The poor-quality problem has likely hit us all at some point in our drinking lives. I remember 20 years ago visiting California on a family trip, stocking up on beers that weren’t available for us at home in North Carolina and being supremely disappointed as each and every one was infected or tasted like wet cardboard and was resigned to the drain. Thank goodness we had a supply of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, a beer from a brewery that has always put quality first.

As the number of breweries continues to grow and they turn out new styles and flavors, defining what quality means is hard to put a finger on. Is a lager in a frozen glass poor-quality? What about beers that sit on grocery shelves, not in the cooler, but on the warm shelf? Does it work for some but not others? I don’t know if consumers ask those questions—and more—frequently, but I know ultimately they decide with their wallets in the long run.

The quality conversation usually leads to other questions. How can so many operating breweries be successful? How many will make it? The answers usually come right with the question, as someone in the conversation tells me why they really like a certain beer or brewery, while omitting other ones.

Jeff Alworth’s recent article on allaboutbeer.com discussed how some off-flavors, readily identifiable in certain beers, created the unique flavor profiles that fans and consumers find very pleasing. In the article, Alworth challenges the notion that an off-flavor in a beer inherently makes it lower-quality. Most notably he mentions Pilsner Urquell and its high diacetyl levels as well as the recent pursuit of light-struck flavor via the green bottles used by Jester King of Austin, Texas, in its Le Petit Prince (you can read more on these beers in this issue’s Taste and Explore sections on Pages 60 and 80). I’ll say it: Neither of those efforts is low-quality.

It is an amazing time to enjoy beer and the pursuits of what beer can be. That said, beers that taste like wet cardboard (or other off-flavors) have the potential to turn people away from certain beers. I’m certainly not picking up a warm IPA at a store without a date on it that tells me when it was made or when it was shipped from the brewery. If you come across beer that is past its prime but still on shelves, call the brewers and let them know. They’ll appreciate the gesture.

When we have good experiences with a brewery, it’s not uncommon to share those with friends. And for those times when the quality is off the mark, we’ll share that news with equal zeal. Education and style knowledge are just two ways that can help you identify a quality beer. The more we all strive for perfection, the closer we will come.

The post Quality Importance first appeared on All About Beer.

This year at the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC), we learned that craft beer, as defined by the Brewers Association (BA), has 11 percent market share of U.S. beer volume, up from just 6.5% in 2012. That’s spectacular growth. The annual conference was held in Portland, Oregon, where the craft share is closer to 60 percent.

Much has been written here and in other places about the mature beer community that is Portland. One city that doesn’t get a lot of attention, but is oddly similar in its beer culture, is Cleveland, Ohio. While it’s not often referenced as a leading beer city, craft share in bars, restaurants and entertainment areas is 48 percent, greater than San Diego, Austin, Tampa, and Denver.

Cleveland’s beer growth is tied directly to its Ohio City neighborhood, an area with a rich brewing history dating to the mid-19th century. The neighborhood served as a Midwest brewing center, slowly fading over time though until the last of a great era—C. Schmidt & Sons—closed in 1984. The turnaround began in 1988 when Great Lakes Brewing Co. opened, and today it is also home to Market Garden Brewing Co., Platform Beer Co. and Nano Brew. Any beer-loving tourist would find a happy home in Cleveland, as the downtown and surrounding communities are full of other high-quality brewers.

What these two cities also show us is how brewers can push and support one another. Ohio breweries, like Brew Kettle, Fat Head’s and Columbus Brewing Co., are making a big name for themselves racking up national consumer awards for their IPAs. This success pushes other nearby brewers to learn more about hop quality, flavors and the best ways to get the desired results from hop additions. In Portland, very well-respected and recognized commercial brewers meet regularly to share their beers, dissect them and lend an ear to help their fellow brewers improve and grow. And yes, these breweries also compete directly against one another for beer consumer dollars, but the benefits from this collegiality come directly in improved beer and experiences for all of us.

