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Like beer styles, each brewery has its own unique recipe, and the personalities have grown increasingly diversified in their appearances over the years. Here, we celebrate a few of these remarkable taprooms.

Central Standard Brewing | Wichita, KS

The small craft breweries of America’s past were simply neighborhood pubs, and so there must be such an X-factor in brewery design. Central Standard in Wichita, with its communal, share-a-table patio setup on a side road across from a quiet park, has achieved that rare backyard buzz. The inside carries a retro vibe, with an old red marquee displaying the beer list, avocado-green walls and horizontal design lines. The V-shaped bar allows for more socialization between guests, and the brewers play their role, too, working in the same space at the tanks right next to the bar.

The Depot | Reno, NV

This old train station built in 1910 was once home to the Nevada-California-Oregon Railway headquarters. It mainly served cattle ranchers and farmers, transporting livestock and grain. Now, it’s home to The Depot, a craft brewery and distillery, where agricultural products go to different uses. But the station is very much intact and arguably looking the best it ever has. The exterior of the building is magnificent. It’s three stories high with rounded entryways and white buttresses. The inside is modern and shiny, with just enough red brick to keep things honest. And there’s one very important archway, placed directly behind the bar, that lets you see back into the production room.

(READ: Breweries Take Residence in Historic Spots)

Eppig Brewing Waterfront Biergarten | San Diego

Eppig Brewery’s second location along the waterfront will make you forget all about its first location in North Park. Open-aired and smack-dab in the harbor, the view is dominated by all kinds of boats in the foreground and the San Diego skyline in the background. The taproom itself is shaped like a sail, filled with wind thanks to large garage doors that let the salty-breeze sweep through. Though it resides in IPA-heavy San Diego, Eppig specializes in easy-drinking German lagers, which pair well with boat life and the sunset.

Salt Springs Brewery | Saline, MI

There might be some truth to the idea of beer being a religion, because over the years we’ve seen a number of breweries open up inside former churches. In Michigan, props to Salt Springs Brewery for doing a little redecorating along the way while retaining the beauty of the church. The exterior of the brewery takes you back to a different time — the church was built more than 115 years ago. And the original stained-glass windows are intact. Contrasting that history is the local flavor and modern touches, such as the antler chandelier and Vegan Wednesdays.

(READ: 12 Breweries Restoring the Past)

Love City Brewing | Philadelphia

Did someone say something about the wear and tear of history? Love City‘s warehouse vibe is in full force. It’s a great example of the balance that so many breweries seek to accomplish when they refurbish old buildings. Once a manufacturing plant for trains on the Reading Railroad, the brewery has revived the space — sort of. Old machinery, patchy paint, big worn columns, tattered brick walls and scuffed tables reinforce the fact you’re in an old space. Even though it’s intentional, it feels authentic, an intangible to which you must tip your cap.

Mission Brewery | San Diego

It’s fitting that one of the most historic craft breweries in San Diego, Mission Brewery, makes its home in a space once occupied by Wonder Bread, perhaps the country’s most-recognizable white bread. With the exterior still donning the Wonder Bread logo and run-down factory appearance, the interior explodes with a combination of early 20th century nostalgia and modern ingenuity. A high-beamed warehouse ceiling, metal chandeliers and manhole covers go along with the state-of-the-art brewing equipment, a long wooden bar and tables made of beer barrels.

(READ: 8 More Awesome Places to Plan a Brewery Wedding)

Toro Creek | Paso Robles, CA

Owner Brendan Cosgrove is from rural Paso Robles, a region that is typically known for its wine. So it’s no surprise that we see influences of wine culture at his taproom in downtown Paso. In a beer world where “no-frills” is the mantra of many, Toro Creek’s taproom feels warm. It is one of grace, described by Cosgrove as an “elegant farm” atmosphere. Soft colors, antique furniture, a record player, air plants and dried hops are signature pieces in the décor. The dried hops are strung up overhead to complete the harvest vibe. But it’s not all talk — it’s also in the beer. Toro Creek grows its own hops on a farm and uses them in pale ales and IPAs.

Magnolia Brewing | San Francisco

These days, garage-door and industrial style breweries are in abundance, so it’s fun to appreciate the other end of the spectrum. Toro Creek is an example of a simple and soft, perhaps even traditional, method of sprucing things up. Magnolia Brewing’s Dogpatch location is an example of what happens when you back off the rural traditions and push forward with the modern city in mind. It’s not often you find a craft brewery with plush leather booths (that aren’t ripped), with a style that makes a shirt and tie feel more appropriate than shorts and a T-shirt. Hey — businesspeople need beer, too, and if you’re going to get dressed up, you might as well drink the good stuff from Magnolia.

Engine House No. 9 Brewery | Tacoma, WA

Engine House No. 9 in Tacoma was built in 1907 and served its community as a horse-drawn carriage firehouse for decades before being turned into a tavern in the early 1970s. That set the stage for it to become the home of Tacoma’s first craft brewery in 1995, Engine Brewery. The beautiful brick building has two large firehouse-style doors in the front, big windows that give off a Victorian vibe, and a huge chestnut tree that shades the patio. The interior feels like a sports bar. But it carries on the firehouse legend with historic items and décor, like track lighting attached to old ladders.

Brewery taprooms come in all shapes and sizes, and you must try them in bunches to see what fits. Have a favorite brewery taproom of your own? Let us know.

The post 9 Remarkable Brewery Taprooms appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Needless to say, it’s a tough time for craft brewers in Hawaii.  

 “Our major revenue centers come from on-premise sales, either direct from our tap room or distribution to other bars and restaurants,” Lanikai Brewing Company Co-Founder, CEO and Brewer Steve Haumschild said. 

“For the first time in my 20-plus year career as an entrepreneur and 5-plus years in craft beer, I was not able to guarantee hours to my employees.” 

But the always-innovative Haumschild, known for his uber-local business strategies and brewing philosophy, didn’t like the idea of sitting on his hands during the shutdown. He was losing sleep over having to trim down his business and reduce his employees’ hours. He tried different methods of fundraising, including tip-matching. He worked with local legislators to get direct beer delivery to consumers temporarily approved. Still, it was not enough to support the brewery’s bottom line, and it became clear that he would need to do something different – drastically different – in order to keep his doors open and his staff employed.   

One thing that struck Haumschild about life in the new “pandemic” world was grocery shopping. People dash into stores to get what they need, bundled up in face masks and doing their best to remain six feet apart. Speaking with farmers, whom he typically works with to source fruit and other ingredients used in his beers, he discovered that their community supported agriculture programs, or CSAs, were growing exponentially – so much that a lot of them couldn’t keep up with demand. 

“I am sure nobody will be able to get out of their minds what it feels like to walk into a grocery store wearing a mask and trying to get out of there as fast as possible,” Haumschild said. “CSAs were on an overnight rise.”

This realization gave birth to a unique partnership. In early April, Lanikai Brewing Company opened its doors to multiple farms and CSA programs, turning its then-empty taproom into a pickup hub for fresh produce. With farms unable to meet the demands of all the deliveries, customers could come into Lanikai Brewing to pick up their produce – and perhaps buy a couple beers to go as well. 

Before long, the brewery was offering pickups three days per week, allowing them to bring more staff back on board and offer more hours. Food trucks, which usually post up outside the brewery, were invited to come back on these pickup days. 

“Consumers are coming into our tap room for produce and fruit which supports our local farmers, buying beer to go which supports our brewery staff, and grabbing dinner to go which supports our local food trucks,” Haumschild said.

It gets better. At first, the brewery was merely a pickup location for already-existing CSAs, a way to help out farmers and draw in potential to-go beer business. But the side hustle didn’t stop there for Haumschild. 

When he learned that the farmers still had excess product – extra crops that would normally be sold to local restaurants – he decided to create his own CSA, Keo and Company, to help sell the surplus. On its website, Haumschild has aggregated all the products one might find at a farmer’s market – produce, eggs, coffee, tea, jerky, and honey, among others – and is now offering them through the scope of the brewery. Customers can log on to the site and place an order that will then be delivered to their door in a cashless transaction. 

The genius in the arrangement, among other things, is that Lanikai Brewing’s employees are the ones who compile and deliver these boxes, which can also include a beer order. In this way, Haumschild has diversified his business, providing his employees with more hours from delivering, packing, sorting, and even harvesting, while at the same time expanding his reach as a brewery in lockdown. 

Leading by example, Haumschild is showing others that business can indeed be community-driven, connected, and sustainable – all it requires is a little flexibility, a little patience, and a willingness to think outside the box.  

“We are growing at an exponential rate, and if we continue, we will not only be able to provide hours for all of our staff, but potentially hire more,” Haumschild said. 

“Just because we are hurting does not mean we cannot help other people. While we have always prioritized our employees, partners and community, during this time we have done everything we can to support them however we can.”

The post How Community Supported Agriculture Helped One Hawaiian Brewer Adapt appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

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Then an idea struck: Sell, an avid beer drinker, and Allen, an avid wine drinker, wondered if there was a way to incorporate their favorite beverages into the business. At first, they considered simply opening as a dual-purpose space, with ice cream in one corner and a bar in the other, to cover all months of the year. But then they went a step farther.

“At first it was, ‘Okay, we’re going to do ice cream, and we’ll have beer and wine for sale on the side to bolster the slower part of the year in winter,’” Allen says. “Then it turned into, ‘Maybe there are ways to marry the two.”

They had seen beer and ice cream floats before – what if they poured craft beer and wine into the recipes? Or even better, what if they tried to pair them? It turns out, there was a way to combine the things they loved, and the STIL was born in July 2017.

Beer-Infused Ice Cream, Ice Cream and Beer Pairings

The STIL is much more than an ice cream shop. While it is no doubt a family establishment first and foremost, it is also a new, unique example in the long list of ways the craft beer scene is seeping into other markets.

The menu is just as likely to excite craft beer lovers as it is those with a sweet tooth. You can pair craft beer and ice cream on an ala carte basis. You can order an ice cream beer float, like espresso and caramel ice cream dropped into the locally-made Lost Grove Brewing Milk Milk Lemonade (milk stout). There are also beer-infused flavors and flight pairing.

(Related: Brewpubs and Brewery Restaurants Love Beer-Infused Desserts)

The flights are four 2-ounce servings of ice cream, each matched with a 5-ounce glass of beer, mostly local: Lavender and Berries ice cream with Bear Island’s Honey Lavender Kolsch; Peanut butter ice cream with Belching Beaver’s Mexican Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout; Honey Bourbon ice cream with Payette Brewing’s 12 Gauge Barrel Aged Imperial Mexican Chocolate Stout; Coconut Rum Cashew ice cream with Mother Earth’s Fantasy Island Coconut Brown; Berry Sorbet with a variety of local IPAs. The idea is exactly what you’d expect – you take a spoonful of ice cream and wash it down with the paired beer.

In the infusions, Idaho beers dominate the landscape: The Recoil IPA from Payette Brewing, or the Pistolero Porter from Lost Grove, is used in different versions of the Stout and Oreo ice cream; Evan’s Gate Scotch Ale from Powderhaus Brewing is in the “Scotchy, Scotch, Scotch” flavor.

(Find: US Breweries Near Me)

“One of the main reasons I like this pairing is the pure maltiness of the beer,” says Tyler Evans, header brewer at Powderhaus, the makers of Evan’s Gate. “It’s a great spot for us because they are showcasing our product to people who wouldn’t necessarily know about our product. They are taking a recipe that we’ve spent a lot of time on and using it in conjunction with one of their own, and I think that’s fantastic.”

All beers on tap at the STIL are chosen specifically for their ability to pair with the homemade ice cream flavors, and every staff member is trained in matchmaking.

Each of the infused ice creams come with an alcohol content, but just a small one, typically 2% ABV. The beer used in the infused-flavors is just for that – flavor.

For Evans, the pairings mark the convergence of adult and childhood, a couple beers at the ice cream shop.

“It’s reminiscent of being a kid and having a root beer float,” Evans says with a chuckle. “Except, you know, it’s not root beer.”

The post Ice Cream and Beer Flights in Boise appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Sometimes he commutes by stand-up paddleboard – he can launch from the beach in front of his house and paddle his way up a small canal that runs behind his brewery. Sometimes he hikes – there’s a trailhead down the street, where a series of unmarked trails takes him up and over the hills into Kailua, a couple blocks from the brewery. Other times he bikes to work, along the coastal road with a view of Kailua Beach.

