Out of nostalgia and obligation I added it to the cart.

Not too long ago the idea of summer specific offerings from larger breweries was met with excitement and reverence. Sam Adams Summer Ale comes to mind as one that led a generation of beer drinkers to wish for the warm weather as soon as it arrived every Spring. Bright and lemony, it never crossed into the soda like sweetness offered by shandies. Sam Summer, first introduced in the mid 1990s – was exciting because it was a limited run, it conjured up ideas of hot afternoons on the lake, camping, or just hanging around a backyard cookout.

At some point years ago the Boston Beer, the company behind the brand, changed the recipe by using what they said were different lemons. That taste was more artificial, and a bit of soul was lost. It never regained that snap and vibrancy it once had, at least for me. The brewery would again change the recipe in 2019.

Now, before you roll your eyes, this is not another column where a guy who has been writing about beer for a long time laments that the landscape has changed and wants things to go backwards. It’s perfectly reasonable that palates change as do life experiences. Sam Summer lives happily in my mind in a good way for my mid-to-late 20s. There are drinkers today who still get those experiences in their own way today, and I’m happy for them.

Summer Refreshment

I was at the local beer store to buy a 30 pack of Genesee cream ale when I saw the Oberon. Genny Cream is a beer I’ve had a fascination and fondness for as long as I can remember. Simple green and white cans, easy drinking, thirst quenching. There are no frills, no grand tasting notes, nothing to say except it’s a beer that does the job it’s supposed to do.

Being the editor of a beer publication is a charmed life. There are a lot of samples that come into the office that I gladly drink and catalogue and take tasting notes on. There are occasionally leftovers, and on a holiday weekend like July 4, I will load up one cooler of those hoppy and experimental ales and lagers to bring them to parties where my beer loving friends will be present. They can dig around and find something that strikes their stout or hazy fancy.

A second cooler is filled with Genny and that’s what I go back to again and again. It’s simple, consistent, pairs with everything coming off the grill, and keeps me hydrated. It’s a tradition I’ve created for myself that fits a long weekend where I try to unplug from work.

Fading Rays

Which brings be back to Oberon.

Bell’s Brewery, now owned by Kirin, has put significant marketing behind Oberon. There’s a big party at the brewery to celebrate its annual launch. Some line extensions have been introduced.

For craft beer drinkers of a certain age, and for new ones coming of age, the familiar sun logo – a cross between a bumper on CBS Sunday Morning and the angry sun in Super Mario Bros. 3 – is a visual Pavlovian cue that warm weather is upon us.

I opened the first can of the 12-pack about an hour before I was compelled to sit down at the table to write this. I had two more in quick succession to confirm my suspicions. This is a perfectly OK beer. The orange peel comes through, the medium body keeps the taste buds engaged and the tongue a bit fat. A 5.8% abv gets the good time going a bit faster than other summer seasonals. This year, for me, it was just tasting a bit different, a little diminished.

I recall fondly summers, in my late 30s, on the lake whiling away the hours, going through cases of this with friends. We all (mostly) have kids now, so the abv does more harm than good come the next day.

At this point in my life Oberon is a good nostalgia beer. It brings back more memories than it does help make new ones. I suspect there are drinkers out there that feel the same way, as well as younger ones who feel the opposite.

Forever summer

Summer is a great time to drink beer. Hard Seltzers have taken a lot of the wind out of the summer seasonal beers, but beer lands a bit better than the seltzers and other flavored malt beverages, there’s something that and a little more soul to it. Something that feels a little more real, substantial.

There was a time in craft beer where watermelon wedges were served with watermelon ales, or blueberries added to pints of blueberry summer ales. They added visual pop and flavor to these beers and reminded us of where we were on the calendar.

Seasons are fleeting. The older we get the faster they seem to go. Having a drink of nostalgia brings happier times to the forefront of the mind. Breweries of all sizes now make their own summer seasonal, and this column, if nothing else, is an encouragement to get out there to make some warm weather memories with new-to-you beers.

And for those drinkers who don’t want to let go of summer no matter what the calendar says, MolsonCoors announced that its Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy is now available year-round.

For me? I’m happy. Oktoberfest lagers have been on shelves since early August and Labor Day weekend means it’s almost time for the winter warmers to arrive, and with it fresh nostalgia.

Since 1979 All About Beer has offered engaging and in-depth articles and interviews covering every aspect of brewing and beer culture. Our journalism needs your support. Please visit our Patreon Page to show your appreciation for independent beer writing. 

The post Summer Beer Blues: Have They Lost Their Cool? first appeared on All About Beer.

