While I’ll travel something fierce to experience the best or most beautiful, most remote or most weird breweries, it’s less reported that I’m also a sucker for doughnuts. I profiled a veteran doughnut baker before I ever interviewed a brewer. I just produced the fourth Baker’s Dozen Festival in Portland, Oregon, which juxtaposed coffee-infused beers... View Article
When I found out that the theme for this issue was “underground,” my only thought was: why wouldn’t I create a compendium of some of the finest underground breweries? And we’re not talking in the hipster sense of a brewery being off the radar and before it’s cool, but one that’s physically subterranean. Surprisingly, I... View Article
There’s no doubt we are living in the golden age of American beer. The quality of beers available to today’s consumers, coupled with diversity in styles and flavors, is unparalleled. But I feel like we’re missing something: bona fide beer barons. Oh sure, a few names have risen to beer nerd celebrity status. Dogfish Head’s... View Article
On August 21, astral geeks will outshine beer geeks. Beer we theoretically get to enjoy everyday, but a total eclipse of the sun is, for most people, a once in a lifetime opportunity. For those who find themselves along the path of totality that will stretch from Oregon to South Carolina, a portion of 14... View Article
Eight hundred and counting. That’s how many breweries are currently operating in California. If you’re itching to tackle a beer trip to the Golden State, San Diego is the most obvious starting point, with several dozen breweries in the city and more than 100 sprawled out across San Diego County. Then there’s the San Francisco... View Article
Politics aside, America is a nation bursting at the seams with people and places—and beers—that make it great. It’s a nation founded on big ideas, big endeavors and big cities (and bigger open prairies, woods and mountain ranges). From the giant redwoods to the Grand Canyon to, uh, the Super Bowl, this is the land... View Article
I like to think of brewers as liquid philanthropists. They benefit their fellow man and woman via the simple act of producing beer for us, which in turn makes us feel good. For many brewing companies—dare I say most—their benevolence goes beyond plying us with malts and hops, which, obviously, isn’t exactly an act of... View Article
There’s a lot of talk these days about America’s greatness and whether that quality solely existed in our collective past, or if it persists in the present, or whether it needs to be made so once more. The fact is, we have hallowed halls that are testaments to the people who have achieved greatness. These... View Article
Few American brewers adhere to the Reinheitsgebot—the Bavarian Beer Purity Law of 1516 that to this day mandates, in order to be called “beer,” a brew can only consist of barley malt, hops and water (although it currently allows for wheat and, naturally, yeast). But 500 years on, the world’s oldest food law is alive... View Article