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Today I’m joining Steve on his hiking route. I meet him in front of his Lanikai home first thing in the morning. He says that, normally, he would invite me in for a coffee, but his two children – his 15-month-old twins – are still sleeping. We walk down the street toward the trailhead, dodging big puddles in the road from the morning rain, the sky now blue and clear. He tells me he loves mixing an activity in with his daily commute. It makes him take life slower and gives him time to think – with two young twins, a wife, a brewery and a host of other entrepreneurial side interests, he doesn’t get a lot of alone time otherwise. On the trail or upon the water is where his ideas flow, where he can step back and take a look at his life with perspective.

From Boards to Beers

It was way back in 2003 that he first arrived on Oahu, and he immediately began living this youthful, island lifestyle. He started a small surfboard repair company and linked up with a friend who was a homebrewer. Repairing a board and brewing a batch of beer takes roughly the same amount of time, Steve says, so they would hang out and trade skills.

“We were bad surfers back then, so we would beat up the boards, then go repair them and brew beer,” he says. “Basically, at that time, I would surf, repair boards, make beer, surf, drink beer, surf, and then… I guess repair boards and make beer again.”

We start up the trailhead and it immediately turns into a steep, slippery climb, lined by green, tropical shrubs. As I follow Steve up the hill, step by step, and he relays the story of starting Lanikai Brewery, the experience feels personal. On these trails, Steve has thought a lot about what he wants his brewery to look like, going back to the 2015 opening and the years of planning beforehand, when he drew up the business plan while getting his Master of Business Administration at the University of Hawaii. For me, walking this same meditative route is more powerful than visiting the brewery itself – the latter is where the beer is made, but this is where his ideas continue to be born.

(VISIT: Find a U.S. Brewery)

Island-Inspired Ingredients

At the top of the first hill, we turn back to look out over Lanikai neighborhood, after which the brewery is named. I can see the aqua-blue surf lapping up on the white sand, the two small islands sitting just offshore. One of the most important things for him and Lanikai Brewery right now, he says, is that they don’t want to follow the trends that are swirling around craft beer. He doesn’t want to make IPAs (or whatever) just because it’s the latest thing that people want; instead, he prefers to stick to his original mantra, “Island Inspired,” the competitive difference that has made Lanikai Brewery what it is today.

“What we [the brewery] are able to source from Hawaii drives the creative process,” Steve says. “We start with considering the Hawaii ingredient first and then figure out what flavors we can highlight in the brewing process.”

Steve doesn’t want to make “Hawaii-like” flavors with off-island ingredients; he wants his beers to be “authentic to Hawaii.” To accomplish that, he has had to take his recipes to another level of locality. In that vein, all of Lanikai’s flagship beers feature at least one local agricultural product: Pikake flowers (Moku Imperial IPA), Hawaiian vanilla (Pillbox Porter), hibiscus and Big Island honey (Route 70 Saison).

(READ: Booming Beer Agriculture Supports Local Breweries)

Lanikai’s seasonal series, Mauka to Makai, was designed specifically to “explore the flavors of Hawaii” and is one of the most rigorous examples of local sourcing that I have ever seen from a brewery: a malt beverage brewed with ti root, taro, coconut, turmeric, and breadfruit (Kahiki Historical Ale); a chocolate haupia imperial stout with Oahu chocolate and toasted coconut (Okole Maluna Stout); a gose with Molokai sea salt and Kona limes (Kainalu Gose); a hefeweizen brewed with toasted Big Island macadamia nuts (Brewhefener Hefe); a double dry-hopped sour made with Big Island yuzu (Rubbah Slippah, Silver Medal, Best of Craft 2018, Seriously Sour Category).

That’s just the beginning of the list, and it’s about to get a lot longer, as Lanikai is currently in the midst of launching its “Hawaiian Wild Ales” series. For the past three years, Steve has been bioprospecting wild yeast from all over the Hawaiian Islands – the slopes of volcanoes on the Big Island, mango farms and beaches on the North Shore of Oahu, right here nearby the brewery’s home base in Kailua – and has collected a total of eight unique, “beautiful” strains that he plans to brew with going forward. In February, Lanikai released the first beer in this series, the Kalani Honua (translates to “Heaven on Earth”), which uses a wild yeast strain from Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island (the same volcano you no doubt saw on the news this summer) to create a mango farmhouse ale.

“There’s a romance to wild yeast, the land having so much impact on what you’re making and the way it affects the end product, like soil in winemaking,” Steve says. “Environmental factors impact local growth, and that is expressed in the seasonal difference in soil, climate, temperature and available daylight.”

This line of thinking falls not just upon his wild yeast, but with all the agricultural products he puts in his brews. While the general consensus is to strive for consistency in beer brewing, Lanikai embraces the small seasonal differences in its products that come from using fresh, locally bought or foraged produce.

“A summer mango will have a higher sugar content and be sweeter on average than a winter mango,” Steve explains. “We use what’s available… so we expect slight variations in our beers from year to year or season to season.”

Beer Brewed with ‘Space Dust’

Steve’s pursuits aren’t just limited to planet earth. Get this: While he was bioprospecting, Steve met a NASA pilot in his brewpub, who, when hearing about the project, offered to collect a UFO – an unidentified fermenting object – for him at 70,000 feet on one of his flights above Hawaii. The mission was successful, and Steve plans to create a wild yeast from this “space dust” later this year.

As we continue along the ridge towards the brewpub, taking in the view of the ocean and ducking under the green foliage, beer is the main subject of conversation, but some of his other endeavors come up. He tells me about a boat and kayaking company he runs that guides swimmers across the channel from Molokai to Oahu (one of the Oceans Seven marathon swimming challenges at 26 miles). He mentions that he is a whitewater river guide in Appalachia and the West about a month a year – before the twins arrived, it was closer to two months. This year, he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Hawaii Venture Capital Association. Did I mention he is raising twins?

“I don’t have jobs or a career. I have a life. I have passions.” Steve Haumschild, Lanikai Brewing Co.

At some point, I ask Steve how he keeps everything straight – how does he manage all these jobs as a brewer, father, businessman, and outdoorsman?

“There’s something you have to understand,” he tells me, putting his hands on his hips and pausing to look out at the ocean. “I don’t have jobs or a career,” he says. “I have a life. I have passions.”

We come down off the trail to the streets of Kailua and make our way into the brewery. He is excited to tell me about his next passion project: He is going to begin aging his beer in bottles under the sea, “just to see what happens” in comparison to bottles that are aged normally in his brewery.

(READ: Wisconsin Brewers Bring Rare Beers Back to Life)

“I want to make something that’s real and true,” he says. “I like to think, ‘If you only have this island to live on, what can you use around you, and how can your products be different?’”

What the underwater beer will taste like remains to be seen – maybe it makes a difference, maybe it’s just another fun experiment. But, knowing Steve, it won’t be long before we see him scuba diving somewhere off the eastern shores of Oahu. And when we ask him what he’s doing, he’ll probably smile and tell us he’s on his way to work.

The post Father, Surfer, Brewer: Co-Founder of Lanikai Brewing Talks Pursuing Passions appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Beer Trading and Brewery Street Cred

At its core, the basic, honest concept of consumer-to-consumer beer trading has the potential to make the world go round, allowing beer drinkers to connect with other beer drinkers in different regions and swap local brews. For example, I live in Hawaii, and most are only available here in the islands. Given my remoteness, I also have very limited access to beer made off-island. For me to trade beers on a dollar-for-dollar basis (represented as “$4$” in the online trading communities) with someone in, say, Minnesota, could be a cool thing.

“Beer trading has opened up accessibility to beers from all around the world,” says Tim Golden, co-owner of Village Bottle Shop & Tasting Room in Honolulu. “It’s a great thing. If you want something that you can’t get where you are, you can trade with someone for it.”

For the individuals involved, swapping beers can be a great process. But what about for the brewery? Jayson Pizarro, co-owner of Hawaii’s newest and smallest craft brewery, Inu Island Ales, loves the concept of beer trading, from even swaps to secondary market sales.

(READ: Solera Brewing: American Brewers Explore an Old World Brewing Style)

“[The beer trading community] is a great thing for breweries,” Pizarro says.

Pizarro opened Inu Island Ales this past November, and he sees the secondary market not only as a way to build value for his brewery, but for his customers and local market. Currently, one of his beers, Chikara Mizu, is selling for about $150 online when it retails for $15. For the brewery, he said it has led to collaborations that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. As for his customers, the brewery is providing the local community with “currency” to go out there and land some of the top beers on the secondary market.

“[The secondary market] is a small part of the community [at-large] but huge in terms of your value and equity within the community,” Pizarro says.

Extreme Price Inflation

While beer trading can give newer breweries street cred, not all independent brewers share Pizarro’s enthusiasm and the secondary value of beers is at the heart of it. For example, let’s say Beer A costs $12.99 for a four pack when you buy it from the store. But because it’s made and released in limited quantities, people who obtain Beer A factor the demand for it into the resale value. Thus, once supplies at stores or the brewery have been exhausted, the online price for single bottles of Beer A skyrocket to $20 per bottle — or more.

Here’s an extreme example: In 2017, we saw a seller on a Denver beer trading board ask $1000 for a collection of two bottles of WeldWerks Brewing Company’s Medianoche bourbon barrel aged imperial stout and two bottles of Medianoche Reserve (left), a price well over retail.

Neil Fisher, co-owner and head brewer at WeldWerks Brewing Co., thinks the secondary market is negatively altering the attitude of craft beer drinkers.

“We firmly believe that we make beer for enjoyment, and we do not make commodities,” Fisher says. “So while it’s fun to hear that our beers get shipped all across the country for people to try, it’s not as exciting when we hear that someone sold one of our bottles for $200-$300. It also seems like the secondary market is having a negative effect on the culture of craft beer, resulting in more entitlement and less fun. And at the end of the day, craft beer is supposed to be fun.”

Demand drives a market and inflated resale value is understandable to a point (the extreme Medianoche example is still outlandish). But individual beer buyers inflating the resale value has other consequences on the industry as a whole.

(READ: The Great Debate: Aging Beer Vertically or Horizontally)

In online communities such as Beer Advocate, members share various stories of bottles shops that pull popular beers off the shelves and up the price. In one example, a man visited a store that was originally asking $6 per bottle but had upped the price to $20 a bottle when it “realized how sought-after it was.”

From the bottle shop’s perspective, this was the going rate, since it was being resold online for that amount. Golden says that even though the market driving up the price is the nuts and bolts of capitalism, he’s not a fan of it in the long run.

“[Our bottle shop] could make more money on [rare beers] but we have the belief that if you’re fair and honest in the long run, customers will appreciate that and be loyal,” Golden says. “A great example was … a popular beer that only gets released once a year. It’s limited. Normal retail price is around $9-$11. Some places this year were selling it for $30 just because they knew people would pay it. To me, you don’t build long-term relationships with customers by screwing them any chance you can.”

Secondary Market and Unreasonable Expectations

Dan Becker of The Full Pint says the secondary market has other pitfalls. In his opinion, paying above retail price for a beer skews the perception of that beer, and the secondary market creates a false perception and unfair evaluation of individual beers.

Consider a scenario where you have purchased a beer on the secondary market for well above its retail price — let’s say you spent $100 on a beer that a brewery originally sold for $15 per bottle. But you’re pumped about it. You’ve been reading a lot about this popular beer online, and you’ve negotiated for several days to find someone willing to sell it at that price. Becker says that when you receive that beer, your expectations are going to be higher than they normally would, considering you’ve read so much about it and spent time and money obtaining it. This will lead you to love it or hate it, Becker says, which he finds unfair.

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

Alternatively, your high expectations might lead to a negative view of the beer, where the taste doesn’t back up the hype, time, and money you’ve invested. In this way, Becker thinks breweries can both benefit and be harmed by the skewed perceptions of secondary-market participants.

“The brewer is being honest — there’s a $15 bottle of beer,” Becker says. “It’s the people who pay more that come into it with different expectations, and that’s unfair.”

Beer Trading and the Quality Conundrum

Then there are concerns about the freshness and quality of the beer. Once it leaves the bottle shop or brewery, second-hand traders have no idea how the beer has been stored and treated.

