Is the link between the growth of recreational marijuana and craft breweries just a bit of cosmic, double-hopped coincidence? Cultural and economic factors could explain the evolving connection.
From wrapping fermentors in electric blankets, to seeing Widmer Brothers distributed in all 50 states, Widmer has come a long way in the brewery’s 32 years.
Brewers guilds must educate, protect and promote. It’s taken the craft brewing industry some 35 years to be able to produce 12 percent of the beer bought in America. No one accomplished that feat alone. There is strength in numbers.
Cicerone program adds advanced level; author Fred Eckhardt dies at 89; New Belgium names Perich as new CEO; and Inc. 5000 List includes nine breweries.
In order to get the desired tartness and acidity in The Commons Brewery’s Biere Royale head brewer Sean Burke pitched tubs of Greek yogurt. To paraphrase the Bee Gees, Burke started a joke, which started the whole beer world souring.
From its brewhouse in Hood River—a Silver LEED certified building with a roof covered in solar panels and a rainwater collection system for irrigation—pFriem is melding European tradition with American ingenuity using tools unfamiliar to most small craft breweries.
Dana Garves believes the future of craft beer lies in quality control. If she’s right, then her new Oregon-based business, BrewLab, is about to be wildly successful.
Taking time off to travel allows brewers to escape the comfort zone of their local brewing scene. Countless possibilities await those willing to expand their worldview for the sake of professional development, whether it’s a state or a continent away.
This spring Craft Brew Alliance (CBA), a publically traded, Portland, Ore.-based beer company announced a series of expansions. The ninth largest US brewery produces four brands: Redhook Brewery, Widmer Brothers Brewing, Kona Brewing and Omission Beer.
Gary Fish founded Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Ore., in 1988. Twenty-five years later, the brewpub became the sixth-largest craft brewery by volume in the country.
The beers that have shocked and awed fans and made the Cascade Barrel House a destination for locals and tourists are the collaborative offspring of owner Art Larrance and brewmaster Ron Gansberg.
Unselfconsciously warm and kitschy, Saraveza is the embodiment of Sarah Pederson’s distinctive vision. Funky green vintage coolers display sought-after bottles of de Garde Bu Weisse and Southern Tier’s Choklat, but there’s always Hamm’s on draft—served across a bar made from thousands of bottle caps.
Anheuser-Bush Acquires 10 Barrel Brewing; New App Aims to Catalog Every Beer in the US; Beer Bar Files Suit Against Florida Growler Ban; and Green Flash Brewing Acquires Alpine Beer Co.
As with beer, craft cider is aiming for people with more sophisticated palates. And one of the first things modern cider makers have done is dry the palate out. To lure beer drinkers, cider makers in the Pacific Northwest started adding hops.
A native Portlander, Christian Ettinger experienced how beer creates community at age 19 when he studied abroad in Cologne, Germany, and got a taste for the city’s hybrid lagers.
As smaller, independent breweries have steadily chipped away at the market share held by larger national or multinational competition, they’ve also found ways to move into spaces formerly controlled by Big Beer—like Major League stadiums.
While connoisseurs have long traveled to countries like Belgium to try monastic brews and farmhouse ales, the phenomenon of beer tourism in the United States is still relatively new.
Jack Joyce, co-founder of Rogue Ales and Spirits, passed away on May 27 at the age of 71. Joyce worked as a litigation attorney and an executive at Nike before venturing out to co-found Rogue in 1988.
In the parlance of committed tinkerers and unrepentant hoarders, the “boneyard” is where old flubbernuzzer tubes and double-lined samizdat tanks languish until pressed into service. Tony Lawrence has kept one for most of his adult life. In his younger years, it held car parts. Most recently, the garage his house in Bend, Ore., has held brewing equipment.
Bars and pubs across the country, from The Oregon Public House in Portland to Finnegan’s in Minnesota and CAUSE in Washington DC, make their business model about giving back to local charities.
Oregon State University receives $1.2 million to expand Fermentation Sciences program; Australian researchers test a “hydrating” beer; “stoop drinking” in NYC mayoral debates; and tragic accident takes life of Stone brewer.
