Event Recap | Deer Creek Malthouse’s Malt-A-Palooza

You couldn’t have asked for a better setting. An idyllic hillside farm—complete with sheep and a horse—is the perfect place to celebrate the harvest and crafting of one of beer’s most important ingredients: malt. Malted grain imbues beers with sweetness, chocolatey notes and bready, biscuity flavors. Without malt, wort wouldn’t contain any sugar for the yeast to convert into alcohol. In today’s “drink local” craft beer scene, shouldn’t beer contain local ingredients, instead of just being brewed locally? Deer Creek Malthouse’s Malt-A-Palooza sought to celebrate that exact idea and succeeded.
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Shipyard Brewing Co. | Pumpkinhead & Spiced Rimmer

Maine’s Shipyard Brewing Company wants you to call it a comeback. The brewery has a bold goal for its seasonal, 20-year-old pumpkin beer: Grow sales, despite consumers experiencing pumpkin burnout. (Maple, right? That’s the new, trendy flavor of fall 2017?) Read More

Event Preview | Deer Creek Malthouse’s Malt-A-Palooza

Malt is one of the most important ingredients in beer, and Deer Creek Malthouse is throwing a shindig to celebrate the craft of malting grain. Deer Creek’s Malt-A-Palooza aims to blow your mind and dazzle your palate with malt-inspired food, beer and spirits from their customers and friends. Read More

Double Nickel Brewing Company Rebrands as Second Anniversary Approaches

After nine months of careful planning, Double Nickel Brewing Company of Pennsauken, NJ finally unveiled its upcoming rebrand with a clean website, bold packaging, and tasting room updates in the works. The aesthetic is simple and modern while incorporating elements of vintage design. The result? A feeling of both novelty and nostalgia.

With a goal of “bridging vision and tradition” and a core series comprised of modern-brewed versions of classic beer styles, the new look more effectively conveys the personality and mission of the brewery—making beer that transcends the generational taste differences.

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Brewery Ommegang | Hennepin Farmhouse Saison

Within the craft beer culture, there is this quest to get your hands on the next great beer. To search and find those rare tappings or trendy styles requires strategy. This never-ending adventure to figuratively and literally quench that thirst, in itself, is enjoyable and opens a door for you to make new friends, memories and drink some phenomenal beers. This has helped drive the growth of the booming industry and encourages positive creativity among brewers. Although once I have tasted and checked a specific beer in on Untappd, the short-termed memory fades into the abyss and I am immediately on to the next one. That is why I like to take a step back every once in a while, revisit my roots and remind myself of why I even wandered down this trail in the first place. Read More

New Yards Brewery & Taproom To Open in Philadelphia

This November, Yards Brewing Company will expand into a new location in Philadelphia’s beer-savvy Northern Liberties neighborhood. Located at 500 Spring Garden Street and called Yards Brewery and Taproom, this expansion provides a new 70,000-sqare-foot facility to produce their approachable ales and lagers. Yards was already one of the most recognizable craft beer brands in the city, but the move to this facility – located only blocks from the historic Liberty Bell – helps to cement their reputation as “Philadelphia’s Brewery”.

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Flying Fish Brewing Co. | Exit 3 Blueberry Braggot

“As any swalwe sittynge on a berne. Therto she koude skippe and make game, As any kyde or calf folwynge his dame. Hir mouth was sweete as bragot or the meeth, Or hoord of apples leyd in hey heeth.” – The Miller’s Tale, from the Canterbury Tales.

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Growth is All Local in Virginia

Expansion means something specific in Virginia’s beer counties, which both encircle Washington, D.C. and span to verdant farmland.

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Event Preview | Pottstown Brew Fest 2017

The Pottstown Brew Fest is back for another year of celebrating craft beer, wine, cider, food and great music.  The award-winning fest is returning to Pottstown Saturday, October 28 but it will be held at a new location — the Norco Fire Company.  From 12-4:30 p.m., guests can sample beer and cider from some of the finest craft brewers in the Mid-Atlantic region and from across the United States.

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Iron Hill Brewery Medals at 21st Consecutive GABF

On Saturday, October 7, Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant won two silver medals at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. This brings their lifetime medal count to 47, but that isn’t even the astonishing part of this story. These medals—one for their Russian Imperial Stout in the Imperial Stout category and the other for Solzhenitzen in the Aged Beer category—extend an already amazing GABF medal-winning streak to an unprecedented 21 consecutive years.
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The PorchCast | Ep 42 Sam Calagione at Avanti Food & Beverage

Episode 42 of The PorchCast was certainly a special one. Not only did we have the chance to remote broadcast live for the first time from our friends at Avanti Food & Beverage, but we did so while interviewing Sam Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head Brewery, and one of craft beer’s most recognizable and outspoken advocates.

