Proper Brewing Co. | Whispers of the Primordial Sea Smoked Helles with Pineapple

Perhaps nothing makes brewers beam more than when one of their beer babies—and a lager at that—becomes a commercial success. For Jeff Bunk, director of operations for Proper Brewing Co., that’s the story of Whispers of the Primordial Sea.

He’d had his recipe for the smoked Helles with pineapple tucked away since his days working at a cidery in Oregon. Then, in late 2020, Proper put the beer on draft as a one-off. And in mid-2021 Whispers of the Primordial Sea hit the Utah market in 16-ounce cans. It became an instant hit.
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Outer Range Brewing | Nuclear Powder DIPA

Outer Range Brewing in Frisco, Colorado has become quite well known for their perfectly crafted IPAs. From west coast pine flavors to east coast tropical flavors, you can find something on the menu to cure your hop craving. Rightfully so, the taproom is always bustling with locals and tourists alike enjoying the product of their hard work. With such success it would be easy to become complacent. So in the age of dry hopping beers for flavor where do you go? That’s where cryo hops come in. Their recent DIPA Nuclear Powder showcases this type of hop to bring more variety to their menu.
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Odell Brewing Co. Five Points Brewhouse | Meanderin’ Orange IPA

It is not groundbreaking to say that Odell Brewing Company produces a wide variety of solid beers. That same Fort Collins tradition extended into the Five Points neighborhood in Denver in 2018. The 10-barrel brewhouse spans two floors, with 16 taps providing patrons with exclusive beers from Five Points and Odell standards from its Fort Collins brewery. While there are seven IPAs on tap in the Five Points brewhouse, its Meanderin’ Orange IPA is an outlier we recommend you try.

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Walter Station Brewery | Hazing Arizona Triple Dry Hopped IPA

Walter Station Brewery sits on the east side of Phoenix, AZ right near the city’s airport. Located in a former fire station, the brewery makes killer Mediterranean pizzas and ideal for sporting events and live music. And it’s definitely worth the stop for a beer or two, especially for the Hazing Arizona. Read More

Fifty West Brewing Co. | Maibock

It’s Bock season! Just as Oktoberfest celebrates the transition from summer to the colder months, German brewers also feel the need to brew celebratory beers for the period when the daytime begins to warm up, but the evenings and mornings are still chilly. Maibock, from Cincinnati’s Fifty West Brewing Company is the perfect beer to fit the bill.

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Well Crafted Beer Company | Colonel Forbin

India Pale Ale is a style that is constantly morphing and adapting. There is plenty to be said, though, that the West Coast IPAs, like Colonel Forbin, can still be found on shelves at local stores.

For those in the Philadelphia region, there are some great IPA options worthy of having, including one from Well Crafted Beer Company. That would be the Colonel Forbin, and it brings true refreshment and plenty of hoppy flavors to the table.

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Urban South Celebrates Mardi Gras With Three Special Themed Releases

As seasonal and event-focused beers grow in popularity, Mardi Gras beers are now becoming a trend around the country, tying in with local celebrations or referencing NOLA traditions. For New Orleans’ largest brewery by volume, Urban South, this is the time of year for curated innovation as they update their annual triple-release of brews to celebrate the city’s biggest party.

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Athentic Brewing Co. | Escape Button IPA

Craft beer seemingly has the ability to put you at ease or take you on a journey and transport you to somewhere different, albeit all in your mind, but it does have that effect. Maybe it even helps you escape from the harsh realities that are going on in the world right now. Speaking on this, we’ve got just the right beer for you to try!

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Miel Brewery & Taproom | Vienna Lager Bier

With its vibrant, diverse, and eclectic tap list, Miel Brewery & Taproom is often flexing its creative and innovative muscles. But with its newest release, the four-year-old brewery is also showing off just how well it honors traditional styles, too.

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Bearded Iris Brewing | Tunnel Vision IPA

Have you ever been so passionate about something that it’s all you can see? Well, at Bearded Iris, that passion is for hops, and with this beer, their tunnel vision fixated on the combination of El Dorado, Citra, and Mosaic in a way you might not expect.

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Kansas City Bier Co. | Carolator Doppelbock

Note: the author is employed by Kansas City Bier Co.

Every year since the brewery opened in 2014, Kansas City Bier Co. has brewed a Doppelbock in the winter to be blessed and released around the time of Lent, following Bavarian brewing traditions established in the 1600s.  The bier was called Blessed Doppelbock, as it was brewed and then blessed by a local priest for the Lent season. In 2021, however, the beer took on a new name, Carolator, to honor the memory family member who passed unexpectedly.

