Maine Beer Company | Dinner & Second Dinner

When discussing pioneers of the craft beer industry, one name that rightfully comes up every time is Maine Beer Company. Founded in 2009 by brothers Dave and Daniel Kleban, Maine was built on the idea of creating beers that ignored market research and instead ran on a well-brewed product that was done right. It was the hope that people would enjoy their beers enough to keep coming back. The rest is history. Read More

Colorado Beer Beat | Bi-Weekly Beer Release Guide 5/18

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.

If you didn’t already know, we’re in the middle of American Craft Beer Week. What better way to celebrate in The State of Craft Beer than heading down to your favorite brewery for a pint? Can’t decide which brewery you’d like to head to? Why not check out one of the 19 different World Beer Cup medalists nearby?

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56 Brewing | ‘Ssippi Squeeze IPA

With the warm summer months coming up, it’s time to take a closer look at a light, refreshing, citrusy IPA that is readily available in the Twin Cities for those long days on the lake. The IPA in question? ‘Ssippi Squeeze IPA from 56 Brewing.

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Strange Craft Beer | Strange Fest Oktoberfest

Denver’s Strange Craft Beer added Strange Fest to its list of competition-winning beers, picking up a silver medal at the recent World Beer Cup. The Oktoberfest-style brew medaled in the German Maerzen or Franconian Rotbeer category. Read More

Craft Beer Recycling Guide

It’s no secret that getting fresh, tasty brews to craft beer lovers takes a lot of packaging and there are various opinions on what is and isn’t recyclable. Our craft beer recycling guide takes the guesswork out of the process so that we can all make our empties more useful. Read More

Melvin Brewing’s St. Louis Location Changes Ownership & Launches Renaming Campaign

Since the Roadhouse Brewery Group completed its acquisition of Melvin Brewing Co. last December, the future of Melvin Brewing’s Eureka location in the St. Louis area has been uncertain. This week, both Melvin Brewing & the St. Louis Brewers Heritage Foundation revealed new details on the future of Melvin Brewing Eureka.

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Mortalis Brewing | Peach Brandy Leto

Mortalis Brewing out of Avon, NY, has been making a lot of noise recently in the world of craft beer. Whether it be their smoothie-style Sours or their big and brooding barrel-aged offerings, this talented group have proven exactly why they belong in the conversation of being one of the best young breweries in the country. For this Mother’s Day, there may not be a better beer to open to honor mothers everywhere than the Peach Brandy Barrel-Aged Leto Imperial Stout.

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Crystal Springs Brewing Celebrates Historic 13th Anniversary

The number 13 has appeared repeatedly throughout the history of Crystal Springs Brewing. Co-owner Tom Horst was born on the 13th. His son was born on the 13th. Multiple other family members were born on the 13th. The opening day for the brewery was May 13, 2010. When they were poised to open their first taproom, they closed on the property on the 13th, a date randomly set by the title company. That taproom — guess how far it was from their original brewery / home? 13 miles. With their approaching 13th anniversary, Crystal Springs has proved that 13 does not have to be an unlucky number and can in fact turn a garage homebrew operation into a successful commercial brewery.

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Deschutes Brewery | Symphonic Chronic Double Dank IPA

Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery isn’t letting up on its continual pushing of the boundaries thanks to its pilot brewhouse. Their latest release, Symphonic Chronic Double Dank Imperial IPA, is a blend of West Coast kettle hopping and East Coast dry hopping, resulting in a beer that gives IPA lovers the best of both worlds.

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BREAKING | 2023 World Beer Cup Results Announced

For the first time in its 14 competition history, the World Beer Cup has shifted from taking place every other year to becoming a yearly event.

This year’s World Beer … Read More

Colorado Breweries Win Big at 2023 World Beer Cup Awards

In the first year that the Brewers Association moved the 2023 World Beer Cup to a yearly event, Colorado breweries came out and had themselves a massive showing. Often referred … Read More

Three Chicago Breweries Launch the Brewer’s Triangle

Chicago is well-known for its multitude of breweries, and it can be overwhelming for a first-time visitor to try to decide which ones to go to. Certain Chicago neighborhoods have more breweries than some, such as Avondale and Logan Square. Three of the breweries in this area have combined forces to create the Brewer’s Triangle, a newly formed conglomerate of Maplewood Brewery & Distillery, Ravinia Brewing Co. and Metropolitan Brewing.

