada had created in honor of the beer. Basically, the Oktoberfest celebration is in trouble—there isn’t nearly enough of Sierra Nevada’s Oktoberfest lager—and it’s up to you and Kenny to save the day collecting ingredients to brew more. You guide Kenny to jump around like a little brewing Mario and collect malt, hops, water and yeast.

Sierra Nevada’s Oktoberfest game is a prime example of how our ever-expanding digital culture is invading every industry, including craft beer. There are a million ways to catch someone’s attention, and Sierra Nevada definitely has the attention of craft beer enthusiasts. This game might be a new experiment for them to attract another kind of customer beyond who they normally reach.

The game is not advertised anywhere on the site. The user has to be actively looking around the site (and hopefully learning about the beer) for Kenny to appear in the bar at the top of the page. Sierra Nevada has a very well established fan base of craft beer drinkers, and they’re looking at ways to increase their appeal and differentiate themselves from other breweries both for their current fans and hopefully some new ones.

Learn more about this year’s Oktoberfest collaboration:

The post Sierra Nevada Creates Game to Celebrate Oktoberfest Release appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Sure, there are a ton of hops in the Magnificent 77, but the hops come from seven different countries and include many lesser known strains that a lot of hop heads have probably never experienced. A big difference between Lonerider’s beer and many other seriously hopped-up beers is that it was never intended to  melt your face off and overtake your palate with its hoppiness, it’s a showcase of the wonderful world of hops that we live in today.

Magnificent 77 was brewed as an experiment, and the flavor of the ale changed constantly throughout its creation. Brewers added seven hop additions during the boil and dry hopped extensively, adding a new hop each day for a week, and then added 14 more varieties over the next week. A lot of effort went into this American IPA.

Where you might expect the aforementioned face-melting hop punch upon your first sip, Magnificent 77 is only rated at 77 IBUs (and appropriately 7.7% ABV), and is described by the Lonerider team as smelling like “the tropics,” with flavors of mango, grapefruit, citrus and a hint of pineapple. Not to say that this isn’t a hoppy beer–oh it is! But this India pale ale’s huge variety of hops blend together well with no single type of hop overshadowing the others.

The craft beer community is really into hops right now, myself included, but in a world where brewers are adding more and more hops to beer in a race to completely overwhelm our taste buds with IBUs, Lonerider Brewing Co. is taking a different approach. As the craft of brewing has advanced, so have the tastes of craft beer enthusiasts. Bitterness is only one aspect of the flavors that hops can offer a beer, and many brewers are looking beyond the IBU.

The post Lonerider Brewing Co.’s Magnificent 77 Sets Record for Most Hop Varieties in a Single Beer appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

The U.S. industry average in the U.S. for producing one gallon of beer (almost enough for a 12 pack) is a whopping seven gallons of water! This usage factors in every input that goes into the making of beer, including water used as an ingredient, for cleaning and everything in-between.

Breweries in California are under a lot of pressure right now given how serious the drought conditions have become, and breweries like Sierra Nevada and Bear Republic are pioneering innovative ways to cut down their water use and help the industry as a whole find cost effective solutions.

Sierra Nevada’s original Chico brewery, one of the largest craft breweries in the country, uses an absolutely tremendous amount of their water. Their sustainability efforts has been focused on streamlining every process around the brewery to reduce and monitor water use.

They’ve installed flow meters throughout their brewery both to better track where their water is being used and to be able to track down any leaks faster. They’ve installed systems to recover water used in production, made their cleaning systems as efficient as possible, and made the change from water based to dry lubricants on their machinery.

Their analysis of water usage didn’t stop at just their brewing process though. Sierra Nevada redesigned their landscaping around the brewery to feature drought resistant plans and decorative rock along with implementing a drip irrigation system that uses half the amount of water as their old system. Through tuning all of their systems around the brewery with water conservation in mind, they’ve been able to cut the amount of water they use to produce a barrel of beer by more than 25 percent in the last few years, and they’re continuing to look for other ways to cut their consumption.

Bear Republic in Cloverdale is no stranger to water shortages. In 2013, their region could not provide them with enough water to keep up with their demand. They were losing money every day and were forced to pull back their distribution in order to keep up in their established markets.

Bear Republic then signed a historic deal with the City of Cloverdale to pay in advance for the water they would be using that year if the money went toward building new wells for the city so that they could provide the area with more water.

Because of this legacy, water conservation is a huge priority at Bear Republic and they take it very seriously. They are using the world’s first on-site bioelectrically enhanced wastewater pretreatment plants to get all that they can out of their water use. This plant’s process not only allows them to re-use 25 percent of their water for cleaning purposes, but also produces high quality methane to be used for about 25 percent of their water heating and enough electricity to meet half of their brewery’s total requirement. Through these innovations, they are one of the most water efficient breweries in the country, using only 3.5 gallons of water to produce each gallon of beer, half of the national average.