The tradition started on a holiday before I was fully writing about beer, had a few extra dollars in my pocket, and wanted to expand my beer horizons past hops or lagers. The label, a portrait of the Mary, the Duchess of Burgundy, is a familiar site around the world, and is the flagship offering from Brouwerij Verhaeghe in West Flanders, Belgium. 

Flanders Red is not too common a style and can be difficult to make well. The base of rich roast malts and aged hops along with ambient yeast helps give the beer its distinctive taste. The final product is a blend of 18-month old and 8-month old double, and spontaneously fermented ales that is aged in oak casks. There is also a cherry adjunct version of the beer available, as well as a low ABV “petit” offering in some markets, but I suggest sticking with the original.

I was so taken by this beer those many years ago and come back to it annually, if not sooner. It is among my favorite beers. In fact, I included it in my roundup for the CAMRA book World’s Greatest Beers.

Poured into a chalice, this complex tart ale has aromas and flavors of black cherry, toffee and balsamic vinegar. It is medium bodied and smooth, with a neat little dry finish that tickles the salvatory glands. It is artful and filled with so many layers that working through a four pack will reveal new flavors or suggestions with each one. 

Suitable whenever the mood strikes, this appeals to my inner Christmas nature. It can be paired with fruit cake and roasts, or just spending a little time with this beer in the quiet of the evening helps put the holiday into perspective, almost demanding that I slow down a bit and get lost in the twinkle of the lights on the tree. I always welcome the experience.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

 This beer reminds me of my favorite Christmas song, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

“Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Let your heart be light

From now on your troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Make the Yuletide gay

From now on your troubles will be miles away

Here we are as in olden days

Happy golden days of yore

Faithful friends who are dear to us

Gather near to us once more

Through the years we all will be together

If the fates allow. Hang a shining star upon the highest bow.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas now.”

Song written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane.

Wishing you all something great in your glass, wonderful company to share it with, the peace of the season, and a very happy and prosperous new year.

The post Duchesse de Bourgogne: A Beer for Christmas Eve first appeared on All About Beer.

A true Renaissance man, his interests ranged from Science Fiction to philanthropy, and beer.

When writing for All About Beer, Wooster mainly focused on book reviews. History was a passion and he had been attending the Ales Through the Ages symposium in Williamsburg, Virginia when he was struck near his hotel.

The Williamsburg Police Department did not respond to a request for information. It is unclear if the department has made any arrests or the current state of the investigation.

It is in the mail

In several other obituaries and tributes posted online a common thread emerged. Wooster a veracious reader would take to sending articles – both digital and printed – to authors and writers he befriended over the years in multiple fields.

I was proud to be included in those mailings. Over the last several years he reached out when he noticed that an article of mine was used to illustrate a page in the recently released The Dogfish Head Book: 26 Years of Off-Centered Adventures and that The Week had been re-running reviews and insights I had first published in Wine Enthusiast. In both cases he spotted these before I did.

In an exchange I’ve long remembered Wooster reached out on Christmas Eve 2014 sharing thoughts on a piece I wrote for the Washington Post about Russian dressing, and its differences from the more popular Thousand Island dressing.

In the note he shared this tidbit:

“You should know my single favorite food item is the Montgomery Burger at Woodside Deli in Silver Spring [Maryland], which is a burger with fried onions and Thousand Island dressing on rye bread.”

That deli, according to online reports, closed in 2022.

He reached out just after New Year in 2015 to note the same piece had run in the Philadelphia Inquirer that weekend.

Constantly reading

In his tribute in the National Review John J. Miller wote that Wooster would send him clippings and links from other people named John Miller.

“Early on, he sent clips by regular mail, cut from the pages of his prodigious reading,” Miller wrote. “At some point, the emails outnumbered the stamped envelopes. Along the way, I learned about hordes of people with whom I share a name. They included loads of criminals and at least one person who attended a Star Trek convention as a Klingon.”

Wooster was thoughtful and he was inquisitive.

Stan Hieronymus, who presented at Ales Through the Ages spent time with Wooster during the weekend but had left Virginia before the incident.

“As was typical of Martin, he had plenty of questions about hops when we headed to lunch after the Saturday am session,” says Hieronymus. “Typical because he asked the questions in a way I painlessly realized changes I could have made in my presentation that would have made what I was saying clearer.”

In addition to his work for All About Beer and other beer publications Wooster was the author of three books Angry Classrooms, Vacant Minds (Pacific Research Institute, 1994), The Great Philanthropists and the Problem of ‘Donor Intent’ (Capital Research Center, 1994; revised 1998, 2007, and 2017), and Great Philanthropic Mistakes (Hudson Institute, 2006; revised 2010).

