Four milestones made U.S. the world's craft beer champ

From Bloomberg News:

The Brewers Association, the main trade group for U.S. beer-makers, announced June 20 that the number of American breweries had surpassed 2,500, more than at any time since at least the 1880s and more than in any other nation. 

The vast majority (more than 2,300) are craft breweries, independently owned companies that make beer on a small scale using traditional ingredients. There are also, according to the association, as many as 1,559 breweries in the planning stages, most of them craft.
This growth shouldn't be surprising, given that craft beer's share of the $99 billion U.S. beer market increased to $10.2 billion in 2012, from $8.7 billion in 2011.

Go America! Go!

All Hail the King

Pliny the Elder does it again. From the American Homebrewers Association:

For the past 11 years, we've asked Zymurgy readers to share a list of their 20 favorite beers that are commercially available in the United States. We tallied the votes, and here are the results for the 2013 Best Beers in America survey. 

Top-Ranked Beers 

For 2013, we have a five-peat! Russian River's Pliny the Elder, a double IPA, claimed the top spot for the fifth straight year. Finishing second for the fourth straight year was Bell's Two Hearted Ale, an IPA.

Top-twenty pasted below; for the complete list, visit Homebrewers Association.

1. Russian River Pliny the Elder
2. Bell's Two Hearted Ale
3. Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA
4. Bell's Hopslam Ale
5. Ballast Point Sculpin IPA
6. Founders Breakfast Stout
7. Arrogant Bastard Ale
8. Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye IPA
9. Lagunitas Sucks
10. Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
11. Stone Ruination IPA
12. North Coast Old Rasputin
13. Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA
14. Stone Enjoy By IPA
15. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
16. The Alchemist Heady Topper
17. Firestone Walker Double Jack
18. Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout
19. Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale
20. Firestone Walker Wookey Jack

Bikes and Beer

I'm sure the 2 people that read this will remember when I recently wrote about beer-oriented development and mentioned some of the great synergies between biking and beer (disclaimer: ride responsibly). I even concluded with the suggestion that Surly Brewing and Surly Bikes team up, not aware at the time that Surly Bikes is also a Minnesota company. Well, I'm proud to say that our new home state of Wisconsin is a place that embraces this idea whole-heartedly. The state is famous for its long tradition of beer-centric culture. Perhaps you've heard of our professional baseball team, the Milwaukee Brewers. The name is not for coffee like some probable PacNW minor league franchise (though I could see the name working in Portland for several reasons), we're talking about beer here. WI ranks 9th in the number of craft breweries per capita and is home to Macro-brewer Miller and Pabst (formerly). The state has even received some recent negative attention for the amount of drinking, beer or otherwise, that its residents do. We continuously rank high for binge drinking frequency and number of drinks (recent MMWR on alcohol consumption). Not exactly a point of pride but you can see how beer is a part of the life here. See if you can find Wisconsin on this quickly-becoming-classic map of (county-level) grocery store to bar ratio.

Wisconsin is also home to several well-known bicycle and bike parts manufacturers, including Trek, Saris, Planet Bike, and Pacific Cycle which now owns Schwinn and Mongoose. Though it has slipped recently, the state is still in the top 10 nationally for overall bike-friendliness. There are networks of trails that connect cities through natural prairies and along classic Midwest cornfields. The state is also relatively flat, but not as boring as, say Kansas (sorry Kansas). This makes it a great state to tour by bike, and when you combine that with great craft breweries sprinkled across the landscape it can make for a epically delicious trip.

Now while I'm gushing about this state, I should disclose that I've lived for less than a year, but you find out about these things pretty quick here. Sure, I'm into beer and bikes but they're also a big part of life here. When I recently became a member of the Wisconsin Bike Federation I was also given a free copy of their new quarterly(?) magazine. There was a great piece in there about a brewery tour across the state by bike (found here) which prompted this post. An interactive map of their trip is below. Now, who else is thinking DSBC outing?

View Badger Craft Brewery Trail in a larger map

Madison Craft Beer Week

Sunday wrapped up Craft Beer Week in Madison. I was able to make it to several events and learn about many new breweries, most from this neck of the woods. The whole 10-day 'week' kicked off on Friday the 3rd with several Fish Fries around town. The Friday evening Fish Fry is a tradition in Wisconsin. I'm embarrassed to say that we haven't really made it to one of these since we got here. We chose to head a bit out of town and try Quivey's, a great beer restaurant housed in some old barn buildings about 5 miles outside Madison. We still haven't been to a WI fish fry. By 5:30 the wait was estimated around 45 min and with hungry toddler at the end of the day we opted to head home.

