All About Beer Magazine » Travel Features

Cruising the Hoppy Highway

Sun, 01 Sep 2013 20:46:23 +0000

Maria Scarpello and Brian Devine have driven to more than 300 breweries aboard their RV. Photo courtesy of Maria Scarpello.

By Gerard Walen

Ben and Karen Willmore experienced their first earthquake while in the parking lot of Stone Brewing Co. in Escondido, CA. Though not a major temblor, it shook enough to make cautious patrons move away from the alarming vibration of the massive glass doors in the brewery.

But the Willmores had no reason to go home and check for any damage. They were already home, relaxing in the recreational vehicle that has been their primary residence for several years. And they were at Stone because craft breweries sit high on their list of destinations for a life lived on the road.

They represent a subset of crossed cultures—a figurative marriage of craft beer fandom and nomadism. They are not alone. These craft beer nomads live and travel while visiting some of the nation’s more than 2,500 breweries, not to mention forays into Canada. In RV vernacular, they’re called “full-timers.” In craft-beer speak, they’re known as the common “beer geek.”

Maria Scarpello and Brian Devine started their quest in August 2010, from Lawrence, KS, traveling in their 19-foot 1999 Jayco RV, dubbed “Stanley.” They didn’t plan to make brewery visits a focus when they started, but after a visit to the first, Bristol Brewing Co. in Colorado Springs—and about 20 more before leaving Colorado—it became a primary focus. As of this writing, they’ve visited nearly 300 breweries, sticking mainly to the coast and the southern edge of the States.

“We quickly learned it was great way to meet excellent people and learn about the new places we were visiting,” Scarpello says.

Gary and Leeanne Boone retired from Ford Motor Co., and after five years of part-time RV travel, purchased a 40-foot 2003 Country Coach motor home, called “No. 1,” and pursued their dream life. Since starting full time in mid-2011, they’ve traveled the eastern half of the United States and Canada from Florida to Nova Scotia, and New York to Texas. So far, they have visited about 50 breweries as part-timers and more than 125 breweries since full-timing.

“Our primary motivation is seeing North America in a manner and depth that you can only do from the road,” Gary Boone says. “One thing we always did in our travels was to seek out breweries along the way.”

His list of breweries visited contains many familiar to those steeped in the craft beer world: Cigar City, Highland, Brooklyn, Ommegang and more. But in a reflection of the sheer numbers of small brewers in the nation, there are more names that might be unfamiliar to those outside the borders of their home turf. The Scale House in Ithaca, NY. Geaghan Bros Brewing in Bangor, ME. Roth Brewing Co. in Raleigh, NC (which has since been sold and reimagined as Gizmo Brew Works).

The Willmores did not start their journey together. Ben Willmore set forth from Colorado seven years ago in his 40-foot 1997 Prevost bus conversion, named “Location.” (As photographers, when people ask, they can say they’re on “Location.”) After an extended online relationship, Karen joined him in January 2010, and three years later they tied the knot in a Hawaii wedding. He’s been to all 50 states, and she says she “only has a few left.”

Ben Willmore has visited so many breweries that he “really can’t count that high.” “I’ve been to literally hundreds of breweries or brewpubs since living on the bus,” he says.

Though he doesn’t keep a list of specific breweries, for a time he kept track of each beer he tried in his favorite style—India pale ale. Karen Willmore surprised him one year by compiling the data into a 78-page book, with a photo of the beer, a one-line comment, and its rating on each page. Leafing through the book, Ben Willmore found a few that he rated 9.5: Coronado Islander, Firestone Walker Union Jack and Bell’s Two Hearted Ale, among them.

He’s still searching for his first 10. His wife calls it an “unending quest.”

London is Brewing

Adrian Tierney-Jones — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:55:57 +0000

In the city where porter emerged as the first beer of the industrial age, London is poised for a bigger surge in craft brewing.

It’s Friday lunchtime at the Dean Swift, a smart but casual corner pub on the south side of the Thames and a few minutes’ stroll from Tower Bridge. Inside the open-space bar, the lunchtime crowd of young professionals and serious barflies scuff the battered oak floorboards as they enter in search of good food and drink. The beer is flowing: The pub has a comprehensive selection of cask, keg and bottles from both home and abroad.

I go for local and order a bottle of Kernel’s Export Stout, brewed a stone’s throw away beneath a railway arch close to Bermondsey subway. Based on an 1850 recipe, this luxurious dark beer manages to blend notes of vanilla, rich chocolate liqueur and freshly ground coffee beans with an end-of-palate acidity that adds a noble and delicious contrast. It’s magnificent.

