Birds Fly South | Virtual Mystery Bag Bottle Share

As we all know, breweries have been affected by the current pandemic that has swept our towns and cities across the country. Many local breweries have had to quickly evolve and adapt to the changing landscape, closing taprooms and offering to-go beer purchases.

A standout during these trying times is Birds Fly South in Greenville, SC. The booming “funk first” brewery’s 2020 plans came to a screeching halt, but that didn’t stop them from finding fun ways to serve up their award-winning beer. In order to evolve, shift and engage their community, the brewery has developed a series of virtual beer events to keep people connected in new ways, pioneering how we can all enjoy beer together. Read More

Birds Fly South Ale Project | Rustic Sunday

What’s better on a Sunday afternoon than kicking back with a craft beer? This rye farmhouse ale by Birds Fly South will make you wish that every day was a “Rustic Sunday.” Read on to discover what makes this beer so approachable, crisp, and tart, and why it calls for soaking in every moment on laid back, lazy afternoons. Read More

Ardent Craft Ales | Brett IPA

Richmond, VA is known to some as a mecca for craft beer in the state for lovers. Ardent Craft Ales was originally started as a cooperative of homebrewers who wanted to get out of their kitchen and brew a little more seriously. To do so, they rented out a garage with a half-barrel system and started brewing every Sunday in said garage located in the Churchill region in the eastern side of the city.

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Charleville Brewing Company | Amelie

I’ve declared that my Summer of Beer 2019 will include a return to some styles that have sort of fallen off my beer list, namely Hefeweizens and Witbier.  Witbiers are Belgian-style ales that are usually unfiltered which gives them a pale and cloudy hue on the pour. They are usually spiced with a fruit such as coriander or orange peel, and are both crisp and wheaty on the tongue.

I find them to be refreshing with an orange slice, but some people don’t care for the extra fruit.

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Wild Creatures | Tears of Saint Laurent

What happens when a vintner’s daughter, who has worked in her family vineyards and wine cellar from early childhood, falls in love with spontaneously fermented beers in Belgium? Enter Jitka Ilčíková and her “vintner brewed beer” at Wild Creatures in Mikulov, Czech Republic.

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Vasen Brewing Company | Savvon

Every once in a while, you have that experience with beer that completely blows your mind and excites your taste buds in ways others have not. Vasen Brewing Company out of Richmond, Virginia, has done just that with the recent and first bottle release of Savvon–a dry-hopped Farmhouse Ale. The complexity and flavors capped within these bottles were amazing and worth every drop.

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Interstate Adventure on a Spontaneous Ale in the American Southwest

A mutual love for beer first connected John Rowley of Rowley Farmhouse Ales in Santa Fe and Eric Erman of Ermanos Craft Beer & Wine Bar in Tucson over a decade ago. And the spirit of collaboration also connected them with fellow funk enthusiasts Matt Brown of Tombstone Brewing Company and Rob Hammelman of Sand-Reckoner Vineyards to collaboratively create a Spontaneous Ale that features the terroir of Cochise County in Arizona using only local ingredients.

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Steel Bender Brewyard | Cinderella Story

Los Ranchos de Albuquerque in New Mexico is a small village that maintains the charm of rural living despite being surrounded by the city of Albuquerque. Steel Bender Brewyard is the first licensed (and only) brewery in the village and it has positioned itself as a community gathering place for a variety of occasions including ordinary after-work happy hours and celebratory milestones from baby showers to retirement. Using seasonal fruits from local orchards for their barrel program and creating “from scratch” pub fare in their full kitchen, there are many reasons why Steel Bender Brewyard should be added to your next beer journey in New Mexico.

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Half Acre Beer | Wooden Teeth Brett Saison

Half Acre brings the funk with its Brett Saison, Wooden Teeth. This complex small batch beer, has the sophisticated feel of a champagne coupled with the casualness of a cider. The mixture of flavors brings the old brewing world together with new techniques. Wooden Teeth is funky, sour and a bit sweet for a perfect balance, resulting in an interestingly fun drinking experience.

