Blackberry Prairie Wheat | Moeller Brew Barn

Maria Stein, Ohio, is not the first place you expect to find a great brewery. The tiny, unincorporated town in rural Mercer County is home to only a couple hundred people, and the cattle in the area likely outnumber them. This region of west central Ohio, just north of the midline of the state, was heavily settled by German Catholics in the 1800s under the spiritual leadership of Francis de Sales Brunner, a missionary priest who established parish churches in the area. The region is now known as The Land of the Cross-Tipped Churches due to the unusually high number of Catholic worship structures in this rural area. When driving through this flat, agricultural county, you can see for miles in every direction, and no matter which way you turn, a tall steeple is silhouetted against the horizon. However, just outside of Maria Stein sits Moeller Brew Barn.
Read More

Harmony Brewing Company | Los Conejos

When a beer stands out to me, it is usually because the brewer has taken the time to think about how that beer will be received by his or her customers. Too often, brewers, in a bid to stay on trend or create a beer that shocks or hits the scene running, don’t consider whether or not the end product will be something their customers will enjoy. Seldom does Harmony Brewing Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan fall into that trap. Of all our local breweries (and there are more than 50), their beers are the most complex, thoughtful and well-constructed. This is never more apparent than with their winter warmer Los Conejos, a nitro sweet stout designed around Mexican hot chocolate with a little extra heat.

Read More

Land Grant Brewing | Beard Crumbs

You can’t deny the prevalence of beards that exist in the craft beer world. I’ve got one, so I can’t really complain or dispute the association. Sometimes I wonder if some get into craft beer just to justify their beard. Well, Land Grant Brewing Company isn’t afraid to express its love of beards either, and they’ve done just that with their winter seasonal Beard Crumbs Oatmeal Stout.

Read More

Fast Facts on Surly Brewing’s First-Ever Variety Pack

Coming off a strong 2017, Minnesota’s Surly Brewing is betting on its growing momentum with the release of an ambitious 2018 release calendar. Along with two new year-round offerings, Hopshifter IPA and +1 Golden Ale, Surly also intends to appeal to the curiosity of the average craft beer drinker with their new Innovation Series, which will feature the likes of Damien and Furious Black in tall boys, and the announcement of their first-ever Variety Pack. The Variety Pack has become a popular format for other large Midwest brewers like Revolution and Summit, so it makes sense that Surly would dip their toes into this popular packaging venue. Here are the details.

Read More

Midwest Drinking 2018 | Mark Twain Brewing News

As we finish up another year of beer, it’s time to look ahead to what we’ll be pouring, sipping and loving around the Midwest in 2018.  I’ve reached out to a few of our town’s best brewers to see what we can expect from them in the next Year of Beer.

Up in Hannibal, MO, the team at Mark Twain Brewery is gearing up for some serious growth. Read More

Inside the Tank | Open Outcry Brewing

One day on Twitter I asked our followers which brewery we should visit for the next Inside the Tank. Almost immediately my notifications went off with people telling me to visit Open Outcry Brewing. I’ll admit I had never even heard of the brewery, but the support they got on Twitter got me curious.

Read More

Event Preview | Brewery Band Ballyhoo

Oh sure, you’ve let brewers please your palate and provide love to your liver, but have you ever let them entertain your ears? That’s what the Brewery Band Ballyhoo is all about. On February 2, for $10 (or $50 VIP), you can watch those brewers or brewing staff members get on stage and battle for the Ballyhoo Gold Record — your vote to determines the winner!

Although, in truth, the real winner is the Alliance for the Great Lakes. Proceeds will go the organization dedicated to keeping our Great Lakes pure. If you like beer, that should be important to you.

Read More

Listermann Brewing Co. | New England IPAs

What do rappers, polar bears and New England all have in common? Did you guess big furry coats? Although accurate, the correct answer is that these three things are being brought together by Listermann Brewing’s deliciously new line up of New England IPAs (NEIPA).

Read More

Great Lakes Brewing Company | Holy Moses White Ale

As a wee lad of 21, I waltzed into the Great Lakes Brewing Company brewpub before a baseball game with my family, and I was able to buy a beer there legally for the first time in my life. This was a wildly new experience for me, as all I had encountered in the past had been Budweiser, MGD and similar beverages. Craft beer was uncharted territory. Therefore, as I stood there with a much larger selection, I opted for something I never bothered to try before, a beer whose label stood out from the others, a beer named after the founder of the city of Cleveland: Holy Moses White Ale.

