Celebrating World Pear Day with Mortalis Brewing

The team at Mortalis is always down for a creative new showcase idea. For those unfamiliar with the dedicated fruit holidays, the first weekend in December is celebrated as World Pear Day. When it comes to relating this peculiar fruit to the world of craft beer, one specific name comes to mind above all else. We’ve collaborated with Paul Grenier and Mortalis yet again to feature the most monstrous version to date of their famous Pear Brandy Leto in celebration of one of the most-consumed fruits in the world.

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Collaborating for a Cause | New Image Brewing

It’s honestly baffling to come to the realization that it has been 17 and a half months since Alex Kidd’s shocking announcement that he had been diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic colon cancer. The beer community immediately rose to the occasion, raising over $400,000 for Alex and his family to help with his medical bills. Even after all this time, PorchDrinking still has yet to feature all of the breweries and their beers and/or releases dedicated to the man behind Don’t Drink Beer. That said, we started this journey back in June of last year with Horus Aged Ales’ Stay Strong Alex, and this is now the 23rd installment of Collaborating for a Cause. For this spotlight we zoom northwest of Denver, CO, and set our sights to New Image Brewing.

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2024 Election Night Drinking Game

Oh dear God it’s almost over! After what has felt like an eternity we’ve almost reached the conclusion of this maddening hellscape otherwise known as the 2024 Presidential Election cycle. On the bright side, within less than 24 hours we’ll finally have respite from the barrage of political ads, outlandish celebrity endorsements, and texts from our “friend” Kamala. And while we’ll have to deal with a few more days of anxiety as the results are tallied we thought we’d help make Election Day itself a little more entertaining with a 2024 Election Night Drinking Game.

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Collaborating for a Cause | Relentless Perseverance

On July 9th, 2024, Odd Breed Wild Ales announced the impossible decision to close their doors at the end of the month. The logistics fueling brewery ownership have become increasingly difficult worldwide, and it’s seen some truly talented programs shut down as a result. Odd Breed owner and head brewer Matt Manthe is a true gem in the industry, emphasized by his incredible gratitude to all the support from loyal customers both near and far. In an effort to pay that generosity forward, he announced that the final bottle release that Odd Breed would conduct would be Relentless Perseverance, a massive barrel-aged barleywine created in collaboration with The Hallway Tap & Brew, in support of Alex Kidd and his family.

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Voodoo Brewing | ManBearPig South Park Anniversary Showcase

It may only be diehards who know this, but today marks the 27th anniversary of South Park. The show, which chronicles the misadventures of Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny, has divided viewers with its controversial takes on political, religious and social issues since its first episode in 1997. It has had a lasting impact on popular culture through its boundary-pushing comedy, unique animation and rapid-fire turnaround time allowing for quick responses to real-time world events. It’s even made its way into craft beer. The team at Voodoo Brewing are long-time fans of the influential series, and we thought who better to celebrate another year of South Park with than the crew that brought us ManBearPig.

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Collaborating for a Cause | Narragansett Life Barleywine

It’s been nearly three months since the last installment of Collaborating for a Cause. This newest collaboration with Narragansett Brewing and their Life barleywine is the perfect place to pick the series back up, highlighting a very special beer that had two iterations bottled exclusively for PorchDrinking.

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Beer Event | Strange Craft 14th Anniversary

With huge support from its many friends in the brewing community, Denver’s Strange Craft celebrates its 14th anniversary this coming weekend. Festivities kick off on Friday, May 17 with collaboration beers created with Strange Craft’s brewing friends, as well as one brewed by the brewery staff. Strange will host food trucks, live music and dancing in the biergarden on Saturday and Sunday. Read More

Collaborating for a Cause | Alex’s Life

Our showcase for the Alex’s Life installment of this series has been a long time coming. A collaboration of six of the biggest names in today’s craft scene, this joint effort was an undoubtedly pure testament to the magnitude of togetherness exhibited toward Alex Kidd and his family as he endures this fight with Stage IV cancer. With additional thanks owed to craft beer marketplace Tavour as the outlet used to maximize the release’s scope, this Veil-headlined benefit still remains the largest fundraiser to-date for the Kidds.

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Should You Let AI Recommend Beer?