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SweetWater Brewing Co. | Belgian Rose

The Woodlands Project opened early this year and has already amazed and bewildered our tastebuds with taproom exclusives and merely one bottle release, “Through the Brambles,”—until now. After much anticipation over what the project would yield next, and when, SweetWater Brewing Co. announced it is releasing “Belgian Rose” this weekend. Read More

Dry Dock Brewing | Barrel-Aged Funk & Sour Series: Cassidae

ABV: 6.1% | IBU: 8
Last year, Dry Dock Brewing Company announced the launch of their Funk & Sour series, which features crowd-pleasing favorites from South Dock’s barrel-aging program. The series includes more than 80 barrels, which consist of mostly wine and some whiskey, and are dedicated to sour, Brett and mixed fermentations. I was able to get my hands on Batch No. 2, called Cassidae, a sour Brett saison that was bottled August 19, 2016.
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Brewery Showcase | Stickman Brews

American craft beer is like the history of the country itself. As a nation of immigrants, our brewers borrow their techniques from many different traditions, tweaking, combining and refining them into something uniquely american. Now, try imagining that we had a centuries old heritage of farmhouse brewing like Belgium. What impact would that have had on modern craft beer? Stickman Brews‘ mission is to find an answer that very question.
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Inside the Tank | Stickman Brews’ Ethan Buckman

How would craft beer have evolved in America if we had a centuries-old farmhouse brewing tradition like Belgium? Head brewer and co-founder of Stickman Brews, Ethan Buckman, focuses his creativity on creating beers that could have existed in this alternate brewing history. He brews hop-forward American-style ales, which he then ferments farmhouse-style with different strains of Brettanomyces and wild yeasts in open-top fermenters. The resulting beers blur style guidelines in exciting new ways. Ethan doesn’t like to assign styles to his brews because he doesn’t feel there are any regularly used styles that accurately describe what he is trying to create.

He is probably right.

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Ultimate 6er | 2016 Rio Olympic Events

Zika virus. Contaminated water. Unsuitable living conditions. Terrorist threats. The 2016 Rio Olympics are surrounded by depressing headlines. We at PorchDrinking like to view life on the brighter side, so we paired six Summer Olympic events with six seemingly-perfect craft beers.

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Stillwater Artisan Ales & Westbrook Brewing Company | Gose Gone Wild

ABV: 4.3%

Goses are now a staple for bottle shops across the country as the American craft beer market has embraced their tart, refreshing taste. The style’s availability is at the point where you can breakdown what goses you will find from state-to-state. I’ve seen Victory’s Kirsch Gose and Devils Backbone’s Cran-Gose in several places but until today, Gose Gone Wild was the one elusive gose I’ve been unable to acquire. My guess is that with the name Westbrook attached, it’s very attractive to the beer sharing community as the original Westbrook Gose is.

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Beerology | What Makes Beer Sour?

Welcome to Beerology! Once a month, we will take a look into the origins of all things booze. In this edition of Beerology, we are going to dive into the world of sour beers. Despite the extreme increase in number of breweries producing sour beer, there has not been an increase in knowledge for consumers. So, we’re making an effort to thwart misinformation. Read on to learn the basics of what makes beer sour.

If you’re someone who thinks that Americans created sour, let’s do a real quick crash course in the history of Lambic. What’s Lambic? Only the most important beer style that has led to the sudden explosion in number of “sour” beers on shelves across the country. Lambic is a spontaneously fermented beer that is produced in a region of Belgium called Pajottenland. In a nutshell, spontaneous fermentation is the process of inoculating wort with wild yeast and bacteria present in the brewery’s environment and letting those microorganisms have sole responsibility over fermentation, no added brewer’s yeast or commercial cultures. This is the most traditional way of creating acidity in beer and is the predecessor to modern production of sour beer. Read More

Funkwerks | Paisley Belgian-Style Brett Saison

ABV: 7%

Paisley is a beer from Funkwerks’ experimental series, packaged in a bright Paisley-decorated bottle that could have come from Pier 1 Imports rather than the liquor store. We were excited to try our first Funkwerks wild ale and popped it open with some anticipation. The beer poured into the glass a hazy golden orange color with delicate lacing. At first whiff there was a strong barnyard smell that immediately transitioned to tropical flavors including apricot, cherry, and spicy passion fruit aided by the Funkwerks’ house yeast strain. Read More

Perennial Artisan Ales | Saison d’Alina

ABV: 5.2%
IBU: 20

You know that guy from college that was, like, a champion beer drinker? You know, the guy who, no matter how you trained, prepared, or strategized, could single-handedly win Beer Olympics on his own – who you watched in awe as he made his way through a case of Natty completely unfazed? Well, for me, this guy is my friend Andy Hille. And from the moment I met him, I knew he had to be destined for beer greatness.

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The Commons Brewery | Urban Farmhouse Ale

The Commons Brewery is by far my favorite discovery since moving to Portland 2 months ago. While other new breweries have satisfied my palate in my search for delicious beers … Read More

The Commons Brewery- Flemish Kiss

I have been on a mission to try as many new beers as possible and have definitely had my fair share of seasonals recently. However, there is something to be … Read More