Fifty years ago, if you’d have asked for a local beer in this pub, you would probably have been offered Best Bitter or Directors, both of them made at the massive Courage brewery sited just around the corner. Courage was just one of the many famous London names that endowed the city with its reputation as brewing capital of the world. London, after all, was where the first beer of the industrial age—porter—emerged, followed by its younger, more vigorous sibling, stout. Furthermore, you could also argue that London was the birthplace of what would become known as India pale ale (though its spiritual home was Burton upon Trent).

So much history and at one stage so many breweries, but in the decades after World War II, most gave up the ghost and either deserted the capital for cheaper sites elsewhere or completely removed themselves from brewing (many being swallowed by larger competitors in the process). Courage’s Anchor Brewhouse (as it was known) closed in 1981 when the brewery went west in the direction of the town of Reading; it is now a block of luxury flats. Whitbread had already left in 1976—its brewery is now a conference centre. Other names that once made Londoners proud of their beery traditions also joined the rush for the exit: Truman, Charrington and Taylor Walker are among the most famous. Walk London’s streets now and their names can be occasionally seen decorating pub facades, lingering on like ghosts.

London Turnaround

By the start of the 21st century, only Fuller’s, Young’s and new guys Meantime, plus a handful of micros, flew the flag for independent brewing in London (though Guinness and Budweiser were produced in massive plants in the western ’burbs). The downward plunge had not yet finished, either. In 2006, Young’s closed and merged with Charles Wells in Bedford, some 50 miles north of the capital (where Courage beers are also now brewed). A year later, it was estimated that London had a mere 10 breweries and brewpubs, small beer if you consider its 5,000 pubs and the millions living and working within the city limits. (It was an ironic fact of geography that London’s brewing deficit mirrored that of a couple of other beer nation capitals—instead of Berlin we think of Munich, while Pilsen always comes before Prague.)

Times change. Fast forward to 2012 and the number of breweries London hosts is now nudging 30. And, given London’s magnificent history and comparative quietness on the recent brewing front, it’s long overdue.

Fuller’s continues to straddle the scene, while Meantime has had a new brewery installed, supposedly the largest new build in London since 1936. As for the newcomers, most are admittedly small outfits: Some, such as Brodie’s, London Brewing and the Florence, are twined with a pub; others, like Redemption, call home an industrial estate. Prize for most unusual location, though, goes to Tap East, which makes its beers behind a bar at the massive Westfield shopping mall in East London.

Whatever the location, though, there’s a sense of innovation, excitement and pure beery bonhomie that’s not been seen in the city for a long time. Some pretty awesome beers are flowing out of the taps as well: elegant pale ales, robust IPAs, slinky lagers, boisterous bitters, ravishing wheat beers and intriguing fusions that any student of the U.S. craft beer boom would recognize (imperial Märzen anyone?).

May Your Glass Be Ever Full

Roger Protz — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 00:01:48 +0000

In Ireland, history catches you by the coattails at every turn. Towns, cities and countryside reflect centuries of invasion, foreign domination and massacre, the unbearable horror of the Great Hunger of the 19th century, and the long and bloody struggle for Home Rule in the 20th.

Irish beer reflects that history. When the British exported London-brewed porter and stout to the Irish part of the United Kingdom, brewers—notably Arthur Guinness in Dublin—accepted the challenge and turned the black beer into a proud flag-bearer of their fight for nationhood, eclipsing the British original.

Stout was followed by red ale, an Irish interpretation of English pale ale with more color in its cheeks. The very name speaks of rebellion and defiance, and that defiance is burned into the buildings and memory of Ireland’s second city, Cork. It’s called “Rebel City” and the beers from the local craft brewery reflect Cork’s role in the battle for independence from Britain, which responded by allowing its Black and Tan militia to raze the city centre to the ground.

Franciscan Well brews both a Rebel Red Ale and a Red Lager that would have surely met with the approval of Michael Collins, one of the key figures in the Home Rule movement. His base was Cork and he was known to enjoy a glass of beer. But, as the name suggests, the brewery predates the events of the 1920s by several centuries. It stands on the site of a monastery built by Franciscan monks in 1216, and they used the supply of pure water from a well to fashion ale for themselves and pilgrims.

The brewery and pub on the North Wall area of Cork is wonderfully atmospheric. From the street, you walk down a long corridor framed by ancient curved brick walls. You turn right into the dimly-lit cavernous main bar where the beers are served. Beyond are more spacious rooms and a garden area, while to the right is the large brew house where brewer Peter Lyall and his staff work their magic with malt and hops on the 11.5 hectoliter kit. The monks’ well can be seen but has dried up: Lyall uses the public water supply.