Additionally, his articles and reviews appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Washington Times, American Spectator, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Commentary, Elle, Air and Space, Esquire, Philanthropy, Policy Review, Reader’s Digest, Reason, and the Washingtonian.

“I aspired to his standards when writing the occasional book review,” says Lew Bryson.

An Interest in Beer

Any writer will tell you that praise and compliments are almost as good as being fairly paid for work.

In late 2015, during my first stint as editor of this publication, Wooster reached out via email:

“I think ALL ABOUT BEER is showing steady improvement.  There’s a lot more depth to the articles than in the past and a lot less filler.  And I’m not just saying this because you publish me.

THANK YOU for letting me know about STRANGE TALES OF ALE.  I love Martyn Cornell’s work and did NOT know about this book.

I am in the happy condition of having TOO MANY BOOKS to review.  I like being in this condition!”

Praise like that from Wooster was a gift.

A resident of Maryland he was active in the beer community in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

“I first met him at a Brickskeller tasting in the early 90s and last saw him a few years back at the Silver Spring farmers market,” says Volker Stewart founding partner at The Brewer’s Art in Baltimore. “Our conversations were always fairly brief but covered a wide variety of topics in that brief time. I will miss him.”

Indeed. He will be missed by all who knew him, including, I bet, his local post office.

Articles by Martin Wooster

A sampling of book reviews by Martin Wooster from the All About Beer archives:

Brewing Champions: A History of the International Brewing Awards.

The Homebrewers Guide to Vintage Beer

Gilroy was Good for Guinness

The post “Wooster here…” Remembering a Man of Many Letters first appeared on All About Beer.

As the results of the recent presidential election reverberate through living rooms and tap rooms across the country, statements and stops from candidates visiting breweries are having real consequences on shelves and tap handles.

Leading up to the Nov. 8 election, Eric Trump, son of then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, visited D.G. Yuengling & Sons of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, makers of Yuengling Lager and other beers. Yuengling is considered to be the largest craft brewery in the United States, as calculated by the Brewers Association.

According to media reports, Trump promised that his father would make it easier for business to be done in the United States. “Our guys are behind your father,” Dick Yuengling Jr., the head of the company responded. “We need him in there.”

The reaction by supporters of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate, as well as others who opposed the republican nominee was swift and seemingly severe.

Bars throughout Pennsylvania and beyond denounced Yuengling, pulled it from inventory, and announced a boycott.

Wolf Sterling, the owner of Pint, a bar in Jersey City, New Jersey, announced on Facebook that it will no longer serve Yuengling products, saying that Dick Yuengling Jr.’s support of Trump supports a “racist, anti-gay, anti-women” mentality.

“The $15,000 a year we paid for their products will go to companies that do support diversity,” Sterling said in the post. “We are also closing our account with Peerless Beverage Company, the distributor of Yuengling, until they drop Yuengling products from their lineup.”

After All About Beer made several requests for a comment from the Yuengling brewery, marketing manager Jen Holtzman responded to this reporter via email: “We are not able to comment publicly but I appreciate the opportunity.”

Sterling, who signed the statement that currently has more than 1,000 reactions on Facebook and has been shared and commented on more than 100 times, says he doesn’t “expect that dropping Yuengling will change the world. But it will tell our neighbors, our friends, and you, that when you come to Pint you’re welcome here—regardless of who you love, what you look like, or whether you sit or stand to pee.”

(Full disclosure: I am a regular customer of Pint, as it’s in my hometown and the bar is featured in my most recent cookbook Dishing Up New Jersey.)

The actions of Sterling, coupled with countless other bars and accounts, show the divide politics can have in business, something many service and goods companies have long sought to avoid.

The Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing Co. also found itself in the crosshairs leading up to the election when it hosted former President Bill Clinton for a rally urging support for his wife’s campaign.

The local newspaper, the Coloradoan, said that while 2,500 people gathered to hear the former president speak, a hearty bunch of Trump supporters gathered in protest nearby.

New Belgium, the fourth largest craft brewery in the country, is no stranger to politics. In 2014 it launched a political action committee, and has given verbal and financial support to a number of causes. A Facebook group called “Boycott New Belgium Brewing” is an active page that is against the brewery for its funding of “anti-coal, anti-fracking, anti-natural gas, anti-hydro, anti-gun, and anti-oil advocacy.”

The brewery, having taken stances on a number of political issues, has experienced physical boycotts and removal from shops and bars.