Both Portland and Cleveland have small brewers expanding into much larger, sophisticated homes. When breweries make massive leaps in scale, such as Cleveland’s Market Garden Brewery, opening its “Palace of Fermentation” this summer, they have the opportunity to achieve substantial technological improvements in quality and stability for their beer. Not only are these big investments fantastic destinations for a community, but they can also substantially raise the quality-control points for the brewer as well. And when that happens, it certainly forces those other brewers in the area to raise their game.

All this growth and market share is moot without one important thing: quality. At CBC, the BA’s director, Paul Gatza, reminded everyone how critical quality is to the continued success for small brewers in these heady days of growth. There are dozens of ways that small brewers can manage and improve that quality. But in Cleveland and Portland, and many other places, we see firsthand how the market around brewers is creating change for the better. Enjoy it thoroughly, coming to a city near you.

This column appears in the September 2015 issue of All About Beer Magazine. Click here to subscribe.

The post The Rise of the Beer Cities first appeared on All About Beer.

Here at the magazine we’ve been thinking a lot about numbers and how they relate to what we drink. Walk the aisles of a liquor store and you’ll see tags hanging from shelves, advertising numerical scores for corresponding bottles. While more prominent in the wine section, it’s becoming increasingly more commonplace with beer.

But what causes one wine to get a 95 rating while the bottle next to it has a 92? Are there actually any 88s available? Do I dare buy one, or will it taste like a B+? What would my friends think if I actually brought them an 88 as a dinner party gift? And have I even noticed who makes it, or am I more concerned with the number?

Numbers mean different things to different people, and in the beer industry they are assigned by various methods. One popular and widely accepted scoring method comes from the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), which is most often used in homebrewing and professional competitions. The BJCP serves that purpose very thoroughly and very well. I find that the BJCP app is an excellent tool for style review. Websites and publications have their own scoring methods, usually on a 100-point scale inherited from the wine industry. For many years this magazine had a publishing arrangement with the Beverage Testing Institute (BTI) in Chicago, a company that numerically scores beer for its members. What does a number tell us about taste? That’s the question we’ve been asking and starting with this issue will seek to answer.

All About Beer Magazine is changing how we present beer to you. Ken Weaver, an experienced beer judge and long-time reviewer, joins our team as beer editor. With his arrival, we are excited to present two new sections: Taste and Explore.

Taste is filled with beer reviews by our staff and a carefully selected group of panelists. It is not about numbers, but emphasizing the different words and phrasing our panelists use, our unique palates and preferences, and the distinct contexts in which we interpret these beers. Our tastings are held around the country, at bottle shops and bars. We want to buy and taste beer the way you do, right off the shelves or straight from the tap. We’re purposefully not judging to style. Recently, a brewer mentioned to me that the Kölsch in his hand reminded him of an early 1970s Kölsch, given high finishing bitterness found then in Cologne as opposed to today. While styles certainly still do and should have a role (particularly in consumer education and homebrewing competitions), styles have always been precarious and variably defined at best. They’re becoming less relevant in terms of how we as consumers think about and taste beer these days. Given what we see in the market, we also hope grocers, taprooms and restaurants resist selling beer by style, which is becoming far too prevalent. You can read more about our process on Page 52.

Explore highlights top events and new beer releases worth looking forward to around the country and abroad. John Holl shares more about that section here.

Much of the excitement around beer today comes from trying something new and from the very personal nature of tasting. We hope that you enjoy this big, necessary and important change in our coverage and that it helps you develop a deeper relationship with the beer in your glass.

This column appears in the July 2015 issue of All About Beer Magazine. Click here to subscribe.

The post Beyond Numbers first appeared on All About Beer.

More than 43,000 new and re-released beers were produced and imported professionally last year in the United States. OK, I made that up, but think it’s within range of the actual number. With more than 3,200 breweries operating across the country and more than double that number interested in exporting here (and with each releasing on average 14 beers during the year), then maybe that number makes sense. How many did you try? Me? Fewer than 5 percent, I can assure you.

Given another month, I could have gotten closer.

