Hop Seasons | What Happens at a Small Hop Farm Throughout the Year

In the year-long agricultural cycle of beer’s main ingredients, hop harvest gets all the glory. Fresh hop and wet hop beers fill shelves and taplists every fall, a celebration of craft beer’s trendiest ingredient. Brewers flock to the Pacific Northwest (or their local hop yard) to evaluate the season’s best lots and choose hops for the coming year. Most of our “seasonal” beer styles today are nods to tradition rather than agricultural dictate, but these beers are different, a hold out from a time when brewing schedules and beer styles were guided by the growing calendar.

Read More

Fort Point Beer Company | KSA Kölsch

There are many different things you can see and do while visiting San Francisco. Perhaps you take a tour to check out the world-famous Golden Gate Bridge, or maybe while sightseeing, you are able to see Alcatraz Island, which was home to the infamous Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. You could even spend time catching a cable car around certain areas of the city. While San Francisco offers a multitude of attractions and things to do, we want to recommend a place for you to visit!

Read More

Bean to Barstool Podcast | Moksa Brewing’s Pastry Stouts with Cory Meyer

Moksa Brewing in Rocklin, California (just outside Sacramento), is one of the country’s most prolific and best producers of Pastry Stouts. These usually high alcohol and high gravity Stouts use ingredients like cacao, coffee, vanilla, and others to recreate the flavors of beloved desserts or create whole new flavor concepts. Moksa’s Pastry Stouts are indulgent but precise.

In this episode we talk with Moksa head brewer Cory Meyer about how he works with cacao, vanilla, and other adjunct ingredients, how he sources single origin examples, and how the Moksa team comes up with the concepts for these dessert beers.

Read More

Event Recap | HOMES Nucleate Fest

HOMES Brewery hosted Nucleate 2024 on June 8 at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The festival was a well-executed event benefitting charity, full of fun times and delicious beers.

Read More

Lua Brewing | Lua’s Birthday Blend Barleywine

A curious question that arises frequently at brewery bars is “How’d you decide on the name?” Sometimes there’s quirky, meaningful backstories, sometimes it’s a spin on the founder’s names, sometimes it’s inspired by their geographic location, or it’s one of a million other possibilities. For Lua Brewing, owners Scott and Whitney Selix found no better namesake for their passion project than their beloved pup. Lua turned 13 years old on March 14th of this year, and a month later the team in Iowa released a very special birthday blend in her honor.
Read More

Bean to Barstool Podcast | Bonus: All About Malt

Hops get a lot of buzz from beer lovers because of their expressive, fruity aromas and flavors, but malt is really the foundational ingredient of beer. You can technically brew beer without hops (though all commercial examples contain them), but you can’t brew it without malted grain, and the different malt varieties offer a dazzling rainbow of potential colors, aromas, flavors, and textures for building a new beer. So what is malt, how is it made, how is it used in brewing, and what flavors and characteristics does it provide for beer? In this bonus episode, we talk all about malt.

Read More

Anchorage Brewing | Sister, Mother, Daughter Barleywine

For many, craft beer and brewing provides a creative outlet—a unique method of expression. Every day, a different brewery releases a new and exciting beer to share with their consumers, hoping that the quality of their ingredients, brewing expertise and distinct marketing can lead to a successful, conversation-worthy beer. But sometimes, a beer represents so much more. The story and blend of Sister, Mother, Daughter and its inspiration needs to be shared.

Read More

Barrique Brewing | Static Between Worlds Vienna Wine

Those who have extensively followed Barrique Brewing and Blending know that they’re in for a treat whenever a new “wax top” release is announced. While often high gravity and brewed in small batches, one thing that always holds true is that these releases are particularly special to the team in Nashville. Static Between Worlds was no different. A collaboration with former Orpheus Brewmaster—and current owner and Head Brewer of The Hollows in Amsterdam, Netherlands—this massive Vienna Wine sought to capture the essence of the past and promise of what’s to come through a complex tapestry of flavors.

Read More

Most Outstanding Beers from the 2024 Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival

As throngs of attendees patiently huddled shoulder to shoulder in a scene more reminiscent of the starting line to a marathon than the kick-off to beer festival, an palpable buzz … Read More

Taking a Look Back at the 2024 Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival

Beer festivals had a long run of relative stability. Many festivals could rely on the same venue to come through year after year, at relatively predictable prices. Core volunteers would be in place each year and many of the same sponsors and breweries could be expected to attend each season. Critically, attendance at these festivals was almost a guarantee. The pandemic blew that all up. Beer festivals are still plenty popular, but now organizers have to contend with a far wider range of potential changes from year to year. It has been a more ruthless and unforgiving world for beer festival planners over the last few years.

Read More

Bringing Culture to the Cup: NB2A Revolutionizes Craft Beer

Craft beer has always been a staple of local communities, serving as a gathering point for people to share stories over a pint. The sense of belonging and support from local patrons fueled the growth of craft beer during its peak years. However, there’s a significant opportunity yet to be fully realized—the untapped potential of Black consumers and brewers in the craft beer industry.

Read More

Pour List Preview | Can’t-Miss Beers at the 2024 Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival

Among all of the innumerable reasons why the Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival sits firmly atop the pantheon of the nation’s best beer festivals, it would be irresponsible to ignore the most obvious element… the beer. Throughout the years, brewmaster, Matt Brynildson and the Firestone Walker team have spared no expense in ensuring the best festival-going experience, not just for attendees, but more importantly for the world’s best brewers.

Read More

Bean to Barstool Podcast | How to Host a Beer & Chocolate Pairing at Home

Bean to Barstool host David Nilsen’s new book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together is out now. In honor of the release, David talks in this latest episode of Bean to Barstool about how to host a beer and chocolate pairing at home. How do you plan it, how do you guide the event itself, and how do you give your friends a memorable evening with beer and chocolate? We’ve got you covered.

Read More

Growing Change: Small Growers Adapt to a Shifting Craft Beer Market

Craft beer grew at an impressive rate in the decade preceding the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, from 1,813 U.S. breweries in 2010 to 9,092 in 2020, according to the Brewers Association. As it grew, it pulled a number of supporting industries up with it, perhaps most notably small-scale ingredient growers and suppliers. The number of small hop farms in the U.S. increased from 68 in 2007 to 817 in 2017 (according to figures published by Penn State University), and member count of the Craft Maltsters Guild grew from eight companies when the guild was founded in 2013 to 67 by 2022.

Read More

Colorado’s Best Kölsch Blind Tasting Presented by On Tap Credit Union

Warmer days are rolling in and one of the best beers to pair with the sunshine is a good ol’ Kölsch! Thus, it was the perfect time to conduct the latest blind tasting to find some of the best Kölsch style beers made by breweries in Colorado.

Read More

2024 Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival Adds Local Flare to Up Its Fest Experience

The Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival has perennially proven why it endures as one of the country’s premier craft beer festivals. Elements that have distinguished it above the thousands of other festivals that take place each year range from the festival’s carefully curated list of participating breweries along with brewers/founders who make the trip to interact with attendees, its stellar lineup of food purveyors, dishing out all-you-can-taste high-level culinary bites ranging from charcuterie to lobster rolls, mac and cheese to artisan ice creams, its inherent advantages of showcasing one of the country’s preeminent brewing campuses located in the picturesque setting surrounded by the natural splendor of wine country, special festival-only Firestone Walker beers; with too many more to list.

Read More