by Luke on November 17, 2009
It really hadn’t hit me that the end of a decade, the first decade of the twenty-first century — one in which I graduated from high school (early in the decade) and college (late in the decade); one in which I turned twenty-one and one in which my love of Better Beer blossomed — is only a few weeks away. It’s really hard to believe.
Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. What’s more important is what made me realize that thought in the first place: the Paste Magazine 25 Best American Breweries of the Decade (2000-2009) list, which was released just a few days ago. I’ll let you read the entire list for yourself — which includes the location, incorporation date, editorial comments and staff favorite brew of each brewery — but I do have to say that I agree with just about the entire list. One which includes such important nods as Brooklyn (No. 23), Ommegang (No. 22), Stone Brewing (No. 20), Oskar Blues (No. 16), Rogue (No. 14), Bell’s (No. 11), Russian River (No. 7), and Victory (No. 4).
I’m sure that if I thought about it long enough, I would think of some breweries who deserve to be on the list and aren’t. And I might re-arrange the list a bit (of course it’s nothing more than a subjective list by the editorial staff at a mid-level Indie Mag, but still…), but the fact is that all of the breweries on the Paste list definitely deserve the nods they got.
Of course I must give great props to local favorite Allagash Brewing Co., who received the designation of the 2nd best American craft brewery of the decade (and the only Maine brewery on the list)! And naturally, to Dogfish Head Brewing Co. for their not surprising what-so-ever number one bid. Congratulations to all the breweries on the list, and keep up the great work as we enter the 2010′s. Cheers.
by Luke on November 10, 2009
I need a haircut and a less goofy smile...
Unfortunately friend and Maine Beer Writers’ Guild booth-mate Josh at BrewsAndBooks.com beat me to the summary post — it’s taken me three days to recover — of this year’s Maine Brewers Festivals and he touched on everything I wanted to make a point of saying. I think the biggest single take-away from this year’s festival, though, was what a huge improvement it was over past years.
A combination of factors came into play in improving the festival – a larger variety of the state’s breweries so that there were more offerings than the normal English-style ales; a better floorplan (fewer non-beer-related booths) which resulted in more room to spread out and hang out when not in line for beer; and probably most importantly, an earlier start time for the evening session (which cut down on possible pre-gaming, so a lot fewer people arrived already trashed). All factors which came together to turn this once depressing brewfest — so much so that in 2007 Allagash actually threw their own party at the brewery the day of the festival to try and draw crowds away from the official festival — into an awesome time well worth the price of admission.
Running a booth was a lot of fun; we got to meet a lot of new and interesting people, talk a lot of beer, have a quiet place to hang out, get some great promotion for the blog(s) and the Writers’ Guild itself, and (probably because of the press passes) got us a whole lot of extra beers beyond our allotted tickets. Some of the beer highlights of the day were definitely having Bar Harbor Brewing’s Cadillac Mountain Stout of draught for the first time; a bourbon barrel-aged version of the Lake Trout Stout from Sebago Brewing; and of course the Spring Peeper Ale on draught from the Maine Beer Company (who I’m a big fan of, in case you couldn’t tell) – the beer which ran dry before anyone else’s at the festival (and 15 minutes faster in the 2nd session than the first).
So there you have it. If you’d like to see more news, reviews and photos from the Festival, check out the #mebrewfest hashtag, the MEBrewFest flickr page, Sam Cousins’ photo page, and the Maine Brewers Festival Facebook page. And I never thought I’d say this the last time I was there but I seriously can’t wait for next year’s festival. See you in 2010!
by Luke on November 7, 2009
by Luke on November 7, 2009
Just a reminder that Josh (from brewsandbooks.com) and I are blogging, Tweeting and streaming live from the 2009 Maine Brewers Festival all day long today. If you’re going to be here, please be sure and stop by and say hi, or have any questions about beer you have answered. If you’re not here or are coming later and still want to be part of the action, you can keep track of all of the #mebrewfest talk on Twitter all day long in real-time at www.blogaboutbeer.com/mebrewfest. We’ll see you here!
by Luke on November 6, 2009
Of course it’s always a treat to see local boys doing well, so I was pleased to hear the news this morning that Shipyard’s XXXX IPA (the third installment in the brewery’s four-beer-strong Puglsey Signature Series) recently won a silver medal at the Stockholm Beer and Whiskey Festival in the “Ale Modern Style 6% and Above” category. According to the Shipyard press release, the Stockholm Beer and Whiskey Festival is one of Europe’s largest trade and consumer shows and Shipyard 
was just one of ten U.S. breweries to medal at the festival.
As I have mentioned before, I am quite happy to see Shipyard working outside of their comfort zone a bit and pushing their own boundaries in the Pugsley Signature Series to produce something other than traditional English-style ales. And in my opinion the result has been four of the best beers the brewery has ever produced.
Along the same vein, the brewery has also announced the release of a small handful of bottles of the Pugsley Barleywine — the first beer in the Pugsley Series — which have been cellar aging for more than 10 months. The bottles, which will look like the original Barleywine 22 ounce bombers only with a gold “Cellar Aged” sticker on them, will be available at select locations across Maine and Florida through December (or while supplies last). Of the aged beer, Pugsley comments,
“As this beer has aged, the flavors have developed to become more complex.”
If you happen to spot any of the cellared Barleywine in the next few weeks, please leave a comment on this post as to where you saw it. It’ll be a fun little game of Where’s Waldo. And congrats to Shipyard for the on-going success of the Pugsley Series!
Hi and welcome to Blog About Beer. My name is Logan and I live just north of Portland, Oregon, a city that has more craft breweries than any other in the US. I'm a full time marketer, blogger, and dad to the most beautiful girl in the world. I'm also a homebrewing and craft beer fanatic.