In a roundup of beer news, after sale to AB InBev, Wicked Weed faces backlash; Speakeasy Ales & Lagers sells to former distributor; Manchester pub awards 100-year-old patron free beer for life; and Sam Calagione wins James Beard award.
Increased demand for barrel-aged beers and the ability for breweries to dedicate resources to long-term projects has 2017 poised to be the year of the wood cellar.
Goodbye boring pub grub. As the role of the brewery has evolved over the last decade, so has the relationship between the beer being brewed and the food being served.
What is it about this family of beers that seems to be enchanting a generation? Could sours eclipse IPAs as the new face of American craft brewing? It’s a long shot, but people once asked similar questions about hoppy West Coast ales.
Since opening in 2012, Wicked Weed, the Dickinson brothers’ Asheville, N.C., brewery, has been at the forefront of the industry’s relative newcomers, most recently taking home a bronze at the 2014 World Beer Cup.
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.
Beyond alcohol limits, many Southern states struggle with taxes, breweries operating off-site brewpubs, various antiquated distribution woes, prohibitive homebrewing regulations and much more. But thanks to the region’s proactive beer makers and consumers, many of those laws are beginning to change.
