Great Divide Brewing Company | Mexican Chocolate Yeti

Fans of Denver staple and craft beer OG Yeti from Great Divide already know the importance of starting with a quality base beer before throwing a bunch of variants out into the saturated market. With Yeti–one of the most recognizably branded beers in the country–there’s no shortage of variants, ranging from horchata and chai to the beloved barrel-aged chocolate and vanilla Stouts that have made their way onto store shelves at different points in time.

With so many solid variants available in stores, and even more available at Great Divide’s taphouse and RiNo Barrel Bar, how do you pick just one to review? And with so many other beers to choose from in the craft beer market at-large, how does a brewery stay relevant?

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Ultimate 6er | ‘Lover’ Comes to Great American Beer Festival

The Great American Beer Fest is an awe-inspiring menagerie of beer. Good beer, weird beers, surprising styles, and not nearly enough time to give them all a thoughtful pause. It can be overwhelming to know where to start, so we over at PorchDrinking have several different routes that we have planned out to make it easier for those who love specific styles. There isn’t really a wrong way to do GABF (except not drinking water, please drink water) so here is a way to dive in that is more musically inclined.

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MadTree Brewing Co. | El Dorado High Imperial IPA

If you’re as much of a beer person as I am, you know that as soon as your friend mentions they’re going out of town, you’re asking them to bring you back some beer! That’s exactly what happened when I heard of an impending Ohio trip. I absolutely had to get my hands on some MadTree beer, and I was so pleased! You’re going to have to read below to learn more about El Dorado High.

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PorchDrinking’s 2019 Great American Beer Festival Survival Guide

The Great American Beer Festival began in 1982 with 24 breweries serving 47 beers to fans for a single, five-hour session. Today, the number of external events exceed the beers poured at that first fest, and the convention hall will allow patrons to select from more than 3,500 beers. What do you drink? Where do you go? How can one possibly navigate such a colossal beer experience? We at PorchDrinking.com have tried to make the process simpler, writing more than a dozen stories on the event. And, to further simplify it, we have now put all those stories in one location.

First a few important notes on this year’s festival:

• A few tickets still remain for Thursday Night and Saturday Night sessions. Tickets available here.
• This year’s festival format returns to booths being arranged alphabetically by region.
• Attendees of ALL sessions will receive glass cups instead of plastic.
• Thursday Night, Friday Night and Saturday Night Sessions begin at 5:30, Saturday’s Day Session begins at Noon. For first time attendees, we recommend arriving at least an hour and a half before your session to wait in line.
• Don’t forget to check out other sections for hidden gem beers. The Brewers Guild section has guild representatives from several states that bring beers from breweries that aren’t otherwise pouring on the festival floor.
• The Heavy Medal section has beers pouring from past GABF medal winners.
• There’s a Fresh Hop booth with all fresh/wet-hopped beers.
• Several breweries will have special timed releases that aren’t otherwise listed on the pour list. Modern Times Beer, for example, will have a different special release each day of the fest.

Enjoy GABF. Enjoy Beer. Enjoy Craft in all it glory. And here are more tools to help you enjoy the week.

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5 Questions With…Sierra Nevada’s CCO, Joe Whitney

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is an iconic beer brand is steeped in rich tradition. Its malty Pale Ale is a classic while the brewery’s barrel-aged creations, such as its Narwhal Imperial Stout, continue to garner praise year after year. And starting in 2015, the brewery engaged in yet another tradition that’s brought the Sierra Nevada even more attention: Sierra Nevada began partnering with German breweries to brew a seasonal Oktoberfest Märzen made available to U.S. beer drinkers.

Each year’s creation is different; some bold, some spicy, but each notably unique and drinkable. This year, Sierra Nevada partnered with Germany’s Bitburger Brewery on the newest Oktoberfest release, which is now out on shelves. To find out more about this year’s partnership, the proprietary ingredients that went into the brewing process, and what consumers should look for in this Oktoberfest, we asked Sierra Nevada’s Chief Commercial Officer Joe Whitney five questions. 

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Old Nation Brewing | Electron Brown

Last weekend, autumn finally arrived in Michigan in the form of perfect murder mystery type of weather. So, I spent the weekend at the lake calculating the final touches on my plan to do away with my meddling spouse while taking in the gentle stillness of nature. Uh, I mean, um, transitioning from summer to fall beers. Michigan has a glut of great beers and the authentic experience of all four seasons. Thus, we truly have great pairings for every season.

I first got into Old Nation Brewing Electron Brown Espresso Bean Double Brown Ale at a cheese & beer tasting at the incomparable Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor. While I couldn’t accurately describe the cheese, Old Nation’s double brown ale certainly made an impact. Enough so that I scrounged around for it the moment October hit.

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2019 GABF Guided Routes | Fruit-Forward Beers to Try at GABF

This was made possible by Molly’s Spirits, your go-to stop for some of the best local and national beer drops throughout GABF week and beyond!

For the past two months, … Read More

2019 GABF Guided Routes | Sour & Wild Beers to Try at GABF

This was made possible by Molly’s Spirits, your go-to stop for some of the best local and national beer drops throughout GABF week and beyond!

For the past two months, our staff has been researching styles for each beer pouring at the Great American Beer Festival. As part of that research, we’ve sifted through that list of beers to bring you a series of themed routes to help you plan for your GABF based on various styles and flavors.

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Wiley Roots Brewing Company | Vanilla Anonym

Fall is upon us and the weather is cooling off. It’s the perfect time to crack open some stouts and embrace this cooler weather. A few weeks back, Greeley’s Wiley Roots Brewing Company released the long-anticipated Vanilla Anonym, amongst many other beers.

