EDIT: I am blown away by all the brewers who have shown up in the comments section to answer questions and check in. Thanks so much to everyone who said hi!
Considering that one of my first posts on this site was a breakdown of the Chicago brewery scene only 11 months ago or so, it’s downright embarrassing how outdated it now is. To sum up–it’s bad; real bad.
The evolution of craft beer in the Windy City has just continued accelerating at what is now almost a frightening pace. It is getting to the point where I am straight-up unable to keep up with all the different breweries in their planning stages, or under construction, or seeking licenses, or simply shopping their wares around town at little tastings and festivals. Everywhere you look, there are people brewing beer and saying to each other “We should totally open a brewery, brah.”
The biggest reason I’m so out of the loop is that I don’t actually live in Chicago. I’m from the suburbs originally, but now work downstate, several hours away from the fertile beer garden that the city has become. It really has been killing me to be missing out on some of these places as they come closer to their openings, but I am at least comforted by the thought of visiting them all at some point in the misty, uncertain future.
Of huge assistance in actually keeping up with this sort of thing are Chicago-centric beer blogs–ESPECIALLY the phenomenal Chitown on Tap. Seriously, without these guys, I would be lost. In this post, I’m going to try to give a vauge roundup of all the craft breweries they listed in a recent “2012 Chicago Craft Beer Preview,” with a bit of my impressions on the new businesses and some perspective for those who, like me, are actually living outside the city. So without any further ado, let’s get to it. Read the rest of this entry »
El Segundo Brewing Company. Home of Blue House Ales
If you read this blog on a regular basis, then chances are that you too have fantasized about ditching the rat race to start your own brewery, but most of us never get beyond the weekend home brewer stage and are forced to drown our “shoulda coulda woulda” sorrows in pints of the latest and greatest regional brew while checking work email on our phones. One man who actually took the plunge and gave up a cushy corporate gig to pursue the dream of making the perfect beer is Rob Croxall, owner and head brewer of El Segundo Brewing Company in El Segundo, CA. His taproom opened back in October of 2011 and has since been well received by not just residents of the South Bay, but also beer lovers from all around the greater Los Angeles area, who flock to the subterranean tasting room on Friday and Saturday nights to watch college sports and have some laughs over pints of Hyperion Stout with Vanilla, or the flagship Blue House Pale Ale with fellow beer geeks. You see, until recently, Los Angeles, a city of over 9 million residents, has never been much of a beer city. It was no problem finding beers to drink, but as far as locally produced brews, LA paled in comparison to nearly every other part of California. This has been changing though, and Angelinos are finally able to drink beers that we can call our own, thanks to folks like Rob. Read the rest of this entry »
Gov. Bev Perdue with the spoils of war, via Mountain XPress on Flickr
Unofficial (for now) North Carolina Craft Beer Goodwill AmbassadorWin Bassett of ncbrewing.org stops by to discuss the monumental announcement that Sierra Nevada Brewing will be building an east coast production facility just south of Asheville, NC. We discuss the incentive package, the practical and philosophical implications the development might have on local brewing culture, the impending New Belgium announcement, the economic benefits to the region, and more.
We also get into some of the state’s other beer destinations in the Triangle , Charlotte, and Coastal regions, as well as Slouch’s impending hero’s welcome* to visit the state’s myriad breweries and bottleshops.
Also of note: Win has been a leading advocate for getting his local legislators to sign on as sponsors to HR 1236 Small BREW Act. Where do your representative stand on this bill that reduces the tax excise rate for craft breweries that produce less the 60,000 barrels annually? Maybe you should call and ask them!
Click below to stream this episode in your browser:
Two Brothers Brewing in Warrenville, Illinois, is geographically the closest “major” production brewery to my suburban Chicago hometown, so when they announce big news, I’m always quite excited for them. Throw in the fact that the brewery’s founding brothers Jim and Jason Ebel share my alma mater, and you get a brewery that I’ve tried to support whenever possible ever since I first got into craft beer. This has included a number of trips to the brewery-adjoining tap house and special events like the yearly release of their DIPA “Hop Juice.”