As well as red ale and lager, Lyall produces two beers that reflect the site’s ancient origins: Friary Weisse wheat beer and Purgatory Pale Ale. His stout is called Shandon, named after a district in Cork, and it has a superb aroma and palate of chocolate, coffee, roasted grain and spicy hops. Rebel Red accounts for 40% of the brewery’s output and is brewed with a substantial amount of crystal malt and roasted barley alongside pale malt. To prove that old antagonisms are on the wane, Lyall uses two English hops in the beer, East Kent Goldings and Fuggles. The beer is a classic of the style with caramel, roasted grain, orange fruit and grassy hops on the nose and palate.

As well as supplying beer to bars and restaurants in Cork city and the surrounding area, Franciscan Well plays host to an annual gathering of all Ireland’s growing number of craft breweries. There are now more than 20 breweries in Ireland, the north as well as the republic, and they have restored both choice and diversity of styles to an island dominated for years by the two giants, Guinness and Murphy’s. Guinness is now part of the global Diageo wine and spirits group while Murphy’s is owned by Heineken. Their sales are scarcely dented by the arrival of the small craft brewers but it must give Diageo and Heineken cause for concern that the new wave beers find favour with a young generation that, while proud to be Irish, has a modern European outlook demanding greater choice. Diageo has an additional problem: its head office is in London. One drinker in a bar said to me: “Guinness is a British company now” and that doesn’t play well in its country of origin.

South of the Beer Door

Jay R. Brooks — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 17:37:19 +0000

Throughout South America, a craft brewing industry is developing in virtually every country. Inspired by the U.S. craft beer scene, and fueled by homebrewing, most South American countries are awash in newly opened small breweries, or cervecerías. As we speak, they’re now the same challenges and going through the same growing pains that American brewers did 15-20 years ago.

In May of this year, the South Beer Cup was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was the first attempt at a continent-wide beer competition, and was organized by the Centro de Cata de Cerveza, or “Beer Tasting Center” in Buenos Aires, with support from the local homebrew club in Argentina, Somos Cerveceros. It was, in effect, their own version of the Great American Beer Festival and Craft Brewers Conference (which is a trade conference where brewers can continue to learn their craft) combined.

For the competition, there were 280 beers from 72 breweries entered in 20 categories representing four countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. Along with the local judges, made up of brewers and BJCP certified judges, several experienced North American judges were on hand for the inaugural event. Over forty medals, and a number of honorable mentions were awarded to much fanfare during a gala event held the last night of the conference in Buenos Aires.

The passion that made American craft beer the envy of the world is very much in evidence everywhere one looks. That, and a willingness to help one’s fellow brewers is creating all the right conditions for pocket microbrewery revolutions throughout the continent. During the South Beer Cup, Argentina brewers, led by Leonardo Ferrari from Antares Brewery (one of Argentina’s most successful craft breweries), announced the formation of the Asociación de Cervecerías Artesanales (ACAA), whose mission is exactly that: to help grow all craft breweries in Argentina.

And in most of the other nations in the region that’s a common tale. In Chile, Colombia and Uruguay, for example, brewers have all begun informally working together to promote what they’re doing, to raise awareness of just what craft beer has to offer.
In early September, a second beer competition will be held in South America, known as Copa Cervezas de America. This one will take place in Chile and will include judging of both Chilean beer (with around three dozen breweries) and all South American beer, too.

While not technically part of South America, the Latin American country of Mexico is experiencing a similar brewing renaissance. Though only around a dozen small brewers exist in the country, they’ve already banded together to form the Association of Mexico Beer, or Acermex. Despite being only about 1 percent of Mexico’s beer market, which is utterly dominated by two ginormous beer companies, breweries like Cervecería Calavera, Cucapa and Primus are already making waves, finding loyal fans, and getting attention from both the local and international media.

Beyond Brahma

Randy Mosher — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 16:44:01 +0000

Our image of Brazil is exotic, tropical, and utterly wild, but there is a good deal more to this huge and varied country. There is jungle, but there is lots of rich agricultural land. It snows in the South. The world’s second largest Oktoberfest is held in Blumenau. Despite abundant poverty, there is a large and growing middle class, and amidst the exotic vegetation, much of Brazil looks very familiar to us: jobs, traffic, shopping, neighborhoods, and Internet cafés.

But what about the beer? Well, this is the country that brought us the world’s largest brewing company, as Brahma and Antarctica merged to form AmBev, which acquired InterBrew to become InBev, which then swallowed up Anheuser-Busch to become AB InBev. Burp.

