Athletic Brewing Takes Biggest Step Yet with its NA Athletic Lite Release

Even the most avid craft beer fans get tired of beer after a while. Sometimes you want to change things. Maybe you decide to stick to spirits, Light Beers or Hard Seltzers, or you choose to refrain from alcohol altogether, One appealing option that continues to grow in popularity and variety is Non-Alcoholic (NA) beer, a rapidly expanding segment that continues to draw new buzz and more eyeballs – and tastebuds. NA-brewer Athletic Brewing is widely considered the giant of NA beer, taking big swings at releasing NA-versions of Hazy IPAs, Sours, Stouts and Witbiers. Their release focus on complex flavors and style gave them an appealing niche to sell to beer’d-out beer drinkers. Now, they’re leaning into the largest category of beer drinkers – Light Beer lovers, with the debut of Athletic Lite. Here’s why.

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Ultimate 6er | Light Beers for Social Distancing

Growing up in Michigan, March was always a month of excitement and anticipation for me. After a long, cold winter, I always found myself eager to spend time outdoors on the first day of sunshine, and my spirits were lifted along with the slowly rising temperatures. In addition to the excitement that the spring season brings, the beginning of another one of my favorite “seasons” was filling me with anticipation this time of year: March Madness! However, as we all know, everything that we had planned on has abruptly been halted by COVID-19. School has been closed, spring break plans have been canceled and March Madness has taken on a new meaning. However, instead of complaining about how this has inconvenienced our lives, why not look at this opportunity as a chance to slow down?

I originally wrote this article with the intention of reaching for one of these light beers while cheering on my favorite basketball team. Instead, I’ll offer you six recommendations on light beers that you can enjoy while binge-watching Netflix, working on projects around the house or otherwise entertaining yourself during this unique time of social distancing.

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PorchDrinking’s Weekly Denver Beer Beat | April 3, 2019

The Denver Beer Beat is a weekly roundup of brewery openings, special tappings, firkins and one-off batches, bottle releases, dinners, pairings, and more happening in the Front Range and beyond. Be sure to check in each Wednesday to discover anything and everything happening around Colorado’s beer scene. Now let’s get to this week’s can’t miss beer events. Read More

PorchDrinking’s Weekly Denver Beer Beat | March 27, 2019

The Denver Beer Beat is a weekly roundup of brewery openings, special tappings, firkins and one-off batches, bottle releases, dinners, pairings, and more happening in the Front Range and beyond. Be sure to check in each Wednesday to discover anything and everything happening around Colorado’s beer scene. Now let’s get to this week’s can’t miss beer events. Read More

Ultimate 6er | Best Beers for Cheering on the Big Ten Conference During March Madness

For those of us who live in the Midwest, it has been a long, bitter winter. However, for Big Ten basketball fans, a competitive regular season has pulled us through to the first signs of spring.

For most people, the Christmas season is their favorite time of year. However, for me, March Madness could be the underdog that upsets this crowd favorite in a battle for the most wonderful time of the year. I love that every game matters, as I have a team to root for in each match-up. I enjoy the high of celebration as teams claim victory, and I feel the heartache for each team as their season comes to an end. The upsets, the Cinderella Team, and the bracket busters elicit excitement in me, and of course, I have my favorite team that I hope is ultimately cutting down the nets at the end of it all. For those of you who will be rooting on a Big Ten team with me this March Madness, this Ultimate 6er will provide you with craft brews that show your loyalty to your team and your conference as you celebrate. Let the madness begin! Cheers (and Go Big Ten!).
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PorchDrinking’s Weekly Denver Beer Beat | March 20, 2019

The Denver Beer Beat is a weekly roundup of brewery openings, special tappings, firkins and one-off batches, bottle releases, dinners, pairings, and more happening in the Front Range and beyond. Be sure to check in each Wednesday to discover anything and everything happening around Colorado’s beer scene. Now let’s get to this week’s can’t miss beer events. Read More

Four New Session IPAs Perfect for the Long Hours of March Madness

The calendar year is full of great sports events, but there is arguably no better multi-day sports period than the opening weekend of March Madness. From early Thursday to late Sunday, college basketball fans, avid gamblers, and college alumni alike will gather around computer screens, flat-screen TVs and in stadiums across the nation to cheer on their favorite team. It’s an experience that frays the nerves, especially if you have a team you’re rooting for or money on the line. It’s also one that is ideal for your favorite beverage of choice—several of them in fact. Whether you’re on your couch or on a bar-stool, the non-stop basketball action for the opening weekend deserves a light yet flavorful beer that’s high on hops but low on alcohol. Here are four new Session IPAs that should make it into your starting lineup this weekend.

