Category: Front Page

From the Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — The craft brewers plotted their revolution

in a bar evoking the era of Prohibition speakeasies.

Their goal felt equally subversive: nothing less than the transformation of Mexico’s beer-loving culture into one that thirsts not for the mild flavors of Corona or Dos Equis, but for the richness of stouts, the dark body of double malts and the bitterness of India pale ales.

The brewers said they were fighting for choice: “Por la Cerveza Libre,” or “For the Liberated Beer.”

“To choose what we consume based on our tastes, translates as free choice, a fundamental right of every person,” they wrote in a manifesto.

Even though Mexico is known worldwide for its beer, only two companies dominate the domestic market and determine what millions of people swig.

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Another success story in craft beer world!-PGA

Written by Jason Cato for The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

If one good beer deserves another, there is good news on tap for East End Brewing Co. lovers.

The Homewood craft beer maker is close to purchasing a building in Larimer that will increase its space from 4,000 square feet to 17,000 square feet. The new location at 6580 Frankstown Ave. is less than a mile from the current Susquehanna Street location.

“Where we are now, we’re in such a tight box that it’s hard to see where the end of the rainbow is,” said founder and owner Scott Smith. “With more room, the sky’s the limit. … We’ll instantly be able to double our production capacity, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

The business started selling beer in December 2004 and now has two full-time employees, three part-time workers and a handful of volunteers. It has increased the amount of beer produced by 30 to 40 percent each year, Smith said.

Last year, East End Brewing Co. produced about 1,800 barrels of beer, Smith said. A barrel is 31 gallons.

“And right now, we’re turning away business through our distributors,” he said.

The 1,700 members of the craft brewing industry in the United States produced nearly 10 million barrels last year, according to the Colorado-based Brewers Association, a trade group for craft brewers.
Continue reading “East End Brewing Co. Eyes Larimer Expansion”

Written by Josh Noel for chicagotribune.com

On one of the most important days on the beer calendar, when fevered drinkers from across the U.S. travel to Munster, Ind., to buy one of the world’s rarest beers, the unthinkable happened.

Cradling a box of his newfound bounty, a man in jeans and a black jacket dropped a bottle of the day’s manna. The 22-ounce bottle of Dark Lord — a pitch black, high-alcohol stout made by Three Floyds Brewing for release this very day — shattered, its black frothy gold spreading across the asphalt and toward a sewer grate.

Hundreds of beer lovers saw it happen, some standing in a two-hour line to buy bottles of their own, others merely drinking and rejoicing in the office park surrounding the brewery. They were of a single mind.

“Boooooooooooooo!” the chorus shouted.

Sheepishly, silently, the man plucked the glass shards from the ground and moved on.

Then the thinkable happened.
Continue reading “Love of Beer Reigns at Dark Lord Day”

Posted for our west coast readers- Prof. Goodales

Jay R. Brooks for the Bay Area News Group and mercurynews.com

 

As the sunny California weather kicks into high gear, so too does festival season. Between the suds celebrations, brew fests and even a beer circus, there’s a craft beer festival nearly every weekend through the beginning of summer.

Here’s just a sampling:
Continue reading “Brooks on Beer: Festival Season”

“While this is a New York State story, the Professor is sure this is going on all over the country. Old story: big brewers attempt to limit, even put out of business, smaller brewers through distributors that often rely on those big brewers for their main bread and butter. Often by getting lawmakers to back them up with rules and regulations.”- The Professor

Small manufacturers push to revamp New York law that can lock them into deals with indifferent wholesalers.

After Brooklyn Brewery entered a contract with an upstate wholesaler to distribute its beer outside of the city, its upstate sales steadily increased for a few years. But the wholesaler began adding more craft breweries to its portfolio, and the Brooklyn company saw its sales slip, even as its wholesaler’s overall sales grew.

When the brewery tried to terminate its contract, the wholesaler sued under New York’s alcoholic beverage control law—which binds brewers to one distributor within a marketing region once an agreement is in place—Brooklyn Brewery shelled out more than $200,000 in legal fees and had to pay the wholesaler an undisclosed sum to get the divorce it wanted.