So it’s no surprise that macrobrew, mostly from this one giant company, dominates the beer landscape with its rather bland and lip-numbingly cold offerings. But with the flood of information from the Internet, the resources to travel abroad and the trickle of quality imports reaching the specialty bars and stores, Brazilian drinkers are starting to realize that they’re missing out on something very enjoyable.

Changing of the Guard

In a story that is repeated all over the developing world, the country is shaking off decades of totalitarian rule and financial meltdowns. With the World Cup and Olympics coming, Brazil is feeling especially frisky at the moment. There is a very optimistic mood about the place, and people at all levels are working very hard to make things better any way they can. That includes beer.

Craft brewing began here in the mid 1990s, but this first wave was rather timid, mostly quite Teutonic; often with actual Germans doing the brewing. The typical first-wave Brazilian craft beer is a 5 percent all-malt pils with a light body and a very moderate 12 to 18 IBUs, with the occasional wheat or dark beer in the mix—tasty enough, but just a baby step towards what we would call real craft beer.

Beer Event Crib List

Owen Ogletree — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:39:52 +0000

For those who can’t plan their own events, here’s a list of established happenings…

Tri-Beer: The Triangle Beer Meetup – Beer gatherings and special events in the Raleigh, North Carolina area. meetup.com/tribeer

Lagunitas Skunk Train – Annual beer train through the redwood forests of northern California. lagunitas.com

Good Beer Lunches – Australian group bringing craft beer to corporate tastings, social clubs, as well as private and social events. goodbeers.com.au

Brews Cruise – Van tours of breweries in Denver, CO, and Asheville, NC. brewscruise.com

Beertrips.com – Beer tours to destinations such as Belgium, Germany, Britain, France, Russia, Poland, the USA and Czech Republic.

Bier Mania! – Cultural beer tours to Europe. bier-mania.com

The Beer Sommelier – Beer tastings and education for groups or businesses in the Southeast. thebeerexpert.com

BeerBike Amsterdam – Pedal-powered pub tour. beerbike.co.uk

Urban Beer Hikes – Seattle pub-crawl guide and blog. urbanbeerhikes.com

Beerdinners.com – Complete guide for food and beer pairings.

The Little Beer Bus – Hudson Valley brewery tours for birthdays and special events. thelittlebeerbus.com

Cruise the streets of Amsterdam in a pedal-powered saloon

Beer Event Brainstorm

Owen Ogletree — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:43:30 +0000

Twenty craft beer lovers, all wearing the same T-shirts, walk into a bar. No, this isn’t the beginning of a joke―it describes an organized pub-crawl for charity. Across America, people are realizing that craft beer can form the impetus for switching off the TV, getting off the couch, heading out of the house and bringing people together with informative, entertaining, beer-centered activities.

It’s fun to get together at the local pub for a couple of pints and appetizers, but with a little energy and imagination, the exploration of notable beer styles can lead to exciting new places and levels of understanding and appreciation of gourmet beer. Read on for creative suggestions in making craft beer a focus in many social events outside the home.

The group pub-crawl idea mentioned above forms a wonderful way to connect with a variety of pubs in a town, and groups have the option of making the activity a benefit for a local charity. Pick a day for the crawl, choose a list of walkable pubs with great beer, speak with the pub managers in advance, come up with a schedule for the pub visits, invite participants and print up an inexpensive T-shirt for everyone. Work with pub managers to decide on one distinctive beer for the group to enjoy at each stop, figure out the total cost (including gratuity) of beer for the group and collect funds from the pub-crawlers in advance. If the jaunt benefits a charity, some pubs may even provide snacks or a price break on the beer. It’s helpful to have a ticket or token for each beer on the excursion.

Pittsburgh's "Fill the Mug" Charity Bar Crawl, organized by charitybarcrawl.com.

Beervana

Matt Kirkegaard — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:04:41 +0000

The best way to sample the varied delights of the New Zealand brewing industry is to visit during their annual national beer festival, Beervana.

Run sporadically for close to a decade, the event has really hit its straps since being taken over by the NZ Brewers Guild three years ago. Held in Wellington, the annual event is run in conjunction with the BrewNZ Beer Awards, an international beer competition, as well as a growing number of beer-related events.

The festival runs across four sessions over two days and showcases many of the country’s best beers, as well as a number from Australia and further afield.

The best way to picture it is as the Great American Beer Festival writ small, but that is no insult. Last year 4,000 beer loving and beer curious folk passed through the door, with an increasingly large attendance of world travellers coming especially for the event.