Before, during, and after the Clinton rally, customers on social media weighed in quickly, announcing that the brewery would lose their business. Brewery spokesman Bryan Simpson said this week: “We’ve always wanted to make the work we do here meaningful. We have a responsibility to engage on the policy and practice that impact our business and community.”

He specifically cited clean water initiatives, something vitally important to all people and especially breweries. Simpson said that the brewery was approached by the Clinton campaign for the rally and it was “an honor to do so. You don’t turn down a former president.” While New Belgium—the company—didn’t specifically endorse Clinton’s candidacy, Simpson said there was one candidate “who more aligned” with its perspective.

As for the accounts that have dropped New Belgium, Simpson said: “Yes we take positions, and that’s something that can bite you in the ass. That’s the cost of advocacy.”

Interestingly enough, Pint’s stance on Yuengling will have equal consequences for New Belgium, since it shares the same distributor in northern New Jersey.

While all politics is local, this recent cycle was a reminder that it can also be as close as the glass in your hand.

John Holl is the editor of All About Beer Magazine.

RELATED: Election Beers Tap Into Chaotic Campaign Season

The post Echoes Of The Election At The Bar first appeared on All About Beer.

He still gets recognized. At the bar or at festivals, fans of a certain age will walk up to Pete Slosberg, almost in awe. They remember his face on advertisements for Wicked Ale, the beer from his discontinued brewery that bore his name for so many years. They have stories of drinking his beer, good times with friends, first dates, or how it was the brand that helped them onto the path of better beer. They shake his hand and ask for a picture.

Inevitably, the people will ask what happened to Pete’s Wicked Ale, and if it’ll ever return. The answer to that first part is complicated. The second part now has a bit of good news attached to it.  

This morning, Slosberg mashed in at the Hoppin’ Frog Brewery in Akron, Ohio, with brewmaster Fred Karm to create Wicked Re-Pete 2X.  

“I discovered muscles that haven’t been used in a couple of years,” Slosberg said in a telephone conversation from the brewery. The beer is an imperial American nut brown ale, double in nearly every way from Pete’s Wicked Ale, the original American brown ale.

To be clear, this isn’t a return of the Wicked brand or Pete’s Brewing Co. The brewery was sold to The Gambrinus Company in 1998 and has since left shelves. This is a collaboration beer between two brewing friends, and an homage to a beer that influenced so many and would have celebrated its 30th anniversary this year.

Karm first met Slosberg in 2003. He was a brewer at Ohio’s Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. and Slosberg was visiting a nearby chocolate company, working on recipes for his company Cocoa Pete’s Chocolate Adventures.

“He cold called the brewery and asked to come by,” remembers Karm. “I thought it was cool as hell and I decided to clear my schedule for the day, and pull out all our best beers from the cellar, give him the full experience and not stop until he left. We’ve been friends ever since.”

The road to this collaboration began with a charity event. Karm was working with the local chapter of the American Cancer Society and raffled off a brew day at the brewery to the highest bidder. The winning group was all over the spectrum with the style they wanted to create, and they eventually settled on a strong nut brown. For inspiration, Karm called Slosberg to inquire about the original Pete’s and the two got to talking about recipe development and ingredients.

As they talked, Slosberg mentioned that he always wanted to make a stronger version on Wicked Ale, and by the time the call ended, the two had decided to brew a new recipe together.

Wicked Re-Pete 2X will be 10.4%, and uses Brewer’s Gold and Cascade hops. They made about 20 barrels of the beer and it will be packaged in 22-ounce bottles (the label will feature Millie, Slosberg’s dog that adorned the original packaging) and on draft. It should be available by mid-May in select markets served by Hoppin’ Frog.

John Holl is the editor of All About Beer Magazine.

The post Wicked Collaboration: Slosberg, Hoppin’ Frog Pay Homage to Classic Brand first appeared on All About Beer.

Bill Covaleski didn’t like what he was seeing. Large brewing companies buying up smaller breweries and then putting pressure on wholesalers and bar accounts, to say nothing of new entrants to the marketplace on a daily basis. It was troubling from a business standpoint, and after 20 years in the industry he knew it was important to ensure the future for Victory Brewing Co.

“It was time to look at our strategy and trajectory, to be strong and to protect the livelihood of our employees,” Covaleski said in his first full interview after announcing the news this morning that Victory would join Artisanal Brewing Ventures (ABV), a North Carolina-based holding company that also includes the New York-based Southern Tier Brewing Co.

