Cellarmaker Brewing Company | Double Dobis

Photo courtesy of Cellarmaker Brewing. 

ABV: 8.2% | IBU: 86

Cellarmaker Brewing Company burst on the San Francisco beer scene in 2013 and has been brewing some of the best beers on the West Coast ever since (especially their pales and IPAs). Cellarmaker tends to rotate through beers quickly, and rarely brings back the same beer twice, especially in short order.  But, there are exceptions to every rule.

In June, Cellarmaker bottled their Double Dobis beer. Cellarmaker recently started bottling one beer a month, and they are always out of this world. Double Dobis was no exception. Read More

Cape Brewing Company | Amber Weiss

In a small coastal town just outside of Cape Town, South Africa, Cape Brewing Company confidently wades into the infant market of African craft beer. While the rest of the continent shifts from homebrewing or no beer at all, to macro brewing (with the help of SABMiller and Heineken), Cape Brewing Company keeps up with the beer market as we know it, with a range of styles and rotating seasonals to keep craft connoisseurs happy. Read More

Uinta Brewing Company | Hop Nosh IPA

ABV: 7.0% | IBU: 82.4

While exploring craft beer early on, we stumbled upon the higher point brews of Utah’s local breweries. We found Uinta Brewing’s Hop Nosh IPA. In the beginning, it was tough to handle bitter, hoppy beers but did our best trying them in limited amounts. Doesn’t almost every craft beer enthusiast go through the transition of ‘hop hater’ to ‘hop head’? There is no vaccine – once you’ve caught the bug, you have it. The beginning pursuit for the most floral, hoppy, bitter beers in an effort to satisfy your tongue’s need for liquid adventure. Read More

Windswept Brewing | Wolf

ABV: 6.0% | IBU: 50

I’ve been on something of a Scotland kick lately. An excellent recent read, Burning Down George Orwell’s House by Andrew Ervin, got me started. It involves a disenchanted executive who heads for a small island off Scotland to find George Orwell’s house and drink lots of whiskey. While there, he gets caught up with a local werewolf legend. I’m also visiting the island next summer for the whiskey and beauty of the place of course but also for my first alcoholic love–beer.

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Against the Grain Brewery | 35K

ABV: 5.0% | IBU: 25.5

Another summer has come and gone. As we rapidly approach the fall season, you start to see pumpkin beers as the main focus within the craft beer industry.  But for me, it’s all about the stout! I know that you can enjoy any beer during the year, no matter what season it is. However, when the weather gets cooler and the days get shorter, I personally just love drinking stout, such as Against the Grain 35K.

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The Unknown Brewing Co. | Bright Ass Tank Top Gose

In another week, The Unknown Brewing Co. is shipping Bright Ass Tank Top to distributors. I can’t help but think this 4.1% ABV Key lime gose is an ode to the fleeting summer. In a preemptive response to the question of “what’s with the name?”, Andrea Glagow, marketing manager for The Unknown Brewing Co., wrote “… no reason. It’s the end of summer. Rock it until the end. Sun’s out, Gun’s out.”
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Alvarado Street Brewery & Grill | Super Rad!

Downtown Monterey, not the famous Cannery Row with the tourist shops and refurbished sardine-packing factories, was in need of a revitalization.

Monterey, California is a beautiful town on the coast about 100 miles south of San Francisco. The most famous area of Monterey is Cannery Row, a refurbished factory district full of tourist gift shops, sea food restaurants and bars. However there has been a recent revitalization of the downtown district of Monterey, led by Alvarado Street Brewery and Grill. Alvarado Street Brewery and Grill, opened by J.C. Hill and his father John Hill, had a plan for downtown. The father and son duo, together with the Head Chef Jeremiah Tydeman, created a brew pub that brings phenomenal food and great beer together to give guests “the ultimate sensory experience.” ASBG should be on your list of breweries to follow, visit and enjoy. Their canned sours are extremely sought after, each release is a huge success. They typically sell out quickly so if you see them on the shelf at your local craft beer store, don’t hesitate. J.C. Hill, the head brewer, was kind enough to speak with me about their newest release called: Super Rad.
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Manayunk Brewing Co. | Coconut Crunch Porter

ABV: 6.0% | IBU: 30

Growing up most of us got very familiar with the taste of peanut butter; it was put on our sandwiches, paired with apples and hopefully … Read More

Powder Keg Brewing Company | Quartet

This showcase is sponsored by Small Batch Liquors.