With its size, the event does not need the aircraft hangar space of a major convention center and is based in the historic Wellington Town Hall. It’s the perfect size for the event—even allowing for a few years of growth—and imbues the event with a warmth and charm that can be lacking at larger events in more industrial settings.

A major focus of the event, apart from the obvious tastings and meeting the brewers, is education: international experts run classes in all manner of beer and food matching, beer and style master classes, and sensory evaluation.

New Zealand is a strikingly beautiful country with a rapidly evolving and original craft beer scene. Beervana provides the perfect opportunity, or excuse, to visit.

New Zealand Hops

Matt Kirkegaard — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:41:31 +0000

Size hasn’t only been a major influence in the development of the New Zealand craft brewing industry; isolation has also played a major role in the development of New Zealand’s distinctive hop varieties.

Hops have been grown in the Nelson region for more than 100 years, originally planted by English and German settlers who found the region’s long days, plentiful rains and lack of wind perfect for hop growing.

The country’s isolation has contributed to a virtual absence of pests and diseases. Together with an active breeding program that developed disease resistant strains by the 1960s, a significant portion of the New Zealand hop industry is now spray free or completely organically grown. Doug Donelan, a former brewer who now heads New Zealand’s hop growers co-operative NZ Hops, says that these factors have gone a long way to assisting the local hop industry develop interesting varieties. “For a long time we have been able to focus our breeding programs on positive hop attributes, not solving problems, and on their brewing qualities like aroma, not agronomic issues,” Donelan says.

A new hop variety takes up to 12 years to come through the development program and NZ Hops’ dedication to moving away from high alpha commodity varieties to specialty hops is coming to fruition with a number of successful breeds hitting the market over the past decade. Nelson Sauvin is the flagship of the new breed.

Named for the town of Nelson, where they were developed, and their aroma of crushed gooseberries that is reminiscent of a New Zealand sauvignon blanc, the hop has gained widespread use across Australia and New Zealand and is starting to find uses elsewhere. “A handful of our newer hops—Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, Riwaka, Rakau and a couple of the alpha varieties, including Southern Cross and Pacific Jade—have all found their way into the U.S.” Donelan says.

Surprisingly, Donelan’s discovered that it’s the larger craft breweries that are most willing to experiment with newer hop varieties. “We have found that American craft brewers have a definite penchant for their own varieties so it has been difficult for us to get the smaller craft brewers in the U.S. to switch into New Zealand hops. We’ve had success with Sierra Nevada through their seasonal Southern Harvest. Anchor Steam also does a seasonal with our hops and New Glarus have started using Riwaka, so some guys are using us as a point of difference. Once some of the bigger craft brewers start to use your hops, there’s an effect downwards into the market.”

With a willingness to experiment identified as playing a role in take up of these hops, Donelan is targeting the most experimental part of the U.S. market. “We have been focussing on the homebrew market in the U.S. because we look at that as a seeding area where a lot of the most creative stuff is going on,” he explains. “Homebrewers were also much more interested in developing beers around these new varieties.”

With high alpha and aroma hops successfully on the market, Donelan says they are now going for a different tack with some of their new breeds. “One in particular is a very low alpha hop,” he says. “While everyone has been chasing high alpha hops for a long time, we are getting requests from brewers who want a low alpha hop because they want to make beers that aren’t necessarily all that bitter but they want to use a lot of hops in them.”

It’s an approach that ties nicely in on where the local brewing industry seems to be headed.

Going Native

Matt Kirkegaard — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:11:41 +0000

New Zealand hops are distinctive but brewers are also looking to other native ingredients to give their beer some spice.

Anyone who saw the Discovery Channel’s Brewmasters episode featuring Sam Calagione’s journey to New Zealand will be familiar with his collaboration with Luke Nicholas and Epic Brewing. Using native tamarillos, or tree tomatoes, the pair created Portamarillo, an “imperial sorta-porter.”

Another of the interesting natives is Captain Cooker from a tiny brewpub called the Mussel Inn at Onekaka, on New Zealand’s South Island. Brewed with leaf tips from the Manuka, or tea tree, the recipe was based on the first beer brewed in New Zealand, by Captain Cook in 1773. The 4 percent beer is red-brown in color and malt-driven. The Manuka lends the finished beer a strong note of Turkish delight. This ale inspired possibly the best dessert matching I have ever tried. One of New Zealand’s finest restaurants, Logan Brown, matched it with cardamon and rose water panna cotta with pistachio wafers and rhubarb to win the 2010 national Beer & Chefs competition. It was an inspired, delicate match that showed, at its best, that New Zealand is up with international leaders.