Richard Norgrove used to brew a brutally hoppy Red Ale for his mountain biking buddies. Then the cycling company he worked at was sold, and he figured he’d make a run at brewing for a living.
Steven Pauwels left Belgium for Missouri nine years ago, bringing craftsmanship, tradition, and a relentless drive to experiment. Here’s how Boulevard became the Midwest’s largest independent brewer—and its most eclectic.
The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery celebrates its fourth birthday this August. That’s four years of plying the Southeast with dark, full-bodied, flavorful beers—and proving the cynics wrong.
David Zuckerman has seen Boulder Beer Co. grow from a brewery on the brink of the abyss to a robust company enjoying double-digit growth and a distribution presence in 25 states.
The soaring mountains, the verdant fjord, the crystal clear air, the splashing waterfalls, the mystic fog, the shimmering light—in this scenic land, you wouldn’t want to enjoy a fresh beer in a place that was anything less than spectacular.
Copenhagen’s Mikkel Borg Bjergsø is taking several continents’ worth of brewing scenes by storm. His Mikkeller brewery, while barely two years old, is producing some of the world’s most sought-after beers.
Geoff Larson, co-founder and brewmaster at the Alaskan Brewing Company, has overseen a gold rush of a different sort: He has won more Great American Beer Fest medals than any brewery in the festival’s history.
Hugh Sisson has been hawking good beer for nearly 30 years now. In the last few of those, he’s finally made Clipper City into the brewery he always envisioned it to be—Great American Beer Fest gold medals and all.
In a dozen-odd years of professional brewing, Weyerbacher Brewing Company’s Dan Weirback has traded restrained English-style Ales for big, brawling Belgians, bourbon barrels, and imperialized… well, whatever he can make an Imperial, he will.
“I make beers that I want to drink. That’s the bottom line,” Avery says. “I love our IPA because I made the IPA for me—that’s the style of IPA I like. I always say: I’m making the beer for me; I’m just making a little extra for everybody else.”