ABV: 7.8%

Bottle: Crown Capped 375ml

The Brewery

Powder Keg Brewing Company is a brewery and tap room in downtown Niwot, … Read More

Silver City Brewery | Foxy Lady

If you’re naming a beer these days, you have to make sure it lives up to the name. Anything hoppalicious? Prove it. What are the IBUs? What about throwing in midnight? Well, how dark is it, really? What about sunshine? Tell me the hop varieties first. Read More

Old Bust Head Brewing Co. | English Style Pale Ale

ABV: 5.6% | IBU: 21

Old Bust Head Brewing Co. has appeared on taps throughout bars in my new hometown and because it’s made in Warrenton, which isn’t far from me, I knew I had to give it a shot. At my glorious Harris Teeter, I bought a 6-pack of their English-style pale ale, interested in both the beer but also the beer category itself — I’ve circled around English pale ales, but never dove into the style. Read More

Mackinaw Brewing Co. | Red 8 Ale

ABV: 5.2%

What I know about tailors is from the “here’s what they won’t tell you about tailors” had-to-be-there stories from friends I’ve never seen in fitted suits. I leave work late in the evening to drive to Traverse City, Michigan, expecting early the next day to stand bare-assed in front of a five-sided mirror and a woolen man with circular glasses and pins in his teeth. He’ll shift my inner thighs someplace more manageable, while muttering, “No, no, this won’t do.” Read More

Dogfish Head | SeaQuench Ale

ABV: 4.9 | IBU: 10

Dogfish Head has a knack for marking time — 60, 90 and 120-minute intervals. But, in the case of SeaQuench Ale, it’s not mere minutes that matter, it’s centuries. Five hundred years ago, the German brewing purity law, or Reinheitsgebot, gave birth to the prominence of the German lager we’ve all come to know and love. Sea Quench Ale honors that anniversary by simultaneously celebrating German brewing and ignoring that law.

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Shorts Brewing Company | Soft Parade

ABV: 7.5% | IBU: 15

The mad genius of Soft Parade is that it’s a year-round beer. When you look at that label—which I’ve obsessed over before—it screams a late summer beer (which is why I’m talking about it now). However, it has the heft to get you through fall and summer and a sweetness to pick you up with the blooming each spring. Shorts says they created it to appeal to wine drinkers, and I think they might have failed. Instead, they created a product that can hit the beer drinkers who want sweet and unique, the people who want a heavy hearty ale, and the people who want to just get fucked up (that 7.5% ABV always comes as a shock).

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Monkish Brewing Company | Really Real Double IPA

ABV: 8.3% | IBU: 75

Beer trading has seemingly taken off in the last year or so with the increased focus on limited release brews. Treehouse Brewing and Tired Hands are brewing hugely sought after beers from the East Coast, however a contender has arisen from California, making waves with their own New England style, hazy IPAs. That brewery is Monkish Brewing Company and that beer is Really Real Double IPA. Read More

Wild Heaven Craft Beers | Emergency Drinking Beer

ABV: 4.0% | IBU: 10

When crafting Let There Be Light, Wild Heaven’s initial low alcohol beer, Nick Purdy, says the main question they wished to answer was, “How much flavor can we jam into a beer with about the same level of alcohol as a Budweiser?” With Emergency Drinking Beer, their Pils-style Session Ale, it seems they ask the same question, but take it a step further. It is a mix between a Pilsner and a Gose, surprising and original. The Gose is there, as is the Pilsner, all to the delight of an easy drinking beer that weighs in at 4% ABV, a harmless day drinking brew. Read More

Seattle Cider Company | Golden Tonic Third Anniversary Cider

The craft cider revolution has claimed a permanent spot in the hearts and appetites of Seattleites, and no one is more responsible for cider’s huge boom in popularity than Seattle Cider Company. Hailing as Seattle’s first cidery since prohibition, Seattle Cider’s flagship Dry and Semi-Sweet ciders can be found in virtually every beer bar, cocktail bar and grocery store in the area. Their diverse array of ciders manages to showcase bold, refreshing flavors without tasting sugary or overly sweet.

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Epic Brewing | Los Locos Mexican-Style Lager

ABV: 4.8%

From the first sip of a Los Locos, the Mexican-style Lager from Epic Brewing, you know you are in for something special.The all-too-familiar aroma of lime and salt is the first thing you notice. The tart lime flavor is definitely present, but never overwhelming, and the hint of sea salt seems to cut any lingering sweetness that may be present making Los Locos a crisp and refreshing beer. Read More

Cherry Creek Winery | Dancing Elephants

ABV: 6%

I’m not normally a cider guy. I’m spoiled by good non-alcoholic cider in Michigan, and the different taste just confuses me. However, it’s the only type of craft beer that my boyfriend seems to actively enjoy (that’s in not small part to Vandermill of Grand Rapids coming to the Fall Detroit beer festival last year). Therefore, I ventured this summer in order to find something we can both enjoy. And the search came just in time. As The Rio Olympics pointed out in their bummer presentation, it’s historically hot and you gotta find a non-AC blasting way to keep cool on the strings of unbearably hot day. Delightfully, Cherry Creek Winery has decided to branch out from the grape game and created Dancing Elephants Hard Cherry Apple Cider.

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Paradox Beer Company | No. 40 Pineapple Upside-Down Sour

ABV: 7.6%

It’s no secret that 2016 has been quite the year for sour and wild beers; some even argue it is THE style category of the year. You can’t turn your head in a decent bottle shop without spotting a new flavored Gose, Berliner or raspberry sour blend. It is the key for many breweries to stick out in this new wave of names and labels. Read More