Being the opinionated fellow that I am, I do like to express my opinions and now Chowhound readers know that too as I put in my two cents on good beer cities around the U.S. Read it HERE.
Everyone has a different set of opinions as to what makes a beer city a Beer City but I believe that certain criteria need to be met: A wide variety of beer styles, a good amount of breweries, beer bars and bottle shops, some GABF medals would be nice, a scene in the suburbs of the city is good too.
Thanks to Fiona Chandra for reaching out and listening.
I had the great pleasure and fun to be a judge in the Beer Travel Writing category of the North American Guild of Beer Writers annual awards, so I am going to start this post there and then widen the scope to the other winners.
This was the 10th year of the awards. There were 269 entries from 96 writers covering 15 categories. The big winners were David Nilsen, Dave Infante, Courtney Iseman and Brian Yeager who bagged multiple medals.
Here is the full list of winners: (and I suggest you search these writers out)
Best Beer and Food Writing
First Place: David Nilsen. “How to Pair IPAs with Craft Chocolate.” Bean to Barstool Second Place: Grace Weitz. “Stumbling Into the Hot Pink Restaurant With the Most Pleasurable Food in France.” Hop Culture
Best Blog/Newsletter
First Place: Jeff Alworth, Beervana. Second Place: Dave Infante, Fingers. Third Place: Douglas Veliky, Beer Crunchers.
Honorable Mention: Shana Solarte, Top Crop.
Emerging Voice: Cat Wiest, Hopwire Blog.
Best Book
First Place: Matthew Curtis. Manchester’s Best Beer Pubs and Bars. 2023. Second Place: Beth Demmon. The Beer Lover’s Guide to Cider: American Ciders for Craft Beer Fans to Explore. 2023. Third Place: David Nilsen. Pairing Beer and Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. 2024.
Best Brewery Profile
First Place: Lucy Corne. “Women-Led, Women-Brewed — Kweza Craft Brewery in Kigali, Rwanda.” Good Beer Hunting. Second Place: Holly Regan. “Things Are Not What They Seem — Hildegard Ferments & Botanicals in Seattle, Washington.” Good Beer Hunting.Third Place: Claire Bullen. “10,000 Human Decisions — On Mariage Parfait Oude Geuze, Frank Boon, and Belgian Lambic Culture.” Belgian Smaak.
Honorable Mention: Maloy Luakian. “Supernatural Creatures And Blended Cultures — Dokkaebier’s Story Of Shapeshifting.” Good Beer Hunting.
Emerging Voice: Jacqueline Kehoe. “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger — How Iowa’s Big Grove Brewery Defies the Odds and Categorization.” Good Beer Hunting.
Best Business Writing
First Place: Michael Stein. “When Beer Goes Flat.” Slate Second Place: Courtney Iseman. “Building the On-Ramp: Vocational Programs for Brewers.” Brewing Industry Guide.
Third Place: Ken Pishna. “Non-alcoholic beer is growing; Should your brewery grow with it?” Malteurop Malting Co. Honorable Mention: Pete Brown. “Thornbridge to prove Britain’s brewing heritage can be profitable.” The Drinks Business
Emerging Voice: Jacqueline Kehoe. “Wisconsin Intuition — How New Glarus Brewed a State Identity with Spotted Cow.” Good Beer Hunting
Best Commentary or Criticism
First Place: Dave Infante. “The Bud Light Fiasco: How AB InBev Fell for the Gamergate Playbook.” VinePair. Second Place: Courtney Iseman. “Is Craft Beer Cringe Right Now?” InsideHook. Third Place: David Nilsen. “On Curiosity, Empathy, and the Flavor of Beer.” Belt Magazine.
Best General Beer Podcast
First Place: Dave Infante. VinePair Taplines Second Place: Breandán Kearney. The Belgian Smaak Podcast
Third Place: Emma Inch. Same Again?
