American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
We blame the industry for this… It used to be that when we wrapped up our Weekend Picks on Friday, we could coast through the weekend. There was little need to check in for updates -things were pretty much done. But clearly all that’s changed.
So here’s some of what’s happened in the world of craft beer while you were off enjoying yourselves.
Pliny Ploy Proves Provident (Portland, OR) – You’ve heard and read the stories – kegs of this year’s bar allocations of Pliny the Younger tapping out in mere hours. In a brilliant effort to save some Pliny for its regulars, a popular Portland craft beer bar The Beer Mongers served up their final keg covertly. According to OregonLive.com, “they put it on the board as Miller High Life for $7 for a 12 oz. glass, and if you cracked the code, you could have a glass provided you stepped away from the device, sir: no yelping, tweeting, selfieing, facebooking, instagramming, posting and/or whatever else it is you kids do these days …and it worked … the keg lasted until 5:50 pm.”
Spring Seasonals Tasting Comes to The Nation’s Capital (Washington, DC) – The DC Craft Beer Festival is coming to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center this Saturday, March 8, for two sessions, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. The spring seasonals tasting will feature more than 150 offerings from 75 of America’s best craft breweries, with a special focus on the Mid-Atlantic’s exciting new breweries. There will also be craft beer experts hosting intimate, 50-person first-come, first served seminars. Greg Engert, Beer Director from DC craft beer faves Churchkey, Birch & Barley, and Bluejacket Brewery, will be leading a food pairing seminar featuring charcuterie and three beers from the main tasting room floor. Other seminars will feature Tom Acitelli, Author of “The Audacity of Hops: the History of America’s Craft Beer Revolution and Garrett Peck, the Author of “Capital Beer.”
San Francisco Beer Week a Smash! (San Francisco, CA) – One of our favorite craft beer weeks in the whole world recently wrapped up and from all accounts, it was a total smash.This year’s schedule contained 607 events, a 17% increase over 2013.Events took place at 222 locations all over the Bay Area, from Santa Cruz to Santa Rosa, and east to Livermore. That’s a whopping 41% increase over last year!
Alpine Goes with Less Gluten (Alpine, CA) – Some interesting news broke last Wednesday that’s going to make a lot of Celiac sufferers ecstatic! The Alpine Beer Company has started using a special enzyme in all of their beers, which they say make their beers accessible to the gluten-intolerant. Here’s the quote: “Because we love you and want you all to be happy, our beers are now SIGNIFICANTLY gluten reduced. Legally, we can never claim our beers to be gluten free because any product, according to the FDA, that once contained gluten can never be claimed as gluten free. However, the FDA threshold for gluten free is 20 ppm; our beers should fall in around the 10 ppm range.”
Victory Opens State-of-the-Art Brewery (Parkesburg, PA) – The Victory Brewing Company has officially opened their highly anticipated new brewery. The state-of-the-art facility sits on 42 acres of rolling Chester County countryside and was designed to both entertain and educate. Construction will continue on the 10,000 square feet of space where a full-service brewpub and beer garden are planned, scheduled to near completion by the start of 2015.