Covaleski and Ron Barchet, the COO of Victory, will become significant shareholders in ABV and will join the ABV Board of Directors, which also includes Phin and Sara DeMink, of Southern Tier. CEO John Coleman and CFO Bill Wild will lead ABV’s management team, according to a press release.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“It’s very easy to look at this and say ‘Ron and Bill got wealthy today,’ but at Victory we are 54 shareholders and they are family and friends,” said Covaleski, the founder and brewmaster of Victory. “Right now all they get is an annual dividend check for taxes, to look at some stainless steel, and a discount on beer. We worked on this deal to help these people who made Victory a great place have stability. That was a priority for us.”

During the telephone interview with All About Beer Magazine, Covaleski was in Parkesburg, Pennsylvania, home to the brewery’s newest location, where the entire sales staff was gathered for its annual meeting. He and Barchet spent the last several days talking directly with the staff about the news, before it became public knowledge.  

“We wanted to see them face-to-face and tell them what the future looks like,” said Covaleski.

And that future, he says, is an alliance with good people that will help the brewery get from point A to point B.

“Point A is stability,” he said. “Point B is the same stability in a very tumultuous marketplace.”

He spoke about scale, the middle tier of the beer world and the importance to grow and to stay independent. “I don’t want to sound doom and gloomy, but there are big fish swimming in the little fish bowl of craft beer.”

Victory—which is available in 37 states—sold 142,000 barrels of beer in 2015.

“We enjoy our independence. That’s a model that works for us.”

ABV is a good alternative to partnering with a large brewing company, Covaleski said, because it wants to invest money and help the brewery grow.

“We’re very comfortable with them,” he said of ABV. “They have similar priorities, and we like how they’ve managed other companies. This feels good and sincere to us.”

The conversations of selling the company—or merging with another—began last summer after Victory qualified for a $52-million loan. It’s what the brewery needed to grow, having added the Parkesburg location to the existing Downingtown location that has been Victory’s home since it was founded 20 years ago. With that loan, the brewery decided to look at alternative financing, and worked with an investment bank to take a few different proposals. When it found ABV and visited Southern Tier, “it was like looking into the mirror.”

Covaleski pointed out that Southern Tier and Victory don’t have a lot of product overlap except in the IPA category where it “gets lumpy, but that’s expected.” The goal now is to find efficiencies and ways of doing more with more. “You can’t cut costs in a growth environment.”

And yes. There is already talk of a collaboration beer between the two new brewing partners.

“In all of the conversations, we haven’t dwelled on the past,” Covaleski said. “We just look forward, all the security is there. We look forward, we don’t look back.”

John Holl is the editor of All About Beer Magazine.

The post Victory Looks Forward first appeared on All About Beer.

Jeff Cioletti has a job that many will envy. He’s a professional drinker. More accurately, he’s a professional writer who focuses on the drinks trade. A long-time magazine editor and journalist (and contributor to All About Beer Magazine), as well as a filmmaker and world traveler, the New Jersey native has just released his first book The Year of Drinking Adventurously and sat down over a few cocktails to discuss the state of the drinks world.

John Holl: Describe the book. What can people expect when they buy it and start to dig in?

Jeff Cioletti: It’s really a breezy guide—conversational, not pedantic—for people who want to expand their drinking horizons. We’ve all had that point in our lives when we either had no clue what to order at a bar or were just so overwhelmed by the number of unfamiliar choices that we retreated to our not-so-exciting comfort zones. I decided to structure it across a single year. There are 52 chapters. Each one represents a different drink for each week of the year. It covers everything from the different whiskey traditions to more obscure beverages like Japan’s sake and shochu, China’s baijiu and Chicago’s Malört. There are also some chapters on beer that offer styles beyond what many consider “mainstream.”

You have an extensive professional background writing about drinks and spirits, but what surprised you while researching and writing this book?

How much there still was to learn! There were so many things that I’ve taken for granted, particularly about the history of some of these beverages. Take something as accessible as whiskey for instance. Whiskey’s in the midst of a colossal renaissance at the moment and the styles that most connoisseurs have been gravitating to have been things like bourbon, rye and Scotch. But interestingly, there was a time, into the early 20th century, when Irish whiskey was considered the best of the best. It kind of got overshadowed by Scotch by the mid-20th century. Luckily, though, it’s become one of the fastest-growing styles, led by Jameson, and now drinkers are looking to dive deeper into that category. That’s creating an opportunity for modern Irish distillers, enabling it to slowly return to its former glory. I was also surprised by just how much of a role context plays in the drinking experience. For instance, I was never much of a rum person, but get me in a tiki bar and I’m in love with it! Same thing with mulled wine. I was never crazy about it when we’d heat red wine on the stove and add spices like cinnamon and clove. But take me to an outdoor holiday market in Germany, Austria or Switzerland and there’s nothing I would rather drink than a steaming cup of gluhwein, standing at a highboy table when it’s 20 degrees out.