“If you trade for a bottle of beer that just spent four days in transit, you need to understand that is not even close to the same beer you would get at the brewery.” Natalie Cilurzo, Russian River Brewing Co.

“For us, it comes down to quality,” says Natalie Cilurzo, co-owner and president of Russian River Brewing Company. “We don’t want our beers ending up unrefrigerated on the back of a FedEx truck in the Arizona desert, or sitting in a warehouse for days on end. Beers like Pliny the Elder are extremely perishable. By the time it reaches you, it will not be in the best condition. If you trade for a bottle of beer that just spent four days in transit, you need to understand that is not even close to the same beer you would get at the brewery.”

Concept Behind ‘Winning’ Beer Trades

Becker says there’s also another growing trend that has put a damper on beer trading: the concept that trades have to be “won.” Whereas the utopian version of beer trading begins and ends with retail-oriented dollar-for-dollar swaps, some modern-day traders now operate on the secondary market’s evaluation of the beer and set out to “win trades” instead of simply trading beers. Like players on a sports team or baseball cards, each individual beer’s evaluation is a matter of opinion.

“You may have to trade two to three beers to get that one beer that is more expensive or harder to get,” Golden explains. “At the end of the day, if you really want something, you’ll be willing to give a little more to get it. It’s no different than when we were kids trading baseball cards. If you wanted that Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card, you needed to trade something of equal or greater value to get it.”

(VISIT: Find a U.S. Brewery)

Beer Hoarders and the Pursuit of Whales 

It’s one thing to buy two bottles of a rare beer and swap with a friend. It’s another to buy up dozens of bottles — hoard the beer — with the sole intention of reselling it all for a profit. Breweries and beer stores try to prevent this behavior by imposing limits on the number of bottles that can be bought per person, yet these limits are easily circumnavigated. The classic example is beer hoarders who ask their friends to purchase beer on their behalf, allowing them to get around per-person limits and accumulate a lot of beer.

Despite growing concerns and examples of beer hoarding within the trading communities, Golden says he’s not overly concerned about it in the long run. For one, it’s a small percentage of people who hoard, and there’s still plenty of room for even trading out there. The inflated secondary market may make it difficult and/or expensive to acquire “whales” — the name for rare, highly sought-after beers — but Golden feels there’s more than enough to go around.

“If you only hunt whales, then you’re missing out on a lot of great beer from great breweries,” he says.

Though there may be a tendency for people to be annoyed by the darker aspects of the beer trading community, Golden says that, in his opinion, it’s good for craft beer.

“At the end of the day, if people are passionate and excited about beer, it’s good for everyone — breweries, retailers, bars, and distributors,” Golden said. “When people stop caring about beer, then we’re in trouble.”

The post Beer Trading’s Impacts on Independent Breweries and You appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

As an example of that heritage, consider that more than 130 years ago in 1885, a man had already accomplished enough in the Pennsylvania beer world to warrant a statue. Frederick Lauer, a 19th-century brewing pioneer and the first president of the United States Brewers’ Association, was immortalized in his hometown of Reading by a statue that still stands today. In 2016, the BA donated $25,000 towards its restoration.

He was a brewer, of course, but his signature work was in helping to establish a tax code for beer that would help keep unprofessional and unsanitary brewers out of the market. So yeah, Pennsylvania’s been doing this beer thing for a long time.

(VISIT: Find Pennsylvania Breweries)

Pennsylvania’s Beer Pioneers

As craft beer continues to grow throughout the country, it’s important to remember that a good portion of it started in the East.  While craft beer communities in the western U.S. get a lot of attention, you can’t overlook the industry’s pioneers east of the Mississippi. Pennsylvania is a hotbed for independent craft breweries who started in the early 90s.

“Pennsylvania was right at the cusp of [the craft beer movement],” said Christian T. Lampe, production manager of Weyerbacher Brewing. “My company is 22 years old. Victory and Tröegs are both more than 20 years old. Yards is 22 years old. Stoudts in Adamstown was here long before any of us.”

(READ: How Stoudts Built a Craft Brewery to Stand the Test of Time)

Before this new class of craft brewers made waves, brewers like Yuengling (Pottsville), Penn Brewing Co. (Pittsburgh), and Straub (St. Marys) embodied the state’s German history by making American lagers.  Yuengling opened in 1829 and is the oldest continuously operating brewery in the United States.

Pennsylvania’s Best City for Beer?

It’d be easy to give Philly the nod if only for its historical roots in America’s beer history.

“Think back to Colonial Days,” said Dan LaBert, executive director of Brewers of Pennsylvania. “I’m sure plenty of our governmental structure was discussed over a pint of beer in Philly.”

History aside, the beer in the greater Philly area backs it up. With a portfolio of successful breweries that includes long-standing favorites like Yards, Victory, and Dock Street to go along with newer, award-winning spots like Tired Hands, Philly might not be the legislative capital of the state, but it’s the beer capital.

Craft beer bars like Monk’s Café were instrumental in introducing a wider variety of beers (in Monk’s case, Belgian-style beers) to the Philly market and paved the way for what is now an indulgence of neighborhood-style pubs dedicated to offering a wide selection of local and regional craft beers on draft.

“Philadelphia is the heart of the craft beer movement for the entire East Coast,” said LaBert.

(READ: Get a Tattoo. Get Free Beer)

Up and Coming Area(s) for Pennsylvania Breweries

There are two areas to keep an eye on in Pennsylvania.

The first is Pittsburgh. Yards’ Founder Tom Kehoe said it is one of the fastest growing areas in the state for startup breweries and that the beer industry has played a part in the city’s redevelopment, with breweries like East End Brewing Company leading the way. There are now nearly 30 craft breweries in the Steel City. Keep an eye on Grist House Brewery, Hitchhiker Brewing, Voodoo Brewery (barrel-aged beers), and Hop Farm Brewing (grows its own hops on the rooftop).

The second is the more rural south-central part of PA near Harrisburg. LaBerg said its position an hour from Philly and two hours from D.C. and New York provide direct business channels for the agricultural-based area, and breweries are taking advantage. Examples include Zeroday Brewing Company in Harrisburg, Troegs in Hershey and Lancaster Brewing Co in Lancaster.

Beers to Know About

When in Pennsylvania, keep an eye out for these brews:

• Victory’s Hop Devil made a big name for itself when it was awarded as the “Champion American Beer” at the Great British Beer Festival in 2002. For this, it stands as one of Pennsylvania’s flagship craft beers.
• Mad Elf is a seasonal beer from Tröegs that should find its way into every beer drinker’s home during the holidays. Tröegs calls it a “Spicy Belgian,” brewed with honey and cherries. Toting an 11% ABV, it’s sure to warm up your home and bring some cheer on a festive winter night.
• Yuengling is the oldest brewery in Pennsylvania as well as the United States, and it has been family run since 1829. It was the top-selling craft brewery by volume in 2016. You’ll want to seek out a bottle of this amber-colored lager, brewed with roasted caramel malt.
• There aren’t too many breweries in the U.S. for whom their flagship beer is a Belgian-style triple, which is why you have to tip your cap to Weyerbacher for Merry Monks. It won a bronze medal at the 2010 World Beer Cup and won Best Belgian Beer at the 2013 Philly Beer Scene Awards.
• This writer was fortunate enough to stumble upon Tired Hands HopHands Pale Ale on a recent trip to Philly, and it was one of those beers that stuck out from the crowd. This beer is heaven in a glass if you’re on an IPA kick but also looking for lower alcohol contents. Generously hopped with Simcoe, Centennial and Amarillo hops, it hits your palate like an IPA, while maintaining the crushability of a pale ale with a base of oats and a reasonable 5.5% ABV.

(TRAVEL: Your Guide to Michigan Breweries)

Pennsylvania Beer Bars You Should Know

Going directly to the brewery is the best way to support local craft beer, but you can also find a locally-focused beer bar that puts the area’s best beers in front of you.

Boxers Café (Huntingdon): Christian T. Lampe, Weyerbacher Brewing’s production manager, said that Boxers was where he cut his teeth on good beer during college (he went to Juniata). Expect a long tap list of Pennsylvania beers. Consider it a great stopping point on your way to or from a football game at nearby Penn State.

Grey Lodge Pub (Philly): This Northeast Philly beer bar became famous for its Friday the Firkinteenth event, held every Friday the 13th. The bar taps cask ales from all over the Mid-Atlantic; they kick at a voracious pace.

Smoking Joe’s Saloon (Pittsburgh): You can find plenty of regional craft beers amongst the 60 on draft and more than 350 in bottles. If you’re new to the Pennsylvania beer scene, this is a great place to gather intel. You can buy a growler for only $3.95 and fill it for the cost of a pitcher.

Bulls Head Public House (Lititz): CraftBeer.com readers named the Bulls Head the best beer bar in Pennsylvania for 2017. The owners modeled it after a British pub. You’ll find 14 draught beers, two cask-conditioned ales, and 80 bottles to pair with British pub favorites, like Scotch eggs.

(MORE: Craft Beer by the Numbers)

Pennsylvania Beer Resources

If you’re looking to explore the Pennsylvania beer scene check out the Brewers of PA beer map. It includes all its members across the state. You can also call them for recommendations or insight in a particular area of the State. When visiting the City of Brotherly Love, check out the Philadelphia Craft Beer Trail for help planning brewery visits.

The post Your Guide to Pennsylvania’s Independent Breweries and Beer appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

“If you look back just a couple years ago, I bet we had 100 breweries in the state,” Graham says.

While people often consider the East and West Coasts to be on the cutting edge of all trends (music, tech, you name it), Larry Bell of Bell’s Brewery laughs off the notion when it comes to craft beer. Bell cites not only a strong brewing tradition but also Michigan’s wickedly loyal beer fan base.

(TRAVEL: Find Beercation Guides)

“I think it’s pretty funny,” Bell tells CraftBeer.com. “There’s this attitude that the coasts are cooler and hipper. Let me tell you, I’ve seen a lot of West Coast beers launch in the Midwest and Michigan and fall flat on their faces, because guess what, the beer really isn’t better than ours, and people here, especially in Michigan, are homers. There’s been just as many interesting things going on here as there is on the coasts.”

Bell says Michigan has a lot going for it in terms of differentiating its beer, especially when it comes to local ingredients. The four Great Lakes surrounding Michigan is an obvious advantage in terms of water. So is the region’s local grain.

Bell explains that while West Coast beers tend to be hop heavy and place an importance on its prominence, beers from Michigan proudly showcase a heavy dose of its home-grown malt, creating a distinct style for the region.

“We’re the bread box of the country and I think we’ve always liked malt,” Bell says. “I certainly believe in making all-malt beer. That’s what we got into the business to do.”

Michigan Beer Pioneers

Graham says the first “explosion” of craft breweries in Michigan was the mid-to-late 90s.

But before that, there were several pioneers who paved the way, he says. When Real Ale Co. in Chelsea opened in 1982, it was the Michigan’s first independently-owned brewery. It was only open a few years, closing in 1986 (as a side note, the then-head brewer, Ted Badgerow, is still rocking and opened Ypsi Alehouse in Ypsilanti last year). Still, Real Ale Co. made a significant contribution to craft beer’s future in many ways.

“I think [Real Ale Co.] gave people something to aspire to,” Graham said.

(VISIT: Find Michigan Breweries)

As the story goes, Larry Bell’s visit to Real Ale Co. helped inspire him to start his own brewery. He even bought a brew kettle (which he ended up never using to brew beer) and some other equipment from them to get started. In 1985, he launched Kalamazoo Brewing Co., and in 2005, he changed the name to Bell’s Brewery. Today, it is Michigan’s largest independent brewery.

A few more breweries started to trickle in during the early 90s, but the big highlight of that time was a legislature change that took place in 1992. Bell himself helped lawmakers craft a bill that would allow breweries to charge for beer by the glass and sell food – a brewery license, if you will – which had been previously prohibited. The law passed in late 1992, sparking investment and setting the table for the rush of breweries that would follow in the years to come — and that includes Founders. Since opening in 1997, Founders (no longer under the BA-defined craft brewer umbrella due to Mahou San Miguel’s 30 percent stake in the brewery) has also left an indelible mark on the state’s brewing scene.

