Author: Brian Spencer

As brewery-band collaboration projects become more commonplace, new research suggests that neurological connections between how we process taste and sound could exist—potentially taking musically-inspired beers to a new level.

The sprawling metro Detroit area and its westerly cousin, Grand Rapids, lie at the center of Michigan’s evolving beer frontier. In 2012, there were less than 100 breweries and brewpubs statewide; in 2017, there will be well over 300 and counting.

Wild Beer’s careful, considered way of doing things—harvesting native yeasts, implementing uncommon ingredients, blending, aging, experimenting—makes this remote operation one of the most forward-thinking craft breweries England has ever seen.

Singapore has a handful of young microbreweries, but it’s the tidal wave of high-quality imports—and the pioneering craft-focused bars serving them—that’s most responsible for the area’s recent drinking metamorphosis.

Inspiration for Modus Operandi struck when Grant and Jaz Wearin embarked on a great American road trip that kicked off in Colorado, continued through the rolling mountains of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, and then wound back down the West Coast.

The Netherlands is now home to upwards of 225 breweries; in 2013 alone some 60 new microbreweries launched, many of which are contract brewers. Amsterdam is certainly at the forefront of this Dutch renaissance.