Radiant Beer Co | A New Brewery Heating Things Up

It takes more than just a belief in concept to open a brewery during a pandemic. The forces behind Radiant Beer Co. are neither new to beer nor how to connect to their core audience. Read More

Braxton Brewing Starts New Year with the Debut of Two New Products

Braxton Brewing was ready to leave 2020 in the past and start the new year off right. The Northern Kentucky brewery did just that by debuting two new products, a new variety pack as part of their VIVE Hard Seltzer brand and a collaboration beer with a legendary Cincinnati ice cream company.

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Women in Beer | The Women of Pink Barrel Cellars

There’s something about working alongside family that can make things a little easier. When you don’t have to put on a face, you can get things done, you can make things happen, and you can use that to be a success. Generations of farmers know this, embrace it, and pass it on to their children. And sometimes that can lead to new business, innovation and tasty beer. Or, maybe that’s just the case for Grand Rapids, Michigan-based farm brewery, Pink Barrel Cellars.

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Women in Beer | Katherine Valleau of Exit Strategy Brewing

When Katherine and Chris Valleau say they built Exit Strategy Brewing Co. from scratch, they’re not kidding. “When we first walked into the building, the skylight was hanging down from the ceiling and there were birds flying around. Everything had been stripped. No plugs. No running water. Only four walls,” said Katherine. Nearly six years later, the couple has turned that once empty space into a popular, name-brand brewpub (food and beer), frequented by locals and often visited by traveling craft-beer aficionados.

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Brewery Showcase | Bluejacket

A lot of breweries have found success by carving out a niche, focusing on a particular style of beer. Beyond a few other perfunctory beers to round out their draft list, they mostly stay in their lane. So, when a brewery comes along that can brew the entire spectrum of beer styles and do them all well, it is all the more impressive. In the DC metro area, Bluejacket is perhaps the best example. Read More

Women in Beer | Apocalypse Brew Works

Apocalypse Brew Works in Louisville, Kentucky, has been preparing for the apocalypse since it first opened in 2012. The brewery’s name came about from a brainstorming session with co-founders Leah Dienes, Bill Krauth and Paul Grignon. All the good regional names had been taken and they were struggling for a name that would stand out. Seemingly out of nowhere, Krauth brought up “that end of the world thing.” “You mean, the apocalypse?” responded Dienes, who happened to have a label in her pocket she had designed for a humorous beer label competition at the Kentucky State Fair. She had made a zombie-themed label for a beer called Apocalypse Pale Ale. Realizing that it was prime fodder for coming up with all kinds of unique beer names, they decided they had a winner.

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Women in Beer | Stephanie Kushnir of Ravinia Brewing Co.

You already know that Ravinia Brewing is coming soon to Chicago. You may be familiar with their Highland Park location, distribution throughout Chicago, or teasers for their new brewpub. If so, then you should also know the woman behind the scenes, Stephanie Kushnir. Stephanie is Head of Sales and Marketing for Ravinia Brewing. She’s getting Ravinia beer into our fridges and onto our feeds, all leading up to a highly anticipated opening right here in Chicago.

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Port City Brewing Celebrates 10th Anniversary

The Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., are home to more than 60 craft breweries. Each has its own unique atmosphere and vibe. They produce almost every style of beer imaginable and are winning national recognition for their deliciously creative brews. But it wasn’t always that way. After Old Dominion Brewing relocated to Delaware in 2007, this incredibly vibrant region was without any packaging breweries for almost four years. Then, in 2011, an intrepid team of pioneers reclaimed the Commonwealth’s faltering brewing heritage with the opening of Port City Brewing Co. in Alexandria, Virginia.

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The Happy Couple Behind Miel Brewery & Taproom

“You’ll notice he has this laugh.”

That’s one of the first sentences Janice Montoya said about her fiance and business partner, Alex Peyroux, on a stormy Tuesday in January in New Orleans at the brewery they currently co-own, Miel Brewery … Read More

The Love Story Behind Gnarly Barley Brewing

A love story that has spawned a nationally renowned craft brewery, one that has pumped out some of the highest-quality and most eccentric beers found anywhere on the Gulf Coast, has humble beginnings. And no, it didn’t just start with a hand-built homebrew kit in the garage.

It started five years before that, with a gas station-bought fishing rod and a tin of sardines.

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Brewery Showcase | Elsewhere Brewing

From the street, the draw of Elsewhere Brewing is evident and hard to ignore. The vibrant colors bounce off the white brick and the allure of the painted greenery pulls you to a table. Place is a powerful tool and weighs down heavily on experiences and memories. This sentiment is present in the look and feel throughout the brewery. Read More

Right Proper Brewing & Heurich House Museum Revive a Classic Lager

With over 8,000 breweries operating coast-to-coast and everywhere in between, there has never been a better time than today to be a beer drinker in the United States. The energy and creativity of the craft beer movement is undeniable. Breweries are producing elaborate takes on venerable beer styles and creating new styles as well. Whether you like Milkshake IPAs or an Italian Pilsner, there is a beer for you in your local brewery. Craft beer is an undeniably popular beverage. However, beer was even more popular in the US before the catastrophe of Prohibition nearly wiped out the alcohol industry from 1920 to 1933.

