Inside Jade Mountain’s Decision to Rebrand As Incantation Brewing

It’s been a brutal past four years for the craft beer scene, so when a brewery’s social channels abruptly undergo a massive rebrand with all past content getting wiped, it’s certainly cause for concern.

However, instead of a brewery acquisition or merger, Friday, Aurora-based Jade Mountain Brewery and Teahouse revealed an unexpected wholesale re-brand, transitioning from its Asian-inspired roots to punk/heavy metal-inspired, Incantation Brewing. The unexpected move also signals a dramatic shift in the brewery’s taproom aesthetic and beer program moving forward.

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2024 Firestone Walker Invitational Announces Brewery List & On-Sale Date

How does the country’s best annual beer festival possibly get any better? Part of the answer lies in the brewery’s plans to expand its footprint by incorporating a month of programming and by adding a fresh wave of exciting breweries.

The Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival is officially BACK! Taking place on June 1, 2024, with ticket sales going on sale this upcoming Tuesday, February 13 at 10 a.m. PST, the iconic festival, which artfully pairs over 60 of the world’s most prolific breweries with over 20 of Southern California’s most impressive culinary purveyors, is primed for an even bigger year.

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Ultimate 6er | Six Beer Styles For The Players To Watch In Super Bowl LVIII

Alright Alexa, hit us with “…Ready for it?” by Taylor Swift. With Super Bowl 58 almost here (add a day if you’re reading from Tokyo, Japan) there’s only one question left to ask: who’s going to be the X-factor in this San Francisco 49ers vs Kansas City Chiefs showdown? To answer that question, we’re opening beers in addition to playbooks. So crack open a cold one and let’s see which beer styles best match up with the “ones to watch” in this NFL season finale.

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Colorado Beer Beat | Bi-Weekly Beer Release Guide 2/9

Welcome to the Colorado Beer Beat, a bi-weekly roundup of all of the new can releases around the state. From Denver to Grand Junction and everywhere in between, we have you covered. Be sure to check back on Thursdays (usually!) to find out what’s new in the Colorado beer scene.

With Dry January over and done with, it’s time to move on to one of our favorite pastimes, Stout Month! Brewers all over the state are releasing stouts of all kinds. Which one’s the best for you? Who are we to say, you’ll just have to go out and try them for yourself to decide. No matter which you pick, we have no doubt that the State of Craft Beer has delivered once again!

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Where to Find 2024 Pliny the Younger Tappings in Colorado

The iconic Triple IPA that has inspired so much fandom and fervor as well as its share of imitators has returned yet again. Each February, Russian River Brewing‘s limited release of Pliny the Younger becomes a major event at both of the brewery’s Santa Rosa and Windsor locations and in the limited out-of-state markets that are lucky enough to receive shipments.
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Downloadable 2024 Bingo Boards for Super Bowl LVIII

It doesn’t matter if you’re only tuning in to catch glimpses of a potential Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce proposal after the Chiefs win yet another Super Bowl, or perhaps you’re looking to re-live your high school prom by making some Love in this Club with Usher. Or maybe you’re just in it for the commercials. Either way, we’re here to help spice up your Super Bowl viewing experience once again with this year’s 2024 Super Bowl Bingo Boards for Super Bowl LVIII.

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Saint Arnold Brewing Barrel-Aged Beer & Cellar Tour

Whatever your passion, whatever the thing that makes the world shine that little bit brighter, makes your heart beat that little bit faster, a glimpse behind the velvet curtain of how that magic is made is an immeasurable treat. Whether you’re my dad touring the Long Room at Lord’s Cricket Ground or my nephew hanging out with the drivers backstage at the Formula One, getting a sneaky peek behind the scenes is what it’s all about. For a dedicated Texan beer lover, getting a glimpse of the inner machinations of our oldest craft brewery—a two-time Great American Beer Festival Brewery of the Year-winning behemoth whose barrel-aged program is the stuff of round-the-block queues—is that trip through the back of the wardrobe into Narnia.

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Slack Tide Brewing Co. | Knockdown Black IPA

A certain style of beer tends to tickle our fancy when it is done well. This style isn’t as common as some more popular styles, but that doesn’t mean it’s not as good or even better. We’re talking about the Black IPA.

We have a great one to talk about today! This particular beer embodies everything a Black IPA should be.

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2024 Colorado Beer Events & Festival Guide | February 2024

As Colorado’s winter kicks into gear, so do the major beer events and festivals designed to keep you warm and cozy. The arrival of February inherently triggers an onslaught of high-profile beer festivals and major events coinciding with the return of Stout Month. For a full list of Stout Month festivities be sure to check out our full roundup which we posted yesterday.

Additionally, we’ve begun rounding up major beer festivals, brewery anniversaries, grand openings, and events to look forward to in Centennial State with a greater showcase of some of our staff picks in the month of February. Be sure to check back often as we’ll be updating our list throughout the year.