Read More

Tribes Beer Co. | A New Space Emblematic of an Evolving Industry

A principal attribute of craft brewing involves the confluence of creativity and tradition. The summer ‘18 opening of the newest Tribes Beer Company location—a brewhouse, tasting room and beer garden—exemplifies that characteristic. Tribes draws on tradition while simultaneously adapting to an ever-evolving beer industry.
Read More

Summit Brewing Adjusts to the New Age of Craft Beer

Minnesota can attribute a lot of its craft beer heritage to St. Paul-based Summit Brewing. Founded in 1986, Summit is Minnesota’s second oldest brewery behind Schell’s, with beers like its Summit EPA being a stalwart on local shelves for decades – even before “craft” preceded its title. Now, Minnesota and the larger Midwest markets are shifting. The Land of 10,000 lakes has 150 local craft brewers, which has led to a dramatic increase in competition from newcomers like Surly and Fulton. Summit felt the pains of this competition firsthand, as they recently announced layoffs amidst a decrease in production. So, how does Summit plan to rebound? We asked Summit’s PR/Content Coordinator, Brendan Kennealy, to find out.

Read More

Off Color Brewing | Coffee Dino S’mores with Dark Matter Coffee

Over the past three to four months Chicago has seen a plethora of great coffee stouts released from local breweries. Off Color Brewing’s Coffee Dino S’mores made with Dark Matter coffee continues the boom we’ve seen of java-forward beer.

Read More

Brewery Showcase | LaGrow Beer Co. Organic Craft Beer

Don’t think of LaGrow Beer Company as an organic brewery; think of it as a family-owned brewery dedicated to using the purest ingredients imaginable, from soil to suds.

At LaGrow, the ingredients used are pure, which results in a beer abound in flavor and exceptionally crisp, clean and fresh. Even if one doesn’t care about ingesting chemicals, the resultant flavor derived from chemical-free ingredients is sure to please any beer drinker, from beer geek to macro fan.   Read More

Surly Brewing Sees Longevity in the Chicago Market

While Surly Brewing resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota, its second home lies within the Windy City. In a move to meet growing demand in the Chicagoland area, Surly is shifting its distribution relationship from Windy City Distributing to Lakeshore Beverage, which also distributes the likes of Bell’s, Founders and AB-InBev’s High End group to the Chicago region. While the shift in local distributors might not seem like much on its face, it’s actually an intriguing signal of Surly’s larger Midwest strategy and emphasis on gaining market share in Chicago.

Read More

21 Year-Round Chicago Craft Beers Worth Trying

A lust for special release beers has increasingly dominated beer geek culture the last few years, and an abundance of Chicago beer drinkers share that trait. But, what about signature brews? While it’s fun to post pictures of whales on social media, flagships pay a brewery’s bills and their quality ultimately determine a brewery’s fortune.

It’s likely that nearly all of nearly 200 Chicago-area breweries have one or two (or more) beers worthy of making this list. And, you can be sure that we writers left a few of our favorites off this list, too. Nonetheless, we feel that these 21 beers are ones you should not miss in 2018.

Read More

Saugatuck Brewing Co. | Oak Wizard Oak Aged Imperial Brown Ale

Winter time used to be a bit problematic for this outside-day-drinking, IPA-loving, oak-aged-avoiding lady. I could never “find” something I liked. For a long time, I thought it was the beer’s fault. The truth is, I wasn’t so much searching for beers as I was avoiding styles that had failed me in the past. I hadn’t realized that times had changed and that brewers were getting savvy to the ins and outs of wood aging and making some stellar concoctions. Once I made that realization, I decided to give wood-aged brews another chance. Happily, I found plenty of good ones out there, including Saugatuck Brewing Company’s Oak Wizard, an oak aged imperial brown ale.

Read More

Crystal Lake Brewing | 2016 & 2017 Boathouse Reserve

As the days get shorter and the temperatures continue to drop, I continue to look to barrel-aged beers to make the winters bearable. When 2016 and 2017 Boathouse Reserve from Crystal Lake Brewing Company showed up on my front door I was excited to open them up.

Read More

16 St. Louis Beers That I Loved in 2017

2017 was a banner year for St. Louis beer, and I say this based on how much of it I drank. Between festivals and brewery visits, my Untappd account topped 200 different beers in 2017. Is that a lot of beer? It is for me, but who is really counting?

Read More

Sprecher Brewing Company | Winter Lager

Like many of you, I get a lot of beers and beer accessories for Christmas. This year my boyfriend went with a monthly beer club – with the extra promise he won’t have more than 2 of the 12 every month. As a bonus, they were nice enough to deliver before my PorchDrinking deadline, so I get to share my haul with you guys! While I was familiar with one of the breweries from the east coast, the club introduced me to Sprecher Brewing Company and their Winter Lager.
Read More

Our Favorite Chicago Beers From 2017

2017 will undoubtedly go down as the year of the tap room for Chicago craft beer. Big names that have become synonymous with beer in the city finally opened their doors to the public. Off Color Brewing, Metropolitan Brewing, Maplewood and Half Acre’s new production facility are just to name a handful of places you can now go drink where you couldn’t before. Read More