A Place to Gather and Talk
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Brewmaster Ben Edmunds talks about Breakside’s entry for Portland Fruit Beer Festival , Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Beer. The beer is made with strawberries, rhubarb, graham cracker, and whole strawberry rhubarb pies!
Big Island Shandy is one of the most popular beers of the summer, and profits help fight invasive species in state’s lakes and rivers.A war is “brewing†to eradicate invasive species from Minnesota’s lakes and rivers. Lake enthusiast Jason Landstrom fired the first shot by helping found the Tonka Beer Company.
The craft beer company donates 100 percent of profits to help prevent the spread of invasive species in Minnesota. The goal is to donate at least $10,000 this year, and twice that amount next year.
Continue reading “Craft Beer Company ‘Brews’ War Against Invasive Species”
Our beer laws are incredibly stupid, except they too often serve to aid mega breweries at the expense of craft.Coincidence? Ah, NO.-PGA
Jason Alvey, owner of a specialty beer store in St. Louis Park, won legislative approval of bills to let liquor stores sell some apparel and charge customers to attend classes.
Jason Alvey, already a craft brew expert as owner of St. Louis Park specialty beer shop the Four Firkins, also is gaining expertise at crafting legislation.
Continue reading “From Craft Beer to Crafting New Laws”
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This stop was notable for several reasons. First, because my wife is fully on-board with craft beer destinations while on road trips. Secondly, because The Bruery is one of the best craft beer breweries in Southern California, if not the entire country. And finally because Old Town Orange is a unique and unexpected slice of Americana that I had no idea even existed before now.
Orange, California is one of the first communities established in its area of the state. The Old Town area is the largest historic district in the entire state, and contains buildings of many distinct architectural styles, built from 1888 to 1940. Wandering on foot in this area is like stepping back into a SoCal version of Leave it to Beaver. Except there’s a lot more liveliness and activity than that old hackneyed television show would ever countenance.
Continue reading “The Bruery”
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Courtesy Tom Becham
RICHWOODS, MO. • Les Nydegger bought 55 acres of rolling woodland west of De Soto about 15 years ago, thinking he would use the land for hunting and fishing some day. But earlier this year, after retiring from a quarter-century-long career at Anheuser-Busch, he decided he hadn’t gotten quite enough of the beer business.
So he cleared an acre of forest, stuck 20-foot-tall cedar poles in the ground and planted hops.
“We thought it would be a neat thing to do, especially for the craft brewers,” Nydegger said, standing near his fledgling hop yard, about an hour and a half southwest of St. Louis. “This is my chance to be a farmer.”
Nydegger has company. In the past several years at least three other area brewers and farmers have planted hop yards, joining a surge of new growers around the country who are trying to cultivate beer’s key flavoring ingredient.
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Much like styles of craft beer, there are endless types of fruit, from strange and exotic like mango and papaya, to classics like raspberries and cherries. Fruits have been used in brewing likely since the advent of fermentation, but fell out of favor with the rise of industrial brewing due to the increasing costs of fresh fruit and the processing they require. With the craft brewing renaissance in America, brewers and fans are turning an eye to fruit beers that are being brewed with styles and techniques both old and new.
The Fruit Beers of Old
Continue reading “Fruits of Their Labor: The Challenges and Rewards of Brewing with Fruit”