The title of the book, especially “drinking adventurously” seems to indicate that, by in large, people are timid drinkers. Is this the case and if so, why?

There are different levels of timidity, I guess. There certainly are well-rounded drinkers out there who are open to trying a lot of things. But for the most part, they still have their comfort zone. They gravitate toward one beverage more than others and often become experts on that particular drink. That’s kind of how I used to be with beer. When I first discovered amazing beer—craft, specialty, whatever you want to call it—I immersed myself in that world, learned as much as I could about it and traveled to many places overseas with the sole purpose of drinking good beer at the source. But at the same time, I was shutting myself off from spirits and other beverage categories. Ultimately, my tastes evolved and I opened myself up to other drinks. But before that I actually considered myself an adventurous drinker because I was always trying new beers in style categories that varied wildly. But I really wasn’t because I was still cocooning myself in that beery comfort zone. The same holds true for anyone who’s an expert on whiskey, gin, wine, cider—what have you. They may be so devoted to one category that they’re putting the blinders on about others. So that’s a form of timidness, whether we care to admit it or not. And then, of course, there are the folks who never gave much thought to what they were drinking or were too shy to expand beyond the simple, like a vodka tonic or vodka cranberry. That’s kind of the person I was in the late ‘90s. I was still new to the world of legal drinking and I wanted to break away from the really cheap beer I drank in college. So for me, a basic gin-and-tonic sounded like a grownup drink. Trouble was, it was a well drink. I really didn’t care what kind of gin was going in the glass and in those days, there weren’t many options anyway. And of course, since it was the cheapest drink you could by, it was incredibly watered down. I honestly didn’t even know what gin tasted like. I figured it tasted like quinine because all I was getting was the tonic and the ice water. And I was too timid to ask for a good recommendation. I was probably a little indifferent too. I didn’t think alcohol was supposed to be such a complex flavor experience. The fact that it very much is one of the key takeaways, I hope, in the book.

If someone spends the next year working through the book, taking each chapter as a lesson, what should they expect by this time next year? 

They should have a better understanding of what they like and what they don’t like and perhaps be surprised by things they thought they’d never like. Believe me, no one’s going to like every drink in this book. Some of the drinks, I’d say, are actually pretty hard to like. But it’s more about taking that leap and trying something new, whether it’s the most delicious thing you’ve ever experienced, or gut-wrenchingly vile. By the time the holidays roll around next year, they’ll probably have a pretty impressive liquor cabinet for their home entertaining. When they’re out for a drink, they’ll probably find themselves scanning all of the bottles behind the bar. Some of what’s back there may seem like old friends by then. They’re also likely to impress their bartenders a bit being able to converse authoritatively about much of what the bar has in stock. That’ll lead to a better rapport, which often will lead to preferential treatment. That could mean better drinks. It also means that if they get a special bottle in that’s hidden below the bar or in the back room, they’re more likely to let you in on the action.

Getting into the busy holiday gathering season, what is one simple thing people can do to elevate their drinking experience or show off some great hosting skills? 

On the entertaining side, I usually want to be best friends with the people whose assortment of bottles makes my jaw drop. I was at a Halloween party a few weeks back at the home of a couple I didn’t know too well. When I saw the vast and impeccably curated collection of whiskeys, beers, gins, bitters, ciders they had, I told them they should’ve been the ones writing my book! As far as going out and enjoying the season at a cozy bar, find a place that has, not just a printed wine list, but physical, well-appointed spirits and beer lists. (If it’s a place that only has a beer and wine license, make sure the beer gets the same kind of fanfare that the wine gets). Those are the types of places that take their beverages seriously and they love serving people who do as well. And, there’s probably no better holiday gift than a bottle of something amazing. You just have to drop the right hints to Santa.

John Holl is the editor of All About Beer Magazine.

The post Enhance Your Drinking Experience first appeared on All About Beer.

By now they’ve become too prominent to ignore. Moustaches across America are finally getting to the point of full whiskers, not patchy wisps. November isn’t just the penultimate month of the year anymore. Now it’s Movember, or No-Shave November, two awareness campaigns that have been largely embraced by the brewing community around the country.

Visit a brewery this month, and there’s a good chance you’ll see one or both campaigns in action. Proceeds from Movember—according to Movember Foundation, a non-profit organization that has promoted the event since 2003—fund programs that focus on testicular and prostate cancers, mental health, and physical activity. The idea is to encourage men to get involved by working out and getting active.

