Category: Unfiltered

Instead of embracing the beauty of public and outdoor drinking, Americans have largely relegated alcohol consumption to bars, implicitly marking them as dark dens of adult iniquity. Fortunately, small breweries are pushing for change.

Whether or not to welcome kids into taprooms has become a hot-button—and often unexpected—issue for brewery owners aiming to please a wide variety of beer drinkers.

The rapid transformation and mutation of American craft brewing will undoubtedly persevere in the year ahead. Yet one thing always remains the same: the absence of boredom.

Although globalization eases many of international travel’s challenges, it could threaten the brewing cultures and traditions that we seek to experience.

With each glass of hazy IPA that appears on the bar tops of breweries once focused on Belgian or German styles, it’s hard not to worry about the industry’s future prospects.

As pricing for craft brands reaches its outer limits, growth is starting to slow, pushing beer buyers and consumers to take another look at value brands.

Forced to chart a new course amid the industry’s double-digit growth, “big craft” breweries have resorted to fleeting trends and gimmicks to stay afloat.

Once heralded for its camaraderie, the craft brewing community is under siege from within as each buyout fractures the industry’s communal spirit.

While Big Beer pushes for a “post-craft” mindset, emphasizing flavor over ownership, consumers deserve transparency about a brand’s heritage.

We’ve ridden the wave of beer trends through tepid Amber Ales, extreme alcohol bombs, funky sours, and juicy IPAs—now, it’s Pilsner’s turn.

Low alcohol beer is the last unexplored territory of American brewing. To take its place in our beer-drinking culture it must transcend gimmicks.

How the schnitt, a German phrase for a half-pour, could bridge the American gap between tiny samplers and the standard 16-ounce shaker pint.

When it comes to politics, the insular nature of the craft brewing community is a weakness, not a strength.

Rather than futilely trying to sample every available beer, drinkers should enjoy them the way the brewer intended: a full glass, pint, or half-liter at a time.

No longer paralyzed by choice, there’s a freedom that comes from sitting at a bar with friends, hefting steins of the exact same beer for hours.

We can’t predict the future, though we may try. Whatever happens to individual brands, however, one thing appears clear: flavorful beer is here to stay.

Bad beer won’t take down the craft brewing industry, but it’s up to bar owners and consumers to speak up when something tastes off.

Despite comparisons to the industry housecleaning of the mid-1990s, today’s brewery landscape looks nothing like that of 20 years ago.

Local isn’t everything. Get to know the wider world of beer by creating (and completing) a list of achievable day trips and more involved foreign adventures.

It’s been a year of intrigue and plot twists—multimillion dollar deals begat billion dollar deals, while a half-dozen or more transactions constantly swirl in the rumor mill.

If craft brewing wants to extend its audience beyond the traditional market of youngish, wealthy dudes, it needs to grow up a bit.

Once a tight-knit community, beer has grown into big business—and the nearly 13,000 attendees at the Craft Brewers Conference is proof.

It’s time for small brewers and beer enthusiasts to stop taking cheap shots at Big Beer and instead focus on their own products.

As the term “indie beer” rises in popularity, it’s time to rethink what it really means to be an independent brewery.