Michigan’s Best Cities for Beer

Grand Rapids has become Michigan’s beer destination. It has earned national attention for its beer scene by finishing first in various reader’s choice polls over the past few years, and it has branded itself as “Beer City USA” in its tourism marketing. One of the main reasons is its Beer City Ale Trail, a walking route that connects dozens of downtown breweries. Notable independent craft breweries in the Grand Rapids area include Brewery Vivant, New Holland and Grand Rapids Brewing Co., among many others.

While not as properly branded and not as dense, Kalamazoo’s history and core of successful breweries makes it a strong hub for Michigan beer, anchored by Bell’s Brewery in nearby Comstock. Other strongholds include Dark Horse and Arcadia, as well as respected beer bars like Kalamazoo Beer Exchange.

Up and Coming Area(s) for Craft Beer in Michigan

There are three areas to keep an eye on in Michigan.

Ann Arbor: College towns have always been beer-drinking towns. But Ann Arbor has been enjoying an uptick in craft beer options over the years, and today it stands as its own scene, including some great beer bars (see below). One of the city’s pioneers is Arbor Brewing Company, which opened in 1995 and has received awards for its environmentally friendly practices. Another is Grizzly Peak and its best seller, the Steelhead Red, and don’t forget Jolly Pumpkin, known for its wild-aged sours and ales as well as its Belgian-influenced brews, like the Noel de Calabaza. Also, as mentioned above, the Ypsi Alehouse in nearby Ypsilanti was started by the former head brewer of Real Ale Co. Ann Arbor’s location just 40-some miles from Detroit makes it an easy side trip from the Motor City.

(READ: The Evolving Role of Women’s Contribution to Brewing Beer)

Detroit: It was one of the largest cities in U.S. for a long time. Now, it’s an up and coming area again. Detroit is on the rebound and coming back with a vengeance, placing an emphasis on local neighborhood pubs. “Detroit had a hard time because the city had a bad reputation, but the city’s believers are turning it around and many beer venues are now embracing the Motor City,” said Rex Halfpenny, publisher of Michigan Beer Guide. “This turnaround is without a doubt the most exciting thing about Michigan beers’ influence on the economy.” Check out bars like M-Brew and Ale Mary’s Beer Hall, and breweries such as Brew Detroit, Motor City Brewing Works, Batch Brewing Company and Atwater Beer.

Traverse City and the Lakeshore: The attention that this region gets because of its natural beauty and its position as a vacation destination has done wonders for its beer scene. Great beer bars like 7 Monks (see below) and a handful of breweries in the greater Lakeshore area are making things interesting, like Short’s Brewing Co. in Bellaire, Stormcloud Brewing Co. in Frankfort, and Mackinaw Brewing Co. in Traverse City.

Michigan Beers to Know About

Bell’s has two flagship beers in particular that have represented Michigan on a national scale, the Oberon Ale and the Two Hearted Ale. Oberon is an American Wheat Ale with that ultra-recognizable bright blue and yellow label. Its packaging screams summer, as does its smooth, malty wheat flavor. Two Hearted Ale (American IPA) carries the Midwest malt backbone Bell spoke of, enshrining it as one of the state’s iconic IPAs. It was voted 2017’s Best Beer in America by readers of Zymurgy Magazine.

Bell says that, for him, one of the iconic breweries of the state is Short’s Brewing in Bellaire, just north of Traverse City. “It made Michigan-only (beer) and they hung their hat on that for a long time,” Bell explains. “I think Short’s achieved national status as a brewery of Michigan, because they kind of owned a space here as far as representing Michigan with a large portfolio of beers made with Michigan ingredients.”

(READ: 7 Offbeat Places for People Who Like Craft Beer)

Another beer that’s making its way around and outside the Midwest, Bell says, is New Holland Dragon’s Milk, a bourbon barrel stout. You can find it up and down both coasts now.

Speaking of stouts, keep an eye out for Dark Horse Brewery, who has a distribution range that reaches the East Coast into New York and down to Pennsylvania right on through to South Carolina. Its “Stout Series,” made up of five stouts including Plead the 5th, has been a well-received line both in Michigan and outside the state.

Michigan Beer Bars to Know About

Going directly to the brewery is the best way to support local craft beer, but you can also find a locally-focused beer bar that puts the area’s best beers in front of you.

Ashley’s in Ann Arbor – When Graham says that Ashley’s was “on to craft beer before it was cool,” he’s not exaggerating. This craft beer pub has been rocking and rolling since 1983, and it has more than 100 taps that highlight local and regional craft beer.

Grand Trunk Pub (Detroit) – If the beautiful architecture of the old railway building and the fierce “Made in Michigan” approach of the Grand Trunk Pub doesn’t hook you, perhaps this thoughtful, reflective account from the owner on its opening will punch your ticket. The Grand Trunk has 24 Michigan beers on tap and takes pride in its Detroit grit.

7 Monks (Traverse City): This is the new standard for beer bars in the up and coming Traverse City. With dozens of taps across a range of styles, including wild ales, sours, European and Belgian styles, and IPAs, American lagers, stouts, and porters, you’ll have plenty of excuses to stay inside on a summer day in Northern Michigan.

(LEARN: Beer 101 Online Course)

Hop Cat opened in Grand Rapids in 2008. It is now a chain, with locations across the state and the Midwest. Don’t let that scare you off. It didn’t open its second location until 2013, and its credibility as a dedicated beer bar remains despite its expansion. It’s a great stop for those looking to try a bunch of different Michigan beers.

Brown Iron Brewhouse (Washington Twp): Brown Iron was the reader’s choice for Michigan in our Great American Beer Bars 2017 rundown, beloved for its 70 beers on tap, educated staff, and “Cheers-like” feel, where the staff tries to know you by name. For travelers and out-of-towners, this is the perfect type of place to meet and mingle with local beer lovers, and worth the 45-minute trip from downtown Detroit.

Resources

Those looking to explore Michigan’s beer scene can utilize the Michigan Brewers Guild for intel. You can find a list of breweries, events and contact info on their website. Several towns provide their own beer maps, like this Kalamazoo beer map or this printable beer map of Grand Rapids. If you’re checking out Grand Rapids, consider getting an overview with one of these beer tours.

The Michigan Beer Guide comes out every two months and is available online. You can read through to get some inspiration for your trip and/or find new beers and breweries.

Larry Bell wrote the introduction to the book Michigan’s Holy Hops: The Great Lakes Beer Bible by Rick Sigsby. It covers the rise of craft beer and its personalities in the state, and is a good way to get an overview of its history.

The post Your Guide to Michigan’s Independent Breweries and Beer appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Beyond creating a better product, many craft brewers use their small businesses as a vehicle for change. Small and independent craft brewers made more than $71 million in charitable contributions in 2014, according to the Brewers Association, CraftBeer.com’s parent organization, and you can find endless examples of breweries giving back to their communities.

But what you don’t always see are individual efforts to use craft beer as a tool, as a way of funding and supporting specific causes related to philanthropy. It goes beyond donating kegs or a portion of beer sales to charity from time to time. Brewers and craft beer-related businesses are literally harnessing craft beer’s popularity for good in a way we haven’t seen before.

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

Harnessing Craft Beer to Serve a Greater Good

Ex Novo Brewing became the country’s first nonprofit craft brewery when it opened in Portland in 2014. On the surface, it looks like a normal brewery, and a well-oiled one at that with a 16-beer portfolio and a thorough food component, including dessert and brunch items. But any dough that comes through those doors is immediately sent back out. Ex Novo partners with four local charities, donating all its profits to them. Founder Joel Gregory called the brewery “a permanent fundraiser to support causes.”

“I’m moved by the work [of these four organizations] and it’s a great motivator to succeed in business knowing that we are driving toward these goals and supporting these organizations,” Gregory said.

In Georgia, the birth of a new beer at Service Brewing means the start of a new charitable initiative. The brewery was started by West Point grad Kevin Ryan, who spent 8 years in the army, including a tour of Iraq. When he returned from duty, his passion for craft beer and desire to support his fellow veterans inspired him to open Service Brewing. The brewery promotes a new charity each season, typically corresponding with the release of a new brew, and donates to it a portion of the brewery tour proceeds (Georgia law only allows tastings as part of tours at craft breweries). Since opening in mid-2014, they have donated $50,000 to veteran’s charities, first responders’ organizations, and firefighter and police groups, among others.

(MORE: 51 Great American Beer Bars)

“Part of our mission statement from the get go was to support those who serve their country and their community,” Ryan said.

Home of the Brave Brewing in Honolulu, which we featured back in December for the 75th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor, brews beers in a one-barrel system in the back of a World War II museum, serving it up 1942-style in its hidden speakeasy. Owner Glen Tomlinson sums up the method of using craft beer as a liaison perfectly.

“World War II is ancient history to young people nowadays, so if beer needs to be the bridge to bring them in, so be it. When younger guests come to the speakeasy and I’m able to share some of these stories, they are blown away,” Tomlinson said. “Add a craft beer that’s brewed downstairs… It’s been a winning combination.”

In Kailua, Hawaii, Tim and Holly Veling have taken to craft beer as a way to fund their nonprofit, the ONEninetynine Initiative. They came up with the concept of Grace in Growlers, a craft beer tasting room that serves up to 36-ounces per visit and sells growlers to go, including many members of the BA. The concept of Grace in Growlers was developed in the same vein as Ex Novo, yet the two models have stark differences. Ex Novo is a nonprofit brewery that donates its profits to external organizations. Grace in Growlers is a for-profit tasting room that donates its profits to its own nonprofit.

“Sometimes people [we meet here at the tasting room] will come on a Saturday to help with our [nonprofit], and then they’re back in here drinking beer again the next night,” Tim said. “Which is the most amazing thing. It’s exactly what we’re trying to do here.”

(MORE: Craft Brewers Send a Message: Drink Beer Fresh)

Good Beer Is Still the Top Priority

Don’t get these small business owners wrong: even though giving back is part of their mission, selling and making great beer is still the top priority.

One thing that everyone who we talked to for this article expressed was a proper set of checks and balances and transparency that ensures their motivations are not misconstrued. Grace in Growlers has the aforementioned 36-ounce limit per visit, for example, and Ex Novo decided to become a nonprofit mainly because they liked the idea of a board with multiple members.

Gregory said he receives calls from people for advice on how to start their own nonprofit brewery. He speaks with them about the pluses and minuses of becoming a nonprofit and advises them on which structure might be best for them. But he has one underlying piece of advice for anyone who might want to start a business with the same idea: Regardless of the purpose or mission, regardless of the organization, focus on the beer first and foremost.

“Maybe someone will come in for the first time and get excited about the mission and giving back, but if it’s mediocre beer, then they won’t come back,” said Gregory. “So beer has always been the focus for us because people come back for the beer.”

It’s good to hear Gregory say that. Good beer is something we can all get behind.

The post Using Craft Beer as a Vehicle for Good appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

If you’re not into coffee, you may not have heard of such a thing, which has taken flight in coffee houses across the country. Barrel-aged coffee is actually aged before it is brewed. Before they are roasted, coffee beans are green and very susceptible to their environment. In other words, they soak up aromas like a sponge. Traditional coffee makers do everything they can to limit green bean exposure to foreign flavors, but in this case, they are intentionally exposing it to something they deem favorable: oak barrels. The beans absorb the flavors of the barrel, both the oak and whatever was in the barrel previously, typically wine or whiskey. After a period of aging, they are roasted as usual.

(MORE: Big Beers to Keep You Cozy This Winter)

Just in the last year or two, breweries have begun to use these beans to make coffee beers. At present, Montavilla Brew Works in Portland and Modern Times Brewery in San Diego are two of a very small group of breweries nationwide experimenting with barrel-aged coffee. Our research revealed only three doing it extensively, the other being Middle Brow Brewing of Chicago. Modern Times ages and roasts its own beans in-house. Middle Brow and Montavilla partner with local coffee roasters for their barrel-aged beers.

Portland’s Second Favorite Thing (After Beer) Is Coffee

Montavilla’s Bipartisan Porter, brewed in partnership with Bipartison Café, uses barrel-aged beans from local roaster Water Street Coffee. Founder/Brewer Michael Kora said the idea was sort of a natural one, a tribute to the morning and nighttime rituals of the city. When he discovered the neighborhood coffee shop was doing the new thing in coffee, he wanted to make it the new thing in beer.

