Evin Craney sat down with Beer & Brewer to reflect on his decade-long career in independent beer and highlight the initiatives he's driving forward as IBA Chair. As we’re looking ahead to everything that 2025 will bring, we’d also like to take a moment to look back at some of the stories and people who defined craft beer in 2024.
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From industrial chemistry to marketing to brewing, Esker Beer Co’s Charlie Claridge leans on his diverse experience to create award-winning beer. What's behind the collaborative nature of the global brewing community?
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These movers and shakers are not only brewing top-notch beer, but are also making game-changing steps toward a craft beer industry that welcomes all.
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If the only things certain in life are death and taxes, then the only things certain in craft beer are inspectors and taxes. For brewers looking to release a new label, that means working with the once-dreaded Taxman.
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One of Australia's oldest independent breweries has become the latest operation to look to restructure its business after 35 years of operation. Some brewers are finding unexpected flavors growing right outside their doors, from mushrooms to pine tips.
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Pirate Life South Melbourne brings high energy food and beverage experiences to a former mechanics garage. Pairing produce with beer — with delicious results. A look at the glorious interplay between farmers market fare and craft beer.
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Hops once destined for beer have found a new prominence in hard seltzers, kombucha, and cocktails.
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American craft breweries are known for their ability to strengthen community connections. These three breweries are case in point.
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Many chefs are finding the sweet spot for beer and smoked food, managing the level of smoke intake for a more pleasurable meal.
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We started this series of IPAs when we opened to showcase our favorite hop varieties. We recently released #22 (Citra-Motueka). All of the batches were 6.5-7.5% ABV, with similar malt bills (American pale barley, chit, wheat, and oats), fermented with an English-leaning yeast, and dry-hopped post-crash at 3-4 lbs/bbl. The table below is the average Untappd score of all batches dry hopped with the variety listed.
The table below include all 65 "big batch" IPAs and DIPAs we've released that don't contain adjuncts (although I did include Phantasm beers). These are diverse in terms of recipe construction, alcohol strength, and dry hopping rate. As a result, the scores are a bit more prone to bias compared to the Cheater Hops data set.
For some batches you'd expect to see a high rating due to pairing two great hops together (e.g., Nelson/Galaxy or Mosaic/Citra). Both varieties score well across all our beers, so no surprise combing them results in a well-rated IPA. More interesting is sorting by the average standard deviation for the hops included. This shows which combinations rated higher than expected given the average scores for those hops across all beers. Snip Snap (Citra/Galaxy), Cheater Hops #22 (Citra/Motueka), Shard Blade (Mosaic/Galaxy), Cheater Hops #13 (Mosaic/Simcoe), and The Dragon (Nelson Sauvin/Mosaic/Hallertau Blanc) were all in the top-10 "overachievers." These hop blends follow different approaches either "leaning into" a particular flavor (fruity, or winey) or balancing fruity with a danker variety.
Rounding out the top-10 are two all-Simcoe (Cheater Hops #12 and Drenched in Green), two all-Mosaic (Fundle Bundle and TDH Trial #1), and an all-Nelson beer (3S4MP). Certainly a sign that these hops can shine alone compared to Citra and Motueka which are highly rated in blends, but haven't exceled in single-hop beers (despite our best efforts). Of course you need a great lot of hops for this to work; the bottom-10 also includes single-hop beers featuring: Simcoe (Cheater Hops #9), Nelson Sauvin (Cheater Hops #11), and Mosaic (Fumble Bumble)!
Two beers with Galaxy and Nelson (Cheater X and X2) each had a standard deviation close to 0. They still rate well, but no better or worse than expected across all beers with Nelson or Galaxy.
Surprisingly three of the bottom four included three varieties Cheater Hops #7 (Simcoe, Citra, Mosaic) Cheater Hops #6 (Motueka, Mosaic, Simcoe) False Peak (Idaho 7, Sultana, Citra). Blending hops can create a generic "hoppiness." These beers may have been missing a distinct "wow" aroma for people to grab onto.
The high/low scores for different batches brewed with the same single hop variety really drives home how unreliable this data likely is. Without multiple batches hopped with the same hop combination, it is impossible to say with certainty if a beer scored well because of aromatic synergy or a delicious lot of hops. Luckily several of the top-rated combinations are beers we have brewed multiple times.
The data does suggest to me that using one or two varieties for the dry hop is the best bet for making the most appealing IPA unless you have something very specific in mind. Often when breweries use a large number of hop varieties in a beer it is to promote consistency (batch-to-batch and year-to-year). It would be interesting to expand the data set to include beers from other breweries. That would produce data that is less specific to our particular brewing approach, hop sourcing, and customers' palates.
At several breweries in the UK, people who have learning disabilities have proven themselves to be effective and valuable employees when given the opportunity to show what they can do.
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Nothing attracts customers to a brewery more than incredible beer. But a close second? An incredible location!
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This week I’m going to cover the two major methods (in two parts) used to create sour beers at a home brew level. While sour beer brewing is considered a more advanced brewing technique, it is possible for even a beginning homebrewer to create great sour beers using these methods. Sour Beer Basics Sour beers […] With the pandemic about to enter its third year, breweries are finding creative ways to keep patios open in the heart of winter.
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Modus’ new brewery venue opens for takeaway ahead of welcoming guests on site in October.
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A short tutorial on how to find a recipe, create a private copy of it and then scale it to match your particular set of brewing equipment quickly using BeerSmith Web. You can also do this using the BeerSmith desktop program. Related Videos: Recipe Design Tab | Recipe Adjustment Tools | BeerSmith Web Overview | […]