Sierra Nevada and Bear Republic are not the only breweries working hard to squeeze the most out of every last drop of water, but they are perfect examples of the sustainability initiatives going on throughout the entire craft beer industry.

The post CA Craft Brewers Leading in Water Conservation Efforts appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Hop’s prevalence in beer is a relatively new development in the beverage’s long history. The first evidence of beer dates back over 7,000 years, whereas the first documented use of hops in beer was just over 1,200 years ago. So what were brewers using to flavor and bitter their beer prior to hops? Craft beer enthusiasts may soon find out as some breweries are experimenting with botanical beers that are heavily influenced by the ingredients of the past.

Early beers, some of which have inspired Dogfish Head’s Ancient Ales series, contained no hops and were very sweet due to the barley and the absence of a bittering ingredient. As tastes for beer developed, brewers experimented with recipes that countered the sweetness of the malt with new ingredients to produce a more balanced beverage. A large variety of botanicals were used to bitter beer before hops took center stage including flowers, herbs, roots, as well as a mixture called gruit.

Breweries Exploring with Botanicals

Experimenting with historically-inspired recipes using botanical ingredients is a trend that’s gaining traction in American craft brewing. Forbidden Root, a young brewery in Chicago, Ill., is actually named after their botanical root beer. Aside from their root beer, Forbidden Root aims to brew exclusively botanic beers with very limited hop usage. Their current lineup includes unique and intriguing offerings like a key lime ginger ale (a real ginger ale) and a pale ale featuring elderflower, marigold and sweet osmanthus flowers.

While not their main focus, many other breweries have begun using botanic ingredients in some of their beers. A great example of a well-know beer that embraces botanical ingredients is Good Juju by Left Hand Brewing Co. in Longmont, Colo. Good Juju is a summer seasonal brewed with a hearty portion of fresh, organic ginger which gives it a uniquely refreshing spice character that you can’t achieve using traditional ingredients.

Jester King Brewery in Austin, Tx., has embraced botanical ingredients in their Dichotomous series of limited release beers by using lavender, rosemary and spearmint, all harnessed in their barrel-aged farmhouse ale.

Much like the original root beer, which was brewed for its medicinal qualities, San Francisco’s Cervecería De MateVeza brews all of their beers with yerba mate. Yerba mate is a plant that contains natural caffeine, antioxidants and 24 vitamins.

Wild Woods Brewery in Boulder, Colo., embodies their slogan of, “beer inspired by the outdoors” by incorporating botanical ingredients in many of their beers. Their Treeline IPA not only includes a generous amount of Centennial and Columbus hops, but is also conditioned with juniper berries to add a distinct natural character that separates it from other IPAs. That’s not all, you’ll also find botanic ingredients like whole dried jasmine flowers and vanilla beans throughout their lineup.

The Realities of Working with Raw Materials

The use of alternate ingredients to bitter beer not only leads to more interesting beers for consumers, but also serves as a valuable precautionary measure. Hops add amazing character to beer, but there have been shortages in the past and there could be again. Any shortage drives the prices up and can put many small brewers in a rough situation should a crucial ingredient become scarce. Supplemental ingredients to use for bittering and to reduce dependence on hops could be incredibly beneficial in the event of another hop shortage.

There are endless possible botanical ingredients that can take an already great beer and give it a truly unique flavor that you can’t find anywhere else. The increased use of botanic ingredients could be the next step in beer’s evolution and gives every brewery an opportunity for a lineup of totally distinctive brews, even as the overall number of breweries increases.

There’s no end to the creativity that can be inspired by the use of non-traditional ingredients in the already highly innovative brewing industry. Whether the use of a botanical is inspired by its prevalence in a certain region or it is specifically sought out by a brewer that knows it’s the perfect final ingredient for their new brew, botanic ingredients will add huge variety to the craft beer landscape.

At one point not too long ago, hops were just viewed as another potential ingredient, and look at what they stand for now. What could be the next defining development (or ingredient) in the history of American craft beer?

The post Botanical Beers Are Back to the Future appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

In order to adapt to this new consumer taste and use it as a tool to create truly unique beer, breweries are creating new strategies to get a firmer grasp on the production of their ingredients, either by partnering with local farmers or by bringing production in-house. By directly controlling the production of ingredients like hops and grains, farm breweries can produce beer offerings that cannot be had anywhere else.

Proximity to Ingredients

Bringing production of raw materials in-house can be a difficult and costly endeavor for a brewery. For the most part, barley and hops, the primary ingredients in most craft beers, are grown in specific regions of the country suited best for the crops. Farmers in these areas can supply the demands of brewers and even deliver fresh ingredients, but not many breweries can consider them local ingredients. Barley and hops don’t thrive in all climates and it makes the most sense financially to grow the crops with the highest yield, so many farmers are reluctant to invest without a guarantee.

In order to bring about change in the industry and provide support for their communities, many breweries are finding alternative ways to source their main ingredients.