Craft beer drinkers have long relied on friends, brewery staff and trusted sites like BeerAdvocate for beer advice, but the recent buzz around AI raises questions. Should you ditch old habits and let AI recommend beer? Is the technology good enough to trust with your hard-earned dollars and discerning palate? Spoiler alert—I would wouldn’t scrap my Untappd app just yet. Read More

5 Questions with the Brewers Association Ahead of Next Week’s Craft Brewers Conference

Each year, thousands of industry members gather for one of beer’s biggest and most anticipated events: The Craft Brewers Conference (CBC). This year, the conference will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada from April 21-24. A one-of-a-kind-can’t-miss event, CBC gives attendees the opportunity to learn from industry leaders in 60+ seminars, engage with suppliers providing new products and services to help grow successful businesses, and of course — cheer on their peers at the electric World Beer Cup award ceremony. We caught up with the Brewers Association ahead of this year’s event to highlight a bit of what’s to come – and to provide a few tips to attendees to get the most out of their CBC experience.

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Collaborating for a Cause | For Alex

At the end of May 2023, Wax Wings Brewing pledged their support for Alex Kidd with a dedicated bottle release. This series has always looked to highlight breweries and the benefits they’ve conducted to help support Alex and his family as he continues to fight for his life. As we approach 20 installments to this series from breweries and meaderies all over the country – and even Norway! – we find ourselves back in Michigan to take a deep dive into Wax Wing’s For Alex release.

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Collaborating for a Cause | Wren House Life Barleywine

As this series continues to surge through the spring months of 2024, it’s amazing to note just how many of these recent installments were announced during just the first few months after Alex Kidd’s cancer diagnosis. As we continue to see outpouring of support for DDB and his family, it’s also important to continue to reflect back on some of the first breweries to release dedicated beers in an effort to raise money for the cause. This week we take a deeper look at Wren House Brewing and their Life Barleywine.

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Hair of the Dog | Don Barleywine: A Vertical for Alex

Every now and then, when speaking with—or collaborating with—brewery staff, a truly organic opportunity blossoms. Those who have followed Don’t Drink Beer for a long time know that not only has Alex Kidd always championed Barleywine, but he also took opportunities to highlight the beers and breweries that were years ahead of their time as industry trends evolved. One brewery in particular that has cemented its impact on craft beer history is Hair of the Dog in Portland, Oregon. In a tribute to Kidd as he continues to fight his ass off to beat cancer, we collaborated with Hair of the Dog owner and founder Alan Sprints on a special vertical tasting.

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Collaborating for a Cause | Cerebral Brewing

For this week’s installment of Collaborating for a Cause, we head to one of the Mountain states for the first time in this series. Cerebral Brewing, based out of Denver, Colorado, was quick to show their support for Alex Kidd, the person behind Don’t Drink Beer, and his family following his devastating cancer diagnosis. For Cerebral’s fundraiser, they re-released two high-gravity beers, donating 100% of proceeds from all bottles and draft pour sales to the Kidd family GoFundMe.

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Collaborating for a Cause | Strawberry Arabesque

Like many of the other fundraising efforts conducted for Alex Kidd and his family following the announcement of his cancer diagnosis, this benefit from Phase Three Brewing took place during the summer of 2023. On June 22 the brewery announced their newest Ambassador-exclusive release, Strawberry Arabesque. However in an unexpected move, they also stated that they would be donating a portion of all the proceeds from bottle sales, draft pours and an in-person raffle to the GoFundMe set up for the Kidds.

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Guinness Goes Big with First-Ever St. Patrick’s Day Celebration at Chicago Open Gate Brewery

“Bartender – Guinness please?” It’s an actionable phrase that Guinness brewery ambassador Ryan Wagner says will be uttered more than 13 million times on St. Patrick’s Day weekend this year around the globe. And while the spectacle and celebration concentrated at Guinness’ St. James Gate brewery in Dublin, Ireland is the stuff of legends, local Chicago beer drinkers should get ready for a similar celebration fit for a city that treats St. Patrick’s Day with particular fervor.

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Collaborating for a Cause | Lua Brewing

The outpouring of support for Alex Kidd and his family has been incredible over the last eight months. In particular, when backtracking to those first 30 days after he announced his Stage IV cancer diagnosis, it’s mind-blowing just how quickly so many breweries and individuals banded together to raise funds. Lua Brewing was no exception. Just four days after the unexpected announcement on Don’t Drink Beer’s social accounts, Lua organized a vintage sale offering full sets of their sought-after Destroyer Barleywine, with 100% earned going straight to the Kidd family. Read More

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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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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Great Divide Brewing Announces New Taproom

Denver’s Great Divide Brewing has announced the opening of the Great Divide Brewery and Roadhouse in Lone Tree, Colo., next month. This will be the second location for the drinking and dining concept and builds on the popularity of the original establishment in Castle Rock, Colo., which opened in 2020. Great Divide also has two locations in downtown Denver and an outpost at Denver International Airport. Read More