A New Business in Bubbles | Schlafly Beer Unveils New Mead Spritzer

Craft beer’s shift into alternative beverages has been one of the biggest trends of 2019. The most notable addition to many brewing portfolios has been spiked seltzer, which appeals to a new subset of drinkers, expanding the brewery’s revenue stream in the process. Craft breweries rolling out new spiked seltzer lines doesn’t generate the same type of headlines it did earlier this year, but mead spritzer? That’s a different story entirely. With many brewers zigging into seltzer, St. Louis-based Schlafly Beer has decided to zag, unveiling Boomerang Mead Spritzer, a new-age beverage that amplifies Schafly’s desire to differentiate themselves from the brewing competition. To learn more about what inspired Schlafly to delve into mead spritzer, we asked Schlafly Lead Brewer Jared Williamson.

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Toppling Goliath Takes on Colorado’s Giant Craft Beer Market

Toppling Goliath Brewing Company announced that the brewery is partnering Crooked Stave Artisans out of Denver, Colorado to distribute staples like King Sue, Pseudo Sue, and Pompeii, as well as limited portfolio of barrel aged beers.

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Crooked Stave Closing RiNo Taproom & Re-Opening Sunnyside Location

As one of Denver’s earliest breweries in craft beer’s early 2000’s resurgence, Crooked Stave has already undergone its fair share of change. Today, one of the country’s pioneers in mixed … Read More

How a Legal Loophole Inspired Two Colorado Brewers to Create a Unique Beer

Good things come to those who wait, right? That’s the case for Colorado beer drinkers, who got a chance recently to buy Where I Live, a mixed culture dark sour beer created in collaboration between two of Colorado’s most esteemed brewers: New Belgium Brewing Co. and TRVE Brewing. Made with 100% Colorado-made malt and lavender, Where I Live is unique both in composition and inspiration. The brewers first discussed making this beer during the 2016 GABF, but it wasn’t possible due to regulations that prohibited brewer-to-brewery tax-free transfers of ‘finished’ beer. As fate would have it, a legal loophole that popped up in passed legislation one year later made the blending collaboration possible and Where I Live became a reality. To learn more about how this beer came to be, we asked Andrew Emerton, New Belgium’s Specialty Brand Manager. 

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Revolution’s Boss Jacket Stars in the Third Deep Wood Release

While the barrel-aged releases are dying down as we get closer to the end of the year, Chicago’s Revolution Brewing still has two more for their Deep Wood series and the third release (of four) happens this Friday at the taproom on Kedzie.

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Little Fish Brewing Talks About Consent

Ohio’s Little Fish Brewing has partnered with a non-profit group supporting survivors of sexual assault to promote the importance of consent.

For the last two years, this brewery from the small college town of Athens has worked with Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program (SAOP) to release Consent, a barrel-aged sour ale brewed with tea. The beer was released on draft during Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) in April, and was released in bottles for the first time during the last week of November.

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Anderson Valley Brewing Company Sold to the McGee Family

The holiday shopping season is underway, and it seems that breweries are a hot item. In a matter of weeks, we’ve witnessed the acquisition of New Belgium Brewing by Kirin’s … Read More

The PorchCast Ep 65 | Raíces Brewing Grand Opening

In episode 65 of the PorchCast, Tristan and Sam got together to talk with Jose Beteta and Martin Vargas, two of the three co-founders of Denver’s Raíces Brewing Company on … Read More

Kings & Convicts Brewing Co-Founder on Today’s Ballast Point Acquisition

When Ballast Point was sold to Constellation Brands in 2015 for $1 billion it made big news. It made even bigger news this afternoon when tiny Chicagoland brewery, Kings & Convicts Brewing announced they had purchased the San Diego-based brewery.