I was excited, then, to see the brewery announce via its Facebook page* Tuesday afternoon that it would officially begin releasing canned brews. And surprisingly, it’s not even one of their year-round brews or a flagship beer like Domaine DuPage that they’re releasing! Instead, it’s an entirely new beer called Outlaw IPA. It’s something quite unexpected from a brewery that already makes a few different IPAs, but indicative of Two Brothers’ obvious confidence in their product and in their fans.
I know, I know. There are a lot of breweries that have tried to raise money on Kickstarter. I know that funds are tight, the economy remains in the dumps, and we are most likely spiraling towards the collapse of modern industrial civilization. I know all this. Still, you should consider pledging some money to help our friends get Lucky Town Brewing off the ground. Brother Barley and I interviewed them last month, and here are ten damn good reasons for you to consider helping them out.
Plus in a peak oil, post-apocalyptic world, money will most likely hold no value. You might as well spend it now.
1. Mississippi makes Alabama’s beer laws look progressive.
It’s the final frontier for craft beer. 5% maximum ABV. Homebrewing is illegal. Self distribution is illegal. Thinking about beer is illegal. I think. Anyways, it’s bad. What do I look like, a lawyer?
2. There is only one (1!) production brewery in the state.
Lazy Magnolia. I like their Southern Pecan, but this is fucking ridiculous. Portland has 35 or-so breweries. I’m pretty sure this state can support another.
As you’ll likely recall, I had a lot of fun a few weeks ago compiling a list of some of the worst brewery websites on the internet. We live in an age where having a good website with actual, useful information is an inarguable necessity in operating a successful business, so it was fascinating to see just how badly some of them fell flat. Whether it was not being updated since 2006, having no information on the products, or just being an aesthetic nightmare, there was a little something for everyone.
Of those breweries that were listed on my post, perhaps the very worst was a tiny brewery in Riverside, California, called Krash Brewery. The site combines elements of everything that made up my criteria of awful: Incomplete beer information, buttons that don’t go anywhere, garish layout and grating sound effects on any button you click, broken links and what appears to be inscrutable Japanese kanji sprinkled about at random. It’s got everything! Read the rest of this entry »
If you had told me yesterday that I would be reading a headline proclaiming the sale of St. Louis’ Schlafly Brewing in the afternoon and would later that evening be writing why it was a good thing, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. After all, Schlafly is a large company*, one that exists right in the shadow of Anheuser Busch, craft’s ancestral foe. It’s almost inevitable, then, that if you live around that area and see the words “Schlafly bought out,” your immediate reaction is going to be automatic, paralyzing terror that somehow, the AB eagle is swooping in to rend and tear a beloved local brewery assunder. But it turns out I needn’t have worried–or so it seems, anyway.
*The #42 largest U.S. craft brewery in 2010, which doesn’t take into account the 20% growth in volume the company experienced in 2011.
Schlafly has in fact laid out a template for every regional brewery that is considering its own “endgame.” This sale shows that it’s not impossible to sell a brewery without kowtowing to the big boys–that there is in fact a practical way to “sell out right” with respect to the company’s legacy. As covered in detail by St. Louis Post Dispatch beer writer Evan Benn (who was quite helpful during my beer trip to St. Louis earlier this year), Schlafly co-founders Tom Schlafly and Dan Kopman chose to avoid a sellout to a larger brewer like Anheuser, Miller-Coors or Tenth and Blake by selling a majority stake of the brewery to a group of 13 local investors. Read the rest of this entry »
This time of year, it is easy to be pessimistic about… well… everything. Over the last two months, society has just forced us to empty our pockets buying useless trinkets that none of our friends and loved ones really need (unless you bought them beer). New Years Eve is another opportunity to look back on how little you have really accomplished in the past year.
But “always look on the bright side of life!” over the past year, craft beer has continued to grow, and more craft beers from more craft brewers are available than ever before.
I ask you Aleheads, what were the bright spots in 2011, for newly released regular production beers? I don’t want to look back and think about rare limited releases and one-offs that won’t be available again, because frankly it makes me sad. And this post has been negative enough already. Although if a beer was previously released as limited distribution or a brew-pub test, but is now full scale, it counts too.
If this is on your brewery website in December of 2011, that's a bad sign.
This post is going to piss people off.
