Category: Front Page

Written by Norman Miller for GateHouse News Service

Uncommon Brewers is certainly uncommon among California brewers. Unlike most West Coast breweries that feature hops in most of their beers, this Santa Cruz brewery does not.

Instead, they brew a pair of Belgian ales with uncommon ingredients, as well as a big, malty, Baltic porter.

Uncommon Brewers was founded in 2008 by Alex Stefansky and Reed Vander Schaaf. Both had been homebrewers.

The brewery was in the planning stages for six years, and the goal was to combine Belgian brewing techniques, while melding it with the creativeness of West Coast breweries.

The beer is also organic, which is good for those who care about organic products.

Uncommon Brewers has recently began distributing its three beers to Massachusetts. The beers are all available in 16-ounce cans.

Each of the three available beers are based on traditional recipes, but with unusual (or uncommon to fit with the name) ingredients. If you are someone who likes traditional beers, Uncommon Brewers’ beers are not for you.

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Written by David Young for coloradoan.com

Sitting in her office on National Repeal Day, the day marking the 78th anniversary of the end of prohibition, Kim Jordan admits she is not invincible.

That may come as a sur­prise to some.

With the success of New Belgium Brewing Co., one of the nation’s most successful craft breweries, Jordan has overseen an average year-over-year gain of 15 per­cent over the past decade.

At the same time she has fos­tered a culture of environmental, social and cultural change with innovative programs such as giv­ing employees’ bikes and donat­ing $4 million in grants.
Continue reading “New Belgium Brewing Co.: Building a Brewery”

 

Some of this is accurate, some not so consequential and some… well you can decide- The Professor

The Lab, Ladyface Alehouse & Brasserie and, in 2012, Golden Road Brewing

Ladyface Alehouse and Brasserie has been
serving up beers for two years in Agoura Hills. (Ladyface Ale Companie/Red Tail
Media / December 8, 2011)

Written by Todd Martens for the Los Angeles Times

Opening a restaurant/bar and calling oneself Dr. Hops takes guts on the West Coast, where breweries have long delighted in maximizing the ingredient for all its tart and bitter glory.

“That was a joke, initially,” Roger Bott said. “We put it on the website with a little character, and it stuck from there. Home brewing, though, I was always using more hops than anyone said would taste good.”

Out of the gate, however, Bott is going for wide appeal, putting the emphasis on balance at his recently opened the Lab in Agoura Hills (30105 Agoura Road). Initial brews include an XPA, which stops short of the sharpness of its IPA brother, as well as an amber ale, in which hops give way to a sweeter finish. The space has room for two patios with outdoor fireplaces, as well as a bar and an indoor dining room. The copper-clad beer tanks are on full display, giving the spot, said Bott, a “rustic, old-town character.”

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Written by Nick Carbone for newsfeed.time.com

Clifton Vial wound up stuck in a snowdrift off a rural highway in eastern Alaska, his truck lacking the usual survival necessities. All that lay in the back was a few cans of Coors Light, frozen solid. And as any college student knows: beer is food. Even the relatively bland Coors Light contains calories to keep a person functioning. Foodless for nearly 60 hours, Vial munched on the frozen beer. Bear Grylls would be so proud.

Vial says he ate the beer like beans from a can. “I cut the lids off and dug it out with a knife,” he told the Anchorage Daily News. The 52-year-old lived off the ration of a couple of cans for more than three days while rescuers searched for him.

Vial had taken a drive late Monday night, getting stuck in a snowdrift 40 miles north of Nome. Far out of cell phone range and ill-dressed for the situation in tennis shoes, jeans and a cheap jacket, Vial huddled for warmth in a sleeping bag and shrouded his shivering feet in a towel. He turned on the engine occasionally to listen to the radio and get the heat flowing, but it was no match for the -17 degree temperatures. And by the third day, Vial’s gas gauge was toeing the “empty” line.
Continue reading “Alaskan Survives on Frozen Beer for Three Days While Stuck in Snowdrift”

Written by Victoria Pelham for cronkitenewsonline.com

PHOENIX – George Hancock sees great promise in this downtown warehouse filled with barrels containing fermenting barley and wheat and producing craft beer 600 gallons at a time.

He views the opportunity for microbrewers as so ripe here that he decided to pack up and leave a similar operation he had in Washington for Arizona, co-founding Phoenix Ale Brewery in June. He said the Seattle market is over-saturated but that Arizona still needs more breweries.

“It’s just getting started here, but the market for craft beer is growing rapidly,” Hancock said.

There were 39 microbreweries in Arizona in the 2011 fiscal year, which ended in June, according to the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control. That was up from 36 in fiscal 2010 and 31 in fiscal 2009.

Those operations are licensed to produce up to 1,240,000 gallons in a calendar year and are able to sell their products directly to consumers.

The largest concentration of breweries was in Maricopa County, with 20, according to data from the state.
Continue reading “Makers of Craft Beer See Untapped Potential in Arizona”

Jesse Darrow, of Ithaca,loads full bottles of CascaZilla Ale into cases as they come off the bottling line at Ithaca Beer Tuesday, Nov. 29, afternoon. / SIMON WHEELER / Gannett Staff Photo

Written by My-Ly Nguyen for pressconnects.com

On a recent Saturday night, a group of friends was willing to wait about two hours for a table at an Ithaca brewpub.

It was family weekend at Ithaca College and there was a concert at a local theater, helping to add to the long list of names waiting to be called.
Continue reading “Popularity of Craft Beer Spreads in Binghamton (NY) Area”

Posted under “Our View” at charlotteobserver.com

North Carolina, once a craft beer wasteland, has become one of the country’s most exciting states for good brews. Dozens of innovative breweries have popped up from the coast to Asheville, complementing a solid roster of fine brewers.

The growth began in 2005, when N.C. legislators passed a law allowing for higher content alcohol in beer sold here. Now, lawmakers have passed a smaller but important bill that allows breweries, regardless of size, to offer tastings and sell beer on site – even beers produced outside the state.

The measure would help North Carolina’s craft brewing industry flourish even more, not only by promoting interest in craft beer, but also by giving brewers another revenue stream. The change also could prompt larger west coast brewers to open east coast operations and bring jobs here.
Continue reading “Craft Beer Lovers Say Cheers to New Bill”