Former Chuckanut brewer Kevin Davey (who is now getting ready to open Wayfinder Beer in Portland) recently collaborated with the Chuckanut brewers to make a Landbier, and it’s now on tap at Chuckanut Brewery & Kitchen. When Wayfinder Beer opens this spring, it will also have Chuckanut Landbier on tap, and it will [...]
After tallying millions of beer reviews, including nearly a million from 2015 alone (with an emphasis on reviews placed in the last 12 months), RateBeer recently released its RateBeer Best Awards at a ceremony in Santa Rosa, California. Brewers, brewpubs, bottle shops, restaurants and bars from around the world were awarded [...]
Even though the Seahawks won't be in this year's Super Bowl, here's a fun wager that will add some interest to the game: The Spangalang Brewery of Denver, CO, and the Fullsteam Brewery of Durham, NC, have entered into a wager on behalf of their respective NFL teams, the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers. The [...]
Press Release from Brewers Association After 37 years of service as president at the Brewers Association, Charlie Papazian will put his passion and vision for the world of beer and brewing into a new role at the Brewers Association. In January, his title shifts to founder, past president. Bob Pease, [...]
Greg Koch Stone Brewing Company is going through some incredible growth in both distribution and breweries. They've opened up their first European Brewery and are opening on the East Coast of the US. It's going to be a big [...]
Peace out, 2015! What a year for craft beer, especially here in Bellingham. From new styles to new breweries to new sell outs, the craft world keeps getting bigger and bigger. Just take a look at the production statistics posted by the Brewer's Association. Here are the top trends in craft [...]
You're probably flying somewhere at sometime in the next year. Hopefully, you have your 2016 vacations all planned out with this. If you don't, make sure you know what airlines will get you to your destination with the best beer selection available. One of the worst things you can possibly experience while flying is hailing the [...]
Craft beer's meteoric rise to has been well documented here. Not just nationally, but internationally. We've covered why it's happening, what to expect and where to expect it next. We've also covered the complications that are arising from it's growth. Quartz just posted the graphic below, which shows the historical spread [...]
AB InBev has only ramped up it's seemingly endless stream of buyouts. In the past few weeks they've bought out Breckenridge Brewery and Four Peaks Brewery. It's quiver of craft breweries is growing. Well, Lincoln's Beard Brewery, out of Miami, has decided that it would turn the tables on the MegaBrewery and [...]
According to unnamed sources, New Belgium Brewing is working with New York based firm. Lazard Middle Market to locate a buyer. Some sources believe the sale would be around $1 billion. New Belgium is a brewery in transition. In October, CEO Kim Jordan stepped down and was replaced by Christine Perich. They [...]
Not long ago, the beer industry seemed much simpler and less confused. There were micro/craft beers, imported beers, and industrial light lagers that were mostly made by the big three – Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Coors (often dubbed BudMillerCoors or BMC). Originally, I don’t think BMC felt threatened by craft beer because [...]
Dec. 2, the Brewers Association announced that as of the end of November the U.S. had reached an all-time high of 4,144 breweries, topping the historic high of 4,131 breweries in 1873. “This is a remarkable achievement, and it’s just the beginning,” said Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association. [...]
When the craft beer movement was gaining momentum in the late 1990s, there seemed to be a clear distinction between your average West Coast IPA and your average East Coast IPA. In the West, IPAs tended to be more boldly hopped (with high-alpha, Northwest-grown hops), drier, lighter in color, and more [...]
Craft Brewing companies are getting into the realm of technology company valuations. After a series of buyouts and equity sales in the past 12 months, this has to be the biggest purchase to date. Constellations Brands has bought one of the fastest growing craft breweries in the nation, Ballast Point of San [...]
We all know that the United States is in the middle of an unprecedented craft beer boom. We're on the precipice of blowing past the our record for breweries that was set in 1873, when we had 4,173. If we see continued 9% growth in the second half of 2015, we’ll be 4,075 [...]
The last two times I spoke with my mom, she raved about Sierra Nevada’s new, special-release Oktoberfest, and she badgered me to try it. I love a well-made Oktoberfest or Festbier as much as the next beer lover, such as Chuckanut’s delicious Festbier for example, but so many breweries these days [...]