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Ultimate Sweet 6(teen)er | 2017 March Madness Sweet 16

Feature Image Source: Chapel Hill Recorder

Once again, here we are on the brink of the Sweet 16! For a couple of days, it sure seemed like the tournament might end up being kind of boring, even if we had no lack of good, competitive games. And then the games were played on Saturday and Sunday and we see Tom Izzo’s Spartans, the overall #1 seed Villanova, and five out of the top six regular season ACC teams (Florida State, Notre Dame, Virginia, Louisville and Duke) get dropped in the Round of 32.

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PorchDrinking’s Weekly Denver Beer Beat | March 15, 2017

The Denver Beer Beat sheds light on news of brewery openings, special tappings, firkins and one-off batches, bottle releases, dinners, pairings, etc.
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March Beer Madness: Brewery Bracketology at Brass Tap Orland Park (Chicago)

Few places embrace local breweries like Brass Tap in Orland Park, Illinois (Chicago). But, this is no time to celebrate community — community, smoonity! This is March Beer Madness and it’s all about competition! One dozen breweries enter the tournament, but only one leaves a winner (and the lucky fans who picked it correctly). It starts with Chicago’s Maplewood Brewery vs. suburban Darien’s Miskatonic on day one, March 16th.

It’s free to fill out a bracket… so, who ya got?

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Ultimate 6er | Ultimate Sweet 6(teen)er

I must admit I’m writing this with slightly less enthusiasm than my 2015 write up celebrating the teams that survived the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Sadly (at least … Read More

Objective Bracketology: Be the Only One in Your Pool to Use These Methods

With March Madness kicking off this week, everyone is watching their brackets closely to see which teams will rise to the top of the NCAA tournament. From detailed player analysis to superstitious patterns, people spend a lot of time and energy coming up with the best angle for filling out a bracket so that they can win their March Madness pool

And then some other jerk who arbitrarily picked their teams wins.

So if you can’t beat them, join them, right? I’ve covered this in the past with brackets based on things like which team’s mascot would win in a fight, and a year later, which team’s school boasts the most famous alumni.  Those brackets did not do well. There’s no reason to think that this year’s Mascot Madness will do any better. Maybe that’s because I used totally subjective judgments to determine who should win each match-up. Maybe what my bracketology needs is a conceit based on data with much more empirical value, but with the same basketball wisdom.

In other words, I came up with brackets that are objective, but have NOTHING to do with how well the teams play basketball.

I am for real entering these brackets in some public pools, just so I can see which strategy is most practical, and how many actual college basketball fans I can beat. If you really don’t know who to pick in your pool, give one of these brackets a shot. Give March a bit more Madness.

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March Methods | A “How To” Guide For Completing Your NCAA Tournament Bracket

March Madness is upon us and with that the annual tradition of filling in a tournament bracket. The tournament plays out in very unpredictable fashion, making it extremely unlikely to pick even the first round games correctly, let alone the whole thing. Here are 10 possible strategies to setting a bracket that will defeat your friends, family and co-workers, earning you bragging rights and possibly a cash payout. Read More

PorchDrinking Playlist | March Madness Playlist

This week’s playlist has nothing to do with basketball. BUT, it has everything to do with March, and everything to do with (music) madness. In truth, it is a hodgepodge of new and old music, spanning the genre spectrum from hip-hop/rap to indie-pop. Regardless of your music taste, there’s something on this March Madness playlist for everyone! Read More

March Madness Depression

Oh to be a college basketball fan. To think watching a full season of NCAA hoops earns you any distinction among the various friend, co-worker or family pools that amass during this frantic period. To be reminded that the chances of glory and bragging rights are only occur by happenstance. To be reminded how one games performance means nothing in the next game, and to bemoan only what could have been. That my friends, is what March Madness does to me. Read More

Pop Culture Bracketology 2015

It’s a tale as old as time. Or, at least as old as March Madness bracketology.

You look over the bracket. You study up on the teams. You consider expert opinions. You even look up Vegas odds for every game. And finally you make smart, well-informed, clever picks for the NCAA tournament. And you enter your bracket into the office/school/family/friend pool.

And the winner of the pool? That one damn entrant who has never seen a basketball game, and picked teams based on which school has the best colors, or what names sound funniest, or even just whatever teams they’d heard of.

The beauty – and agony – of March Madness is that no one can predict what will happen. The race often goes not to the strong or the clever or the patient… but to the random. So here at PorchDrinking, we’ve come up with a very pop-culture way to pick your bracket.  Read More

Roundtable Discussion | March Madness

For those inclined to the sport of basketball (or basketsball for you New Girl fans), this is arguably the most wonderful time of the year.

So, in the spirit of the season, we asked staffers what their favorite thing about March Madness is.
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We Are All Florida Gulf Coast University

After the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, there is only one team to write about: the Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles. Few had ever heard of this team before March Madness began – and if you did, it was probably because of the coach’s wife. With wins over Georgetown and San Diego State University, all that has now changed. Read More