I was drinking at a Brooklyn bar last spring when I first saw the navy blue hat stitched with “LAGER LAGER LAGER LAGER” in a gold sans-serif font. “That brewery sells more hats than it does beer,” a knowledgeable friend told me as he pointed at a scruffy man wearing it. As I would continue to see the hat’s seeming ubiquity at various breweries, beer bars, beer festivals, and the like as I traveled the globe, it became easy to believe that was the case. “When we came up with the branding, we wanted to make lager very cool. We wanted people to see it as something that has value versus something ..read more

American brewers are known for experimenting with all kinds of wild ingredients, from breakfast cereals to tropical fruit, but “wild” usually isn’t meant to be taken literally. Some brewers, however, are looking to the actual wild places around their breweries for their next unusual ingredient, often finding unexpected flavors growing right outside their doors, from mushrooms to pine tips. While foraging for brewing ingredients is nothing new, many breweries are using this ancient brewing tradition to create unique and surprising modern beers. Only Scratching the Surface Perhaps the best-known ..read more

Luck—or lack thereof—can make or break a visit to Las Vegas, but fortunately that rule need only apply to gamblers. The thousands of brewing industry professionals headed there for the 2024 Craft Brewers Conference April 21-24 won’t need good fortune to navigate their way to high-quality local beer. We’ve combed the desert and laid out a stellar septet of Las Vegas breweries to visit when the seminars let out. They all make for reliable starting points, but feel free to venture beyond this “lucky seven” as the craft beer scene in Sin City (and in neighboring Henderson) is on the rise thanks to ..read more

The worlds of beer and chicken have been aligned for ages, but it wasn’t until 2021 that chimaek, a Korean portmanteau for fried chicken and light beers, was welcomed into the Oxford English Dictionary. This culinary coupling of bird and brew is broader than wings and lagers, though—roasted, grilled, and chile-coated chicken finds local Pilsners, pales, and IPAs to fill that bucket. At Shy Bird in Boston, an all-day rotisserie, bar, and cafe, all-natural, pasture-raised birds are transformed into full-flavored spinning showpieces that can be matched with one of six beers on tap, or a dozen by ..read more

France is not a beer country—that’s a fact. France attracts approximately 75 million international travelers every year. They come for the wine and delicious bread and viennoiseries, not for beers as they would be when visiting neighboring countries such as Belgium or Germany. Part of France’s beer history is missing, so much so that historians have difficulty collecting an accurate picture of beer consumption there through the centuries. “Beer, prehistoric and ancient, remains poorly known despite its wide consumption. As the Gauls did not leave any writings, we have no direct testimony from ..read more

Bière de garde is a malty style of beer that is undiscovered to many. Translated to “beer for keeping,” the style was traditionally brewed in Northern France. Comparable to a Belgian saison, this beer is known for its malt-focused, toasty taste, and slight sweetness. Visually, it is clear to slightly hazy, and the color is light amber to chestnut brown or red, largely dependent on which variation it is: blond, brown, or amber. This malt-forward brew’s hop aroma, flavor, and bitterness are low to medium, often with a soft to mouth-coating body. As Cambridge Brewing Company notes on its bière d ..read more

Since the rise of craft beer back in the 1980s and 90s, we’ve seen trend after trend come and go. And as more and more breweries opened and beers were introduced to the masses, brewers needed to find ways to set themselves apart from the glut. So, they tinkered. With beer, you have some leeway to throw ingredients at the proverbial wall to see if they stick. Some do, and some don’t. In the case of this trending style, the smoothie sour, it all started with the original, fruited sour and its similar brethren, such as the Gose. When those trends caught on and permeated all aspects of the craft b ..read more

Imagine this: You wake up one day and feel all of your senses tingling. You aren’t sure what’s wrong, but they’re on fire. No matter what you do, you have no choice but to feel them every moment. That’s what autism feels like to me, and it’s a part of my identity. Growing up, it was difficult to find environments that gave me a sense of belonging. I have had to adapt to various situations that don’t have accommodations for me. For example, some places host music events, which can get a bit loud for me (no shade toward the musical acts themselves). It would be great to have a place to stand ins ..read more

As another year in beer begins to sunset, we thought we’d share some highlights from Craftbeer.com’s year. 2023 sure felt like that old saying: the days are long, but the years are short. We felt that while waiting for Thursday (or was it Tuesday?) to become Friday and oh, we for sure recognize that as we come to the start of 2024. If you’re feeling the same way and ready to look back on 2023, we suggest starting off with this article about cocktail beers. Grab a Sazerac or barrel-aged Old Fashioned and settle into that winter mood. We’d like to suggest a little So What from Miles Davis to rou ..read more

With growing challenges in the beer market and increasing competition from other drink sectors, many breweries are looking for innovative ways to leverage their taprooms and bring in new customers. For some breweries that means opening their spaces to the public earlier in the day. Taprooms have long been community meeting places, and now some are choosing to welcome that community bright and early by using their buildings as coffee shops and all-day workspaces. The Virginia Beer Company | Williamsburg, Va. The Virginia Beer Company recently made the decision to launch a coffee shop and break ..read more