Who's doing this?! Every year, Rate Beer ranks the Top 100 breweries in the world, based off of their beer ratings. This year, 72 of those exist in the US. Allagash Brewing Company used an algorithm to develop a road trip to all 72 of those breweries. [...]
We all remember the silly fella that sued Miller Brewing Company for misleading him into thinking Blue Moon was craft beer. The guy who filed the suit, Evan Parent, lives in the craft beer mecca of San Diego, so this came as a surprise to me. The case has been heard [...]
The Tap Trail is a fan of gadgets. So much so, that we have an entire section of the website dedicated to them. Though this is more of a process than gadget, but close enough. Keep drinking craft beer lovers because this Danish festival will take all that urine you produced from [...]
From Big Beer buyouts, to selling minority stakes to private equity firms craft beer is in the throws of upheaval and its landscape is ever changing. Ballast Point is one of the biggest breweries in the US (31st biggest to be exact) and it looks like it will add to the [...]
We've talked about this before and perhaps we are starting to see some fears come to realization, or at least realized into a legal battle. Here are some excerpts from the Reuters story that they broke in the past hour. Take this story into account with the fact that AB InBev is [...]
I just came across this documentary that follows that struggles of two different breweries. The first brewery The Brew Gentleman Beer Company is opening in a struggling town of Braddock Pennsylvania. The owners want to bring life back to their town. The second story follows the legal struggles of Shorebilly Brewing [...]
The Great American Beer Festival was a roaring success. So many beers. So. Many. Beers. Bellingham's breweries represented well and took home some awards. But we should come to expect that. Our breweries are producing with the best. They're producing beers that are keeping up with national trends and tastes. According [...]
Wyncoop Brewing Company has hosted a "Beer Drinker of the Year" Competition for 17 years. The competition took a hiatus in 2014, with plans to relaunch with a new direction. This year the competition is taking video submissions through 1/1/16. Voting on video submissions will be held from 1/1/16 through 2/27/16. Finalists [...]
Sam Calagione, owner of Dogfish Head has sold a minority stake of it's brewery to a private equity firm out of New York. Calagione sold a 15% stake in his company to the LNK private equity firm, following suit with other breweries who have gone the private equity route, such as [...]
Craft breweries are expanding both reach of distribution and even moving their entire breweries across country, or even across oceans. Craft beer is getting bigger and bigger. One of the biggest, New Belgium is taking things a step further with their new $7 million expansion. As reported by the Coloradan, NB is [...]
The biggest baddest beer festival of them all finished up on Saturday. The Great American Beer Festival showcased nearly 1,000 breweries and brought in 60,000 craft beer fans to Denver Colorado. After all the awards were announced, Washington State fared very well, bringing home 13 medals in all. Not every brewery [...]
Late last week I reported on the release of the new Guinness Nitro IPA, with extreme skepticism I might add. Upon first glance, it seemed as though Guinness was trying to hop on the bandwagon and compete with US craft beer, especially with the falling sales of macrobreweries. Since the release [...]
This is happening so often that it's kinda expected. Regardless, Golden Road Brewery of Los Angeles has been bought by Anheuser Busch. It is lesser known to some in the PNW, but it is the largest craft brewery in Los Angeles and is found in 4,000 retail locations and is projected [...]
Bart Watson has been a vocal and prominent figure within the Brewers Association. He's been using stats for the good of promoting the craft beer boom. He's particularly fond of talking about the huge influx of breweries and those that are yet to be built. The Great American Beer Festival starts [...]
Dogfish Head is well known for it's popular owner Sam Calagione. They produce some of the most unique and well crafted beers in the world. They've decided to capitalize on that success and follow the footsteps of those such as Rogue Brewing Company, and launch a series of spirits. Dogfish Head [...]
Pope Francis, the 266th Catholic pontif, is visiting the US for the first time. Francis will be visiting cities like New York and Philadelphia. Philadelphia breweries have stepped up to the holy pint and are deciding to brew special beers to honor/capitalize on the visit. Here's a list of the beers that [...]
One of my favorite seasonals of the year is beginning to show up on taps and in bottles, and I couldn’t be happier. Fresh hop beers, also known as wet hop beers, are brewed with freshly picked hops during the height of the annual hop harvest, which typically lasts from late [...]
Hold the phone, the masters of Irish stouts are stepping into IPA territory. While we will forgive Guinness for not asking the Tap Trail first, Buzzfeed has the exclusive article: The new Nitro IPA, a “hop-forward” beer brewed with five kinds of hops in Dublin, is canned with the same little [...]