With No-Shave November, the goal is to grow a moustache for charity. You can get people to sponsor your (or a group’s) facial hair growth efforts with the proceeds going to a good cause. Or you can simply send a donation yourself to various men’s health charities.

For many in the brewing industry every month is a no-shave month. Brewery employees, especially brewers, are largely unshaven. There’s a joke about how the Great American Beer Festival could also double as the Great American Beard Festival, to the point where a shaving company has set up shop over the last few years at the Colorado Convention Center during the festival to offer trims and shaves in between the beer samples.

Curious as to why so many brewers forego the razor, this reporter recently asked the collective hive mind on Facebook for their thoughts. After sifting through the joke answers a consensus emerged, summed up by Ohio-based beer blogger Tom Streeter.

“I think a lot of brewers come out of some buttoned-down disciplines: engineering, finance, corporate labs,” he wrote. “A beard is a great way to demonstrate there’s not a dress code anymore. Then it becomes a contest.”

Dan Valas, owner and brewer at Indiana’s Great Crescent Brewery, jumped in to concur.

“I had a beard off and on when I worked in my previous field—but it got some negative comments from executives—so I think Tom Streeter is probably right, at least in my case. It’s good to grow the hair and beard just to say F-it.”

Most answers settled around the idea that creative types have long sported facial hair, and beer, a creative concept and industry, breeds beards well.

Whatever the reason, when visiting a brewery you’re more likely to find a bearded brewer than not—the brewery itself might even be named after a beard (a quick search reveals 3 Beards Brewing, Long Beard Brewing, Beards Brewing and Moustache Brewing). If that’s not enough, it’s not hard to find beards on a beer label or beer name.

Those angles are covered in a book called Craft Beards that highlights the art and inspiration behind the bearded and facial hair figures found on bottles and cans across the country. Written by Fred Abercrombie with photography by Tyler Warrender, it features a “well groomed” collection of labels that have beards, moustaches and sideburns. There’s more than one might expect.

Finally, the main fusion of beer and facial hair is likely the Beard Beer from Rogue Ales in Oregon. It’s an American wild ale made with Sterling hops, Munich, C15, and Pilsner malts, and yeast harvested from the beard of brew master John Maier.

Yes, you read that right. The yeast used to ferment the beer was plucked right out of the beard of the man who brews it. Maier’s beard dates back to 1978, according to Rogue.

On the bottle, which prominently features a drawing of Maier’s face (and beard) the brewery doesn’t give much in flavor descriptions, encouraging people to “try it, we think you’ll be surprised…”

Challenge accepted. I poured the beard beer into a tulip glass and was intrigued by its light bronze color and moderate white head. Orange blossom and honey aromas emerge from the glass, I’m now wondering if Maier uses a special shampoo. I take a sip—taking care not to douse my own moustache—and I’m met with a full-bodied slightly spicy, tangy brew with pronounced citrus and a bit of honey-like viscosity. I take a few more sips, enjoying the flavors, and trying not to think about the source of fermentation on this beer.

As the glass drains and the oddity fades, it becomes clear that great things can come from unexpected flavors.

John Holl is the editor of All About Beer Magazine. He looks forward to shaving again in December.

The post What’s with the Beards? The Link Between Facial Hair and Brewing first appeared on All About Beer.

WALDEN, N.Y.—Hard cider continues to climb in popularity and now the largest producer in the country, Angry Orchard, has its own place to welcome customers.

After breaking ground in March, Angry Orchard, part of the Boston Beer Co., makers of Samuel Adams and Twisted Tea, welcomed its first visitors in early November to the 60-acre farm that it purchased last year. With only a little advance preparation and some notices in local papers, more than 2,500 visitors streamed through to learn about the cider making process and taste the core lineup, as well as some special batches, which will be this location’s main purpose.

The Hudson Valley is know as New York’s apple belt, and Walden, an idyllic farming town about 90 minutes from Manhattan, was just the kind of spot the folks at Angry Orchard were looking for when they decided to buy a farm. The orchard they found is on a farm dating back to the 1700s, becoming a full-time apple producer in the 1950s.

Officially the location is known as the Angry Orchard & Innovation Cider House, and upon arrival visitors see a striking red barn, painted with the cider’s logo. But visitors are encouraged to drive past the barn (it is only used for cold storage) along a paved stone driveway, through the orchard, to the newly constructed two-level building. Inside is a self-guided interactive tour, which traces the roots of cider in America; explores apple varieties; features Angry Orchard trivia; and offers a peek at the apple processing room and stainless steel fermenters. Then a quick walk downstairs take visitors to the gift shop and tasting room, with floor-to-ceiling windows, overlooking a sprawling yard (complete with fire pit) and a view of the orchard.

