Author: Sean Lewis

BrewLAB’s small size comes with a glut of flexibility, and with both owners serving as brewers, too, there’s no shortage of opportunity to live up to the California brewery’s name.

Los Angeles is emerging from the shadows of its better beer neighbors to tell its own story. And like the city itself, that story is diverse, progressive and undeniably cool.

Figueroa Mountain’s CEO and founder, Jaime Dietenhofer, knew out of high school that he wanted to start a brewery. But his parents and eventual co-founders, Jim and Judie, said, “Go to college.”

Even in the midst of the craft beer boom, it’s still easy to separate the suits from the brewers. The guys behind Indianapolis’ Bier Brewery are brewers—a little rough around the edges and fiercely independent—and, surprise: They don’t care who knows it.

Sometimes, the transformation of a neighborhood turns on a brewery. That was what Gerald Wyman and Chuck Comeau were betting on when they decided to open Gella’s Diner & Lb. Brewing Co. as part of Hays, Kansas’ downtown revival.

Hops stand in the spotlight at one of the country’s newest brewpubs, Wicked Weed Brewing. There, hoppy American ales are featured alongside Old World Belgian styles, as co-founders and brothers Walt and Luke Dickinson carve their own niche in one of the most impressive beer cities in the world.

Located in North Hampton, N.H., Throwback strives to source as many of its ingredients from local farms as possible. That includes using locally grown hops, malt and adjuncts.

For anybody who still needs proof that beer brings people together, head to Lexington, Ky., and sit down at Country Boy Brewing’s bar. Grab a pint poured from one of their 24 taps. And chat with your neighbor, ask them what it’s like to be into craft beer in Lexington (here’s a hint: It’s getting better all the time).

Alpine Beer Company looks like you might imagine a small brewery in a small mountain town might look. The location is unassuming, snuggled in tight next to a quaint bookstore. The scenery is Southern California in all its glory. This was a dream location when McIlhenny opened it in 2002.

Before Prohibition, Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood was the heart of the brewing district, and it is emerging as a must-visit for beer drinkers once again. A driving force behind that revival is Market Garden Brewery & Distillery, which was opened in 2011.

There aren’t too many places in Wyoming like Thai Me Up—the cozy, dimly lit Jackson Hole, Wyo., brewpub that pairs West Coast IPAs with Thai food and two big-screen televisions featuring kung fu flicks. Actually, never mind Wyoming; there aren’t many places like Thai Me Up anywhere.

Rather than starting from scratch in a warehouse space on the edge of town, co-owners Jason Spaulding and his wife, Kris, repurposed the early-1900s funeral home chapel and livery stables to house their small, niche brewery in the East Hills neighborhood of Grand Rapids, Mich.

Bend, Ore., is something of a beer drinker’s paradise. It is home to over a dozen breweries, and with one brewery for every 9,111 people, it’s also the city with the most breweries per capita. One of the staples of the Bend brewing scene is . The production brewery opened in 2006 under the name

With a few loans and the support of a community that was clamoring for a local brewery, the Port City team took over an old warehouse just outside the nation’s capital to build one of the DC area’s most successful breweries.

In the small village of Amana, Iowa, tucked among historical sites and artisans’ shops, Millstream Brewing Company is quietly churning out some of the finest beer in the region. Millstream’s portfolio is heavy on the German beers, like the seasonal German Pilsner and widely popular Oktoberfest, but also drifts into the realm of experimental brewing.

Visitors to Vermont’s Drop-In Brewing Company may not notice anything different about the brewery. However, for two weeks a year, the beer is just a secondary product at Drop-In; the fully operational brewery doubles as the training grounds for the American Brewers Guild Brewing School in Salisbury.

When Greg Parker took over in 2007, Iron Horse produced about 500 barrels per year. Today, they make more than that in a month.

Once upon a time, in a distant land known as Northern Colorado, two homebrewers decided that 5-gallon batches weren’t enough. So, with a little knowledge and a lot of courage, the duo set out on an adventure destined to change their lives.

Forget all the normal hassles of starting a brewery—Ken Landin and Janine Bennett first had to rehab a historical Athens, N.Y., landmark after purchasing the building in October 2009.

If you don’t know what to look for, you’re likely to drive right past the little beer haven deep in the heart of wine country. There’s little to promote Dunbar Brewing Company, which sits tucked into the corner of a small commercial building in Santa Margarita, on California’s central coast.

It is illegal in Massachusetts to bring a beer to a patient in a hospital. In Texas, drinking more than three sips of beer at a time while standing is against the law. There are scores of pointless, strange edicts on the books, but the good people of Mississippi aren’t laughing about a particular law regulating

The Savannah, Ga., brewpub has a reputation as one of the more haunted locales in a town known for its ghost stories. Like those who fill the bar and dining room every week, they must like the beer.

In 2006, when Matt Keasey opened the doors to the Spring House brewery—which is located in the barn on his property outside the city limits—he learned a valuable lesson about just how magnetic beer can be.

At Augusta Brewing Company in Labadie, Mo., husband-and-wife duo Terry and Jeri Heisler are keeping a family history alive by moving the brewery’s production operations from its current location to a facility in Washington, Mo., which has been in Jeri’s family for over a century.