Independence Brewing Company | Cowboys from Helles

Austin-based Independence Brewing Company just announced the release of their newest seasonal — a Munich-style Lager inspired by Pantera’s “Cowboys from Hell.” According to head brewer Brannon Radicke, “We listened to a lot of Pantera while making that beer, so it’s kind of infused with that attitude.”
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The Commons Brewery & Epic Brewing | Common Interests

Whether its music, art, film or food, we are fans of a good collaboration—with no exception when it comes to beer. With the steady rise in craft beer popularity, numerous collaborations between so many like-minded individuals in our community is inevitable. Particularly, The Commons Brewery from Portland and Denver’s Epic Brewing took on a collaboration in a fun and interesting way. While each brewery selected an adjunct ingredient native to their location, they created something unique and tasty. The Commons Brewery brought Oregon red winter wheat and Epic Brewing choose Colorado honeydew melon; together they created a sour ale called Common Interests.
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Streetside Brewery | #blessed NE IPA

When you think of Ohio craft beer, much of the time you might think of the brewers up north in Cleveland — where Great Lakes, Fat Head’s, Platform and Thirsty Dog have cemented strong regional footholds. As industry in Ohio has exploded over the last couple of years, it’s the cities a few hours south that are truly beginning to make a statement in the beer scene. Few have ascended quite as quickly as The Queen City of Cincinnati. While big-name Rhinegeist has risen to notoriety more recently, a new crop of up-and-comers are emerging with a variety of great offerings. No brewery has embodied this growth more than Streetside Brewery.
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Stoup Brewing | Mother of Exiles IPA

It doesn’t take a lot for me to crave a beer. Has it been a good day? Let’s have a beer. A bad day? Let’s have a beer. It’s sunny out! Let’s have a beer. Oh no, raining again? Better have a beer. Needless to say, I’m easily convinced. But tell me that I’m drinking for a good cause? Well, then let’s have more than one, without a doubt. This is the case with Stoup Brewing’s recently released Mother of Exiles IPA, which benefits the Refugee Women’s Alliance as part of the Beer Trumps Hate campaign.

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Schlafly Beer | Pale Ale

It saddens me a bit that back in 1992 when I tried my first craft beer — a Schlafly Beer Pale Ale; I did not have the foresight to realize I was tipping back something special. I didn’t know that it would not only mean something to me 27 years later but inspire me to write about it.

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New Belgium’s Lost in the Woods: A Psychedelic Celebration of Sours

As someone based in Denver who makes a hobby out of beer writing, I have what can only be described as an embarrassing confession: I had never tasted New Belgium’s La Folie—or any other of its critically acclaimed sours—before last week.

The gravity of this oversight may be lost on the casual enthusiast, so allow me to explain. For 20 years, the Fort Collins-based brewery has been cranking out some of the country’s most complex wood-aged beers, starting with the first iteration of La Folie, its flagship Flanders-style Sour Brown Ale aged in massive oak barrels called foeders. New Belgium’s is now the largest wood cellar program in the U.S., with 64 French oak foeders and one American white oak foeder all imparting funky flavors to base beers as they mature.

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Polish Hot Beer | Grzane Piwo

After a cold day of exploring the streets of Krakow in January, my friends and I stopped for lunch at a traditional Polish restaurant and the list of hot beverages caught my eye. “Hot beer?!” I exclaimed breathlessly, and immediately ordered myself a large mug. The menu warned that hot beer would take ten minutes to be prepared and heated, so I sat back and began to research this intriguing beverage. Read More

Wooden Bear Brewing | Barrel-Aged Midnight Mauler

One night shortly after my mother-in-law moved to the small town of Greenfield, Indiana, I found myself itching to explore the area. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot in the way of craft beer, but I was pleasantly surprised.

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Abita Brewing Company | Horchata Turbodog

The world of limited releases is vast, and usually you have a good reason to go after them. Maybe you’re so into the brewery that you post up 12 hours before opening in order to snag it on opening day. Maybe you’re attempting to try every rice beer made in the tri-state area and if you can’t get your hands on this you’ll never be complete. Sometimes, like my trial of Abita‘s Horchata Turbodog, there’s just a beer that looks like your pup at the Mexican grocery store you go to to stock up for a snowstorm. No matter what path you take to find Horchata Turbodog, there’s a cozy dark ale waiting for your taste buds to nestle into it.
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Barebottle Brewing Co. | Unicorn Dust IPA

There aren’t a lot of breweries out there like Barebottle Brewing Co. in San Francisco; and when I say that, I mean a brewery that is community-inspired. Barebottle gives homebrewers the opportunity to compete for a chance to have their beer made- I mean, how awesome is that? A new theme is decided and challenges brewers to come up with a beer that fits those guidelines. From there, the head brewer at Barebottle brews up that beer and ta-da! You’ll get some sort of awe-inspiring creation that sets them apart from a lot of bigger breweries.