That’s the real star of the attraction. With 45 working acres, some of the orchard’s trees date back 100 years, and currently focus on culinary apples like McIntosh and Rome. Working with local growers, universities and other cider makers, Angry Orchard plans to begin planting historic and more cider-specific apple trees on the property.

“We’ll do it slowly, a few acres at a time, working with the growers,” said Ryan Burk, the head cider maker, standing near a two-acre spot that will soon be planted with bittersweet and bittersharp varietals.

Boston Beer has long been making cider, first under the brand known as HardCore. Angry Orchard was launched in 2012 and since then it has grown tremendously. It currently accounts for approximately 60 percent of the U.S. cider market, although a spokeswoman for the company would not reveal how many barrels the brand produces.

The vast majority of the company’s main brands will be produced at the Boston Beer facility in Ohio, with the focus of the new location being experimentation and small-batch only recipes. A tranquil spot for a familiar brand, the Angry Orchard will be open select weekends through the end of the month and then will re-open to the public in the spring.

John Holl is the editor of All About Beer Magazine.

The post Highly Polished: The Angry Orchard first appeared on All About Beer.

Randal Sprecher doesn’t mince words. After 30 years at the helm of the Milwaukee brewery that bears his name, he’s seen enough to know what he likes, to realize what works and what doesn’t, and to have opinions that can be taken as fact.

He was just a few days removed from the Sprecher Brewery anniversary party that drew hundreds under overcast skies, a fact that was still on his mind. It’s been beautiful all summer in the upper Midwest city, he says, but rained on the one day he wanted to be clear. In the grand scheme of his career and the impact his brewery has had on the modern industry, it’s a good bet that he’d be moving on from this minor annoyance quickly.

Indeed, without any prompting, Sprecher, who goes by Randy, started in on the hard root beer trend that is currently storming the beer world. His brewery made a hard root beer five years ago, putting the soda into bourbon barrels, infusing real flavor into the product, letting it take time to mature. As if with a wave of the hand, he dismissed Not Your Father’s Root Beer and the others that quickly followed it to market.

“It’s a wintergreen bomb,” Sprecher says, “no brewing expertise in them, and they are making them from concentrate.” What really irks him is the way the product has been positioned: as a beer. “We’re a flavored malt beverage [FMB],” he says. “They are trying to make it sound like a beer.”

For a man who has continually tried to innovate, forge new paths and stress the importance of technical knowledge in brewing, Sprecher did acknowledge, however, that the popularity of that other root beer has been good for his business.

“We’re busy as the dickens here,” he says. His brewery is continuing to make beers, like the award-winning Black Bavarian lager, and other styles that are more old world than new wave. And also focusing on the FMBs, like a hard apple-pie-flavored beverage, a hard ginger beer and a line of cider.

Sprecher, a former brewery supervisor for Pabst, founded his brewery in 1984. The Midwest was a tough nut to crack for a small brewery, because of the customer loyalty that existed for long-running companies that dominated the general consciousness, like Miller, Pabst, Schlitz and more.

But with a commitment to quality, reviving styles that spoke to a certain sensibility and looking beyond beer, he was able to build a respected business that now counts new generations of drinkers as loyal followers. Beyond beer, the brewery has launched a number of food products, including potato chips, sausages and sauces. There’s also a popular line of non-alcoholic sodas that bear the company name.

For all his experience and forward thinking, Sprecher is unsure where the industry is headed.

“I’ve challenged people to come with a forecast on a two-year plan and what will be popular,” he says. “It’s hard because you really can’t predict, so all we can do is try to put things out first and make the best product we can.”

Striving for the best is the advice he gives all new brewers who seek his counsel. He’s often dismayed at the lack of education and training that members of the new generation have put into their career before opening a brewery of their own. Technical knowledge is key, not luck or hopes. The same goes for bars, he says, a business category he finds himself acting as a consultant for more and more these days.

Thirty years into his brewery, Sprecher’s brain is still racing as hard as it was when he started, and he shows no desire to slow down, even referencing the three decades ahead.

“I’d like to go and buy another lifetime,” he says, “because we have so much going on now.”

John Holl is the editor of All About Beer Magazine. 

The post Randy Sprecher Reflects on 30 Years of Sprecher Brewing first appeared on All About Beer.