Today’s national beer community is the celebration of literally thousands of smaller ones. Creativity, art, innovation and acumen come together on what seems like every corner to renew a long-forgotten brewing method or refine a pursuit of style. Recently, I spent an afternoon with Jason Oliver, brewmaster at Devils Backbone Brewing Co. in Roseland, VA. Oliver is brewing on a refabricated Japanese brewing system that he put together by hand from over 500 pieces after it arrived entirely disassembled in a box six years ago. All the controls are imprinted in Japanese, which, as Oliver said, “made the electrical hookups a little tricky.” On that system he’s making clean, mostly German beers, and over the past three years his work has been rewarded with 26 medals from the World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival. Devils Backbone brewpub sits on a beautiful stretch of the Brew Ridge Trail in central Virginia, just south of Charlottesville. Such quality coming from such unlikely beginnings is what is defining many of these beer communities. It’s why today, brewers’ passions and beer lovers’ opinions are driving considerable time spent improving overall beer quality.

At All About Beer Magazine and our World Beer Festivals, we are also continuously striving to improve our work and products. With our beer events, we measure the execution of a quality beer festival much like we hope today’s brewers think about the quality of their beer. That is, we aim to produce the best in beer experiences for beer lovers, brewers, wholesalers and retailers. For 2015, I’m pleased to announce two new beer festivals in our lineup. The North Carolina Brewers Celebration in Charlotte, NC, on June 27, which will focus on the diversity and quality of North Carolina’s fast-growing brewing scene. We are also partnering with the National Beer Expo in Richmond, VA, July 13-19. More to come here as well, including the possibility of a truly unique location later this year. Stay tuned.

These events go along with our World Beer Festivals in Columbia, SC; Raleigh, NC; Cleveland, OH; and Durham, NC. Our team will reach over 35,000 beer fans celebrating beer, brewers and their communities. We present the creativity of today’s brewing world through our Art of Beer program, an educational experience within our festivals. We are also incorporating an incredibly popular Belgian Bier Garden within each of our events—a festival within a festival. We believe we present the best experience for attending beer festivals and hope you agree.

It bears repeating that this company—our magazine—is celebrating 35 years this year. The beer industry has grown, and we have grown along with it. If you’re reading this, you’re part of an audience that grew more than 150 percent from this time last year, and we are humbled. We thank you for engaging with us, helping us to do more of the storytelling and develop great beer experiences. We will not get to all 43,000-plus beers this year, but we will continue to improve telling the story and sharing the experience.

This column appears in the May 2015 issue of All About Beer Magazine. Click here to subscribe.

The post The Best in Beer Experiences first appeared on All About Beer.

Twenty-two years ago, I tasted the Karl Strauss amber lager for the first time while sitting at the brewery. It was the first American example of the great German style I had ever tried, and it was where a good friend and I wondered: Can we do this in North Carolina?

We launched Carolina Brewery in Chapel Hill, NC, in the winter of 1995. Like several other breweries this year, Carolina Brewery will celebrate its 20th anniversary. During these past two decades, America’s brewers have successfully reintroduced what beer can be, and our brewing landscape looks more like 1814 or 1914 than 1984. My story is similar yet different to many of the 3,200 and counting American breweries that are—regionally and locally—defining our nation’s big redo on the history of brewing.

In 1994, I dialed a phone number found in the classifieds of the local weekly. The ad said something about brewing and America’s leading beer magazine.

I’m not sure my partner and I had Holiday Inn Express-level intelligence yet. But we had done enough research to know that not much of a beer community existed in the Southeast, let alone Chapel Hill. We were pumped up to make and sell good beer, and I was sure the local market would be just as excited as I was that a brewery was going to open nearby. It didn’t work out that way.

The voice on the other end was abrupt, terse, gruff, very curious, and asked about 15 questions in under four seconds. “You are going to do what? Why do you think you can start a brewery here? Do you have any brewing experience? What gives you the privilege to open a brewery?”