Brooklyn Brewery survived, but its president, Steve Hindy, said most small breweries in New York cannot afford the litigation required to dump a neglectful distributor.

“That kind of money would sink them,” he said.
Continue reading “Brewers, Distributors Battle Over Beer-Contract Bill”

Written by John W. Miller for the Wall Street Journal

The 2011 Anheuser Busch-InBev shareholders meeting on Tuesday was never going to generate news. “We’ll have a press conference but you won’t learn anything,” a spokeswoman said.

First-quarter results are due to be presented on May 4, so the company didn’t want to jump the gun, although the so-called “quiet period” before earnings is a cultural choice, not the law.

What the company did want to talk about was its new alcohol-free drink, the Hoegaarden 0.0. The Real Time Brussels team agreed to taste-test a six-pack, as it did for the Jupiler Force.
Continue reading “Anheuser’s New 0%-Alcohol Beer”

Written by John Holl for Craftbeer.com

Shortly after being diagnosed with celiac disease, a few regular customers of the Old Hat Brewery & Grill approached Brewer and Owner Tommy Fuller to ask for a favor. Having celiac meant they could no longer consume gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. As such, the beers they once enjoyed at Fuller’s Lawton, MI, brewery were now off limits. The favor they were asking was for Fuller to brew up a gluten-free beer.
Continue reading “Gluten-Free Doesn’t Mean Craft Beer-Free”

Written by Norman Miller for GateHouse News Service

There’s nothing better than relaxing with a beer after a long day of work, except maybe drinking a beer that helps those in need.

That’s the idea behind 50 Back, The Brew of the Brave, where 50 percent of profits will go to various veteran support organizations.

“Veterans and their families sacrifice so much for the rest of us,” said Kimberly Rogers, co-founder of 50 Back Brewing Company. “If we can create a great-tasting beer that can help make even a small difference in their lives, we will have succeeded.”

The idea began about two years ago with Rogers and co-founder Paige Haley, both of Pepperell, Mass. They both had family members and friends who either had served or were currently in the military.

Both Rogers and Haley said they decided they wanted to do something to help the veterans.

“The idea (of helping) really resonated with other people as well,” Rogers said.

“Everyone knows someone, even if it’s not a family member, who is in the military,” said Haley. “We decided to make a great beer, and give back to our soldiers and veterans.”

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Posted by Steve Greenlee at boston.com

Say this for the Scottish beer maker BrewDog: These guys know how to attract attention.

Last summer BrewDog released a 55-percent-alcohol-by-volume Belgian ale called The End of History. But the extreme alcohol content wasn’t the absurd part. The absurd part was that the bottles were sold inside dead squirrels. For $765 a pop. BrewDog also sells a 41 percent ABV India pale called Sink the Bismarck. I saw a bottle on the shelf at Julio’s Liquors in Westborough last week, priced around $150. (Apparently the beer is nothing special; the users of BeerAdvocate collectively rate it only a B.)

How to top these beers?
Continue reading “Who’s UP for a Beer with Viagra?”

Written by Tony Montague for straight.com

Don’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of a Cascadian Dark Ale. The style—a strong, well-hopped, and robust Brown Ale—is a new one, created in the Pacific Northwest. A group of B.C. brewmasters got together to produce a unique local recipe for the official bevy of the second annual Vancouver Craft Beer Week.

The celebration of artisanal, high-quality beer takes place in dozens of pubs, bars, restaurants, and other venues around town from May 6 to 14, with events from a wacky pub crawl to a tasting festival that incorporates the B.C. Beer Awards. Iain Hill, who helms the pipes and kettles at Yaletown Brewing Company, won three top prizes last year’s VCBW. All three of his champion beers are on the menu at the Yaletown Gold Medal Brewmaster’s Dinner on May 12—a highlight of the nine-day event and one of several food-and-beer pairing events.
Continue reading “Vancouver Craft Beer Week Brews Frothy Fun”