craft-beers

America's oldest craft brewing company, Anchor Brewing, has been acquired by Japan's Sapporo.

Is there room for 5,000 craft breweries when, taken together, they can barely command one fifth of the dollars spent on beer in the U.S.?

Cruise ships are fast becoming amusement parks, concert venues, dining destinations, shopping malls and resorts at sea. Now Carnival Cruise Line is introducing North America’s first brewery on a boat, giving local beer an oceanic twist. Operated by Miami’s Concrete Beach Brewery, the new RedFrog Pub & Brewery will be located aboard Carnival’s largest and…

With National Grapefruit Month upon us, it's only appropriate that brewers are going absolutely bonkers for grapefruit IPAs right now. And while many homebrewing circles — and even breweries — have experimented with the citrus fruit over the last two decades, credit must be given to Ballast Point Brewing of San Diego, California, for popularizing the…

How do you ignite a debate at a summer cookout? Ask guests which beers pair best with the smoked and/or spicy meats you’re about to serve. Undoubtedly, you’ll get myriad answers, including cautions about what not to serve: nothing too sweet, nothing too bitter, nothing too strong, nothing too in-between.What are your options then? These…

Thanksgiving may be the ultimate food holiday, but it also coincides with maltier fall styles that make it a match in pairing heaven. But how to pair with great craft beers? Read on. We know that when families get together, the drinking tends to start early. If IPAs and the hoppy like are your thing,…

The race for craft beer domination is coming from the very top of the industry and it’s making a lot of people angry. News broke Wednesday that Bend, OR's 10 Barrel Brewing Company will be Anheuser-Busch’s third craft acquisition in as many years, followed by a wave of mixed emotions from those who support the…

It's Mac & Cheese Week at Food Republic so we figured, why not?For some, the idea of pairing beer and macaroni and cheese and calling it "gourmet" might seem absurd. Think about college, for instance: Easy Mac and a can of something “lite” is the fuel of late-teen academia. Those days, the fact that mac…

Black Friday is the day where people across America wait on line all night long to buy stuff at big discounts. Beer nerds didn’t have much of a reason to leave the house (I was doing just fine sleeping in) until Goose Island decided it was no longer acceptable for us to sit at home…

The hard apple is coming to the Big Apple! Today kicks off NYC Cider Week and as I may have mentioned once or twice, hard apple cider is one of our favorite fall drinks. While there are plenty of great occasions to raise a glass of cider, it’s not every day you can learn about…

Late October is peak apple season, when the last of the apples are ripe for picking. You may already know that when given time to ferment, apples also make awesome booze. The resulting fizzy beverage might be refreshing enough for summer, but there’s something about the taste of boozy, warming cider that makes it the…

When it comes to food and wine, Italy simply does not mess around. These were things I had assumed and confirmed firsthand in 2002 when I spent a summer in Treviso. The family I stayed with would return home during siesta to make their own pasta and sauce. Freshly carved prosciutto e melone was always…

Time for another brewery megadeal! It seems like just yesterday all the talk was about Anheuser-Busch InBev’s takeover of Grupo Modelo, which they acquired in 2013 for $20 billion. Now Bud's parent company, AB InBev, is looking to gain a considerable share of the world beer market by buying up SABMiller, the second-largest multinational brewing…

After months of speculation, lobbying and pleas from state governments and hopheads alike, Stone Brewing Company has finally chosen Richmond, VA as its East coast home. Construction of the $74 million brewery will start soon, with an estimated completion date of late 2015 or early 2016. Stone’s famous World Bistro & Gardens, which has locations…

Ready, set, drink pumpkin beer! It’s October, so you officially have our go-ahead to drink all the pumpkin beer you could ever want. If you’re confused as to why you’d need our permission, well pumpkin beer has gotten a bad rep recently through no fault of its own. There’s nothing wrong with the style, but…

The first time I went to Michigan, I landed in Ann Arbor smack in the middle of one of the worst winter storms in history. The cab swerved on the icy road from one side to the other and I wasn't sure we were going to make it. Every time I go back, I get…

Founders Brewing Company has been a pioneer of craft beer in Grand Rapids, helping the city win the annual title of Beer City, USA in 2013. It's city is already a prime destination for beer-stravaganza Founders Fest, which we attended back in June. What you might not know is that Grand Rapids is also home…

Beer holidays tend to be good benchmarks for seasonal changes, and while next week’s Oktoberfest signifies the beginning of fall, we’re taking one more pass at refreshing brews on Saturday, September 13th: International Sour Beer Day. It’s the darling style of craft brewers everywhere but if you haven’t puckered up yet, there’s never been a…

When it comes to massive West Coast double IPAs, Knee Deep and Kern River do them just about better than anyone else. This is bound to be a juicy, tropical, bitter hit to your hop receptors. Last year Double Dose from Lawsons/Otter Creek was a surprise collaboration runaway for my favorite new IPA – I…

Are you a fan of binge TV watching? Did you command and conquer the Netflix bingefests of Orange is the New Black and House of Cards? Never missed a Star Wars or LOTR marathon? Well FXX is airing a mega-marathon of all 25 seasons (that would be 552 episodes) of everyone’s favorite animated family, The…

We’re pretty geeky when it comes to our beer, whether it’s tropical hops like white wine-nuanced Nelson Sauvin from New Zealand or rich smoked malts from Bamberg, Germany that instantly turn beer into liquid bacon. Funny then, that we so rarely turn our focus on the most important ingredient of all: water. While it may…

There is nothing like the abundance of ripe stone fruits that flood farmers markets and grocery stores during July and August. Now that we’re in the dog days, you really want something to cool you off. Everyone knows how well peaches lend themselves to pies and other baked goods, but personally I think they’re better…

Big things are brewing in beer writing as media titan Gannett, currently the country's largest newspaper publisher, announced that their publishing and broadcast divisions will split into two separate entities. What that have to do with beer? According to Joshua Awtry, Executive Editor at the Gannett-owned Asheville Citizen-Times in North Carolina and The Greenville News…

Some of my fondest childhood memories come from summer camp in New England, where sports, sing-alongs and color war were the most important things in the world for two months every year. Once those summers were behind me, I really never though I'd be in a position to go back to camp — no more…

This weekend I’m getting in a car with friends and driving up to the Catskills for a relaxing weekend of camping. There’s really nothing like getting in touch with nature, but whether you're glamping (glamorous camping) or just backpacking it, you shouldn’t brave the wild without awesome brews. Cans are the clear choices here, I…