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Hinterland Brewery | Saving Gracie Gluten-Free Hazy IPA

Hinterland: (noun) a word of German origin meaning “the land behind”; an unexplored, uncharted area full of possibility, opportunity and adventure.

Founded in 1995, Hinterland is Green Bay, Wisconsin’s first modern-day brewery to emerge from the late 1980s craft beer boom. Founders Bill and Michelle Tressler, who were both just 24 years old at the time, moved back home from a rock band drumming, magazine editing, corporate career adventure in California to open a brewery of their own. They rented an old cheese factory outside of town and bootstrapped their way through startup, nearly burning down the factory in the process. Eventually, the Tresslers and their head brewer Joe Karls moved operations into a turn-of-the-century meat processing plant in downtown Green Bay. The small, charming space worked well enough for Hinterland until 2017 when they got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand. They sold the building and brewhouse to Copper State Brewing Company.

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Von Trapp Brewery | Vienna Lager

With its Austrian lineage, you might think it was a given that Stowe, Vermont’s von Trapp Brewing would have Vienna Lager as a core release when it opened its doors in 2010. Not so, according to the brewery’s Quality Manager Jack Van Paepeghem who says, “von Trapp Brewing was originally conceived to be a strictly Helles-producing brewery by our founder, Johannes von Trapp; however, at the request of the family, Vienna was added to the opening lineup to provide a slightly darker and maltier option.” Read More

J. Wakefield Brewing | Bake Kujira: Burnt Titanium

With Wakefest 2022 quickly approaching, it made sense to feature this monstrous pastry stout from the team at J. Wakefield Brewing. A more exclusive and sought-after riff off of a JWake favorite Big Poppa, Bake Kujira exemplifies what this brewery constantly strives to do with their high gravity releases.

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New Image Brewing | Noema Blend No. 2

Aging beer in spirits barrels is nothing new in the world of beer, but some breweries are placing an increased emphasis on this style, creating dedicated series of beers that solely focus on barrel aging in its various forms. New Image is one of those breweries taking their barrel aging game to the next level with the creation of the Anaphora and Noema (pronounced No – Emma) series of Stouts. While Anaphora will focus on massaging the utmost flavor out of barrels without the use of adjuncts, Noema seeks to enhance the natural flavors of barrels by working with additives. New Image Brewing Noema Blend 2 is a showcase example of New Image’s vision and flawless execution. 

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Deschutes Brewery | Black Butte Non-Alcoholic

Deschutes Black Butte Porter is an iconic porter that helped fuel the success of what was once a small brewery in a small Oregon town and is now one of the largest craft breweries in the U.S. Deschutes Brewery first started brewing Black Butte Porter in 1988 when it launched its Bend Public House brewpub in Bend, Oregon, and it quickly became one of the forerunners of the dark craft beer market. Based in large part on its immense popularity on tap, Deschutes began bottling Black Butte Porter in 1994. To this day it is still the number one selling porter in the U.S. And now, in 2022, it is available as a non-alcoholic beer, Black Butte Non-Alcoholic.

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Wild Fields Brewhouse | Mountain Moonlight Oatmeal Stout

What comes to your mind when you think of a comfort beer? That beer you open and that first taste conjures up a feeling of relaxation. Maybe it brings back memories of sitting around a campfire with friends. Maybe just sitting on a patio watching the night sky or maybe just a quiet spot to relax. Read More

Off Color Brewing | Beer for Lounging Pale Ale

The release of a pale ale usually wouldn’t raise many eyebrows. It’s a staple of nearly any brewery. But when Off Color Brewing released a new pale ale, it was a startling surprise for many of its fans.

While other breweries make an endless supply of IPAs, pale ales and other hoppy beers, Off Color has steadfastly refused to ever make one. Off Color started in 2013 with an initial lineup of a saison, a gose and a kotbusser — instead of an IPA, pale ale and a double IPA.

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Firestone Walker Brewing | Hopnosis IPA

Firestone Walker Brewing Co. released Hopnosis IPA today. This West Coast IPA is made primarily with Mosaic Cryo hops and is a product of years of work to perfect this style of beer.

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5 Questions | River North Brewery Talks Barrel-Aging & 10th Anniversary

Over the past decade, clean barrel-aged beers (non-sours) at American craft breweries have gone from niche occurrences to common specialty releases. However, while barrel-aged Stouts, Porters, Trippels, have grown in popularity and availability nationwide, there are still only a handful of breweries who have risen to the top for truly doing those styles exceptionally well.

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