Favorite new (to you) brewery in 2017?

MoRE Brewing Co. (Villa Park, IL). Now that Shaun Berns (formerly of Ram-Schaumburg) has his own brewery, he is slowly rolling out quality consistently whereas we were only able to get his beers once every few weeks at Ram. Here's to looking forward to an even better 2018.

 

R. Shea in Akron OH area

 

Which barley wines did you like?

 

Fifth Hammer Brewing in Long Island City, nyc!
http://www.fifthhammerbrewing.com/

 

I had a lot of great beer visiting Seattle and Vancouver this summer. Cloudburst and Reuben's were the 2 that I enjoyed the most.

 

I don’t know them. What made you like them so much?

 

The owner/brewmaster is a friend and I’m just really happy for him that he finally got this project off the ground after a long struggle. Yes I’m not the most objective voice and am partly trying to promote a friend. Nevertheless, it has good beer and is a great place to hang! Check it out sometime!

 

Congrats to your friend!

The website doesn't have a taplist- what kinds of beer are they making?

 

Great Notion, everything I've had from them has been good to great. Looking forward to their increased production and new facility.

 

Two Rivers Brewing https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30536/
Great IPAs, saisons and a fantastic pilsner.

 

I know! I’ll tell him about this. The last time I was there, and I’m going by memory, they had ipa, Saison, Pale Ale, brown ale, stout, Berliner Weisse, pilsner. The usual suspects, nothing extreme, just well done. What I would describe as his specialty, is making drinkable sessionable brews. The saison had the highest ABV at 8%, while the stout was only 4.5, but very sessionable.

 

Very welcome news, and right up my alley. I work in LIC, so will have to make it over there soon. Thanks for the tip!

 

Noon whistle brew co. The people that work there are great the beers have mostly bee phenomenal minus a couple of misses. Wish I lived closer I’d go there more.

Honorable mention to scorched earth in Algonquin IL

 

Will keep it in mind cause you just said the magic words.

 

I've taken 8 pub crawls (usually extended weekends) and three beercations (a week to three weeks) during 2017 all of which add up to 110 places visited (8 were eateries and the rest were breweries/brewpubs). I was pleasantly surprised when I looked back at by reviews for just the breweries/brewpubs on this list to discover that my rating for Big Oyster Brewing in Lewes, DE came out on top. https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/50628/?view=beers Yep, in Dogfish Head's backyard, but my rating for them wasn't far behind.

I recently discovered Newaygo Brewing and rated it the highest of my 2107 visits here in Michigan. https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/41533/?view=beers

 

18th Street is doing some good thinks like fox and the hunted, rise of the angels and sex and candy.

 

Not new but new to me....Baere Brewing in Denver. Their saison, in particular, was great.

 

Tilted Barn, RI & Fox Farm, CT

 

In addition to my earlier Great Notion post, i need to add Temescal. They continue to fly relatively low key in the Bay Area. And while without a bunch of hype, have many solid offerings.

 

Trillium. Tree House. Battery Steele.

 

I'll go with Combustion Brewing in Pickerington, OH since I'm there quite a bit, and I call them my "local" pub. I always have a great time there and the beer is pretty good too! Really need to get around to reviewing more of their stuff, but I tend not to review beer when I'm out drinking with my friends.

Honorable mentions to:

Loose Rail Brewing, Canal Winchester, OH
Milewide Brewing, Louisville, KY
Gravely Brewing, Louisville, KY
Urban Artifact, Cincinnati, OH

Off the top of my head those are my new favorites that are new to me this year.

 

Superflux in Vancouver.

Absolutely fantastic and having the at the Alibi Room was icing on the cake.

 

My pleasure! Maybe I’ll see you there. P.S. I look nothing like my avatar.

 

I'll second Battery Steele and add Mast Landing

Industrial Ave has become a one stop shop for breweries and a must on my Portland rotation. Allagash, Austin Street, Battery Steele & Foundation with the latter 3 in the same building.

 

Sad to say 2017 was my first foray into Firestone Walker. Hoping to have more chances in 2018 as my work provides an opportunity to travel regularly to Cali.

Had XXI Anniversary Ale, Wookey Jack, and Krieky Bones this year. Can't wait to get more!

 

Modern Times.

 

Barrel Culture in Durham, NC and New Anthem in Wilmington, BC. Barrel Culture is turning out wonderful wine barrel aged fruited sours and New Anthem is producing amazingly nuanced IPAs with some filthy stouts and porters mixed in.

 

New to me this year that I loved was Tilted Barn, Equilibrium, and dancing gnome.

As far as semi-local, there is a brewery in Fredericksburg, VA (1 hour drive south) called Red Dragon that is making some amazing NE style IPAs and fruited goses,

 

An impossible ask/task, as usual, but: for new to me styles and challenging creativity in brewdom, I'll go with Forbidden Root out of Chicago. For a place that just always "felt right" as a new brewery (to me), but with all the familiar true-to-style tastes, I'll give the nod to Stoup in Seattle (Ballard). Cheers!

 

Battery Steele and Mast Landing in ME were both enjoyable stops in 2017.

Kettlehead in NH, new, good first impression.

Hudson Valley in NY, very interesting sours. Seem to be gaining popularity fast.

 

Spent the Summer in NC and most of the year in IL for the first time. Got my hands on a few Mass breweries too. Favorite new breweries:


NC: Wicked Weed, NoDa
IL Area: Pipeworks, Toppling Goliath
Mass: Treehouse

 

Really to many to name, but Tree House, Trillium, Bearded Iris, Tired Hands.

Cheers!

 

From the US: NOVO Brazil Brewing really impressed me with Corvo Negro. I'd have to say that was my favorite new to me.

From Canada: Superflux out of British Columbia...brewing some damn nice beers. Just wish it was easier to get more.

 

Ellison brewing (I believe they're michigan based) has some good brews. I've only tried a stout and dipa of theirs, but both were delicious. Their Relativity dipa was probably my favorite ipa this year.

 

Aero Plains Brewing in Wichita.

 

Cloudburst and Moonraker

 

Van Trapp