The Brewers Association announced very strong sales for the first half of 2015. Craft beer continues to grow. The undisputed King of Beers, Budweiser and it's little cousin Bud Light, have shown waning sales these past years, but this recent report is one of their biggest to date. Wall Street Journal reports [...]
Craft beer still makes up a small percentage of the $100 billion beer market. While the market share increases and the number of breweries is ever rising, the big boys still own most of the taps. Craft beer owns 11% of the total beer volume and 20% of total beer sales [...]
The Brewers Association released strong growth numbers for the first half of 2015. As of June 30th, there were 3,739 breweries in operation and 1,755 breweries in planning. The numbers also showed that craft breweries employ 115,469 full time and part time workers. This is continued strong growth from the numbers released [...]
Bellingham was recently ranked as the snobbiest beer city in the US. We'll take it. Nielsen just released a report that shows Seattle is second only to Portland in the percentage of craft beer drinkers in the beer market. Seattle craft beer drinkers make up 38% of the total beer market [...]
"99 bottles of beer on the wall....." Not here. You'd be laughed at. It would be blasphemous to say there is too much beer in the world. But it would be accurate to say there are too few taps. The Raleigh Beer Garden in Raleigh, North Carolina, a three story beer [...]
The New School has the first interview with Firestone Walker co-founder David Walker following their recent acquisition by Duvel. Head on over there and read it now! Than read the internal memo from Firestone Walker below that Ezra from The New School was gracious enough to let us share with you [...]
Well, as is true of everything, today we've learned that nothing is sacred. This is just another trend in the purchase and/or acquisition of big time breweries, but we can all agree that this has to be one of the biggest. 10 Barrel, Elysian Brewing and Full Sail have all been [...]
All things return from whence they came. Beer is no different and Pabst Blue Ribbon's recent move is a testament to this axiom. After years of brewing in various locations throughout the US and having it's headquarters in Los Angeles, Pabst Blue Ribbon will be returning to Milwaukee, where it began [...]
What: The 34th annual Great American Beer Festival (GABF) will be even greater this year. With 90,000 additional square feet in the tasting hall, an anticipated 60,000 attendees will have the opportunity to sample some 3,500 beers from more than 800 breweries. When: [...]
We are deep in craft beer festival season this year. British Columbia has some awesome beer festivals that you need to keep an eye out for. This weekend's Squamish Beer Festival is surrounded in beer goodness backed up by outdoor glory. The festival will have 44 breweries showcasing the best of Canadian [...]
My wife and I recently went off the Tap Trail and made a visit to Iceland. The main purpose of our trip was to hike and climb mountains, but just like every trip we take, we like to explore the local beer scene as much as possible. For those planning a [...]
This new product hit kickstarter recently and promises to provide the ability to turn any cheap beer into a "...flavorful, well-balanced, craft beer." Apparently, all you need to do is add a couple drops of this miracle potion to any low priced beer brand and get a high-priced return. Now you [...]
IBM's Watson computer is, arguably, one of the two smartest computers in the world. The computer is a super smart computer capable of answering most any question asked in plain language. It has access to 4 terabytes of information from all over the world's databases. It beat everybody at Jeopardy has [...]
Pabst Blue Ribbon was once the beer of the hipster anti-pop-culture crowd. Cheap, not macro enough, but also not craft. Hipsters are now revolting and PBR sales are slipping. Your favorite local dive bar is more likely to have the local brewery on tap than PBR or Rainier these days. A [...]
Stone Brewing Company closed out Berlin's Beer Week by christening their soon to be first European brewery, Stone Brewing Berlin. Here's a gallery with a few pics of the event that saw Stone's CEO, Greg Koch (of no relation to Samuel Adams's billionaire Jim Koch) give a closing ceremony speech to a room [...]
Australia's craft beer boom is, arguably, bigger than that in the US. Their breweries are coming up with some pretty amazing beers and Queensland's Four Hearts Brewing Company might have taken the crown with their new Wabbit Saison. It's made of 16% carrot juice. I could find no stats on the [...]
Craft beer is big business and when something becomes big business it demands a certain level of legislative attention. Earlier this year the Small BREW Act and the Fair BEER Act were proposed from different sectors of the industry. Recently, the Brewers Association hired it's first lobbyist. Oregon's Senator Ron Wyden is co-chair [...]
The craft beer buzz is a worldwide phenomena. American craft beer production is up and their exports are up. We're even seeing big players like Stone Brewing Co. plan to open international breweries in places like Berlin. In comes the Brewers Association with plans to capitalize and reinforce on the momentum [...]