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West Sixth Brewing | Sun Shade Wheat

Kentucky’s West Sixth Brewing has announced its latest Seasonal Rotator series of beers. Sun Shade Wheat, a sessionable, low-ABV (5%)  American Wheat Ale, is perfect for enjoying in the summer sun.

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2023 Craft Brewers Conference External Events Guild

The Craft Brewers Conference returns to Nashville in 2023. This year in addition to dodging the onslaught of bachelor and bachelorette parties, you’ve also got to navigate throngs of Taylor Swift fanatics. Thankfully the one thing you won’t need to stress over is sifting through the multitude of external events surrounding the Craft Brewers Conference.

To help you break down everything happening outside of the festival, be sure to refer back to PorchDrinking’s roundup of 2023 Craft Brewers Conference External Events Guide.

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Urban South HTX Celebrates 3rd Anniversary With 8 Circus-Themed Collaboration Beers

While Urban South HTX just turned three (in “beer years”) they feel significantly older. They have successfully established themselves in the Houston beer scene, at the forefront of Houston’s ever-escalating fruited sour boom. Created as the R&D branch of NOLA’s largest brewery by volume, Urban South HTX arrived on the scene with more than a pinch of cheek and a strongly anti-establishment identity as part of craft beer’s new guard. Pushing the boundaries of the possible, Urban South HTX is known for their avant-garde flavors, from Strawberry Nesquik and Starburst Gummie to Cheeseburger and Detroit Style Mexican Pizza–yes, these are all real beer flavors.

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Event Preview | Free The Whales Beer Fest

Free The Whales Beer Fest will be held at Resident Culture Brewing Co. and HopFly Brewing Co. on Saturday, July 1. This festival is designed to highlight the industry’s most sought after and hard-to-find beers, also known as the whales! For its eighth year, Free The Whales is hitting the road and taking place in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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Together Is Not Always Better: How Consolidation In the Middle Tier Is Impacting The Future of Craft Beer Brands

For most craft breweries, the trajectory of brand growth follows a somewhat traditional path – starting with taproom sales, progressing to selling in the wholesale channel, and then alignment with a beer wholesaler to grow the distribution footprint. Sounds simple enough on paper, but if you drill down into the nuances of selling beer wholesale, things get complicated very quickly. The US is unlike any other country in the world when it comes to the three-tier alcohol distribution system. Some states do not allow suppliers to self-distribute (sell directly) their products to licensed retail accounts, yielding asinine practices like selling beer to yourself for your own taproom. Some states are also dubbed “franchise” law states where if your brand aligns with a distributor you must endure a contractual arrangement that makes changing distributor partners harder than selling beachfront property in Arizona. And we haven’t even begun to address the large big beer elephant in the room and how many large beer distribution houses are aligned with one of two big players in the US beer market. For many craft brands that are just getting started or fall into the category of small to medium-sized producers, strategizing how to enter the wholesale channel is a formidable challenge, including contending with a host of other legislative, litigious, and anti-competitive issues in the middle tier that have surfaced over the past few decades. As if growing craft beer producers didn’t have enough to contend with these days in the form of rising costs of goods, labor shortages, inflation, and the squeeze from alternative beverage choices in the marketplace, woes like wholesaler consolidation, unfair trade practices, and antiquated beverage alcohol regulations are making the middle tier the next big battleground for craft beer brands. 

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Colorado’s Best Light Mexican Lagers Blind Tasting Presented by On Tap Credit Union

Back with the first of four scheduled Blind Tastings for 2023, the starting style on this year’s slate is Light Mexican Lagers. The goal is to find some of the best Light Mexican Lagers around Colorado. For this Blind Tasting, a group of eight judges evaluated 35 Light Mexican Lagers. Beers were submitted from breweries of all different sizes from all across Colorado.

PorchDrinking’s Blind Tasting Series is presented by On Tap Credit Union.

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Urban Roots Brewing | Pile of Kittens Hazy IPA

It’s not every day you get to order a Pile of Kittens. Finally, a beer that’s just as fun to order as it is to drink. Read More

WeldWerks Invitational Paused, Medianoche Market Introduced

Colorado craft beer fans will have one less major beer festival on the calendar for 2023. WeldWerks recently announced they are hitting pause on hosting the WeldWerks Invitational as they focus time and energy on their largest brewhouse expansion to date. “This is a good year to pause and reevaluate what the experience of the Invitational is and what we want it to be and how we want to keep progressing it,” says Kristin Popcheff, director of events & experience at WeldWerks.

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