Breweries like Rogue Ales and Stone Brewing Co., are purchasing or leasing farmland to produce their own hops and barley. This way they can support their communities by guaranteeing farmers their business or creating jobs on farms of their own.

But it’s not only large regional breweries with nationwide distribution that are taking charge of the production of their ingredients, many small brewing operations are also finding ways source locally. Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery in Goochland, Va., and Milkhouse Brewery at Stillpoint Farm in Mount Airy, Md., are perfect examples of farm to glass brewing establishments.

Farm operations like these allow breweries to produce beers with unique ingredients that no other brewery has access to. For example, Rogue’s “Rogue Farms” series of beers are produced exclusively with ingredients grown on their own farm, including the 7 Hop IPA, which contains every hop that they grow and their proprietary Dare and Risk grains.

Collectively Sourcing Raw Materials

Hopshire Farm and Brewery in Freeville, NY, has been a hop farm for years providing their hops to area breweries, but in 2013 they took advantage of a new New York legislative bill and became the fifth licensed farm brewery in the state.

“We even have brewer’s barley and different hop varieties growing. We’re not the only ones involved, hence the community effort. Our region of Pennsylvania is very lucky to have countless natural farmers growing wonderful variety of different fruits, veggies, and even hops. We’ve also been witness to a new local craft malt house open in the south eastern PA area. Together, the revolution continues to dig in deeper.” – Saucony Creek Brewing Co.

Saucony Creek Brewing Co. in Kutztown, Pa., is part of a union of local farmers who work together to supply each other with the ingredients that they each need to produce their craft beers. They cannot always produce every single ingredient necessary, but want to set an example for the industry and show what can be reached through a deep level of collaboration.

There is a growing movement among craft brewers, big and small, to produce their beer from beginning to end—starting in the dirt. Brewers want to have more and more control over the process so that the line of beers that they offer are completely unique. Sustainability also plays a role in motivating companies to limit their impact, and cutting down on transportation of ingredients into the brewery is a significant way for breweries to reduce their footprint.

For a craft brewery, it all boils down to supporting the communities that support your business and offering the most unique and highest quality beers possible.

The post Farm Breweries: When Local Means Your Own Backyard appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Sure, everyone loves trying new and interesting beers and supporting small American entrepreneurs, but do you really need a whole selection of tailored beer glassware to get the most out of your drinking experience?

Specialty glassware still isn’t essential, but it has been proven to have an effect on the flavor and aroma of beer and wine through a scientific study out of Japan. Kohji Mitsubayashi and his team infused a mesh sheet with ethanol detection agents and then used a special camera to detect what escaped from a variety of glasses at different temperatures.

The study showed that some glassware, specifically the standard wine glass, acted as a trap for the gaseous ethanol around the edge of the glass to keep it incorporated into the flavor while preventing it from interfering with the aroma. Preventing diffusion, when possible, is paramount to having the optimal flavor experience with your beer or wine.

“Bearing in mind the flavour enhancer properties of ethanol, this work provides an unprecedented image of the claimed impact of glass geometry on the overall complex wine flavour perception, thus validating the search for optimum adequation between a glass and a wine.” – Régis Gougeon

This proves that the shape of your glass does influence the way that beer and wine tastes by limiting the diffusion of the gaseous ethanol. Luckily, beer has a leg up on wine in this contest because of its head. When poured properly, the head of a beer protects the intended flavor and aroma, so why not use a piece of glassware that promotes head retention?

A large bulb in a glass with a narrower mouth above it promotes head retention, traps more gaseous ethanol and directs the aroma right to where you want it. Different beer styles favor different glassware types to showcase their strengths, but functionally there’s some common ground.

The study also displays how temperature can change the taste and aroma of the beer both at the time of serving and while drinking. This is where a glass with a stem comes in. With a stem, you aren’t forced to grip the glass with the entire palm, which transfers much more heat than you’d think. Why not give yourself some more time to enjoy your favorite beer?

Craft brewers are definitely paying attention to glassware! Left Hand Brewing Co’s collaborated with Rogue Ales and Spiegelau to create a new glass specifically for stouts to more perfectly showcase their famous Milk Stout!

I’m sure you’ve also heard about the IPA glass, a collaboration from Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and Spiegelau created to enhance the hoppiest of IPAs.

Brewery Ommegang hasn’t gone as far as creating their own glasses, but if you check out their store you can see that each of their flagship beers is represented by a specific type of glassware. It’s not all about the branding as some may think. Each beer is associated with a different glass because each beer’s strengths are accentuated by that style of glassware.

Who could forget about Samuel Adams and the Boston Beer Co. with their highly recognizable and well-reviewed Boston Lager Pint Glass which retains the optimal features outlined above, and even has laser etching at the base of the glass to promote bubbles and aroma release.

Check out CraftBeer.com’s Glassware Features overview under the downloadable resources section of the CraftBeer.com Beer and Food Course!

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