I remember looking into the phone like Chevy Chase in “Fletch.” Startled, confused and now embarrassed, I disconnected the call. I had officially met and hung up on Daniel Bradford, even though I didn’t get his name at the time. Once he heard “starting brewery … here in Chapel Hill,” every possible path to the conversation ended. But that phrase “what gives you the privilege” stuck with me. The delivery carried some serious gravitas. The words rang true.

America’s brewers participating in this third substantial and wild growth phase have Daniel to thank as the voice of equity and support for what has been a couple of generations. In our world, Daniel has been a central figure helping America’s breweries hit the reset button on the story of American brewing and moving it forward.

Daniel’s résumé advocating for beer through the years is deep, rich, unique and loud. He has led trade associations, published books and defined and produced the first years of the Great American Beer Festival; he has led beer and cheese tastings longer than the combined age of most of today’s hop varietals; and most importantly, he has published the leading brewing magazines.

He began writing for All About Beer Magazine at a time when contract brewing was more of a story than craft brewing (the 1980s), and a few years ago asked me if I would help him think through the next few years of his journey.

Daniel allowed me to build a team to lead and expand the company’s work further, and last year he sold All About Beer to me. As a magazine—and through our World Beer Festivals and other programs—we are humbled at the privilege of bringing you the expanding beer story and creating unique ways to experience trends in this great corner of the world.

It is our privilege to continue the work Daniel led for so long, and be the leading voice for you, beer lovers.

This column appears in the March 2015 issue of All About Beer Magazine. Click here to subscribe.

The post To New Beginnings first appeared on All About Beer.

Now, in addition to those two powerful influences on beer culture, All About Beer Magazine covers the explosion in breweries’ styles, techniques and ways to market—in short, the passion behind better beer.

Our mission—delivering information—is the same, but the way we fulfill it changes. You, our readers, wanted the best insights into this dynamic world. In the beginning, that might have included sorting out all the new labels and names on the shelves, profiling marketing campaigns or examining the origin of styles. Next came brewery portraits, style examinations, beer reviews and history pieces.

Now we fulfill the mission by reporting on the full scope of this radically transformed world of beer. The team at All About Beer Magazine has become adept at everything from new brewing techniques, ingredients and even novel microorganisms, to following the emergence of new creative styles, anticipating the new industry stars and exploring the corners of the globe where passion for better beer is just catching on.

One aspect of this change has not been discussed. Beer journalism! When I started writing for All About Beer Magazine in the early 1980s, there were few who could both do the research and tell a compelling story. Narratives were thin, with an emphasis on enthusiasm over content. We had yet to see the arrival of the future giants in beer writing, like Michael Jackson. Information was scarce. The vocabulary of beer had yet to be defined. Beer archives were relatively untouched.

However, we are entering the golden age of beer writing. As the world of beer experiences its third wave—with all its diversity, complexity and scale—writers are responding with a level of journalism not seen before. Archives are giving up their secrets. Writers are honing their skills, both in technique and in beer sophistication. And great stories wait to be uncovered, wherever beer is appreciated.

As All About Beer Magazine prepares to lead this latest stage, Julie and I are handing the reins to the next generation. The new owner of the magazine, Chris Rice, and his group are the perfect team to take All About Beer Magazine into the third wave. They are young, well versed on beer and seriously passionate about telling its story. They are what the third wave is all about. You are going to be impressed with this crew and their work.

As publisher of this magazine, it has been my great privilege to see this world transform to what it is today, and to interact with you, our readers, our writers, the brewers and everyone who comprises this industry. It is a profoundly different world than the one I joined in 1981. As I take a back seat, I am thrilled at what the new ownership will accomplish. Sit back, grab a pint of your favorite beer and enjoy what we are bringing to you in this issue. It took 35 years to get here, and All About Beer Magazine is just getting started.

This column appears in the January 2015 issue of All About Beer Magazine. Click here for a free trial of our next issue.

The post Another 35 Years first appeared on All About Beer.

Huge copper kettles gleamed through the large picture windows at the brewery’s entrance, as rows of rows of white brewery tents looked like peaked clouds against the clear Carolina blue sky. Taking it all in, it was hard not to see the reverence being paid to the beer and the brewers and to see how far things have come. 