On Saturday I made plans to join recently knighted friend Dr. Andrew Stuhl (the leading candidate to start up the MadCityBeerClub with me if he weren't leaving) at One Barrel Brewing Company for an early opening and free pint glass+2 beer deal before 4PM. We made it around 3, but they were out of pint glasses. We enjoyed some of their small batch beers, had good conversation, watched the fake Kentucky Derby, and learned to shoot dollar bills into the ceiling.

I took a few nights off before heading out to Harmony Bar for rare beer night. I was using it as an excuse to check out the neighborhood we were thinking of moving to. But the bar was hosting a couple interesting breweries as well, including gypsy brewers Evil Twin and Stillwater. Bridgeport was also there, as the relative old timer of the craft beer game, along with two local new comers Hophothesis and St. Francis. A good variety. The bar has a great reputation as a classic family/bar atmosphere (very WI), and we are moving basically across the street. If (when) you come visit we'll go there for sure.

On Thursday the family made it to a happy hour at the Old Fashioned on the Square to celebrate the previously mentioned Dr. Stuhl's successful defense. The event coincided with a beer event by another WI newcomer, 3 Sheeps Brewing from Sheboygan. They have a small beer lineup at the moment, but it is filled with great and interesting session beers, like the Baad Boy Black Wheat Ale. The brewery's founder told me that this is exactly what they were going for with these first releases.

All in all the week was a success I would say. It got me out to places I would not have otherwise gone, and had me trying beers I would not have otherwise tried. Someone complained to me recently that they said it had become too popular and every event now is packed. Indeed, we had to pass on a fish fry because it was too well-attended and lost out on a pint glass because of high demand. If hops don't kill the craft beer movement (I could see the changing climate's impact on hop production playing a role), maybe it will be crushed by its own popularity.

Your Brain Loves Beer

New research has found that drinking beer releases pleasure chemicals in the brain and makes you happy. Makes sense, pleasure chemicals (beer) go in your mouth and seconds later glands in your brain produce more pleasure chemicals (dopamine); and in fact it has been known for awhile that when you get drunk you feel pretty good (until you don't, when you're no longer drunk). This new research found that just the first sips of a beer can lead to the dopamine release.

When the men tasted the beer, their brains released much higher levels of dopamine within minutes, compared to when the same test was conducted on the subjects at other times with both water and Gatorade.

This finding is important for describing why some folks are more prone to alcoholism than others. The dopamine response is highest is those with a family history of alcohol abuse and addiction. Differing physiological response to beer may help explain why it is harder from some people to stick with sobriety. I found it weird that the study singled out men. Also, there was no examination of the effect of different tasting beers. So no explanation for what might explain how DSBCer's come to discover their affinities. Still, how do I get involved with this research?

Beer Oriented Development

Cross-posted at vargocity

Twin Cities' Surly Brewing recently won a plea to change a law that allow it to sell beer in its Brewery. Prior to the ruling makers of beer could give out glasses of beer for free during tours but could not sell and make beer in the same place. This prevented them from opening a restaurant or bar in the brewery. The Brewery's owner, Omar Ansari, petitioned the state to change the law. It's a law that is on the books in about half the states.

The ruling paved the way for more of Omar's business ventures, including looking for a site to open a new brewery and restaurant. This week, it was announced that Surly bought a site in St. Paul. It moves them closer to the city(s) and allows them to create a "destination brewery." Making the site of beer production one that is more connected with other businesses and communities in the St. Paul area. Surly also choose a brownfield site that is eligible for grants to assist with environmental remediation. The site's proximity to existing and planned neighborhoods and economic centers also makes it elegible for transit-oriented-development grants from the county. The national, state, and local laws that incentivize remediation of industrial locations, develop sites near transit, and encourage awesome local beer production (and drinking) came together to produce a great example of a new economic development model for cites. That model is based in beer.

The "destination brewery" that Surly hopes to create is perhaps the new 'must-have' storefront for thriving downtown revival. I love that they chose a site that is strategically placed to be transit-(and maybe bike)-friendly. Omar, says the craft beer business is booming in the Cities and hopefully they can create the type of bike and beer atmosphere that already exists in a couple of places (if it hasn't already). In some cases, like in Portland and Asheville, the beer and bike culture has spurred more economic development in the city. The combination of biking and breweries is one that has caught the attention of more than one travel writer(Portland (again) and Madison (maybe). Asheville has even branded itself Beer City USA after winning a 2010 poll of craft beer aficionados. So, generally I love this move by Surly and the city and state. The only question I have is how long is it gonna take until the brewery realizes this obvious corporate partnership?