Features
Beer’s No. 1 Super Fan
Beer Dave pulls a can of Uinta Trader Session IPA out of his cooler, flips it upside down, looks around and shakes his head. “Need a church key,” he says, heading off to borrow one. Opening it from the top, using the tab Uinta thoughtfully provided, is not an option. Church key—a device otherwise known […]
Breweries for Hire: The New Generation of Contract Brewers
by John HollThere’s not much to look at while driving through Connecticut on Interstate 95. It’s harbor cities with industrial skylines for the most part, with billboards providing the most visual entertainment between New York and Boston. You quickly get a sense of just how many McDonald’s there are conveniently located just off the next exit. Or […]
The Unsung Brewer
In the modern brewing industry, especially in the United States, there are celebrity brewers. Known by their first names, fans line up at festivals for pictures and a pour from the likes of Sam, Jim, Garrett, Vinnie, Ken, Matt and more. For every one of these well-known names, there are dozens more operating behind the […]
Puree of Sweet Corn Soup with Cilantro Pesto or Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
The following recipe from Chef Paul Kasten appeared in our November 2015 issue. Find it on newsstands now, and subscribe today to have All About Beer Magazine delivered straight to your door. Fresh sweet corn is one of my favorite produce items of the year. This is a simple dish, but with great product and solid technique, […]
Pour Influence: How Tap Handles Affect Drinkers’ Decisions
by Oliver GrayAlong the wall of Frisco Tap House in Columbia, Maryland, a rainbow menagerie of wood, polyurethane and metal pop against a backdrop of polished aluminum. Everything from canoes to dragons to baseball bats form a grand display, presenting their colors and plumage in hopes of winning a mate, at least for a pint. These are, […]
Drawn Together—The New Nerd Nexus: Beer and Comic Books
by Mark PetersA store where you can buy the latest Batman and newest Dogfish Head? Beer bottle labels that tell an actual comic book story? Brewers who were working on their superhero-style origin story for 20 years? Double IPAs and The Walking Dead don’t have much in common on the face of it, but thanks to the […]
Putting the Geek in ‘Beer Geek’
by Jeff CiolettiIt’s become an annual Denver ritual and one that the folks at Breckenridge Brewing Co. look forward to a bit more each year: Tens of thousands cram the halls of the Colorado Convention Center over the course of three days, many of them in cleverly crafted costumes and some lucky enough to get a taste […]
Columns
Quality Importance
Lately, there’s been a shift in the beer conversation. Or, more accurately, the volume has been turned up. If a brewery is not striving for quality, defect-free and clean beer for each and every batch, it should either correct this problem immediately or pack up and move on. There are many fronts in the fight […]
‘Sweet And Fruity’ Beverages Flood Market
by Christopher ShepardThree relatively small beer segments represented less than 7 percent of total volume in 2005, but expanded to almost 14 percent by 2014. In that time, craft steadily tripled to near 19 million barrels (31 gallons each), according to Beer Marketer’s Insights. Cider held at just a couple-hundred thousand barrels while it wasn’t even being […]
When Different Passions and Paths Combine
by John HollOn the evening of this year’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game, I found myself sitting in Galaxy Brewing Co. After driving five hours to Binghamton, New York, I was in serious need of refreshment and a bit of distraction. I found it on ESPN, where the sports network had collaborated with Marvel Comics for a […]
Departments
Finding Great Beer Somewhere in Middle America
by John HollFolks who live on the coasts often joke of “fly-over country,” the swath of land that actually makes up the majority of this great nation. From 37,000 feet, the plains are a patchwork quilt of farms and rivers. This should not be ignored and should be examined from the ground, especially Omaha, Nebraska’s largest city. […]
Fueled By Beer
by Heather VandenengelNew Zealand’s DB Breweries has found a resourceful use for its yeast waste by turning it into “brewtroleum” biofuel. The brewery teamed up with Gull Petroleum to create the fuel, which produces less greenhouse gas than petroleum. It is made by distilling the yeast, creating ethanol. Then 90 percent premium gasoline is added to 10 […]
Homebrewing Pioneer Byron Burch Dies
One spring evening in 1978, Byron Burch in his Oakland home listened to a young man from Chico, three hours’ drive north, go on excitedly about plans to start a brewery. He had written Burch, seeking advice. Burch was the owner of a homebrewing shop and the author of the highly praised Quality Brewing, which […]