When I joined the industry, a few decades past, the challenge was getting beer lovers to taste the beer. Simply taste it. The next step was teaching beer drinkers about the quality of the experience, encouraging them to pursue more. Finally was the creation of raving fans. All of this took many years and, along the way, many breweries have dropped from the landscape while new entrants scrambled to establish a beachhead for a business that would endure.

Few back then could have imagined how far the industry would grow, and even fewer would have predicted the ethos that drives it. For 35 years, All About Beer Magazine has covered the emergence of this new beer culture and the changes to the global beer scene. Only in the past few years have we come to understand the dynamic that has fueled this piece of the beer industry—collaboration. 

The final leg of an eight-stage celebration of craft beer, Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp Across America brought together a collection of more than 80 breweries from throughout the Southeast. Situated in the middle of all of these stellar breweries were the one dozen collaboration beers that Sierra Nevada had brewed over the year with some of our nation’s leading breweries. All together this made a profound statement of the status of the industry today.

There I stood in the middle of dozens of breweries being hosted, promoted even, by another brewery. In the beginning, often the only source for material or advice was the competition. A necessary component of a fledgling industry, this ethos has become who we are: an industry of partners dedicated to building the whole category. The early days of sharing ingredients, processes, tips, even equipment have morphed into joint promotions and joint beers. 

A bright Sunday, among the forests of a mountainous Asheville and hosted by one of the country’s largest brewers, put it all on display—a collection of small breweries working together with their customers to build an industry. 

The post Better Together first appeared on All About Beer.

While some may have decried these unusual promotions or beers, none can, in all seriousness, argue that they aren’t part of beer culture. Today’s beer world is an exciting adventure in spontaneity and innovation, discovering long-gone styles and techniques, developing new and unusual beers to boldly go where no brewer has gone before.

I was thinking about this as I settled down to a beer made with maple syrup and bacon and served over ice cream, topped off with another bit of bacon. Martin Dickie and James Watt, the founders of the convention-smashing BrewDog, were visiting Fullsteam Brewery in Durham, NC, aiming to brew the most caloric beer possible, for a segment on their television show. Apparently Mexico had just replaced the United States as the most obese country. The Brew Dogs were doing their part to win the crown back.
As I finished the very tasty beer, I couldn’t help but wonder about these two Scottish lads. This industry has made room for a lot innovation and excitement, but are they not over the top? Their customers have relished the adventuresome spirit of the new pioneers, egging them on to more imaginative undertakings.

While purists (a category I would have included myself in) may be put off by BrewDog’s pranks, these guys also have gold-medal winning beers. And, let’s face it, while few beer documentaries or shows get through a single TV season, these guys are on their second.

When you view any of their shows on the Esquire Network, you will find an insidious logic behind all of their capers. They are using their prankster fame to convert people to diverse beer styles. Take the segment at Fullsteam as proof.

The show is about more than just the dogs. They profile their brewing partner, include many other area breweries and dig deep into the local food scene , offering paring suggestions. The “locavore” community gets a spotlight, with a charming section on a local maple syrup maker. Of course many of the great beer bars and bottle shops appear in a NC-Triangle roundup.

Throughout the whole segment, the duo also drops insights into the world of beer culture. Even though we are amidst an IPA feeding frenzy, our customers are also asking for diversity, a whole lot of diversity. I’m glad there are guys going over the edge, generating excitement, entertainment and—gulp—not a bad beer.

The post Going Over the Edge first appeared on All About Beer.

As with any consumer good, the maturation of the beer industry brings new challenges. Hundreds of new breweries are coming on line, with thousands of individuals staking their fortunes on the future of the new brewery movement. All because consumers are supporting it.

My master’s thesis revolved around small businesses in frontier Boulder, CO. At that time, Boulder had six breweries, which all vanished as the town grew. Today, Boulder—besides being the home of the Brewers Association, the industry trade organization—boasts an astounding 17 breweries.

