New Breweries Find Their Niche in an Ever-crowding Sea of Craft Beer
By Ken Weaver
Published May 2013, Volume 34, Number 2
It’s not exactly a closely kept secret that the U.S. craft beer industry is growing, and growing fast. Approaching the end of 2012, the Brewers Association’s running tally of U.S. breweries had already surpassed 2,200 (the highest point in more than 100 years), while the number of breweries-in-planning had blown past 1,300 and was on an exponential uptick. In fact, if the number of breweries-in-planning were to somehow maintain the pace we’ve seen in the past five years, each and every one of us would have our own little übernanobrewery-in-planning by early 2040. (No, seriously.) To understate the obvious: Things are getting more crowded.
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Exploring the History and Mystery of Flavor Hops
By Stan Hieronymus
Published May 2013, Volume 34, Number 2
Writing a manual on hops in 1877, British agricultural authority P.L. Simmonds praised those grown around the town of Spalt in Bavaria. “The products are of a high reputation, and are the Chateau Lafitte, the Clos de Vougent, and the Johannisberg, as it were, of hops of continental growths,” he wrote.
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Small Batch Brewing from Amateur to Commercial
By Amanda Baltazar
Published January 2010, Volume 30, Number 6
It typically starts off in a basement or a garage, or perhaps, if you’re lucky, in 10 square feet in the corner of the den.
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Collaboration Beers: The Natural Evolution of Craft Beer
By Jay Brooks
Published January 2009, Volume 29, Number 6
Aristotle observed, in his classic work Metaphysics, that “the whole is more than the sum of its parts.” He may not have been talking about beer when he said that, but then again, he was on to something. Over the past decade or so, there’s a trend that’s been slowly building as craft brewers are increasingly making metaphysically delicious beers, in pairs or in groups, with the results often tastier than the sum of their part-iers’ efforts alone.
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By Rick Lyke
Published July 2007, Volume 28, Number 3
There once was a time in America, not that long ago, when we had brewers, winemakers and distillers. It was a simple, orderly era. Each group existed among its own kind, occasionally venturing to sample the wares of another group, but never straying.
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By Gregg Glaser
Published March 2006, Volume 27, Number 1
There’s a section of the craft beer business that flies beneath the radar. Well, almost beneath. In their home markets, these breweries are well known and selling a great deal of beer—good beer. Despite that, they are still “lurking in the shadows; almost invisible,” as described by Gary Bogoff of Berkshire Brewing (South Deerfield, MA), one of the companies that makes up this challenging segment of the market.
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