“Heading into fall, we wanted to brew something special for the dark season,” said Kora. “In Portland, the only thing bigger than coffee is beer, so we wanted to blend those two together.”

The beans were aged in an oak barrel that had aged a pinot noir wine previously. Once roasted, the beans were cold brewed to reduce acidity and the barrel-aged coffee was added to the porter at the very end of the brewing process to cut down on the bitterness. Kora said the Bipartison Porter was widely successful and called it a “huge hit.”

“The flavors are distinct,” Kora said. “There’s concord grape and pinot in there and the oak is a supporting player. They all blend so well together with the porter, and we cold brewed it so you get a nice big aroma from the coffee.”

(MORE: 8 Barrel Aging Life Lessons)

“It’s Blown People’s Minds”

Though the idea came naturally for Montavilla in a coffee and beer-loving city like Portland, it was even more logical for Modern Times in San Diego. It operates as both a brewery and a coffee roaster — that’s been its business plan since day one — so once the coffee side of the business started experimenting with barrel-aged beans, it didn’t take long until they decided to throw some into a batch of beer.

“The idea came very naturally the first time we tasted barrel-aged coffee and decided to make some ourselves,” said Founder Jacob McKean. “We just combined the two things we make in the same building.”

Both Kora and McKean expressed some initial hesitation throughout the experimentation process, wondering whether the detailed flavors of a barrel-aged coffee would survive the brewing process and show up in the beer.

“Their eyes get really wide and they say something like, ‘Whoa. That’s incredible.'” ~Jacob McKean, Modern Times Beer

“We had no idea going into it if the barrel character of the coffee would translate to the beer, but it did, in a big way,” said McKean of his bourbon barrel-aged coffee stout, City of the Dead. “It’s not a subtle aroma or flavor. It has strong notes of the barrel it was aged in along with a really amazing toasted marshmallow character. It would be impossible to mistake a beer made with barrel-aged coffee for a beer made with non-barrel-aged coffee.”

Like the Bipartisan Porter, City of the Dead was met with extreme regard. McKean said they brewed it using whole beans and have found that this the best way to add coffee to beers.

(READ: 12 Beers of Christmas)

“It’s blown peoples’ minds,” said McKean. “The very concept of barrel-aged coffee is totally alien to most people, and the idea that it could influence a beer so much is just completely baffling at first. Then they smell it and taste it, and it’s like coffee beer from a different universe. Usually, their eyes get really wide and they say something like, ‘Whoa. That’s incredible.'”

Though this concept will not become a style in its own right — it will live under the arm of coffee beers — it will be fun to see the combinations brewers can come up with as coffee roasters continue to experiment with wine and whiskey barrels. You can be sure that there are more brewers out there playing around with this, and if there’s not, there will be soon, given the success the pioneers have found. Talk to your local brewers to see if they have something in the works. If not, maybe you can convince them.

“Coffee beers have a lot of potential to grow,” said McKean. “I love seeing coffee and beer geekdom growing in tandem, and there’s a lot of crossover in the people who get really into them. So I see the relationship continuing to deepen.”

The post Beers Made with Barrel-Aged Coffee Beans are ‘Blowing People’s Minds’ appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

“That’s our love story brew,” he says. “There were a lot of marriages between military and nurses. A lot of stories.”

He moves on to another tap. It doesn’t have as long a name, but it has just as long a story. It’s the Tannebaum Ale, a beer that tells the tale of when American and German soldiers had an impromptu Christmas dinner together at a small cabin.

(MORE: America’s Earliest Presidents Loved Beer)

“This is an unbelievable story,” he says. “You have the Germans and the Americans celebrating together during the war.”

Some version of the word “story” is used a lot as he continues down the line at Home of the Brave in Honolulu, introducing his beers. But never once does he really go into what the beer might taste like or the ingredients used.

As our time together moves on, I realize it’s because, deep down, beer is not really what Glen is about.

It Started With A Bathroom Break

In 1991, Glen was working for a local tour company here in Hawaii. Because of his interest in World War II history and family background (many of his family members served in WWII), he was asked to show around a group of veterans who were coming back to Hawaii for the 50th Anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks. He took them to revisit their old bases, like Schofield and Wheeler, and battlefield sites.

Glen was inspired by the stories he heard those vets tell, and they were in turn inspired by he and his guidance. They told him they wanted to come back the following year and bring their families with them.

With that, the Home of the Brave tour was born. The next month, in January of 1992, Glen led another group. At the end, he brought them by a small “gift shop” he had set up in Kaka’ako. It wasn’t a huge thing, just a pit stop he swung by so the group could pay for the tickets.

“I hate to call it a bathroom stop, but maybe that’s what it was,” Glen said, recalling the early days. “It was just a small front room where people would pay for the tour. We had like one t-shirt, a refreshment shop; at the end of the day they’d come in and pay, buy a soda or something.”

But everything changed that day when an Army vet took off his military hat and hung it on a wall hook. “It’s not a gift shop anymore,” the vet told him. “Now you have a museum.”

It was probably a joke, but Glen didn’t laugh. From then on, his veteran guests began contributing – a.k.a decorating – the place, with photos and clothes and other war swag. Each time he stopped by with a group and told them the stories of his growing collection, they too would contribute more things, either on site or later by mail.

So, all of a sudden, he really did have a museum. But Glen wouldn’t take any old thing. If he was going to display something, he needed to know about it.

“I don’t want just stuff,” he said of his policy, which still stands today. “I want the story and the memories behind it.”

The Kids Might Not Be All Right

One of the things Glen attributes to the growth of his museum is not necessarily a pleasant truth, but it is a truth nonetheless: The kids don’t care.

That’s one of the most common reasons accompanying donations, he said, a vet confessing that his kids or grandkids don’t have any interest in keeping the old relics.

This hard truth is something Glen has been working to correct since that first tour in 1991. Through partnerships with schools and young adult programs over the years, he has seen the indifference firsthand.

“We spent a lot of time trying to figure out what we can do to bring young people in, to interest them,” he said. “If we’re not bringing them in by saying, ‘Hey, let’s talk World War II stories,’ then we have to get creative, adapt or die.”

(MORE: 9 Breweries to Follow on Instagram)

The ‘Brewseum’ Is Born

As the donations continued and the stories piled up in his museum over the next decade, Glen was still searching for a way to bridge the gap with young people. More vets were beginning to pass away, and despite his growing collection, visitation was often cold.

In 2009, an answer came. Glen’s son, Duke, was studying in Fort Collins, Colorado, during the height of the craft beer revolution. He had a crazy idea and called his father. Beer, he thought, might be a good way to modernize the museum.

“I laughed at first,” Glen recalled. “I was thinking, ‘Okay, a college kid drinking great craft beer has thought up this idea.’ But then I saw the movement happening on the mainland, and I realized this could be the way, the vehicle to connect past and present.”

“World War II is ancient history to young people. So if beer needs to be the bridge to bring them in, so be it.” ~Glen Tomlinson, Home of the Brave Brewing

Duke dedicated his senior capstone to a business plan for Home of the Brave Brewing, and the following year, the plan was put into place. The family installed a one-barrel brew system in the back of the museum, and opened a bar next door called the “Brewseum.” It too is decked out with mementos, complete with moving trains and flying airplanes (and one hell of a Wednesday night trivia).

“World War II is ancient history to young people nowadays,” Glen says. “So if beer needs to be the bridge to bring them in, so be it.”

After a few years of ironing out the kinks and brewing only five beers, the brewery has hit its stride and has developed a line of beers that aligns with its true plight and passion: telling World War II stories.

(MORE: Challenges and Advantages of Brewing in Paradise)

Still Searching, A Speakeasy Is Found

For the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor in 1991, Hawai’i welcomed back 6,000 war veterans. This year, for the 75th, there will only be about 200.

“Our collection has tripled or maybe even quadrupled the last few years because, sadly, people are passing away,” Glen said. “We’ll get a call from the son who says, ‘Hey, my dad wanted you to have this.'”

Glen is hoping that his craft beer can entice those sons and daughters — and really all young people — to brush up on their history. For this, Home of the Brave launched a speakeasy in the back of the museum (you need directions and the password from the front desk). There, you’ll find Glen behind the bar, pouring beers in full military attire. Once or twice a night, or upon request, Glen will highlight a piece in the collection and tell the story behind it.

“When younger guests come to the speakeasy and I’m able to share some of these stories, like how they used to stash kegs in the cargo of old bombers, they are blown away,” Glen said. “Add a craft beer that’s brewed downstairs … It’s been a winning combination.”

Not For Profit

To honor the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Home of the Brave has collaborated with another local craft brewer, Lanikai Brewery, to produce the Remember Pearl Harbor Mighty American Ale.

In 2017, Home of the Brave will release a new beer every month, each with a different story attached to it, like the aforementioned Wiki Waki Woo Brew Passionfruit Papaya Wheat. Tomlinson hopes it will create a constant buzz around the brewery, lining up with not only the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor but the launch of his nonprofit, the Remember Honor Salute Foundation, which will serve to celebrate, educate, and preserve the history, stories, and artifacts (donated by Brewseum guests) of the American Military with an aim to inspire both young and old to appreciate and understand the service and sacrifices made for the freedom and liberties we have today.

One thing Glen probably won’t mention when you see him behind the bar at the speakeasy: This year is Home of the Brave’s own anniversary, 25 years since that first tour. He waves his hand at me when I bring it up.

So be sure to say something when you see him. Because just like the veterans he proudly represents, Glen’s story is special and admirable, too, and if we don’t tell it, who will?

The post The Brewery that Serves Craft Beer and War Stories appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Thank goodness for Halloween. On the surface, this renegade holiday also seems to be for the kids, but I’ll tell you, costume parties only get better with age, and it’s the only day of the year when kids provide for their parents — those cute little ballerinas and spooky ghosts bringing home a week’s worth of loot. Is there a better tradition than “inspecting” the candy after the kids have gone to bed? You know, for razor blades and stuff.

(RECIPE: Beer-Soaked Grilled Cheese)

Seriously, though, one of my favorite parts of Halloween is receiving trick-or-treaters. It’s fun to see all the different costumes come to the door. And each year, we cook up something in a crock pot and hang out, drink some beers, eat some candy. Which got me thinking for this year — what if we drank beers that tasted like candy?

So I put together a list for my friends, beers we could find at the local bottle shop. Some fall under the category of rich and sweet like candy; the type you’d probably have just one of before moving on to something else. The others carry strong, smooth, savory flavor profiles, like chocolate cake, that satisfy the sweet tooth while maintaining drinkability. Depending on your palate, most might fall somewhere in between.

Coconut Hiwa Porter | Maui Brewing Co.

You can channel the sunshine and aloha from Hawai`i on a brisk fall Halloween evening with this one. Maui Brewing Co.’s Coconut Hiwa Porter presents a well-balanced mix of toasted chocolate, coffee and coconut. The latter is not overwhelming or overly sweet — just sweet enough — meaning your taste buds can handle more than one. Pair this baby with a Mounds or Almond Joy.

Death By Coconut | Oskar Blues Brewery

Sometimes, people who drink Maui’s Coconut Hiwa Porter say they wanted more coconut and less balance. If your sweet tooth is in no mood to mess around, Death By Coconut might be for you. They don’t call it that for nothing. “Take a porter with crème brulee, burnt sugar, and rich caramel profile and blend it with heaps of coconut and chocolate and Death by Coconut is born,” said Oskar Blue’s head of brewing operations Tim Mathews.

(MORE: 5 Key Lime Pie Beers Tastier Than the Real Thing)

Chocolate Indulgence | Brewery Ommegang

The smell of this beer might remind you of chocolate cake batter. While not quite a candy, let’s not split hairs. Brewery Ommegang’s Chocolate Indulgence is so indulgent that even the head of the beer will pour chocolate brown. Expect sweet, milk chocolate flavors on the front end with notes of dark chocolate coming through in the aftertaste.

Rogue Double Chocolate Stout, blended with Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar

This is a fun one, because two beers are better than one, as is making your own concoction. Grab bombers of Rogue Ale’s Double Chocolate Stout and Hazelnut Brown Nectar and mix them together. The result will taste similar to a Snickers. It’s best to start with a small tasting glass and play with the ratios before mixing the remainder in a pint glass. Start with half and half and go from there.