I’m aware of this even as I begin writing, because I know that at least some of the folks who read it are going to be unable to disassociate my condemnation of a brewery’s website from condemnation of the brewery itself. To those people, I can only shrug in a semi-defeated, exasperated sort of way, and suggest that maybe you’re missing the point.
As I covered in the preceding post on what makes a “good” brewery website, I personally believe an ale factory’s web presence is its single most important public face, particularly if it’s a brewery serving a larger area than just one city or community. Small brewpubs can more easily afford to have a bad web presence if they’re able to connect with their target customers on a face-to-face basis, but if you’re trying to reach people the next state over who aren’t likely to be visiting anytime soon, your website, as a business, is going to be the first place a curious person will search for information. In 2011, this is a fact.
It’s shocking, then, how many brewery websites straight-up fail to give any of the necessary information that a business site should offer—like a list of the beers you make, for instance. Others contain other sorts of failings, from being straight-up annoying or ugly as sin* to being frightfully out of date. Many breweries these days have turned to social media to make up for these failings, participating actively on their Facebook or Twitter accounts and posting news updates there. This is a step in the right direction and a good thing overall, but it still doesn’t make up for a website that fails otherwise. Ideally, a brewery is able to embrace all aspects of its web presence, but at the very least it needs to offer the kinds of basic information I defined in my last post. Customers should leave your site having found exactly what they were looking for—anything less can be improved upon.
After I threatened to inject my Thanksgiving turkey with his witbier, Chris Post, brewmaster at Wandering Star Craft Brewery in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, invited me over for a tour. His experience is a lesson in the opportunities and challenges faced by startup breweries. Oh, yeah–and his beers are awesome.
I had the “opportunity” to travel to Iowa last week, a state so boring I feel bad even making jokes.* In three nights we hit three restaurants and a bar that were nothing short of fantastic for food and beer alike.
*Ok, not that bad. It may be the only state more boring than the one in which I currently reside.
Ok, this is not really a beer bar, though none of us would go thirsty. It is a zombie movie themed burger restaurant, but it is awesome enough that Aleheads everywhere need to know about it. The place is full of zombie pop art, has about twenty or so cleverly-named burger options, (e.g. the Boomstick and the Juan of the Dead), and a milkshake called the Tallahassee (of course, with a Twinkie blended into it). The burger I ordered (named They’re Coming to Get You, Barbara) came between two grilled cheese sandwiches instead of buns. Yeah, I’m going to let that sink in for a sec. Oh, and there were also about ten taps including Bell’s Two-hearted, and 40 or so craft bottle options, which means it was solid on the beer front as well. Nice work, guys. Read the rest of this entry »
There are surprisingly few interesting images out there when you perform a Google search of "beer," "websites" and "computers."
First things first: Let’s all remember what era we’re living in. The year is 2011. The internet is civilization. Craft beer is on a roll like it never has been before. We should all be able to agree then, that in this era, in the world of brewery and beer marketing, there should be one incontravertible truth:
A brewery’s website and internet presence is its single most important public feature. Likewise, it is the primary source of knowledge to beer fans out there looking to learn more about a business.
This is increasingly true the larger the brewery gets. Sure, a small, local brewpub probably doesn’t need a great website, but it sure as hell helps. If you’re distributing beer across your state and beyond, however, well…you’d better at least have a listing somewhere of the beers you make. Consider it common courtesy. Provide me with the most basic information that any normal person would want to know, such as what products you produce. That’s valuable information.
Some breweries are doing this well in 2011. Some are doing it terribly, but I’m saving those offenders for a follow-up post. Before I rail on breweries that are squandering the unlimited marketing opportunities the internet offers, I should talk about breweries that are doing it right, and determine what factors make a great brewery website. Read the rest of this entry »
A business should practice what they preach. This is true for any type of business, but most important for a brewery. Why a brewery? Because a brewery is the most important type of business of all. Because they make beer.