Vanilla Anonym is part of Wiley Roots’ barrel-aging program and has been aged in bourbon barrels for the last 18 months. Those barrels were chosen specifically because they hoped the imparted bourbon and wood notes from the barrels would complement the beer nicely. Mission accomplished.

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2019 GABF Guided Routes | Hoppy Beers to Try at GABF

This was made possible by Molly’s Spirits, your go-to stop for some of the best local and national beer drops throughout GABF week and beyond!

For the past two months, … Read More

2019 GABF Guided Routes | Lagers & Session Beers to Try at GABF

This was made possible by Molly’s Spirits, your go-to stop for some of the best local and national beer drops throughout GABF week and beyond!

For the past two months, … Read More

2019 GABF Guided Routes | Big Beers & Pastry Stouts to Try at GABF

This was made possible by Molly’s Spirits, your go-to stop for some of the best local and national beer drops throughout GABF week and beyond!

For the past two months, our staff has been researching styles for each beer pouring at the Great American Beer Festival. As part of that research, we’ve sifted through that list of beers to bring you a series of themed routes to help you plan for your GABF based on various styles and flavors.

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GABF Spotlight | The Best DC Metro Area Beers

The 2019 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) is almost upon us and with it, more than 4,000 different beers at your disposal. With so many amazing brews to try and so little time, PorchDrinking.com is bringing you the best beers to try in the history of mankind. Or rather, we’re bringing you the best beers to try from the Washington D.C. metropolitan area at the 2019 GABF.

Among Virginia, Maryland and D.C., there are too many good breweries to handle. So we’ve narrowed down the list to the top beers in the area. It’s a tough battle with each brewery bringing the heat at GABF, so start with the recommendation and then see what else they have to offer.

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NoDa Brewing Company | Gordgeous

For some, the arrival of autumn means football. For others, perhaps the ripening of the leaves on the trees—as their colors erupt in flaming reds, oranges and yellows. Others may slave over their Halloween costumes as soon as summer draws to an end. In the beer world, fall is synonymous with the most hotly contested debate in all of craft. Love it or hate it, the pumpkin beer season has arrived. Not surprisingly, breweries aren’t shy of taking a side in this contentious argument, with many taking a stance in the former camp. One of these establishments is NoDa Brewing Company, as it proudly releases its pumpkin Ale, Gordgeous onto its taps.

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GABF Spotlight | The Best Pacific Northwest Beers

Going to the Great American Beer Festival, or GABF, is like going to another giant establishment with  four letters: IKEA. If you don’t have a plan, things are going to turn out ugly. You end up with a shopping cart/stomach full of things you didn’t need, and because of your inability to resist the siren’s call you’re going to cover your home with all sorts of terrible colors.

Here at PorchDrinking.com we’re playing the Jedi to your beer Padawan, guiding you through the overwhelming forest of malts to beer nirvana. Our experts have selected a few noteworthy beers from their region that you need to seek out. So make a list, stick to the plan and do not be distracted by the beautiful celebrities. Here are seven great beers to try, all hailing from the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

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Drinking Through the 2019 Surly Darkness Barrel-Aged Variants

For the second year in a row, Surly Brewing Co. will be releasing a series of barrel-aged variants of their popular Russian Imperial Stout, Darkness. The different barrel and adjunct beers were released at Darkness Day last year and will follow suit this year.

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Fulton Beer | Specter

“It’s there and then it’s not.”

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). An alarming public health crisis, the death-by-suicide rate for Americans has grown 30 percent in the last two decades. In 2017 alone, more than 47,000 Americans died by suicide. The tragedy of the suicide epidemic in the last 20 years seems to have touched all of our lives at some point. Three years ago, it touched the family of Minneapolis’ Fulton Beer.

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Detailed Pour List | What’s Pouring at the 2019 Great American Beer Festival

This was made possible by Molly’s Spirits, your go-to stop for some of the best local and national beer drops throughout GABF week and beyond!

While the initial pour list for the 2019 Great American Beer Festival was first announced two months ago, we’ve gone through the list and updated each beer with detailed style descriptions (as best as available) to help you plan for your festival tasting experience.

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GABF Spotlight | The Best Chicagoland Beers

There will be more than 4,000 beers poured at this year’s Great American Beer Festival. It is impossible to try every beer there, it would even be a feat if you tried 3% of all the beers being poured at the event.

I went through the pour list of every Illinois brewery pouring at GABF this year and picked out a handful of beers that if you’re not from the state, should be on your list to try. Keep in mind that pour lists do change and so I’m going off of what is available on the festival’s website. I’ll also give you an honorable mention beer from each brewery that may not be the most hyped up beer they have, but it’s still worth trying.

Also, know that a lot of breweries submit beer for judging but don’t make the trip out to Denver to pour their beer. So if you saw that your favorite brewery sent beer to GABF, it doesn’t mean that they are actually going to be there for you to try. Read More

Ultimate 6er | Partners in Craft

The opening night event for the Texas Craft Brewers Festival on September 28, Partners in Craft, is in its third year and has quickly become a favorite among festival-goers. This unique event focuses on the spirit of collaboration among Texas breweries and their community in an intimate setting featuring an equally unique line up of beers, food, live music, specialty vendors curated by the Austin Flea, and a glimpse into beer history courtesy of the popular Beer Museum pop-up. Tickets for this event are almost sold out, so get yours today. Read More