Velvet Merlin | Firestone Walker Brewing Co.

Just released this month, Firestone Walker’s Velvet Merlin represents the West Coast on this list. An oatmeal stout with a coating, creamy mouthfeel and flavors of, what else — dark chocolate, cocoa powder and espresso. It is surprisingly drinkable both in balance and ABV (5.5%). As such, it’s a good warm-up before stepping out and taking the kiddos door-to-door.

Chocolate Stout | Brooklyn Brewery

When a specialty craft beer has been around since 1994 — that’s more than twenty years — you know they are doing something right. Notes of toffee, caramel, chocolate and dark roast coffee are highlighted in this Russian imperial stout from Brooklyn Brewery. It pairs well with anything chocolate, so feel free to try out a few “fun size” bars with it. Take your time — this one is a sipper, both for its flavors and its 10% ABV.

Pumking | Southern Tier

If you’ve had your fill of coconut, chocolate, toffee and other rich sweets, have a Southern Tier Pumking on hand for a change of pace. An autumn seasonal sipper, this imperial pumpkin ale smells like pumpkin pie and whipped cream when you stick your nose in the glass, and it’s got enough of a balance between sweetness (vanilla) and spice (allspice) — not to mention a punch at 8.6% ABV — to go down easy at the end of the night.

There are a lot of great candy/dessert beers out there, but unfortunately, many are seasonal with limited availability. Thus, this list has been compiled with obtainability in mind. Regardless of where you live, you should be able to find at least one of these at your local bottle shop. That said, we encourage you to check out your small and independent local craft breweries, wherever you are, for what they’re offering.

The post 7 Craft Beers as Mouthwatering as Candy appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Obama isn’t the first U.S. commander in chief to openly express his love of beer. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were known as avid homebrewers (and whiskey and winemakers). They made far more beer and spent far more time thinking about beer than Obama could ever spend  in today’s world. (Lucky for him, the White House didn’t exist back then, so his place in presidential beer history, and in Washington D.C.’s brewing history, is forever cemented.)

(MORE: 8 Beers to Share with Favorite TV & Movie Presidents)

For beer-soaked tributes to our past presidents, one must look not in Washington D.C., but in America’s first capital: Philadelphia. There, a local craft brewer and a historic tavern linked up nearly two decades ago to brew a series of beers called the “Ales of the Revolution.” Using notes and recipes gathered from letters and journals, Yards Brewing Co. and City Tavern recreated the beers of our founding fathers, including General Washington’s Tavern Porter and Thomas Jefferson’s Tavern (Strong) Ale.

Historic City Tavern Makes a Call to Arms

It all started in 1999 at City Tavern, a pub that was, amazingly enough, operating at the time George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin all walked these cobblestone streets. Back then, it was simply a tavern of the times, one of many. Today, nearly 250 years later, it’s the last of its kind, and to step through the doors is to travel back to the city’s colonial days. The atmosphere and menu are completely dedicated to the era of the American Revolution.

It also serves the preferred drink of the time: beer. But not just any beer. City Tavern wanted to make sure the beer on tap had historical roots. They did some research into the drinking habits of the founding fathers, including two of the most prominent beer drinkers, former Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

“They did enough research to know that Jefferson made a ‘strong beer’ and that Washington talked a lot about porters,” said Yards’ Brewmaster Tom Kehoe. “But before we came along, they were just buying someone else’s beer and calling it ‘Washington’s Porter.'”

In the late 90s, as Americans were beginning to embrace craft beer, Kehoe met with City Tavern about an upgrade. Instead of just renaming beers that were independently made, why not brew beers that stayed true to, or at least paid homage to, the original recipes written down by Washington and Jefferson?

The Recipes Are Revived

In the late 90s, as the world prepared for the Millennium, Yards got busy going back through time to revive the recipes. Thanks to the letter writing traditions of our founding fathers, the Revolutionary period is well-documented, and Kehoe was able to retrieve firsthand accounts of Washington and Jefferson’s affinity for beer. What’s amazing is that these letters and notes don’t just make references to enjoying beer — they often go in-depth and specifically advise how to make it.

All About The Benjamins #GetSpruced #Yards #TavernSpruce #wethepeople #constitution #USA #Philly #craftbeer | ? by @beerand1017

A photo posted by Yards Brewing Co. (@yardsbrew) on Aug 23, 2016 at 9:47am PDT

Kehoe started the platform for Washington’s Porter with a recipe that Washington wrote down in his notebook in 1757 (the original is at the New York Public Library) about how to make “small beer” (low-quality, low-alcohol) in the field. Take a large Sifter full of Bran Hops to your Taste — Boil these 3 hours. Then strain out 30 Gall. into a Cooler put in 3 Gallons Molasses while the Beer is scalding hot or rather drain the molasses into the Cooler. Strain the Beer on it while boiling hot let this stand til it is little more than Blood warm. Then put in a quart of Yeast if the weather is very cold cover it over with a Blanket. Let it work in the Cooler 24 hours then put it into the Cask. leave the Bung open til it is almost done working — Bottle it that day Week it was Brewed.

In the end, Kahoe made a few tweaks to Washington and Jefferson’s original recipes in order to make them consumer friendly in today’s world. First and foremost, these old-school recipes had to be interpreted for the modern brewing system. For example, what exactly did Washington mean when he said to let the beer stand until it was a “little more than blood warm?” And though Jefferson talked an awful lot about beer making in his letters, he never wrote it all down in one place.

“Jefferson claimed to have no recipe, but if you do enough research it’s clear to see what he was trying to do,” said Kehoe. “He talked about using twice the grain in the beer because it made it stronger and greater flavor. But it was challenging because both had some old-school brewing techniques that were hard to follow. Like [when Jefferson said] to heat the mash up until you could no longer see your reflection in the water.”

These measurements of that era, and the ingredients used along with them, didn’t always directly translate into a “good beer” by today’s standards. Kehoe said the amount of molasses Washington used, often to brew beer out in the battlefield, made sense given the conditions and what was available at the time. However, when he replicated that amount exactly, it created a beer that was over-the-top sugary.

Jefferson’s recipe also had to be scaled back. As a strong beer, it was probably between 11 and 13 percent alcohol, Kehoe said, given the ingredients and methods used. Kehoe decided to bring it down to 8 percent for the sake of drinkability at City Tavern.

(MORE: 9 Breweries to Follow on Instagram)

Getting to Know Presidents Through Their Beer

Over the course of the last decade and a half, the “Ales of the Revolution” have become a signature line and defining brand for Yards. Even today, more than 15 years after its release, the Thomas Jefferson Strong Beer is its fourth best-selling beer, and both are still on tap at City Tavern. It was such a success that in 2005, Yards released a third beer in the series, Poor Richards Tavern Spruce, in honor of Ben Franklin. All three are widely available and distributed by the brewery.

Kehoe said he learned a lot about our founding fathers through this process, and much of the insight comes from the beers they brewed and how they talked about them.

“One thing I learned was that these [presidents] were all very different people,” said Kehoe. “Thomas Jefferson probably brewed a strong beer because he was into agriculture. He was also a thinker, and so he probably preferred a stronger beer.”

For Kehoe, Washington’s love of porters went beyond the beer itself. Maybe, just maybe, he was parlaying beer into something much bigger.

“Washington had a passion for porters, and he always talked about the porters made here in Philly, about how they were as good if not better than any porter in England,” Kehoe said. “I think he was trying to get people to see that, ‘Hey, we can be good here, we don’t have to keep relying on mother England.'”

Two hundred forty years and 43, soon to be 44, presidents later, looks like good old George was right after all.

The post America’s Earliest Presidents Loved Beer appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Once a railway and industrial district, abandoned and beat up warehouses have become apartments, restaurants and galleries, and no industry has tapped into this potential more than beer. Initially drawn by the abundance of then-cheap(er) production facility space, small and independent breweries are now reaping the benefits of the revitalized neighborhood. Though you’re never far from a brewpub in Denver, RiNo is the most concentrated area with 11 and counting.

But there’s a small tidbit to be aware of when planning a self-guided walking tour of the breweries. An impassable railyard cuts through the RiNo neighborhood, separating it into two sides, one on Larimer Street and one on Brighton Blvd. Although these clusters are only a few blocks away as the crow flies, not being able to cross through the railyard means that you must make more than a mile journey to go around and circle back (click here to see a map).

One would think the city will eventually build a pedestrian bridge or get rid of the railyard entirely. But until then, visitors on foot will have to take their pick. The silver lining is that both sides have enough breweries for a full day of fun.

(MORE: The Illusion of Choice and America’s Craft Beer Lovers)

Path 1: Larimer Street Side

Our Mutual Friend | 2810 Larimer Street

The “mutual friend” in the name is the one thing everyone who steps through the door has in common: beer! This focus on camaraderie sets the tone for the atmosphere of the brewery. With the brew kettles tucked away in the back of the house, the pub itself feels like small neighborhood bar rather than an industrial warehouse or working brewery. The patio is packed with locals during the summer, and the fall and winter is warmed right up with Our Mutual Friend’s great collection of dark beers, including a brown, winter warmer and coffee stout.

Ratio Beerworks | 2920 Larimer Street

Former Wynkoop brewer Jason ZumBrunnen is the man behind the bubbling beakers at Ratio Beerworks, and as the newest brewery in RiNo, they’ve quickly made a name for themselves. After only a year and a half of being in business, Ratio announced plans this summer to more than double their production. That’s good news for locals, who can’t get enough of the Dear You, a French saison, and Hold Steady, a Scotch ale.

Intertwined with Ratio’s love for beer is its affinity for music. The beer menu hanging above looks like a marquee for a concert venue, paying homage to some of the crew’s days as part of a punk band. Community-style seating at long tables serves as a tribute to ZumBrunnen’s time studying beermaking in Germany. It also makes for a fun, conversation-driven afternoon.

Epic Brewing | 3001 Walnut Street

Salt Lake City’s Epic Brewing joined the Denver beer scene in 2013 when it opened a second brewery here in RiNo. They have not had a hard time fitting in, and one could even argue that Colorado’s favorable beer laws make it a far better home for Epic than Utah. From the outside, the brewery is a true old-school warehouse, a long rectangular building with a rounded front. Inside, the taproom is bright, clean and airy, loaded with tables and high-tops, feeling much more like a modern bar than a garage-door style brewery. What makes it a hit with locals is that it’s an easy place to visit over and over again thanks to a ridiculous 25 beers on tap, including rotating seasonals and cask ales.

Beryl’s Beer Co. | 3120 Blake Street

Beryl’s Beer Co. has a solid lineup of everyday beers, but the reason to go is for its barrel-aged creations. One of the more creative is the saison aged in white wine barrels. Otherwise, try the Belgian rye aged in rye whiskey barrels (10% ABV), the Schwarzbier in bourbon barrels and blended with coffee (7.6% ABV), or the Baltic Porter in whiskey barrels (12.1%). Want barrel-aged flavor but a lighter ABV? The Oud Bruin is made with plums and aged in red wine barrels yet is only 4.8% ABV.

(Beer Lover’s Walkable Guides: Seattle’s Ballard Neighborhood | Denver Highlands)

Path 2: Brighton Blvd. Side

Crooked Stave | 3350 Brighton Street

Tucked in the very back of The Source, a former warehouse turned artisan food market, Crooked Stave lacks a true brewery feel (no brewing occurs on site) but makes up for it with an industrial-style, airy, energetic taproom that attracts both beer lovers and curious passersby. The brewery is completely dedicated to sours, creating wine-forward, barrel-aged beers that playfully explore the style like the dry-hopped barrel-aged Saison Vielle. If you don’t like sours, you may need to sit this one out, as it’s all they serve.

Great Divide | 1812 35th Street

The original Great Divide brewery is still located downtown at the corner of 22nd and Arapahoe. More space was needed, so they expanded with a second location in RiNo in 2015 and built a facility that includes packaging equipment, canning line, barrel-age storage, and, most importantly, a new taproom called the Barrel Bar.

The place is huge, five acres in total, and Great Divide has plans to fill it with a restaurant, beer garden and more brewing capacity over the next few years. It will be fun to watch one of Denver’s most regarded breweries take aim at creating such a beer-lovers’ destination. Stop in to try all the Great Divide classics, including the many versions of Yeti, and learn about what’s to come.

