There’s something about the fall season and beer.

In this issue, the intrepid Martin Thibault gets yet another inside story, this time on the brewing traditions of Norway. Not for the faint of heart, there’s a “troll road,” some blood and eye of pig in addition to revelations about the age-old formulas now held by the descendents of Norsemen. (For those who want to try making Vossabrygg at home, thanks to Martin the kveik yeast is soon to be available at the National Collection of Yeast Cultures under listing 3995.)

Another of our writers who has a knack for the beer culture is Seth Levy. He’s well grounded in the ways of craggy and wild Maine, where Allagash Brewing Company and founder Rob Tod have made a home in what has become a perfect fit for making great beer.  Seth, too, has a tale to tell along the lines of The Courage to Find Out in this rendition of the Innovators Series.

Our issue rolls on with a story about rum-influenced Yankee Swap. It’s steeped in the history of barrels and written by longtime contributor Ben Keene – who we congratulate on his move to the editing realm at a fellow beer publication. There’s a primer on how to do Oktoberfest at home, plus our other well known departments, which in this issue take readers to places like the Tasty Weasel and the World Cup in Brazil, not to mention Beervana.

Our Summer Issue continues to put people, places and events into sharp focus. The Innovators Series for this issue profiles David lossman, who has helped make the sometimes outlandish Abita Brewing Company ofe of craft's big success stories. Courtesy of the Traveling Connoisseur, we are taking readers to London to find some of the best real ale pubs while seeing he sights in ou one-of-a-kind Tube Crawl. And, we've gone in-house (well, into the backyard) to reinvent the pot luck party with a craft twist.

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Traveling without internet? Download the PDF HERE.

AVAILABLE WEB STORIES

FEATURES

For a state so mythologized as a bastion of the wide open West, including silver screen gunfights fueled by whiskey and beer in saloons, there’s been an odd relationship between Texas state laws and alcohol.

In recent years, the tide has been turning, due to loosening regulations and increased access to quality beers from other craft conscious states and countries. If the awareness of craft in Texas has been accelerated by festivals, Houston has become that movement’s epicenter.

An explosion of new breweries in Space City has helped fan the flames, with upstarts like Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company (named for the waterway that served as the lifeblood of Houston’s early shipping industry) and 8th Wonder Brewery (a tribute to Houston’s Astrodome) adding some local flair.

With beers available like Summer’s Wit, brewed with hibiscus flowers by Buffalo Bayou, and a Vietnamese coffee porter called Rocket Fuel from 8thWonder, Houstonians are taking full advantage of new drinking opportunities, which started with the establishment of St. Arnold Brewing Company in 1994. Beer drinkers have been lending their support to local brews and imports, in bars and restaurants across the state, and now in an ever-increasing number of festivals designed to show Texans a good time in a big way.

Presented roughly in order of size, longevity and proximity to Houston, those who live in Space City are lucky enough to consider these ten festivals local.

...overcast with a chilling wind foreshadowing the approach of winter. I wanted something warming, something beguiling. An escapist drink. As I walked through Murray Hill on Manhattan’s East Side, a Belgian brown ale sounded good. 

Consulting the crumpled piece of paper I’d hastily scribbled an address on that morning, I stopped on a leafy residential block. Above my head, four words were printed in black on a brick red awning: The Cannibal Beer & Butcher.

Once inside, I met Christian Pappanicholas,  the owner.  “I knew the guy who lived here,” he said as we took seats at a picnic table in the quiet backyard patio. “He used to let us roast pigs out here.”

Dressed casually in blue jeans, a gray cashmere sweater, and a wool flat cap, Pappanicholas is a nose-to-tail evangelist when it comes to his charcuterie. He speaks assuredly, more like a man confident that success would come than someone simply hoping to find it eventually. Which made perfect sense. We were only two doors down from Resto, a Belgian-themed dining establishment that marked his transition from manager to restauranteur. When it opened in 2007, Resto received rave reviews from New York Magazine, the London Times, Food & Wine, and The New York Times. He had won over critics on his first try.

So when he launched The Cannibal—named after the legendary Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx—he was granted the degree of gastronomic freedom that tends to follow accomplishment.