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Victory Brewing Company | Golden Monkey

Since the risks I took at my local liquor store’s “you pick-6 section” did not pay off, I opened my fridge and saw Victory’s Golden Monkey and thought, “No way someone from PorchDrinking.com has not written a showcase on this beer.” Yet a short search later revealed that this monster of a beer has not yet been reviewed by a PorchDrinking writer.

While I do not have that one beer that got me into craft beer, Golden Monkey was one of a handful of beers that I had during my early days, that showed me how crazy delicious beer can be. So I happily cracked a freshly packaged can, poured it into my favorite tulip and settled in to write this review.

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Fort George Brewing | Cavatica Stout

I’ve been drinking a lot of imperial stouts. Unlike most, I believe every season is stout season. Luckily for me it’s February and I don’t get flak for drinking a 12% Russian imperial stout. The proliferation of adjuncts to the market has been interesting. Brewers adding coffee, vanilla, cocoa, peppers, mint, you name it. While fun for the palate, I still prefer an adjunct-free stout. Let that malt shine, those chocolate and coffee notes should develop alone. One favorite is Cavatica Stout from Fort George Brewing.
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Wynkoop Brewing Moringa Pale Lager Honors Haiti with Special Ingredient

One of the greatest byproducts of the booming craft beer industry is the ability for breweries to utilize their resources as a conduit for positive change in the community. Wynkoop Brewing, Denver’s oldest active running brewery, is one many that have embraced the practice of charitable giving, recently launching a Charity Tap of the Month program. Read More

Baere Brewing Company | Unknown Parentage

Baere Brewing Company had never done an open fermentation before, nor had the three-year-old Denver brewery made a beer using grapes. In Unknown Parentage, they did both—with a dry, funky and all-around delicious result.

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Downeast Cider | Roasted Joe

Hard cider has transformed from a fall treat into a year-round staple in the fridge. And, in an industry saturated with more and more makers every year, Boston-based Downeast Cider continues to flex its cider-making muscles with its unique concoctions. These two factors seem to play a role in the latest releases from Downeast: seasonal ciders that can hit your palette from summer to winter, and simultaneously not out of place. And this is where Roasted Joe comes in.

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Adelbert’s Brewery | Travelin’ Man Intercontinental IPA

Established in 2011, Adelbert’s Brewery quickly became an Austin staple known for their variety of quality bottle conditioned Belgian Ales. But don’t let the old-world style packaging fool you, innovation has always been at the heart of this brewery. With unique beers ranging from the Whimsical series to fruited sours, Adelbert’s is all about taking risks that result in award winning beers.

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Lord Hobo Brewing Co. | Hobo Life

It was New Year’s Eve and I was battling a slew of last-minute beer shoppers. The aisles were packed and I was beginning to have some mild anxiety. I sure love beer, but I hate nothing more than big crowds of people. After battling through the coolers to build a mixed six-pack, I was ready to be gone. I grabbed a 6er of the first session IPA that I saw and got into the long, serpentine line to check out. It turned out that the session IPA in my basket was Lord Hobo‘s Hobo Life.
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Verboten Brewing & Barrel Project | Blood Guardian Imperial IPA

Verboten Brewing & Barrel Project is a Loveland darling, known for taking risks and creating innovative, exciting beers that differentiate their taproom from the rest of the pack. From their Killer Boots Caramel Porter to the “Rollin’ In Ze” series that is compiled of goses that employ flavors ranging from mango to Palisade peach, the mantra that there’s a beer for all is the apparent theme with the tap list. One of the powerhouses that have become a staple in the taproom is the Blood Guardian Imperial IPA, and it’s easy to see why it is so popular.

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Vindication Brewing Co. | India Pale Ale

Vindication—Proof that something is right, reasonable or justified.

Vindication Brewing Co. is located in Boulder, Colorado. Eric Huber, Sanjiv Patel and Marty Lettow merged their diverse backgrounds with similar beliefs in integrity and quality beer. Eric, Marty and Sanj developed the philosophy “Brewtegrity” which comes from the 1516 German Law Reinheitsgebot. Known as the law of beer purity, it mandated that all beer would only be made by barley, hops and water. Purity was as important back then as it is now for these three dedicated brewers in Boulder. They enjoy the purity of their ingredients and are open to share recipes with customers.

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Blackberry Prairie Wheat | Moeller Brew Barn

Maria Stein, Ohio, is not the first place you expect to find a great brewery. The tiny, unincorporated town in rural Mercer County is home to only a couple hundred people, and the cattle in the area likely outnumber them. This region of west central Ohio, just north of the midline of the state, was heavily settled by German Catholics in the 1800s under the spiritual leadership of Francis de Sales Brunner, a missionary priest who established parish churches in the area. The region is now known as The Land of the Cross-Tipped Churches due to the unusually high number of Catholic worship structures in this rural area. When driving through this flat, agricultural county, you can see for miles in every direction, and no matter which way you turn, a tall steeple is silhouetted against the horizon. However, just outside of Maria Stein sits Moeller Brew Barn.
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