Mockery Brewing | 3501 Delgany St.

Mockery Brewing claims that the only thing they take seriously is their beer. You can feel that carefree attitude from the minute you walk in, and once you try the Salted Scottish Ale, you’ll see they are men of their word. While the inside taproom catches your eye with its futuristic, shiny look, the brewery’s best attribute is its large outdoor space. There’s also a game room, with shuffleboard and other bar favorites. Mockery seems to have a knack for keeping it fun, serving its flights in the holes of cut-out Colorado license plates.

Black Shirt Brewery | 3719 Walnut Street

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Sometimes when you leave a brewery, you need some fresh air before going on to the next. I’m assuming you know what I mean. After the first three breweries, embrace a half-mile stroll to the brink of the hood, where you’ll find Black Shirt Brewery. They specialize not really in red ales, but in red beer, brewing a long list of red-style beer combinations. It’s a classic example of how breweries in Denver have taken to unique styles of specialization in order to carve out a niche for themselves, and Black Shirt Brewery does it with the best of them. The American Red Saison, Colorado Red Ale and Farmhouse Red Porter are continuously appearing staples, and more experimental recipes, like the Pistachio Lavender Red Rye, are always a treat to find on tap.

The post Walk This Way: A Beer Lover’s Guide to Denver’s River North Neighborhood appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

But, there’s nothing wrong with a little “Christmas in July” mentality — the idea of buying a beer this summer and stashing on the shelf for a few months until December. For beginning beer agers, it’s the perfect amount of time. Not too much to drive you crazy, but long enough to notice how beers can evolve and improve – or at least change – over time.

(LEARN: CraftBeer.com’s Big List of Beer Schools)

This is a motivating list for the rookie ager, a selection taken from around the country with a strong focus on obtainability, i.e. beers that are available now(ish) and distributed in multiple states. No matter your location, you should be able to find one or two of these easily, maybe more, and start experimenting with how aging can enhance your beer drinking experience. We recommend buying at least two: one to try now, one to save for later. Take notes on the one you drink now, and then compare it to your experience in December. Remember, aging is all a matter of opinion, so try to keep expectations to a minimum.

With any luck, next year you’ll be ready to dig a little deeper and pony up for exotic beers that can stand to age a year or more. But for now, here’s an early cheers to a great holiday season.

Tetravis | Sam Adams | Boston, MA

https://www.instagram.com/p/jngUHqE6i-/?tagged=tetravis

Sam Adams is known for many things in the world of small and independent beer, but, somewhat surprisingly, its Barrel Room Collection has gone under-appreciated. The shining star is the Tetravis, a 10.2% ABV Belgian-style quad brewed with molasses and notes of dark fruits, like raisins and figs.

It was last bottled in August of 2015 and June of 2016, so check the bottle when you buy it. Come the holidays, it could be about a year and a half or just about six months old. As it ages and develops, it takes on a tart spice thanks to its Belgian yeast.

(SEE MORE: Get to Know 75+ Popular Craft Beer Styles)

“Over time the spicy clove character from the yeast becomes more subtle which emphasizes the richer malt notes in the beer,” said Sam Adams brewer Jennifer Glanville. “Flavors of figs, earthy molasses, toffee, cocoa, and dark fruits like cherries and black currents are predominant over the brighter characteristics when the beer is younger.”

Pair it with: a sweet dessert, like s’mores, for a flavor complement or with a goat cheese for a flavor contrast.

Outer Darkness | Squatters Craft Beers | Salt Lake City, UT

Squatters describes Outer Darkness as the “biggest” beer they’ve ever made. Roasted barley, oak, molasses and licorice flavors form the base for this 10.5% ABV Russian imperial stout. A bit of the work has been done for you already. The most recent bottling was on June 6, 2016, so it will have a solid six months on it come December regardless of when you pick it up. Look for the plot to thicken – the forefront, reactionary tastes of booziness, bitterness and sweetness will mellow as the profile smooths out, allowing the individual flavors of the chocolate, coffee, licorice and molasses to take center stage.

Pair it with: bacon-wrapped dates

Hog Heaven | Avery Brewing Co. | Boulder, CO

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There’s some disagreement in the beer world about the effects of aging on Avery’s Hog Heaven, which makes it a great case study for someone new to aging. Though officially coined an imperial red IPA, the subtext describes the beer as a “dry-hopped, barleywine-style ale.”

Barleywines are typically some of the best beers to age because of their strong profiles and flavors and high-alcohol content. But Avery’s unique twist with Hog Heaven — adding hops to make it an IPA-barleywine combo — creates a contradicting brew.

(BEER TRAVEL: Plan Your Next Beercation)

Extremely hoppy beers have a tendency to lose freshness, their best attribute, over time. Hog Heaven comes in with 100 IBUs, and the fact that hops play a big role in this beer’s profile suggests that it might not benefit from long-term cellaring. But a few months is enough to make things interesting, and you should judge for yourself. For many, the mellowing of the hops character is a good thing, overcome by the gain in complexity from the ever-evolving barleywine.

Pair it with: smoked meat or cheese

Yeti Imperial Stout | Great Divide Brewing Co. | Denver, CO

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

Any wonder about whether this beer will age well should be answered by the fact that Great Divide has produced several subsequent barrel-aged versions of its Yeti Imperial Stout: Espresso Oak Aged Yeti, Barrel Aged Yeti, Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti and the Oak Aged Yeti.

Original Yeti is available all year round and will benefit from a little shelf time of its own — no oak barrel needed. According to Great Divide, it has a shelf life of one year and will improve up to that point. In a few months, the highly-present roasted malt qualities of a fresh batch will evolve into a taste more akin to chocolate, coffee and caramel. You can shorten or lengthen the time of aging in the future based on the balance you are looking to achieve.

Pair it with: rosemary potatoes au gratin.

Black Chocolate Stout | Brooklyn Brewery | Brooklyn, NY

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCG-QiTN7u3/?taken-by=brooklynbrewery&hl=en

Brooklyn will release its 2016 version of the Black Chocolate Stout in September, so keep an eye out for it after Labor Day. You won’t have to wait as long to pop it open, but those few months of patience will pay off.

(COOK WITH BEER: CraftBeer.com’s Recipe Finder)

“The Black Chocolate Stout is aged for almost two months before it leaves the brewery, but it emerges in September still a little boozy,” said Garret Oliver, Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster. “At this age, it retains its original sharp elbows — an espresso-like roast character with chocolate notes in the background. By the holidays, though, those edges have started to soften. The alcohol is no longer obvious, the coffee-ish roast starts to trend towards dark chocolate, and the entire beer becomes more ‘married’ in its flavors.”

Pair it with: vanilla ice cream

The post Aging Beer for Beginners: Buy and Stash These 5 Beers Now for the Holiday Season appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

It was a stark contrast to what I remember about the drive into town: the road winding its way through farmland, passing fields and tractors and, most noticeably, church after church after church. It was hard to believe that, given Alabama’s strong traditional roots and notoriously archaic liquor laws, Huntsville had become a bubbling beer town.

But with God as my witness, there it was, all right in front of me. Not only had Yellowhammer Brewery opened a taproom on par with anything you’d find in Denver or California – completely decked out with kegs as urinals and two brick ovens as part of a pizza shop – but its barrel-chested employees were unkempt and listening to a band that once protested parental advisory stickers by going on stage wearing nothing but mouth gags.

Indeed, it is not your father’s Huntsville.

Yellowhammer Brewery General Manager Ethan Couch said Huntsville has been steadily improving as a beer destination over the past half-decade, with a large leap coming in 2013, when Alabama’s Free the Hops movement was successful in pushing legislation that allowed craft breweries to have taprooms. This decision snowballed into further progress over the years, with the latest victory coming in late spring 2016 when the state allowed craft brewers to sell to-go beer for the first time. Whereas there was only one craft brewery in Huntsville in 2009, there are now eight, Couch said.

The story picks up in the present day, where three of those breweries, led by Couch, have banded together to continue the rebellion, to create something the city – and really the state – could have only fantasized about previously: A one-stop, walkable “brewer’s row” for beer lovers.

The dream began back in 2014, when an abandoned middle school campus in West Huntsville was bought by a developer named Randy Schrimsher. His goal was to create a multi-use compound that preserved the history of the school while simultaneously serving as an entertainment center for the community. He named it Campus 805 and began reaching out to retailers.

Couch, along with Dan Perry of Straight to Ale, was among the first tenants to buy space. Later, they brought Brent Cole of Salty Nut Brewery into the fold (Salty Nut moved into Yellowhammer’s old space just adjacent to Campus 805). Together, they imagined the complex as a central hub for beer lovers, where they could walk from one brewery to the next – a “brewer’s row,” as they came to call it.

“I’d been out to Colorado with Dan [Perry of Straight to Ale] and there’s a lot of breweries in the general area, but it didn’t seem like it was a forethought to have them all together or that they were working in conjunction so to speak,” Couch said. “I thought [Brewer’s Row] was going to be a neat thing for Huntsville. It would be a nice central place you could come, park, go place to place, catch bands or live music. I thought it was going to be a synergistic outcome where we were feeding off one another.”

Today, the three breweries stand within a couple hundred yards from each other. In the middle of Campus 805, between Yellowhammer and Straight to Ale, is a grassy plaza – about 90 yards in length, once used as a recreational field by students – that was turned into a public park last year. They built a multi-function event space that can hold concerts and festivals and support food trucks. There’s just one little detail left, and it comes back to those Alabama drinking laws.

Under Alabama state law, public consumption of alcohol can only occur in specifically zoned “entertainment districts.” So, Couch, in collaboration with the city, is petitioning the state to zone it as such, which would allow for the consumption of alcohol beyond the gates of the breweries individual patios (in Alabama, all entertainment districts are regulated by the state, not individual cities, so Huntsville needs the state’s signoff). Then, the space would essentially be an extension of the three breweries and other tenants, allowing customers to come and go and take beer outside with them.

“Once they fix the sidewalk and bike paths connecting us to the park, then you will be able to get a cup of our beer and take it to the park,” Cole said. “[The city sees] this as growing downtown, more entertainment, more stuff to do. I have a feeling in a couple years this whole area is going to be built out and an extension of downtown. Everyone’s on board with it.”

Couch said he expects the city to file the paperwork with the state within the next few months, and that it could be zoned appropriately by the end of the year or the beginning of 2017.

Campus 805’s success, and the resurgence of small and independent brewers in general, come in conjunction with Huntsville’s efforts as a city to make itself over. Couch complimented Huntsville for its on-going redevelopment plan. Not only have the beer laws become more lax, but downtown Huntsville is being revitalized with an emphasis on modern apartments, independent vendors and a renewed focus on walkability.

“Kudos to the city for keeping young people and their lifestyles in Huntsville,” Couch said.

The post Hidden Craft Beer Gem: Huntsville, Alabama appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

All of these concepts are great components to brand building, which is without question the most important aspect of business development. But let’s get real. While reaching customers in a variety of ways is a good thing, when it comes to breweries, the brand better start, and end, with beer.

(BEER TRAVEL: Your Guide to Pennsylvania’s Independent Breweries and Beer)

The grandfathers of craft beer had it easy this way. They put more love into their creations than Big Beer, and consumers could tell the difference right away. But today’s crowded industry is a whole different ball game, and entry-level brewers have a choice that leads to a conundrum. With so much competition in the staple craft styles of IPA and pale ale, would it be better to specialize in speciality beers? Would a portfolio of small-batch niche beers bring more attention, and ultimately more business?

This is where the realities of distribution, and what distribution means for your bottom line, comes into play.

More Work for Distributors

“If you are a brewery that’s focused on staying local, you can go ahead and do crazy shit [like focus on limited releases and one-offs],” said Dale Katechis, founder of Oskar Blues Brewery. “But, if you’re looking to end up with strong distribution on a national scale, you have to do the hard work to create sustainability for your distributors.”

If anyone understands the delicate needs of nurturing a strong, nationally-distributed craft beer brand, it’s Katechis. As of this year, you can find Oskar Blues in all 50 states. He says brewers work to strike a balance between the beer they want to make and the beer distributors can put in stores that are most likely to be purchased.

