The brewery is located in Jackson, Wyoming, home to the world-famous Jackson Hole ski resort near Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. “Our location in Jackson is a very magical place,” said head brewer Cory Buenning. “The water is very clear – you can drink the tap water. It's tasty. The location has also attracted quality people who stay.”

Many members of the long-term brewing staff have been with the brewery for over 15 years. Buenning has been the head brewer there for seven years, working at the brewery (known to locals as “the Pub”) for a total of 17 years. He's been in the brewing industry for over two decades and has been a judge at the Great American Beer Festival on and off for the past 10 years. 

Buenning credits the area's water as one of the keys to SRB's winning beer. Sourced from wells nearby the headwaters of the Snake River, the pure water makes for smooth and refreshing brews. “You don't see anyone spraying the fields around here,” Buenning said. “There aren't any fertilizers or pesticides.”

In the second of two installments, the founders of Founders take on some more subjective topics.

Was there a first beer you remember that made you realize you really liked beer?

Mike: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was the beer that really got me hooked on this idea that beer could taste different than the yellow fizzy stuff we were all drinking in high school or early college.

Dave:  The first beers I experienced were stolen off my father’s back porch when I was a teenager.  My father was not much of a beer connoisseur and he typically had the cheapest beer he could find.  A lot of Wiedemann and Falstaff and even a beer out of Canada called 50 Cream.  When I was 17 years old, I went to visit my oldest brother in California and he was responsible for introducing me to craft beer. When I got off the plane, the first thing we did was stop at a little bottle shop, and I was not used to seeing beer sold by the bottle. I was used to seeing it sold by the 6-pack or the case.  We bought a few bottles of Mendocino County Red Tail Ale.  When we cracked that beer I called it the sip that changed my world.  I never knew beer had that much flavor.     

How did the two of you meet?

Photographer Nicolas Landemard created this photo essay during his recent visit to one of the hallowed halls of Belgian brewing, which is located in a small industrial park in Brussels. Brewery owner Jean-Pierre Van Roy has recently announced Cantillon will add an additional barrel aging facility near the brewery to help satisfy the increasing demand from the U.S. market for Belgian sours.

Brew day begins at Brasserie Cantillon, which has been making lambic, gueze, faro, and kriek since 1900.

The Beer Connoisseur Club - YOU’RE INVITED!

Wednesday, February 18 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm 

Join us in the Sky Bar at 5 Seasons Westside for The Beer Connoisseur® Club kickoff event!

Complimentary beer will be available for the first hour (or while it lasts), provided by our BC Network brewery partners. 5 Seasons will be offering $3 pints and Brewmeister Crawford Moran will be providing a special beer from their cellar.  

When you arrive, grab a raffle ticket to be entered into drawings for free giveaways of glassware, BC Network member swag and more.

Mingle and have fun with our staff, industry partners, fellow media, fans and loyal subscribers as we unveil the details of our new beer club. Don’t miss this night of fun and camaraderie. We’ll see you there!  

RSVP appreciated but not required to:

Stacy Weenick – BC Club Director

[email protected]  

6:00pm – 9:00pm

5 Seasons Westside  

1000 Marietta St NW

Atlanta, GA 30318

(404) 875-3232

---

About the Club

Craft - Culture - Community

When Rob Hill attended a special beer and wine dinner hosted by The Boston Beer Company at the Smith and Wollensky restaurant on Boston’s waterfront in 2006, he realized his drinking life needed a course correction. The president and co-founder of Boston Uncorked, an organization for wine enthusiasts, Hill discovered he had a palate for darker, maltier beers – and that beer could be a better accompaniment to fine food than wine.

Despite spending time developing an affinity for white wines in California during a career in the Navy and later as a software salesman and despite being engulfed in red wines once he moved to Boston, Hill voted for beer over wine in three of the five pairings presented that night at Smith and Wollensky.

“I didn’t know much about beer,” recalled Hill, who now oversees the beer sales at Total Wine & More. “Prior to that dinner in Boston, my memories of beer were more about my college days, travel overseas and typical American pale lagers.”

The beer versus wine faceoff dinner was filmed by Boston Beer and footage was used in a TV commercial, one that helped the Sam Adams brand change the perspective on American craft beer. For Hill, it was a life-altering event. Having never really taken to red wine in favor of the Chardonnays from California, he realized his imbibing life was finally in balance, telling himself, “I like white wine and dark beer.”

 Nitro beer sounds like a power adjunct borrowed from Wrestlemania or maybe even drag racing’s Nitro Funny Cars.

