Looking for an ultimate beer-tasting experience? Try hitting one of the country’s top beer festivals, where attendees often get the chance to taste rare beers from heavy hitters and hyped breweries while chatting with the brewers who made them.
Not sure where to start? Check out this list of the best beer fests in America.
Via Gear Patrol
Paste Magazine has an interesting article up. If you’ve noticed an uptick in the number of bad “hazy” IPAs, this article discusses the reasons why. Blindly brewing juicy / hazy beers, and doing so badly, has caused an increase in “hop burn,” via Paste:
And that’s a problem, because the simple truth is that there does exist a point of diminishing returns, when it comes to simply adding more and more hops to a brew kettle, fermenter or brite tank. These aren’t one-to-one correlations, as much as we’d like for them to be. “Twice the Citra†doesn’t necessarily mean “twice as juicy,†in terms of the consumer’s perception of the eventual flavor of that beer. In fact, it might even mean the opposite.
Meet the king of collabs Kyle Harrop. Way back in the day, Harrop’s first release was Great Maple, a Maple Barrel Aged Imperial Stout. Even before it was released, Harrop’s reputation had earned the beer looks from beer media, and people were excited and trying to get their hands on his product. Great Maple was an absolute hit, and was followed by Boss Tycoon, Harrop’s collaboration with J. Wakefield Brewing, and Frenched Toast, his collab with Great Notion Brewing. Harrop became beer famous. “The success of the collabs started the phones,†Harrop said. Other brewers wanted to collaborate, and consumers wanted to know where they could get his beer.
Via Forbes
In today’s Artisanal Craft Brewing, no idea or ingredient is off limits. We’ve seen beers made with lobsters, Oysters, Mangalitsa pigs, candied ginger and gingerbread cookies, human urine, Norwegian money, and yeast harvested from beard hairs.
So be prepared to be shocked (and maybe a little grossed out)
16 brewers share the strangest beers they’ve ever made.
Via Vinepair
Chicago Craft Beer Week, June 24-27
The last bottle release for Goose Island’s King Henry barleywine beer has sold out.
Links to tons of events and links to tickets below. See events here
London’s Camden Town Brewery has has launched what it’s called “the UK’s first brewery-based urban vertical farmâ€.
Teaming up with Rootlabs, who construct urban farms, and sister company to GrowUp Community Farms, the companies champion the use of vertical farming, a method of planting that both saves space and uses 90% less water than traditional techniques.
The initial strawberry crop will be used to brew Camden’s seasonal Strawberry Hells Forever beer.
The brewer will donate 20p from every can of Strawberry Hells sold to GrowUp Community Farms to help support their mission.
Via The Drinks Business
In order to prevent people from selling their bottles on at inflated prices, Belgian Trappist monks are launching an online reservation system.
A crate of Westvleteren XII costs €2.50 per bottle, but has been reported to sell as much as €12 in Brussels.
Brother Godfried said the monastery decided to act after discovering a Dutch supermarket had stockpiled a large order of beer and began selling them for €9.95 each.
“It really opened our eyes,†he said.
“It was a sort of wake-up call that the problem was so serious, that a company was able to buy such volumes. It really disturbed us.â€
Via The Drinks Business
Portland Oregon, self proclaimed “Greatest Beer City on Earth”, launches their 9th annual Beer Week June 7-16th. This years celebration of craft beer will span 10-days of events across the city.
The 2019 event lineup (June 7-16th), includes a new kickoff party with Mikkeller Brewing, the debut of Bean to Bar: Chocolate and Beer Festival and resurrecting past hits like the Brewers Burger Brawl and Mussels from Brussels.
Via PDX Beer Week
Craft Beer Week, Beer Obstacle Course, & MT Brew Fest all During BeerNow19 – Great Falls Craft Beer Week featuring Mighty Mo Brewing Co., Jeremiah Johnson Brewing, and Black Eagle Brewery seems to be a natural for the first Beer Obstacle Course I’ve ever heard of.
The kick-off event to Craft Beer Week is a fun, but challenging Beer Obstacle Course. Local gyms, climbing centers, and even furniture stores provide the obstacles and we provide the “hydration stations†between the obstacles. Attendee’s get to have a taste of some local beer to help get them through the course while the “spectator section†enjoys live music, food, and a selection of local brews as well.
National Homebrew Day was designated by Congress May 7th in 1988. The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) created the Annual Big Brew event to celebrate National Homebrew Day around the world. Big Brew happens each year on the first Saturday in May. Anyone can host a Big Brew event, so invite your family and friends, and join in the global celebration.
Don’t miss the simultaneous toast at 1:00 p.m. ET, 12:00 p.m. CT on May 4, 2019!
This sunday’s National Beer Day. It’s not a national holiday, but it should be…
Why April 7? Eighty-six years ago America’s violent era of prohibition (Beginning in 1919) finally ended with the Cullen-Harrison act of 1933. Enough states approved the 21st Amendment later that year to bring an end to Prohibition.
Some beer lovers a decade ago decided the day deserved celebration – they created a National Beer Day Facebook page – and social media has helped the holiday grow.
Zwickelmania celebrates 11th annual event, participating breweries to sell limited-release statewide collaboration beer
Event kicks off Feb. 16 in the Portland Metro area, and continues Feb. 23 across the rest of the state.
Over a decade ago, three-dozen Oregon breweries opened their doors on a Saturday in February for the first-ever Zwickelmania, a free statewide craft beer celebration that allowed visitors to tour Oregon breweries, meet the brewers and sample beers. About 4,000 craft beer fans took part in the inaugural event, which was designed as a way to promote Oregon’s craft beers and the brewers who make them.
Here at the Growler, we believe there’s a time and place for every drink. Wine, liquor, N/A options, hard seltzer—even macro beers. Sure, we don’t talk about it much, but sometimes life calls for a basic beer to wash down whatever B.S. happened that day. And what better time to pay homage to our go-to macros than in our Great Debates issue? We invite you to do the same and share your favorite big-name beer with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Let us know if you loathe this idea, too; it is meant to be a debate, after all.
These artists are taking beer art to a whole new level. They are using the beer itself to paint with, the cans, tabs, bottle and caps — you name it — to make their creations ranging from realistic to abstract, each bringing their own flavor to the artistic process. And just like the craft beer industry, it’s not just local, its global. These artists are from a wide range of places and found common ground in this unexpected material inspiration.
Titled: Maculosos Scurra Larva | Artist Lucien Shapiro uses undocumented bottle caps gathered from various bars. (Lucien Shapiro)