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Weyerbacher Brewing | Dallas Sucks

Like most residents of southeastern Pennsylvania, I am a Philadelphia Eagles fan. If there is one truth that any good Eagles fan holds above all others, it is the fact that the Dallas Cowboys are the scourge of the NFC East and must be destroyed. There’s definitely someone over at Weyerbacher who bleeds green because they have just released the perfect beer for tailgating at Lincoln Financial Field. They even gave it the perfect name: Dallas Sucks.
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The Veil Brewing Company | Coconut Hornswoggler

The Veil Brewing Company’s is still gathering long lines of dedicated fans from across the United States for their phenomenal beers. Yet, what I really appreciate about them is that even though they are considered one of the best breweries in Virginia; they do not rest on their laurels. They are willing to alter a perfect recipe just to give drinkers a new flavor experience. Hornswoggler has worked as the great canvas to show off their brewing skills by using difficult ingredients beyond what anyone could have believed.
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Other Half Brewing | Double Dry Hopped Double Mosaic Daydream

Now you might be thinking, this guy chose this beer solely because it is so fun to say. While Double Dry Hopped Double Mosaic Daydream may be catchy, this beer has so much more to it.
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2017 GABF Pour List Preview

As the 2017 Great American Beer Festival approaches, I bet you’re wondering what kind of delights you can expect to sample on the festival. A hazy IPA from that Vermont brewery that doesn’t distribute in your state? A rare whale stout aged in the most fantastic of barrels? A wild, enamel-stripping sour ale full of hand-picked snozberries? PorchDrinking has you covered!

GABF Routes: Big Beers | Funk, Sours & Wilds | Hoppy Beers

(More: 38 Can’t-Miss Colorado Events During GABF)

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Free Will Brewing Company | Micromanager

It’s that time of year again. The time where nights start to become longer and the leaves change to vibrant colors that make for ideal Instagram posts. But before you throw on your scarf, go apple picking, and stock up on your favorite pumpkin beers, remember that there are still warms days left as summer slowly fades out of the picture. And that means still time to enjoy those crushable, refreshing beers while soaking in the sunshine!

Free Will Brewing Company, located in Bucks County north of Philadelphia, has gained a loyal fan base thanks in part to the impressive lineup of sour and barrel aged brews they produce. But that doesn’t mean you should sleep on their more available year-round offerings, including Micromanager. Read More

Dogfish Head Brewery | Namaste White Belgian-Style Witbier

It’s no coincidence that all of my favorite breweries are independently owned. Not only is Dogfish Head Brewery just that, it’s also still family-controlled! They make quite a few of my favorite beers, and Namaste White is one of those. It will come as no surprise to anyone who’s met me, but Belgian style white ales are probably my most favorite varietal. Of course the fact that Dogfish Head brews “off-centered ales for off-centered people” also appeals to me, naturally.

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Tröegs Independent Brewing | Hop Knife Harvest Ale

Tröegs Independent Brewing holds a special place in my heart. I had enjoyed trying new beers since I studied abroad in Germany around the turn of the century, but a visit to the Tröegs production brewery in Hershey, Pennsylvania is at the epicenter of my ever-blossoming beer geekery.  In the five years since that visit, I’ve enjoyed watching their beer lineup change and evolve. With roots in Tröegs’ Scratch program and a new home in the Hop Cycle Seasonal lineup, Hop Knife Harvest Ale is a beer that I’ve been enjoying since its first wide release.
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Brew Gentlemen | Pure Powerplant

I worked the night shift for the last six years of my Medical Technology career, which included many negatives: living an opposite schedule from your family and friends, sleep is completely messed up and you constantly feel tired — and that’s just the start. However, my schedule also allowed me to visit craft breweries on release days and beat the crowds, which was the case with the release of Brew Gentlemen Pure Powerplant IPA.

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The Alchemist | Petit Mutant

While I was traveling throughout New England this summer, it made me realize one thing – I love it there. Somehow everything within those upper states – their seafood, their mountains and especially their beer – is picturesque and fantastic. Because of this, it should come as no surprise that when it comes to brewing beer, New England breweries don’t mess around.
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