Austin L. Ray has been published in Rolling Stone, Creative Loafing, The Onion A.V. Club and Oxford American. He loves Twitter (@austinlouisray), IPAs and pit bulls.
In the spirit of the gallery district, Bottlecraft has original artwork throughout the shop. Beers featured in their special flight offerings are also displayed as art, lined up on small wooden shelves.
Tørst isn’t your average beer bar. Owned by Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, the man behind Danish gypsy brewery Evil Twin, Tørst offers no wine or spirits, and puts a premium on hospitality and glassware.
Beyond alcohol limits, many Southern states struggle with taxes, breweries operating off-site brewpubs, various antiquated distribution woes, prohibitive homebrewing regulations and much more. But thanks to the region’s proactive beer makers and consumers, many of those laws are beginning to change.
Aces & Ales is an oasis of sorts for people in the Capital of Second Chances looking to drink something beyond mass-produced macrobrews. And as Las Vegas’ craft scene has grown to four main breweries, Aces & Ales has been there to support them.
Since opening in early 2008, Thirsty Monk has become more than just a world-class Belgian bar, adding a second floor for American craft selections, and a second location in South Asheville with a nanobrewery. They’re also working on expanding their brewery space and adding a third-floor rooftop deck.
Lucrece Borrego started The Kitchen Incubator intending to help aspiring foodmakers find the missing pieces required to start businesses. Then she and her boyfriend/business partner, Jesus Acosta, got into homebrewing, and the Brewery Incubator seemed like a natural next step.
The Pony Bar, with spots in Hell’s Kitchen and the Upper East Side, exclusively sells American-made craft beer, at $5 each on draft. But more than just a cozy spot for trying affordable pours of the best that US craft has to offer, Pony Bar is about forging a sense of community.
In a city that’s standing out from behind the shadow of a certain macrobrewing behemoth, places like Bailey’s Range are introducing locals and tourists alike to all their burgeoning craft-beer scene has to offer.
Opened in 2006 in the Minnesota capital’s Cathedral Hill neighborhood, The Happy Gnome’s drink selection now includes 300 whiskeys and 100 bottled beer selections.
Stepping into Closed for Business, you find yourself transported. The young beer bar and restaurant in Charleston feels more like a renovated rec room than the area’s premiere craft-beer destination.
Aside from the gargantuan outdoors space, which is perfect for Portland’s temperate climate and encourages barflies to bring in their own food, APEX has pinball machines, walls lined with beer labels, and relatively inexpensive, interesting drafts on impeccably clean lines.
Housed in a former high-end furniture shop, The Mayor of Old Town is a minimalist space, set off by high ceilings and lots of natural light and outfitted in mid-century modern décor. This clean design allows visitors to focus on the beer, which is plentiful—to the tune of 100 taps.
When Eric and Julie Michaud opened Portland, Maine’s Novare Res Bier Café in 2008, the husband-and-wife pair hoped to start a revolution, as the bar’s name means in Latin.
Houston’s quickly growing craft scene requires that new establishments find ways to stand out amidst increasingly stiff competition. Hay Merchant’s superlative is an exotic, quickly rotating cask program.
The craft beer scene in Chicago was a bit behind in 1992. But with a bar like Hopleaf and emerging craft brewers popping up, things began to turn around.
When Trappeze Pub opened in 2007, its hometown of Athens, Ga., was known more for its music than its beer. But thanks in no small part to pent-up demand for craft beer in the area, opening night saw people lined up out the door for Trappeze’s expansive beer bible of a menu.
The Monk’s Kettle in San Francisco’s Mission District, hosts 24 drafts and around 180 bottles, including 10–15 vintage selections in the subterranean cellar of the extremely intimate space (the capacity is just 45).