Honorable Mention: Emily Hutto. RadCraft Industry Relief
Best Historical Writing
First Place: Mark Dredge. “From One to All — The Past, Present, and Future of Lager Yeast.” Good Beer Hunting. Second Place: Tony Rehagen. “The Utterly Fascinating History and Mystery of Oklahoma’s Choctaw “Choc” Beer.” Garden & Gun. Third Place: Anaïs Lecoq. “Garçon, un Picon! — The Past and Future Success of Amer Bière in French Drinking Culture.” Good Beer Hunting
Honorable Mention: Noelle Phillips. “Angry Hen Brewing and the Legacy of Shirley Warne.” The BC Ale Trail
Best Local Reporting
First Place: Courtney Iseman. “Secondary Fermentation — New York City’s Strong Rope Brewery and the East Coast Cask Revival.” Pellicle Magazine. Second Place: Eli Radtke. “THC Takes Over the Twin Cities.” Heavy Table. Third Place: Brian Yaeger. “Oral History Of Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale.” Bend Source Weekly. Honorable Mention: Alexander Gates. “An Ode to Lahaina’s Beer Scene.” Frolic Hawaii. Emerging Voice: Shamim de Brún. “The Quest For A Perfect Smithwick’s in Dublin.” Totally Dublin.
Best National or International Reporting
First Place: Alyssa Pereira. “The Man, Now Myth — Searching for Tony Magee.” Good Beer Hunting. Second Place: Lucy Corne. “Get to Know Umqombothi, a South African Tradition.” Craft Beer & Brewing. Third Place: Joshua Bernstein. “The Real Mystery of Bud Light.” The Atlantic. Honorable Mention: Dave Infante. “How Sapporo USA Sank Anchor Brewing Co.” VinePair.
Best Beer Review
First Place: David Nilsen. “Precious and Grace — Brouwerij Van Steenberge’s Tripel Van De Garre.” Pellicle Magazine. Second Place: Melinda Guerra. “Stardust and Loss: Friendship, Grief, and a Shared Saison.” Final Gravity. Third Place: Brian Yaeger. “One Of The World’s Most Obscure Beers Comes To Bend.” Bend Source Weekly. Honorable Mention: Loren Green. “A breath of fresh air.” Heavy Table.
Best Short Form Writing
First Place: Cliff Lucas. “Café de Hanekeef.” Belgian Smaak Second Place: Bryan Roth. “b-Roll no. 701.” Good Beer Hunting. Third Place: Andy Crouch. “Oh Brother: Newly Sober Hulk Hogan Releases “Real American Beer.” All About Beer.
Best Technical or Brewing Podcast
First Place: Jonny Garrett. The Craft Beer Channel.
Second Place: Jen Blair. False Bottomed Girls.
Third Place: John Holl. All About Beer Brewer to Brewer.
Best Technical Writing
First Place: Joe Stange. “Czech Lager: The Art of the Addictive.” Craft Beer & Brewing. Second Place: Don Tse. “It’s the Malt’s Fault (How Malt Choices Affect Beer’s Shelf Life).” Brewing Industry Guide. Third Place: Shana Solarte. “How Yeast Affects Flavor.” Top Crop. Honorable Mention: Matthew Curtis. “Old Gold, Heritage Malts Return to British Beer.” Craft Beer & Brewing.
Since it was the last category of the event, we will finish with the travel category:
1st place: My Father, Lion Lager, & Home by Ruvani de Silva (Final Gravity)
2nd place: A Happy Valley of Beer — Investigating the Pubs and Breweries of Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, England by Michael Clarke (Good Beer Hunting)
3rd place: Anarchists, Surrealists, & Spanish Brewers by John McMahon (Final Gravity)
Honorable mention: No Blitz — How Arkansas Tech University Fans Tailgate in a Dry County by Brian Sorensen (Good Beer Hunting)
Emerging Voice: Rebirth and Reinvention — As Chattanooga Grows and Changes, Local Beer Follows Along by Drew Pitt (Good Beer Hunting)
I am a beer traveler. When I go to a destination, part of my prep is a list of breweries to visit. That list will always be too long. Part of the reason why is that there are guides like San Diego Beer News that put a lot onto a plate.
And since fall is a great time to travel with fares down from summer highs until the holidays hit, you should check out the guides again since I have already told you about them before.
There are new ones out though!
You can start HERE with the local San Diego breweries.