 When it comes to beer, the term "nitro", or N2, refers to an alternative method of making beer bubbly. Typically, brewers use carbonation, either by bottle conditioning or through a process known as force carbonation. Getting N2 into a beer is trickier than CO2, as it is about eighty times less soluble in liquid. There is no way to bottle condition a beer with nitrogen. It can't be produced naturally, and therefore must be forced into the beer. 

On draft, nitro beer is typically pumped with a 75 percent nitrogen and 25 percent carbon solution. This mixture is known colloquially as beer gas, or Guinness gas. The use of carbon mixed with nitrogen keeps the beer from going flat. Before it reaches the glass, it is shoved through a "restrictor plate", a perforated disk which agitates the nitrogen, producing the copious froth for which nitro is known.

No longer confined to pubs with a good beer list, it is not uncommon to find athletes consuming craft beer before, during, and after recreational sporting events, particularly distance running.

Craft has helped spawn events like the Bend Beer Chase in Bend, Oregon. Teams of six combine to run a seventy-mile relay course that visits six local breweries which provide samples along the way.

One of the longest standing traditions of exercise and drinking comes from the Hash House Harriers or H3, an international group of running social clubs. The self proclaimed “drinking club with a running problem” was conceived in 1938 in Malaysia by a group of British colonial officers and expatriates, and patterned after the traditional British game of “hare and hounds”, where the “hare” leaves a trail of paper for the “hounds” to follow. H3’s defined purposes included “to get rid of weekend hangovers” and “to acquire a good thirst and to satisfy it with beer.” The Harriers would do just that upon completion of the chase.

Now the group, named for the “Hash House” where many of the original members lived and dined, includes almost 2,000 chapters worldwide, two on Antarctica.

Mega-pregnant and massively irritated by last summer’s sweltering weather, my wife made a serious demand. “We need to get out of Brooklyn,” she said, her face mere millimeters from our third-floor apartment’s sole air conditioner.

Outside, the city was broiling beneath a grueling heat wave. To my exceedingly expectant wife, it was as if hell had swallowed Brooklyn whole. “We’re going to New Hampshire,” she said. “Start packing.”

Lickety-split, we steered north to friends, family and cooler weather. Upon arrival, I required beer. Lots of them. In rapid succession. I headed to a convenience store, salivating at the prospect of aromatic Allagash White, crisp Smuttynose Vunderbar or Rising Tide’s bright Daymark pale ale. Heck, perhaps I’d buy them all! In-laws and a pregnant wife can give a man a deadly thirst.

Great Pumpkin Festival at Elysian Brewing

Inside the shop, my field of vision filled with orange. As far the eyes could see, there was a sea of Shipyard Pumpkinhead, the Portland brewery’s wheat ale spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. Ignoring them, I grabbed a couple four-packs of Allagash White and a 12-pack of Sierra Nevada’s Summerfest.

“Sure you don’t want some Pumpkinhead?” the cashier asked, ringing me up.

by Jay Dedrick

Colorado, a place where the mountains meet the plains, is full of dynamic duos. Minds creating innovation indoors are able to refuel by climbing new heights outdoors. City nightlife isn’t far from country living. The state also is proud home to a burgeoning brewing industry led by true believers in the teaming of “craft” and “beer.”

A stalwart in those ranks, Breckenridge Brewery next year will mark its 25th anniversary. The popularity of mainstay offerings Avalanche Ale and Vanilla Porter has had a lot to do with carrying Breck this far, but the brewery is looking beyond its walls for partnerships that have the potential to reach new ground in years to come.

“It’s a great family to be with, a great company that’s growing,” said Matt Eldridge, Breckenridge Brewery marketing man. “And I think that’s because of the fun, collaborative spirit.”

It doesn’t get much more fun than comic books, right?

This summer, craft brew giant Sierra Nevada took its vision of craft brew on tour through America, stopping at seven cities along the way to ply liquid wares to crowds of thirsty beer fans. Billed as “The Largest Craft Beer Celebration in History,” this is no summer camp; everything about it is so big, loud and ambitious that the phrase “Beer Circus” rings true.

Like all the best circuses Beer Camp is not a one-ring affair – it's all about sharing the spotlight and featuring craft beers from across America (Portland Maine’s event featured beers from 120 different New England Regional breweries). In addition to hosting seven local events packed with diverse brews, Sierra Nevada took on the unprecedented effort of brewing 12 collaborative beers with 12 different leading brewers and collecting the collaborative brews in a special, commemorative Beer Camp 12 pack.

On assignment from The Beer Connoisseur, I went to the Portland, Maine Beer Camp to document the experience. During my research, nothing I read or saw prepared me for the scope and ambition of this expertly orchestrated circus of craft brew and craft brew culture.