“You have to make them money every day, not just when a new beer comes out,” Katechis explains. “When you earn shelf space, it has to be consistently there and turning and making retailers money.”

Although retailers fill most of their shelf space with year-round staples, they definitely have a demand for specialty beers, said Chuck Salzman, vice president of Peerless Beverage Co. But he added that he typically looks to breweries he already has a strong relationship with to provide his retailers those specialty beers they need.

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The Building Blocks of a Brand

Katechis thinks that specialty beers should be something that comes in the second wave of brewing, not as the building blocks of your brand. It should be the siding on the house rather than the foundation. For Oskar Blues, Dale’s Pale Ale is the bedrock upon which the business is built, and specialty beers are icing on the cake — a treat for customers and an incentive for distributors.

“Specialty beers are a reward for people who are selling our core beers,” Katechis said. “If you want access to Death By Coconut, you have to have a good relationship with us, one that’s ongoing. For us, that’s been a good strategy for consistent, strong, sustainable growth.”

Some breweries have done specialization extremely well on a local level. Black Shirt Brewing Co. in Denver, for example, brews all red beers. But those who go down this road must do so meticulously. Without a strong focus directly related to the brand, your chances at distribution will take a toll.

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Salzman, while honest about the necessity for core beer brands, offered a ray of hope for those hell-bent on swimming upstream.

“Certainly the year-round staple is the way to go to market, and a majority [of the beers we carry] are going to be year-round staples. But by that same token you need the specialty beers. And that’s the thing with coming out with a new wacky specialty,” Salzman said. “Who knows if that doesn’t become the new norm?”

The post What Speciality Beers Mean For a Brewery’s Brand appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

Alabama

On June 1, Alabama made it legal for craft brewers to sell to-go beer to customers. The law, known locally as the “beer to-go bill,” allows brewery visitors to buy up to 288 ounces of beer per day, or the equivalent of 24 beers.

Ethan Couch, co-founder and general manager of Yellowhammer Brewing in Huntsville, said there will be some financial benefit of increased direct sales to customers, which is obviously a win for the brewery. But for him, the law’s benefits are more about its outreach than its financial gain. Brewers in Alabama now have the chance to “return to their roots,” he says, including the opportunity to experiment with beers without worrying about the woes of distribution.

“When we started, we did over 60 beers, but it was driving the distributor crazy because we were constantly putting beers out there. And we’ve had to dial that down due to the realities of the market,” said Couch. “But now that we can sell beer at the brewhouse, we can crank that back up and put it back in the hands of the public. It takes a ton of effort and marketing materials to create a new line. [This law] allows us to do smaller batch stuff and we don’t have to go through the effort of finding shelf space in the markets. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

Kentucky

In Kentucky, craft brewers are celebrating the state’s decision to increase the brewing capacity limit for microbreweries from 25,000 to 50,000 barrels a year. The legislation also permits craft brewers to sell their products by the drink or package at fairs and festivals. For breweries approaching the old limit, this increase allows them to consider other projects, like brewery expansions, restaurants and satellite brewpubs.

Jason Heflin, co-founder of White Squirrel Brewery in Bowling Green, says that the ability for small breweries to sell at fairs and festivals is incredibly valuable, and the new law helps tremendously because they don’t have to obtain licenses or go through a distributor to sell at festivals.

“For smaller breweries, selling beer at festivals is usually a break-even or a loss-leader,” said Heflin. “We consider those brand-building exercises. Festivals are a great way to introduce or grow a brand inside a controlled environment with a group of consumers looking for a product that has a high-quality standard and is unique. As a very small brewery in a state new to the craft beer industry, those events are a must for us to get our product into the right hands. We recently set up at the Derby City Brewfest in Louisville and took the People’s Choice Award. It’s all about building street cred for us.”

Georgia

In Georgia, you still can’t sit down at a production brewery and buy a pint; you pay for a tour, and the beer is considered complimentary.

“We’re about as bad as it gets as a state when it comes to craft beer regulation,” says Nick Purdy, president and founder of Wild Heaven Craft Beers in metro Atlanta. “We’re not allowed to sell the products we make to people who come to our business. As an American, that’s offensive to me. These small, limited, more-symbolic-than-anything laws don’t really change the game.”

An antiquated outlook on beer production, distribution and direct sales is handicapping small brewers’ chances to grow and compete within their own markets, let alone with out-of-state brewers. Moreover, many of the existing laws, even the ones that are seemingly beneficial, are poorly constructed.

Legislation has been passed over the last year that allows Georgia breweries to sell you take home beer, but only 72 ounces per day, or the equivalent of a six-pack. Known as Senate Bill 63 (SB 63), Georgia’s deregulation package contains a number of other provisions. The most significant is that brewery tours can now be sold at variable prices based on the kind of beer the customer will take home. SB 63 also allows special events to be held at breweries, lets brewers use social media to market their beer to the public, permits third parties to sell tour tickets, and authorizes breweries to sell food on site.

But the law contains no legal description of a “brewery tour,” leaving the waters murky and brewers scratching their heads at why the legislation seeks to prevent direct sales in the first place.

“There’s very little [legal] definition around what constitutes a brewery tour,” said Purdy. “We [Georgia’s breweries] all put out information in our tasting rooms and offer some guided tours, and simply being at the brewery in the tasting room more or less means you are on a tour. So functionally, you can come in, pay some money and sit around and drink some beer and then take some beer home.”

Purdy said that while the increase in revenue is appreciated, the state is lagging way behind the rest of the country and putting its craft beer industry at a disadvantage with its archaic and technicality-driven laws.

“We all make a little more money [because of SB 63] than under the previous rules, and I’m of course happy about that,” said Purdy. “And the Georgia Brewers Guild has done a great job navigating turbulent political waters. But you’d find very few brewery owners overall who are celebrating. There’s a complete lack of recognition [by the government] about how we should be able to run our business.”

Purdy’s thoughts are echoed across the South, with many brewers feeling like the region’s outdated laws are holding back the craft beer industry. To focus on this skepticism alone would be a disservice to all the hard work put in by brewers guilds to change legislation, and an oversight of the positive changes, no matter how small, we are seeing.

But even the most optimistic brewers won’t let these small victories overshadow the need for complete, thorough reform.

“I think the brewing laws in Kentucky are improving, but they are not where they need to be,” said Heflin. “And that holds our state down a bit when compared to some more progressive states like Colorado or California. But, things are changing slowly and in the right direction.”

The post Southern Beer Laws are Improving, but There’s Still a Long Way to Go appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

“This is a remarkable achievement, and it’s just the beginning,” said Watson. “Beer has always been a hallmark of this country, and it is even more apparent today as America’s beer culture continues to expand.”

This is great news for beer drinkers, but tough love for hopeful brewers. As craft beer competition continues to intensify, breweries are looking to differentiate themselves from their crafty colleagues to ensure their success. How does one stand out from the crowd? Many established breweries have found success in expanding their brands beyond beer, while new, up-and-coming brewers are often turning to extreme specialization.

Brewery Differentiation: The Brand Beyond Beer

It’s logical to look for advice from those who have already succeeded in craft beer: larger craft breweries like Sam Adams, Brooklyn Brewery, Oskar Blues and Dogfish Head. A rundown of their business plans reveals a common denominator: All have expanded their brand into something that goes beyond selling beer to consumers.

Both Sam Adams and Brooklyn Brewery have created community partnerships in the form of Brewing the American Dream and Brooklyn Mash, respectively. Both make strong attempts to engage the brewing community, both locally and nationally, whether it’s offering advice to startups or donating beer for fundraisers.

Brooklyn Brewery founder Steve Hindy said that Brooklyn Mash, has helped the brewery expand its presence outside of New York City. This festival of sorts, which takes place in a handful of cities across the globe each year, features food, comedy, film, parties and of course Brooklyn beer.

“As part of Brooklyn Mash, for the past two years I’ve done discussions with brewers from different cities and talked to them about the state of craft beer and the beer business,” Hindy said. “And [my books] have connected us with a lot of people around country. That is very valuable to us, and definitely distinguishes us from everyone else.”

Last year, Oskar Blues took it a step further and launched its marketing and event company, OskarBluesPresents. The goal is to create and feed an experiential, grassroots wing of the brewery—think bike events, concerts and festivals—that allows Oskar Blues to grow beyond beer into more of a lifestyle brand.

Oskar Blues has also long played a role in the mountain-biking community with its brand of bikes, REEB Cycles. Owner Dale Katechis said that many breweries spend too much money associating with other brands, and he warned about the dangers of not fully controlling the experience customers have with your own.

“I don’t see anyone doing what we’re trying to do [by building an event company],” Katechis said. “What I do see is that people are spending a shitload of money to sponsor something that already exists. And with that, I don’t think it’s authentically your experience. You’re putting your beer or name on something that someone else is presenting. Our goal is to be able to control the experience…from top to bottom.”

Another example comes from Dogfish Head in the form of Pallet Magazine, launched last October by founder and president Sam Calagione. Though designed for beer lovers, its focus goes beyond hops and barley to “all interests that are often shared over a glass of craft beer,” such as travel and music. The first issue included stories about Mexico’s Tarahumara running tribe, America’s big-rig trucking culture and country singer Dolly Parton.

Extreme Specialization for Both Beer and Breweries

It must be mentioned that many of the above accomplishments—setting up foundations and marketing companies and writing books and magazines—require several years’ experience and go beyond the means of the startup brewer. While one may hope to one day reach that level of success, in the short term it takes small, concrete to build toward that prestige. One of the most common approaches we are seeing is brewers attempting to play a big role in a small pond.

In other words, the niche is no longer simply to “produce local craft beer,” as it once was at the start of the Craft Beer Revolution. Now, it’s more appropriate to endorse a commitment to doing one thing very well.

“It’s interesting to me how breweries starting up today have very different business models than we had twenty-some years ago,” Hindy said. “You see people start up and say, ‘We are going to specialize in sour beers, or barrel-aged beers, or Belgian styles.’ I think that’s smart to have a clear idea of who you are and what you’re going to do.”

Two Denver breweries have taken this approach to heart and found success as a result. TRVE Brewery (pronounced “true”) has positioned itself as the city’s heavy metal-themed brewery, while Black Shirt Brewing only brews red beers.

Echoing advice from Katechis on honest branding, TRVE owner Nick Nunns said that specialization is a great strategy so long as it isn’t phony.

“The decision to be a metal brewery was simply a decision to be myself,” said Nunns. “I’ve been a metalhead my whole life and the brand is simply an extension of my personality and the things I enjoy in life.”

Chad Miller of Black Shirt Brewing shared similar thoughts on his decision to specialize in red beers.

“We asked ourselves, ‘Are we going to be known as a Walmart, with something for everyone? Or as a brewery that spends every waking moment chasing perfection?’”

Encouraging Customers to Sleep Over

The quest for craft beer differentiation can also make for strange bedfellows. Remember the old mantra “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here?” Well, forget about it!

In the last few years, craft breweries have begun encouraging their guests, in one way or another, to spend the night. This may not be an entirely new concept — pubs in Europe have been doing it for centuries — but recently we’ve seen a push from American brewers in the lodging department. The hope is to further immerse beer drinkers with their brand while simultaneously creating an alternative revenue stream.

This spring Hamish Marshall, co-owner of SLO Brew in the Central Coast of California, will open five luxury lofts above his brewery’s restaurant in downtown San Luis Obispo. He said the idea to create the short-term rental space actually came after the fact, when his brewpub project became more expensive than he thought.

“When we started making plans to retrofit an old building into a restaurant and music venue, it became so cost-prohibitive that we had to step back and say, ‘What are we going to do? How are we going to differentiate ourselves and stay profitable?’” Marshall said. “The lofts are giving us the ability to not only have another revenue stream, but to engulf those who stay there in all the components of our brand, from the beer to the food and music events.”

Looking across the country, we see that SLO Brew is not alone in pairing beer with bedding. It follows in the footsteps of others, including both Dogfish Head, which launched the Dogfish Inn in 2014, and Oskar Blues, which plays host at its REEB Ranch mountain cabins in Brevard, N.C.

The success of these “beer-and-breakfast” ventures just goes to show that whether you’re a stalwart brewing institution trying to reinvent itself or an upstart rebel brewer trying to carve out a niche of your own, it never hurts to consider some more eccentric options.

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