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BREAKING | Small Chicago Brewery Acquires Ballast Point Brewing

Well it seems the billion-dollar Ballast Point experiment with Constellation Brands is over. The maker of Corona and Modelo which first purchased the California-based brewery in November 2015, announced today, … Read More

Karl Strauss Brewing Co. | Queen of Tarts

You know the scene in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure where he’s saving pets from the burning pet store, and he keeps passing over the snakes because they gross him out? Eventually he bites the bullet, grabs the snakes and runs out screaming. Sometimes that’s how I feel about the Sours in my cellar. I know I’m going to drink them all eventually, but aren’t there any Barrel-Aged Stouts I can rescue first?

That’s probably a little dramatic. Just like with Sours, some snakes are pretty cool. I used to have an empty field by my house where we’d go and collect garter snakes to take to school and put them in teachers’ desks. That’s not really relevant other than now you know I was kind of a dick as a kid. I’m sure I’ve outgrown that through the years. Anyway, to push myself out of my cozy, hoppy, comfort zone, several times a year I like to sit down and get personal with a bottle of funky tartness. This month’s offering to the Sour Gods is Karl Strauss‘ fan-favorite Queen of Tarts.

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Chicagoland Best Stout Alternatives to BCBS This Black Friday

For years, Black Friday has been a day for craft beer fans to hunt down Goose Island Bourbon County and its variants. 

But as more and more breweries pop-up, the options for prolific barrel-aged beers are becoming greater and greater. If you don’t want to stand in line or feed big beer’s coffers by purchasing BCBS in Chicago, you have plenty of other options. Here’s our roundup of barrel-aged beers available in the Chicagoland area that you don’t have to wait in line for.

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Old Irving Brewing Set to Release Barrel-Aged Krampus

The brewery that took gold in the hazy IPA category at the Great American Beer Festival is getting ready to release its barrel-aged series this week as Old Irving Brewing’s Krampus is out of the barrels.

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Moody Tongue Opens New Brewpub in Chicago’s South Loop

Upon walking into the new Moody Tongue space, the only thing that would slightly remind you that the building once housed the old Baderbrau brewery would be the stairs you walk up. Otherwise, a full transformation has brought the feel of the Pilsen location to the South Loop.

The new space opened just a couple of weeks ago and allows for owner and head brewer Jared Rouben to finally pair his two passions of food and beer together.

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The PorchCast Ep 64 | Breaking Down the New Belgium Acquisition

In episode 64 of the PorchCast, Tristan and Sam got together to talk through some of the nuances of last week’s New Belgium Brewing acquisition by Lion Little World, Kirin … Read More

New Belgium Brewing Acquired by Kirin’s Lion Little World Beverages

One of craft beer’s largest remaining truly independent craft breweries has become the next major domino to fall in the industry’s on-going saga of mergers and acquisitions. Earlier this May, two craft beer titans in Boston Beer and Dogfish Head announced a major merger that changed the landscape of American craft beer, but today’s announcement may have an even larger impact.

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Asia Rising | Will Japanese Rice Lagers Conquer America?

The race is on within the craft beer industry to meet consumer demand for lighter, lower ABV beverages like hard seltzers and session beers. However, there’s already a longstanding beer style that meets both these tests: Japanese rice lager. Could the time be right for this beer to follow the likes of Sours and Hazy IPAs and become an official craft brew trend? Read More

Chicago Quick Sips | November 18 Chicago Beer News & Events

Quick Sips is our way of highlighting beer events, tap takeovers and other notable beer news around the city of Chicago. If you’d like to submit something to be included in the next Quick Sips, please email us at [email protected].

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The Difference Between Gluten-Free vs Gluten-Reduced Beer

“If someone with a peanut allergy walked into a restaurant and told the chef she/he couldn’t have peanut oil, you wouldn’t hear the chef tell her/him that it’s peanut-reduced and … Read More

All of the Colorado Stouts, BA Stouts, & Variant Releases Through 2019

Judging by the fact that Colorado has already experienced record snowfall in the month of October, it’s safe to say that Stout season has officially arrived. To help Colorado craft … Read More