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Copper State Beer Festival, Mesa AZ | Jan 13th 2024

Sweaters are being stripped off, sleeves are being rolled up, and hats are perched on heads as the sparkling winter sun permeates Mesa, AZ’s Riverview Park. Copper State Beer Festival is in full swing, and the weather is offering up its desert best for the 5,000 visitors the event has attracted. This is the third year the festival has taken place, drawing beer lovers from across Arizona and further afield to one of Phoenix’s hippest suburbs for an afternoon of imbibement. As Arizona’s craft beer scene blooms like a cactus flower, consumers are catching on, creating space for this frankly huge event featuring 72 breweries, plus a range of cideries, wineries, meaderies, distilleries, seltzer makers, bars and bottle shops. While the focus is firmly on beer, this is an event with something for everyone and an opportunity for local businesses to showcase their offerings alongside high-profile national names. There’s even a skating rink and axe throwing, which beats the heck out of the usual spin-the-wheel attractions beer festivals offer (FYI there was also spin-the-wheel).

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Where to Celebrate 2024 Stout Month in Colorado

You did it! You made it through Dry January! And while a reset was likely needed for all of us, the arrival of February will also welcome the return of Stout Month throughout the state of Colorado.

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80+ Black-Owned Breweries to Support Across the Country

Back in 2020, PorchDrinking released this list of Black-owned breweries, and we’ve recently updated it to reflect new breweries that have opened across the country. While other prolific beer writers and media members like Ale Sharpton and @BlackBeerTravelers have laid the groundwork previously, we also wanted to help highlight the black-owned breweries who are doing tremendous work in beer throughout the United States.  As we continue to reflect on ways to more directly make the craft beer industry a more diverse and welcoming community, one of the easiest ways is by actively spending your money at Black-owned breweries. 

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Horus Aged Ales | Built Different (CrystAle)

Continuing a trend of California brewers developing new Barleywine-based beer styles, we now visit SoCal where Kyle Harrop of Horus Aged Ales has developed CrystAle. This 100% Crystal Malt riff on Barleywine began as a self challenge and morphed into something truly unique, combining elements of several styles into a new barrel aged option in Kyle’s repertoire. Built Different is the first CrystAle Kyle released, giving a peek into the philosophy and method behind developing a new beer style.

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Firestone Walker Adds Two New Mind Haze Variants to its Lineup

Firestone Walker has tripled down on the Mind Haze phenomenon with the addition of two new Mind Haze variants to its iconic Hazy IPA family.

Introducing Mind Haze Brain Melter, … Read More

Kicking 2024 Off with Indeed Brewing

With a slew of closures in the craft beer world in 2023, it’s always great to watch a brewery flourish. Indeed Brewing Company, with taprooms in both Minneapolis and Milwaukee, had a huge 2023. Not only were its flagship beers, Flavorwave IPA and Pistachio Cream Ale, big hits in its market, but it donated over $50,000 to various nonprofit organizations in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

PorchDrinking chatted with chief business officer Ryan Bandy, who was appointed to the role in 2023 after over 10 years with the brewery, including as director of experiences.

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Craft Culture X | Thai One On Lemongrass-Basil Blonde Ale

The beer scene in Texas is in a state of flux, with multiple closures, including many fan favorites, leaving drinkers reeling and owners uncertain as to what the future holds. Against this precarious background, the opening of Houston’s Craft Culture X is a beam of positivity for the industry for multiple reasons.

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Butchertown Brewing Announces All-Star 2024 Collaboration Lineup

If it’s true that you can judge a person by the company they keep, then it’s likely you can also judge a brewery by the company with whom they collaborate.

Like many emerging innovative craft breweries, Louisville, KY’s Butchertown Brewing, has adopted the philosophy of utilizing collaborations as a means to not only further hone their craft, but to also build greater relationships with other like-minded breweries that share similar philosophies and stylistic focus.

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Roasty & Alcohol-Free | Brewing Non-Alcoholic Stouts

While Stouts and other dark beer styles can be enjoyed any time of year, their comforting roast flavors of chocolate, coffee, toast, and burnt caramel provide a cozy accompaniment to the winter season. Many non-alcoholic (NA) producers are brewing NA Stouts both as seasonal releases and year-round core offerings. Brewing these styles without alcohol presents unique production challenges.

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Goldfinger Brewing Company | Vienna Lager

In the words of a late, great hip-hop artist, “Lager Lager Lager can’t you see, sometimes your crisp just hypnotizes me.” He didn’t exactly say those words, but we like to think he would. As it turns out, it’s just us. We are the ones hypnotized by a wonderfully crafted Lager.

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Collaborating for a Cause | Alex Reserve

In this week’s installment of Collaborating for a Cause, we switch gears from beer to mead. On Nov. 14 of last year, Alyson Schramm of Schramm’s Mead announced an upcoming release to represent their participation in GivingTuesday 2023. In an amazing show of kindness and generosity toward a craft beer and industry icon, Schramm’s donated 100% of profits from its Nov. 28 webstore sales to the Kidd family GoFundMe to go toward medical expenses and future needs. Additionally, Schramm’s conducted a pre-order for custom-labeled bottles of Alex Reserve, its limited-batch apple mead.

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