New Barley Variety In Development
by Heather VandenengelLimagrain Cereal Seeds is developing a new variety of malting barley especially for all-malt brewing. The international agricultural cooperative developed a high-yielding irrigated barley variety in Europe that has performed well in trials held in Idaho, Washington and Colorado. The variety, called LCS Genie, was selected from more than 70 varieties of European barley for […]
Beer At The Top Of The World
by Heather VandenengelThe Arctic town of Longyearbyen, the world’s most northern town with year-round residents, is getting its own neighborhood brewery, and when Svalbard Bryggeri on Norway’s Spitsbergen Island opens it will earn the title of the Arctic Circle’s first brewery. Robert Johansen, longtime beer enthusiast and seaplane pilot, is behind the brewery, where he will brew […]
More Taps Than Days In A Year
by Elizabeth AtkinsonWith 378 permanent draft lines, North Carolina’s Raleigh Beer Garden is in the process of setting the Guinness World Record for largest number of draft beers on individual taps. When he was working on his new bar, owner Niall Hanley wanted to focus on local beer, which in North Carolina is ever-expanding. As construction continued, […]
Breweries Sell Shares, Join Forces, Expand
by Heather VandenengelTwo Colorado breweries, Left Hand Brewing Co. in Longmont and Odell Brewing Co. in Fort Collins, have established employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). Left Hand launched a program in June after finalizing the repurchase of common shares from current stockholders. Odell co-founders Doug, Wynne and Corkie Odell sold a majority stock interest to three senior […]
Pizza Beer Is No Joke
by Heather VandenengelLast April Fool’s Day, Pizza Hut released a YouTube video debuting its “Pepperoni Pilsner,” brewed with real pepperoni and tomatoes. The joke proved to be inspiration for two Texas breweries, Four Corners Brewing Co. and Intrinsic Brewing, which collaborated on a Pizza Party Beer. The one-barrel batch was brewed “with bready malts, infused with fresh […]
A Night at the Brewery
by Heather VandenengelBeer tourism is on the rise, and along with it is the rise of the beer-themed hotel and the brewery inn. From brewpub bed and breakfasts, like The Woodstock Inn & Resort and Moat Mountain Smoke House & Brewing Co. in New Hampshire, to beer-themed Airbnbs, where guests can sleep in a converted beer barrel […]
Altbier: A Nod to Heritage
In recent years, some esoteric top-fermented North German beer styles have joined the beer renaissance party. Leipziger gose and Berliner weisse, imported and microbrewed, are now familiar offerings. Kölsch is mainstream. Another, the Düsseldorf-style altbier, remains elusive and enigmatic. In Düsseldorf, the coppery, crisp and malty beer is the undisputed king. Rhenish cousin to Kölsch, […]
Pull Up A Stool With Nico Freccia and Shaun O’Sullivan
Fifteen years after founding 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco and seven years after they started brewing under contract in Cold Spring, Minnesota, Nico Freccia and Shaun O’Sullivan opened a production brewery this June in San Leandro, California. The 150,000-square-foot facility—where Kellogg’s formerly produced Pop-Tarts, Frosted Flakes and Eggo waffles—is now home to a 100-barrel […]
Remembering Fred Eckhardt, Dean of American Beer Writing
Craft beer lost its muse on Aug. 10. It was the morning of that day when Fred Eckhardt, 89, died peacefully in his Portland, Oregon, home with several friends by his side. His death left the craft beer community that he helped build with a big, gaping hole in its heart. Journalistic style be damned! […]
Autumn Traditions
If you notice that pumpkin beer appears on shelves a bit earlier each year, it’s because there’s no seasonal creep like everyone’s favorite spiced beer that vaguely coincides with the creepiest of holidays—Halloween. I say everyone’s because studies by the Brewers Association show that pumpkin beers are far and away the most popular of all […]
Italian Monastery Brewery Receives Trappist Designation
by Heather VandenengelThe International Trappist Association has granted Rome’s Tre Fontane Abbey the right to use the Authentic Trappist Product trademark on its beer, making it the 11th Trappist brewery in the world. The brewery’s first designated Trappist beer is an 8.5% tripel brewed with eucalyptus called Three Fountains Tripel. It is sold only at the Tre […]
Beer Talk
Weyerbacher Brewing Co. Tarte Nouveau
Tarte Nouveau is a Lactobacillus kettle-soured tart beer with a lemony-citric fruit sharpness and no hop bitterness. ABV: 3.9% Brewed in: EASTON, PENNSYLVANIA Where to Find This Beer: CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NE, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SC, VA, WI