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Behind the Beer Scene | Sleeping Giant Explains Contract Brewing

Although it’s one of Colorado’s top five independent craft brewers by volume, Sleeping Giant Brewing Company neither serves nor sells beer onsite. While this may seem counter-intuitive, Sleeping Giant is a dedicated contract brewer, meaning it only produces beer for other breweries–it has no beer brand of its own. Matthew Osterman, founder and owner, recently discussed this important and little-understood part of the craft brewing industry.

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Hop & Sting Brewery | Aluminum Cowboy

January often gets a bad rap — it’s easy to feel gloomy after the holiday fun is over. As 2021 begins, let’s remind ourselves that the days are getting longer, last year’s goals are a distant memory, and we now have the opportunity to make new ones. Thus far 2021 looks a bit too much like 2020: aspirations of travel, trying new things, and meeting new people might have to wait until mid-year. Instead of goals, perhaps it’s time to start working on some COVID-safe resolutions, like eating more vegetables, finishing home improvement projects, and drinking tasty local beers at home. Enter Aluminum Cowboy, a light lager from Hop & Sting Brewery.

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5 Questions with Telluride Brewing on Their New Brewpub & Taqueria

Nestled in a picturesque box canyon and scored seasonally by lush green cliffs or powder-capped mountain tops, Telluride, CO is a magical resort town that remains one of the most scenic destinations in the state. 

Despite the world-class skiing, a multitude of festivals that used to fill its lodging capacity every summer and Bridal Veil Falls, a dramatic 365-foot waterfall that is fully visible from downtown, the town still exudes a relative quaintness due to its remote location–unlike other resort towns like Breckenridge, Aspen and Vail.

Similarly, Telluride Brewing Co., which was founded in 2011, is highly adored and respected by those familiar with the industry while still flying relatively under the radar. Long revered for its signature Facedown Brown and more recently gaining steam for their continued work in hop-forward beers, Telluride Brewing is now on the cusp of its next evolutionary phase. 

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Brewery Showcase | North Pole Brewing Company

The North Pole goes dark for months at a time during the winter months, which also happens to be the time when the indigenous elves work their hardest. The elves, of course, serve the world’s most famous philanthropist, Santa Claus. But, with a harsh and brutal winter comes the need to kick back with friends and enjoy a good beer or two and that’s where North Pole Brewing comes into play. The brewery, and its head brewer Abigail Cornelious, have so far enjoyed resounding success.

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21st Amendment Brewery Celebrates 20 Years

How many breweries have taken this route? Start as a San Francisco brewpub in 2000; add contract brewing in Minnesota to the mix in 2008; in 2015, when the time is right, build the first production facility in San Leandro. Read More

Brewery Showcase | Waypost Brewing Company

One of the most wonderful things about Michigan, given its vicinity to the Great Lakes, is the multitude of mini climates that make the state ideal for growing grapes, hops, wheat and, of course, cherries. However, despite a great deal of hullaballoo over Michigan cherries, it is far from the only fruit grown in the Mitten State. Mirabelle plums, apples, pears and quince are also grown throughout Michigan’s western fruit belt, as well as the luscious and lovely blueberry. It stands to reason, then, that breweries throughout the fruit belt region embrace the blueberry and other fruits as a way to make authentically-Michigan, fruit-based beers from locally grown fruit. Few are more locally grown than Waypost Brewing Company, a farm brewery that prides itself on its ties to the land.

“We define Waypost as a farmhouse brewery, and our beers are created to reflect the place and the people who make it what it is. Whether that’s the water, the fruit or the feeling on the farm the day the beer was brewed, we want our product to be a reflection of this truly unique place,” said Waypost’s co-owner and brewer, Hannah Lee.

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Bohemian Brewery Brings Delicious Craft Lagers to the Wasatch Front

Which Central European country has a proud brewing tradition of more than 1000 years and is the highest per-capita beer-drinking nation in the world? This country’s delicious beers have also inspired many of the craft lagers brewed in the United States. If you guessed Germany, you would be close. But the answer lies just a little further east on the map and a world apart in the consciousness of the typical American craft beer enthusiast.

In the Czech Republic, beer is not just a beloved beverage, it is a way of life. Stepping into a Bohemian beer hall is an immersion into a rich and ancient brewing tradition that rivals the grandest biergartens in Munich or Trappist monasteries in Belgium. Czech brewing contributions include the first Pilsner, the Saaz hop, the perfection of traditional decoction brewing and many others. It’s a Lager-focused culture and Czechs have long made some of the best lagers in the world.

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The Blackest Friday with Black Calder Brewing Co.

Black Calder Brewing, a new brewery opening in Michigan, launches on Black Friday. As the first Black-owned brewery in Michigan, owners Terry Rostic and Jamaal Ewing recognize how significant this is for representation and diversity in craft beer. PorchDrinking chatted by email with Rostic and Ewing to find out more about Black Calder Brewing and what to expect from the brewery.

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