And this is by no means unique. I’ve just come back from a whirlwind week at the annual Craft Brewers Conference (organized by the Brewers Association), where over 10,000 people attended seminars and exhibits.

There are several logical outcomes to this growth that place a lot of responsibility on the consumers’ shoulders. We—the consumers—propelled this growth, now we consumers need to manage it.

The dominant theme of the conference was beer quality. With such rapid growth, it is inevitable that some substandard beer will arrive at the pubs. When that happens, understanding what the possible problems in a beer are, and where they come from, is our task. Was there a defect in the fermentation? Not stored correctly? Out of date? Poorly cleaned draft lines?

We should learn how to recognize these problems and, helpfully, bring them to the retailer’s and brewer’s attention. There are many sources of information and education to help, such as the Cicerone program. Take being a beer lover to the next level. It’s our responsibility.

Inevitably, as the number of breweries and beers expands, there will be competition for shelf space and tap handles. There’s already some pushing and shoving as breweries jostle for valued access to you, the beer drinker. This leads some brewers to deeply discount the cost of their beer to the retailer. Make your desires heard. Help the retailers to become part of this renaissance. Keep them on their toes. Let them know you are looking for the best beers out there and not necessarily the least expensive.

Consumers created the demand for this world of exciting beers. Now we need to help keep it from hitting a wall. Get educated, get smart, and get engaged. Help retailers understand the value of quality, what a less-than-adequate beer tastes like, and that quality will always trump price.

This column appears in the July issue of All About Beer Magazine. Click here for a free trial of our next issue.

The post On Hitting a Wall first appeared on All About Beer.

Craft beer continues to deepen its role in the American beer industry. Getting access to beer wholesale channels? Done. Breaking into chain supermarkets? Done. Filling coveted convenience store shelves? Done. Available on planes, at ballparks, at the beach? Done. Opening at a rate of nearly one a day? That, too.

With all of these exciting achievements, including possibly breaking 3,000 breweries by year end, the buzz on the street is once again about a shakeout. The causes given are too numerous to list but range from bad beer to a lack of access to capital to finance expansion. Each has compelling logic. All are predicated on the belief that capacity is exceeding demand.

Perhaps. However, I think otherwise. Consider that during the shakeout of the late 1990s, leading craft brewers recorded consistent double-digit growth throughout that whole three-year period. Also, consider that a majority of the failed enterprises were less than 5 years old. A lot of discussion has revolved around other nonstatistical causes, such as lack of craft-beer passion.

Shakeout led to a questioning of an industry that was fundamentally sound. Bad beer, bad business, bad choices could have doomed a lot of fledgling enterprises, but not the whole industry.

As I scan the landscape of breweries, several things are readily apparent. There are a lot of new brewery owners who lack what is needed to run a successful business in the food and beverage industry. It’s a tough industry, no doubt about it. It takes brains and stamina to succeed in it. There are, having maxed out their capacity, a lot of businesses poised to make dramatic changes. Again, no easy feat jumping to the next level. There are also a lot of individuals who have labored long and hard without the rewards they deserve.

As these breweries leave a crowded field, does this mean a shakeout? Not at all. What we all need to be mindful of is the backbone of this industry: great, imaginative, exciting, dramatic beer and an ever-expanding, clamorous, enthusiastic customer base.

The first has always been part of our heritage, although it keeps shifting, moving wider, as our industry grows. Where the noble pale ale used to be the great leap, now sours and barrels and style mashups are the vogue. The second seems endless, with new recruits coming from all areas. From the globalization of craft beer to recruitment in the next generation, this industry continues to rack up raving fans. Don’t forget brewers’ innovative approach to making that connection. From nano breweries to gypsy breweries, models are evolving to hit that sweet spot of beer/customer passion.

I have no doubt that our industry won’t look the same in five or 10 years. Many players will have vanished. Yet we will continue to have this passionate craft-beer world with underpinnings in a bedrock of stable brands paired with innovation. And the customers will love it.

The post What Shakeout? first appeared on All About Beer.