"With my mind on my money and my money on my mind." Indeed. Snoop Dog has evolved over the years. Rap superstar, reggae, reinvented rap start...hawker of beer? Snoop Dog signed on with Pabst Blue Ribbon in 2011 to promote their Colt 45 fruit flavored beer [sweet mother of all that [...]
Canada has craft beer brewing chops. Just look towards the highly touted Four Winds Brewing, right across the border and the numerable internationally recognized breweries in and around Vancouver BC. Vancouver will have upwards of 25 breweries in the coming months with more on the way. But for all their amazing beers Vancouver [...]
When I lived in Richmond, Virginia, in the late ’90s, I frequented a small bottle shop that always stocked new and exciting beers. On one visit, the shop owner encouraged me to buy one of the bottles of Westvleteren 12 that he had recently brought back from Belgium. I had never [...]
Inside the National Building Museum Last weekend on, June 5th and 6th, The Brewers Association got swanky. They held the 8th Annual Savor: An American Craft Beer and Food Experience. This year's event was held at the National Building Museum in Washington DC. Tickets ranged were $135. For $155 participants [...]
Wow. This craft beer boom train is getting full. Businesses are scrambling to jump aboard, whether they are breweries or not. Now Pepsi Cola company is riding the craft beer wave and they intend to launch a series of fountain craft soda. From Fox Business News The maker of Pepsi-Cola and [...]
May 2015, the International Trappist Association (ITA) approved the eleventh Trappist monastery brewery, Tre Fontane in Rome, Italy. There are now six Trappist breweries in Belgium (Rochefort, Westmalle, Westvleteren, Chimay, Orval, and Achel), two in the Netherlands, aka Holland (La Trappe/Koningshoeven and De Kievit/Maria Toevlucht of Zundert), one in Austria (Gregorius [...]
American Craft Beer Week was May 11-17th and offered all of Craftbeerdom the auspicious occasion to celebrate...craft beer. The same thing we do every happy hour, weekend, BBQ and the occasional lunch. Hey, I'm not complaining it just seemed a little redundant to me. From our friends over at Craftbeer.com reported [...]
Budweiser gets a lot of crap from the craft beer world. Some of that criticism they brought on themselves by handing out their own mocking of craft beer. Their watered down rice and corn based brew is scoffed at, made fun of and mocked across the board for being Big Beer [...]
Some say the craft brewing renaissance started in the past 10 years. Some say it was the late 1990s. Some say it really started after Jimmy Carter enacted legislation legalizing broader craft brewing in the late 1970s. Some say it started with Anchor Steam Brewing Company was founded in 1965. They [...]
The worldwide craft beer boom has brought us some very exciting and innovative beers and breweries. Sweden's Omnipollo (meaning "Omnipotent Chicken") is no different. These gypsy brewers started in 2011 and have been combining art and beer to "recontextualize" what craft beer is, in the hopes of broadening tastes. They have [...]
You know by now that the craft beer boom is all over the world. Australia, England, Japan, US to name but a few. Spain's craft beer has it going on as well. The Tap Trail gets web traffic from Spain and I started looking into their craft beer scene. When I [...]
Vancouver BC's The Georgia Straight just launched it's Beer Issue. So. Much. Craft. Beer! Joe Wiebe is a regionally recognized figure in the craft beer world. We've told you many times about the amazing craft beer available from BC. There is absolutely no reason to not visit BC for a craft [...]
America's first Trappist Brewery, Spencer Trappist Ales, discusses it's process and story. It became a certified Trappist brewery in 2013. You can check out their whole story here.
Craft breweries continue to put out some incredible beers. The Bruery is often included as one of the best breweries in the US. Full Pint lists the following as their 7 favorite beers, in honor of The Bruery's 7th Anniversary. Melange No. 3 – I remember having one of the first [...]
Bellingham is on track to have 12 breweries by somewhere around February 2016. We have a population of 80,000. That means we'll have 1 brewery for every 6,700 people. Aslan Brewing Company Boundary Bay Brewing Chuckanut Brewing Gruff Brewing - (Summer 2015) Kulshan Brewing Kulshan Brewing #2 (K2) - (June 2015) Menace Brewing North [...]
Big Beer continues to make purchases and they don't stop in the US. Anheuser/InBev has made some notable purchases in the US recently, but, as we've stated many times before, the craft beer craze is international, making craft breweries everywhere of higher interest to larger breweries. According to Meantime Brewing's owner [...]