One a recent trip out to San Diego to visit significant-other-family, I had the opportunity to visit one brewery. The fact that I only go to visit one brewery is a shame. It is also a shame that my selections of Carlsbad Pizza-Port and Lost Abbey were overruled, for the simple matter that “no one had ever heard of these places” despite them being within a 30 minute drive. Read the rest of this entry »
Greatness. Define it however you damn well please, but tell me, can it be sensed? I’m not talking philosophically or attempting to expand your mind to accept the unacceptable. I’m talking about plain old senses. Can you touch it? Can you see it? Does it have mass, substance, volume? I’m talking about a word here, a descriptor. Greatness. A word, nothing more than a word that’s used in conjunction with other words. So tell me, can you taste a word? Can you taste a descriptor like greatness? No dammit! NO YOU CAN NOT TASTE GREATNESS!. So why then, while I’m sitting on my couch trying to enjoy the “Greatness” that is American Football, am I bombarded with Miller Lite commercials telling me to TASTE GREATNESS? God dammit Miller, you’ve done it again! Read the rest of this entry »
After Brother Barley’s cool Alehead Nation map of the United States got such a positive response, we received requests to do similar things with individual states, celebrating all the breweries rather than just one representative choice. Without further ado, here is an Alehead’s map to the great brewing state of Pennsylvania. Did you know there were so many? Next time you’re visiting, stop in one of the state’s 70+ breweries and raise a pint to support our local businesses. Click the image or here for a high resolution version. Read the rest of this entry »
Barley and Slouch welcome Lucas, Chip, and Angela from Lucky Town Brewing of Gluckstadt, Mississippi to the show. We talk about the incredibly restrictive beer laws in the Magnolia State, their selection of (as-required-by law) session beers, how they got started, and much more…
Find out what it takes to found a brewery in a craft beer wasteland, how to avoid lighting your yard on fire after a long brew day, getting funded on Kickstarter, the real deal behind Biggs Blacklidge, supporting Raise Your Pints, engaging the homebrew community, and getting the ladies hooked on Oatmeal Stouts.
Yeah, you read that right. Over eleven percent. Mexican chocolate. Imperial stout. That’s what St. Louis’ new Perennial Artisan Ales is making, or to be more precise, that’s one thing they’re making. In reality, Perennial shows every sign of being a thriving new craft brewer that will push the boundaries of the nascent St. Louis craft beer scene. Along with their contemporaries, 4-Hands Brewing, Perennial looks to encapsulate the “extreme” side of the craft beer game in a city that until recently, had very little beer that was truly “out there.”
I was able to visit Perennial on my St. Louis Brewery roadtrip a while back, and I even had the extreme good fortune to arrive on the day of the brewery’s soft opening. I had a chance to take in the place as it opened to local beer geeks and writers for the first time, as well as interview its co-founder and brewmaster, the uber-friendly and engaging Phil Wymore. In all honesty, it was probably the best place I stopped during my two days in St. Louis–needless to say, I was very impressed. Read the rest of this entry »
Houston’s St. Arnold Brewing Company received some criticism last week with the release of Santo, their newest year-round beer described by St. Arnold founder and brewmaster Brock Wagner as a “Black Kölsch”. Looking to capitalize on a dearth of craft offerings to pair with the region’s Tex-Mex cuisine, Santo was in development for five years and underwent numerous recipe tweaks and even a dumping of the 11,000 gallon initial batch. The final product features pale 2-row, pils, Munich, and black malt with Hallertauer Hersbrucker hops, fermented with a Kölsch yeast. Despite the long road getting product to market, Wagner is proud of his newest beer, noting: “While we were a little embarrassed about announcing that we decided to dump our first batch, we are happy with the decision, especially given the beer that we are ready to release now. Our brewing team has been thoroughly enjoying this new version. We haven’t waited for the release date to tap some for ourselves.” Read the rest of this entry »
Pumpkin Ales. You either love em’ or you hate em’. Several weeks ago we Aleheads attempted to concoct a Top 10 list of Pumpkin beers but after a few tired email exchanges we came to the conclusion that no one was overly excited about posting the results. For every hoozah! for the Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin or Southern Tier Pumking there was a collective “Meh” for everything else that was presented. There’s only so much fun you can have in ranking mediocrity so the whole idea was scrapped. So here we are, almost midway through October, with nary a post solely related to the king of Fall seasonal brews. I feel it’s my duty as a born and bred New Englander to end this vicious cycle. With that, I give you Cambridge Brewing Company’s Great Pumpkin Ale! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Kid Carboy Jr. 