If you frequently frequent craft beer shoppes, you have probably come across the Skyduster brand. You may have wondered, as I did, what is up with it?
Well, Matthew Kang at Eater LA did as well and filed this article HERE. And while it was meant to be a look at this cool start-up piece, it left me un-enamored of restaurants and their beer buying choices. And skeptical of Skyduster too.
For one, they seem to only look for beers that don’t interfere with the food which goes against the accepted theory that a beer should lean into the food flavors or highly contrast them. The second is how many times they say “crushable” which conjures up frat house drinking more than enjoying your food and drink. And boy do restaurants seem to love cold beer which makes me wonder about their palates.
From the brewery side the owners sort of back hand swipe at existing breweries as not hands on which tells me they did not meet or hear about Rich Marcello from Strand Brewing back in the day who would run circles around Skyduster in the meet and greet department.
Lastly, the brand owners seem A-OK with blandness and inoffensiveness. Which may be A-OK with chefs who want beer in the far background not competing with the food but if their plans for a taproom and restaurant come to fruition, they will need to add flavor in for people who are coming in for a beer with friends and want their beer to be the lead.
I have had their IPA which I would not recommend and their Super Dry Lager which was fine but I will wait to try more until they get a little more craft beer serious.
History, not the boring parade of facts and dates, but actual fascinating history is made up of little specific things. This brewer, this water supply, a cane with a secret compartment for yeast.
And if you want to do a deep dive into British beer history then the Brewing History Society might be for you. They have books and they have their quarterly journal which started way back when I was three. AKA 1973. It “comprises original articles, photographic essays, reprints of academic theses and difficult to obtain pieces, and book reviews.“
I think we just might need an American version as well.
With fresh hop season just about done, hops are back even more front and center than usual. And fresh hops are but one of the many variants that come from this one plant.
Which made me grateful for this post from The Crafty Pint which breaks down the different modes of lupulin transport into beer along with notes from brewers as well. It is a helpful list that I will keep for future reference.
I am quite picky when it comes to podcasts. Most are too long or the host rambles or the ground covered is too well trodden.
So when I was emailed about the first season of the RadCraft Industry Relief podcast from Emily Hutto, I was happy to see that they are under 30 minutes. Then as I listened to the episodes, I was glad to see that it is an interesting idea behind it.
Revisiting the strange time of the pandemic from individual beer people may be too soon for some people but the back and forth of now and then makes for thought provoking ideas.
Narratives, whether true or false, can be powerful. Many American cities have been painted with a broad brush of “unsafe” or “uncool” even if the day to day is not much different.
Portland, my hometown neighbor to the north, has endured a bit of bad press you could say but during both of my visits this year, it has seemed just as filled with beer, good food and frustrating parking as any city one lives in or visits.
So I am glad to see Old Town Brewing go to bat and stand up for the City of Roses with their recently launched Believe in Portland IPA. Which you can read more about HERE.
A few beer writers got the chance for an update on the National Black Brewers Association (NB2A) thanks to our guild and it was heartening to see that for an organization that was put together just in December of 2022 has made such strides. Kevin Asato from the NB2A and Beny Ashburn from Crowns & Hops were on hand to break it down for us.
Here are some of the positives for what is still a nascent trade group:
there are around 86 black owned breweries in the U.S.
over the last two years, 70% of black breweries have been outpacing breweries overall
National Black Brewers Day is part of the agenda of the Congressional Black Caucus and House Bill 1297 is in the works to make it official on a federal level
there has been numerous brewing equipment donations that help one of the biggest hurdles in opening a brewery, the cost of equipment
and a real biggie, before she took up the presidential mantle, VP Kamala Harris had made contact with the group to work together with the White House!
Now, the picture is not all rosy. It is still a small organization staffing wise and the current craft beer malaise makes the overall job more of an uphill one but that climb will be easier once black owned breweries are seen as less DEI and more integral to craft beer success and vitality.
I have never understood either purposeful exclusion or almost worse, not even trying to appeal to a broad swath of customers and I wholeheartedly agree with Ashburn that it is critical for sustained success to reach out to anyone who shows interest in craft beer. Everyone in this country should have the access and encouragement to either enjoy craft beer or make it.