21st Amendment kicks out some pretty awesome beers, from Brew Free or Die, to Sneak Attack, to Hell or High Watermelon and beyond. Recently their sales of "Bitter American" were dropping, so they changed the name to "Down to Earth Session IPA", changed up the packaging and kept the monkey. On our most recent [...]
A little while ago we reported that craft beer used, comparatively, very little water to other drinks. Considering California is going through a disastrous drought, considering where water goes is a good thing. Craft Beer adds $6.5 billion to the California economy. Not surprising considering the amazing breweries there. There were 554 [...]
How many times have you angled your pint glass so the light hits it just right and *snap*, grabbed the perfect photo to share with our friends? Do you like craft beer and enjoy not only the taste of a pint, but the looks of it? If you fit that description, [...]
Let's not get too caught up in our Tap Trail bubble! While it seems brewery, after brewery, after brewery...after brewery are being announced in Bellingham, craft beer is exploding in countries across the globe as well. Australia, for example, has, by some measurements, a stronger craft beer scene the US - Craft beer in [...]
West coast breweries are stretching their wings and taking their wares to other parts of the US. Breweries like Stone, Green Flash and Sierra Nevada are opening up massive breweries in Virginia and North Carolina, due to the awesome tax breaks and opportunities to reach a new market. Then there are [...]
While craft beer is booming, certain sectors of craft beer are doing even better than others. Take a look at the IPA. It accounted for 25% of craft beer growth between 2013 and 2014 and they don't show any signs of stopping. We've reported on all sorts of projected trends for [...]
Spring has sprung and beer festival season is just beginning along with it. Vancouver Craft Beer Week showed us what our friends to the North offer the Cascadia region. Now it's Seattle's turn. Seattle Craft Beer week started yesterday and will go until May 17th. The events list is massive and [...]
As you probably know, on Saturday, April 25, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake devastated Nepal. It was the worst quake in the region in more than 80 years. A 7.8 quake would be devastating anywhere in the world, but Nepal is especially vulnerable because it’s a mountainous country with widespread poverty, dilapidated roads, [...]
Is it a bubble or is this just expansion? Either way, whatever craft beer is doing, it's doing it right. 3,500 breweries with 2,000 more planned to be built. At this rate, the US will sky rocket well past it's heyday of the 1880's. Some breweries are worried it's a bubble, but most are [...]
Last week we told you about a man in San Diego is suing MillerCoors over the marketing behind their Blue Moon beer. In the video Evan Parent says the marketing is misleading I'm a craft brew fan. I take care in where I spend my money. Gotta say that I don't believe that considering Blue Moon is [...]
There are craft beer trends we are excited about or are coming and then there are craft beer trends some want to see end. Allen Park over at Paste Magazine is over the following four trends. The last one is a insightful. Maybe craft beer just needs to get over railing on Big [...]
To be craft beer is a great thing. So much so Big Beer is frantically trying to acquire craft breweries because they see the value in the variety and local connectivity they provide. For years, Blue Moon has been the most popular beer purchased in many states. Image via The [...]
UPDATE: Foundation Restoration, who provides many of the anti-microbial, anti slip and high performance coating floors to Bellingham breweries, has agreed to donate $1.00 for ever beer sold today at Wander Brewing. From the owner Matt Shaver It has always been a desire as a company to give when we can. [...]
Craft Beer isn't celebrated enough. There isn't enough beer, breweries, or recognition of craft beer, so the good people at Brewers Association have put together an American Craft Beer Week. Watch the video below to get more info, or go here for a list of national craft beer events! Or, as [...]
We all know our friends to the north have an amazing selection of craft breweries. The Tap Trail has many followers from the area and we get tweets, Instagram photos and followers from across British Columbia. Joe Weibe's second edition, of his highly touted book, "Craft Beer Revolution: The Insider's Guide to BC [...]
We can get over asking, "Has craft beer made it?" It has on many levels. Now a documentary is being made about the craft beer boom in North Carolina, called "Brewconomy." They recently raised the necessary funds through a Kickstarter campaign. North Carolina ranks 14th in the US in barrels per [...]
Thanks for visiting us! If you’d like to learn more about Tap Trail or Bellingham Beer Week please visit our Contact Us page and send us a message!
Copyright 2015-2023 © Tap Trail / Bellingham Beer Week. Tap Trail is a product and DBA of Ketchup+Mustard, Inc.