Although not the first to use oak to impart flavors to beer, a practice that goes back to at least the 19th Century, Innis & Gunn became the first to inspire a line of oak-matured beers that have subsequently become a modern style across the beer landscape.

In the early part of the 20th century, Scottish men commonly drank “half-and-half,” a mix of half beer and half whiskey. Back then, cheap whisky was a nasty drink that could set a roiling fire in the throat, but adulterating it with malty sweetness tempered the heat with palatable results. 

Those old-men traditions may have disappeared, but the lingering desire to create a whisky with ale character was pursued by Scottish distillers. Many tried to create the right formula, but time and again met with defeat.

Shortly after the start of the new millennium, to fulfill the quest of an ale-finished whiskey William Grant & Sons looked to the Caledonian Brewery in Edinburgh, a newly resurgent brewer. 

Decatur boasts one of America’s most unique craft beer festivals and is also home to The Brick Store Pub, often mentioned in the same breath with establishments in cities like Philadelphia, New York, Toronto, and San Francisco.

It seems only natural that the little burg just east of Atlanta is evolving into a brewing center as well. Twain’s Billiards and Taps, which was one of the co-founders of the Decatur Craft Beer Festival along with the Brick Store, is now distributing kegs of its seasonal offerings from an expanded brewpub.

Wild Heaven, a wildly successful start-up due to its Ode to Mercy American brown ale, is planning its own new brewery in Avondale Estates, cheek-by-jowl to Decatur. Three Taverns anticipates a launch of its first beers from a new $1.9 million facility that will feature Belgian styles made on New Street in Decatur. The nano-sized Blue Tarp will open a tasting room and provide tours on College Avenue this summer as well.

“I think that craft beer and Decatur is a good match because Decaturites tend to be open-minded, worldly, and adventurous folks who appreciate the independent and creative spirit that informs craft brewing,” said Uri Wurtzel, who co-owns Twain’s with his brother Ethan. It was Ethan who first brought up the idea of Decatur hosting a beer festival, first held in 1998.

In our effort to craft content in our Atlanta offices that will keep even the most experienced beer drinker engaged, in this issue we have reached out to local, national and international sources.

Owen Ogletree, who hails from nearby Athens, Georgia, lends his expertise in food and beer to the question of what makes pizza a perfect match for flavorful brews? Writer Jim Pedley traveled across town – his place of residence being Kansas City – to get the lowdown on why people in the Midwest and now other regions are so keen on the beers of Boulevard.

We then went across our northern border to Montreal-based Martin Thibault, a connoisseur who believes in getting down to the last ingredient whenever he visits a country with intriguing beer makers. In this issue, the readers can travel with him as he discovers a whole new concept of farm to table in Japan.

In addition to a brewery tour in Texas at Jester King, yours truly went down the road and across the street to 5 Seasons Brewing at the Prado to chat with head brewer Kevin McNerney about recent developments in craft brewing. Not surprisingly, his place of work was recently listed among Atlanta’s best beer bars by Atlanta Magazine, because Kevin’s small batch creations are unsurpassed for body, structure, mouthfeel and flavor.

As we said, thinking and drinking local is often a rewarding experience for beer connoisseurs – wherever your travels may take you.

- Jonathan Ingram

The buzz for this annual gathering of brewers, distributors, and acolytes began even earlier than usual this year when 49,000 general admission tickets sold out in less than an hour. By October the beer community’s Twitterati was already starting to make predictions and recommendations well before the doors of the Colorado Convention Center swung open for the eager public.

Craft beer pioneer Jack McAuliffe made an appearance along with his New Albion Ale, 110 brewery booths were added to the main festival hall, and an 84th category (Fresh Hop Ale) was added to the list of beer styles in the competition. Even for the seasoned festival-going veteran, this four-day event that typically spills over into various bars and breweries in Lower Downtown, River North, and Capitol Hill, is not something to be taken lightly. It requires a certain amount of dedication to come out on two feet. And no amount of Cicerone training could prepare you to make it through a tasting menu featuring well over 2,000 beers from more than 600 breweries in a modest 92 hours. Honestly, that’s probably for the best.