Our dear friends to the north know a thing or two about craft beer. Vancouver is a veritable hop bed of craft beer goodness. From Quebec to British Columbia, Canada is showing it's brewing chops. The Financial Post has put all of Canada's beer drinking cred into this handy and beautiful [...]
AB InBev, the world's largest brewer, has approached SABMiller with the intent of buying the world's second largest brewery. It would be an unprecedented merger for the beer industry and it would control about half of the world's beer profit and form what one analyst called a "megabrew" company. SABMiller's American company MillerCoors, which recently [...]
Greg Koch I remember emailing Stone Brewing maybe 10 years ago to applaud them for their amazingly colorful writing that I found on the back of their Arrogant Bastard Ale. They emailed back and, for the life of me I can't find that email. It wasn't a PR person, it was [...]
Maybe they're moving into craft beer exclusively? They just picked up St. Archer's Brewery out of California and within the same week announced the closing of on of their North Carolina brewery that brewed up the likes of Blue Moon seasonals, Miller Lite, Miller High Life and Coors Light. The brewery [...]
UPDATED: Numbers now reflect revenue from kegs, as opposed to barrels. The last 12 months has seen exciting growth and upheaval in the craft beer community. It wasn't just the craft beer boom that stole headlines, but legal battles and craft beer acquisitions. Over the past month, there have been a few [...]
Firestone Walker, Full Sail, 10 Barrel, Founders and Elysian are some of the more notable craft brewery sales of the past 12 months. Some think these deals are just a part of business in a booming industry. Some believe it's cutting to the core of the craft beer movement. Whatever it may be, it [...]
Oktoberfest in Munich Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, runs from the second-to-last Saturday in September through the first Sunday in October. It began more than 200 years ago as a wedding reception – featuring a horse race – after the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. Over time, the [...]
The Budweiser brand of AB is fledgling. The number of people drinking their beer is dropping faster than the temperature of a glycol wrapped batch of lager. Sales have dropped by nearly $1 billion and their market share is being eaten up by craft beer. Don't get me wrong, Bud does good [...]
On Saturday, Aug. 15 (2015), John Lovegrove of Portland, Oregon, along with beer writer Brian Yaeger and a film crew, completed the “Spirit of 77 Breweries Challenge” by visiting 77 Portland-area breweries within a 24-hour period. This broke Lovegrove’s 2012 record of visiting 50 breweries in one day, and it more [...]
Sierra Nevada is celebrating the release of it's Oktoberfest Beer with the release of an old-school video game. Head to the website, scroll down to the "Find Beers Near You" field and type in "Prost." Up will pop a video game where the goal is to collect water, hops, barley and yeast [...]
Research shows that labels matter! Deschutes has been really spreading it's wings by doing things like building a 400ft portable bar and taking it on an 8 city tour to spread the word of Deschutes Brewing. So, why the change? Jeff Billingsley of Deschutes Brewing says, "As the craft beer segment continues [...]
There is much talk in craft beer of the ever growing concern of consolidation - the very big buying of the very small. The fear is that it threatens the diversity of the craft beer industry. The more then 3,700 craft breweries in America and the 2,000 planned breweries are the [...]
We enjoy bringing you the quirky and new in craft beer. A while ago we introduced you to Iceland's smoked whale testicle beer. Then an awesome brewery in South America that is making beer from fog. Now New Zealand has stepped up to the bar of craft beer oddities with it's stag semen [...]
You might know this, but not every beer that claims to be brewed somewhere is. We recently informed you that your Kona Brewing can is most likely not brewed in Hawaii. The trend of misleading geographical locations continues with Red Stripe. A class action lawsuit has been filed claiming the company, [...]
Unfortunately, brewing craft beer isn't all about the quality. It's often about how good you are at getting your product noticed. So, in a way, sometimes what get's noticed is the loudest and shiniest, as opposed to the highest quality. Look no further than Big Beer. Brands like Bud Light and [...]
One of the most sought after annual releases, Goose Island's Bourbon County series, has been announced. Esquire says that 10% more Bourbon County will enter the market this year and the bottles are changing size The old 12- and 22-ounce bottles (as well as four-packs) have been scrapped in favor of [...]
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