A Short Walk Off A Craft Beer

Figure 1: Dry & Bitter: Double Dippy Doo in can. The Brewery Dry & Bitter Brewing Company [1]  are a brewery from Gørløse [2] , Denmark. They opened their doors in early 2015, and their " ambition was always to brew super fresh IPAs ". Not to be earmarked as one-trick ponies, they've also embarked on sour barrel-ageing " adventure"  of fifty barrels of different beers, which will be blended, bottle conditioned and released.  Don't be fooled by their self-proclaimed description of being "IPA brewers" into thinking that they can't brew anything else though. After taking a quick look at their beer history on Untappd, you'll find that aside from having brewed a lot of IPAs, there are also a lot of sours, and some stouts, Pilsners, Kellerbiers and darks. They have an average rating of 3.85/5 on Untappd, which is really high [3] , and it's easy to see why once you start trying their beers. To date, I've had eleven b...

Figure 1: Omnipollo: Bianca Lemon Coconut Tart Lassi Gose in a can. The Brewery Omnipollo  is a Swedish gypsy brewery [1] , founded in 2011 by Henok Fentie, a long-time home brewer, and Karl Grandin, a graphic designer and artist. The company was created out of a belief that craft beer wasn't "fashionable" enough, and hence the Omnipollo brand has an equal dependence on style, as well as substance. Omnipollo are well known for the "creative" beer recipes, and their use of unique adjuncts [2] , however, they might also have some of the strangest names for their beers too [4] . While Omnipollo are a seriously innovative brewery, they don't just create weird or strange beers, they create wonderfully balanced beers that are easy to drink, as well as some weird and strange beers. As a testament to this, Omnipollo are credited with creating the (still unofficial) style of "Milkshake IPA" which has seen an explosion in popularity recently. I ...

Figure 1: Big Ass Money Stout 3 The Brewery Okay, so this beer is a collaboration between two breweries: Lervig from Norway and Evil Twin Brewing  from the United States [1] . In the interest of brevity, and since it was brewed in the US, I'll only talk about Evil Twin (Brewing), but I'll definitely find an excuse to review a Lervig brew soon. Evil Twin Brewing has one of the more interesting histories, given how short their history is! The brewery was founded in 2010 in Copenhagen by Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, as a gypsy brewery [2] . If his name looks at all familiar, it's because Jeppe is the brother of Mikkeller  founder Mikkel Borg Bjergsø. Specifically, Jeppe is the identical  twin brother of Mikkel. The brothers are definitely not on good terms since Jeppe started his own brewery, competing directly with Mikkeller in Copenhagen in the beginning, and for this reason he calls his brewery Evil Twin Brewing. In 2012, Evil Twin moved their operations to Queens, ...

Wylam - Danse Des Coco The Brewery Founded in 2000, Wylam began brewing in a potting shed in Heddon-on-the-wall [1], on a farm in the town of Wylam. However, when owners Dave Stone and Rob Cameron bought into the company in 2010, they decided to move to a larger premises to allow the company to grow. The location decided upon was a twenty minute drive away to the The Palace of Arts [2] , in Exhibition Park, Newcastle. I first saw Wylam due to their collaborative beers with breweries such as Northern Monk, Lervig, Deya and Yeastie Boys, but after trying just one of them, I started buying their non-collaborative beers whenever I saw them. Wylam seem to like making IPAs [3] , I notice this because out of the nine beers I've tried from them, seven are IPAs, and the other two are pale ales. Reading through their beer list  though, they also make a couple of stouts, and don't shy away from using interesting fruits and adjuncts in their recipes. However, they are also w...

Figure 1: To Øl - CPH's Hyggebajer in can. The Brewery It's probably worth talking about the difference between the breweries " To Øl " and " To Øl - CPH ", and then I can stop making the distinction. Founded in 2010, To Øl is a gypsy brewery. That is, To Øl are brewers that do not own their own physical brewery [1] , but instead travel around to other breweries, and use the equipment of established physical breweries [2] . Gypsy brewing is a popular, and successful method of brewing, employed by others to much success [3] . I won't go to far into the details of To Øl's history, as I think that might make an interesting blog post of its own, but in 2016 To Øl opened BRUS, their own brew pub [4] , with a canning line. Hence, To Øl now have their own brewing facilities! But anything made at the BRUS site is actually made under the brewery name "To Øl - CPH", and anything made by the gypsy brewing arm of the company is simply a ...

The Brewery (Brouwerji) Martens is a "proud and ambitious" family business, founded in 1758 in Bocholt Belgium [1] . Martens is the third largest beer producer in Belgium, producing an astonishing 3.6 million hl per year. They are the supplier of private brands for large supermarket chains such as Aldi, Makro, Carrefour and Cora. In 1758 the brewery was founded as an annex to a village inn, but in 1823 Theodorus Martens married into the family. Theoderus was the son of a brewer, and from him the company takes its name. The company began brewing lager style beers in 1923, but in 1962 shifted towards strictly brewing half of their beer according to the Reinheitsgebot [2] for export to Germany. In fact, 85% of the beer produced at Martens is destined for export [3] . Martens produce a staggering number of beers under their name, and varying other brands such as: Martens, Maternus, Schutters, Kristoffel, Karlskone, Holtland and many others. In 2008 Martens also began ...

The Brewery SingleCut Beersmiths is a brewery from Astoria NY, founded in 2012. The brewery was founded by Rich Buceta who financed the brewery by selling his collection of antique guitars [1] . The name of the brewery comes from a type of guitar that only has one (lower) cutaway [2] . SingleCut was the first brewery to making beer in Queens since prohibition, although in just seven years since their opening, there are now at least twelve operating breweries [3] . SingleCut name their beers after famous musicians, famous quotes from musicians, guitar and amp parts, or their address [4] . The beer that we're looking at here is, it would seem, named for a sketch from SNL, recreating a fictional VH1's Behind the Music episode. In this sketch the band Blue Öyster Cult, played by actors, are recording their biggest hit "(Don't Fear) The Reaper". Christopher Walkin (playing their producer) requests "more cowbell" in a second take. Eric is the name...

The Brewery The Köstritzer brewery was first mentioned in documents in 1543, making it one of the oldest breweries in Germany. Being one of the oldest breweries in Germany, it also allowed them to also be one of the oldest producers of Schwarzbier [1] in Germany (though they did not invent the style). Naturally, since the brewery is quite old [2] , it has a storied and interesting past. The brewery is located in Bad Köstritz, Thuringia, which is sort of in central Germany (but Thuringia was part of the former GDR, which is relevant later on). With the foundation of the University of Jena in 1558, the brewery experienced a boom in local popularity [3] . In 1696, the count of Reuss-Ebersdorf, Heinrich X, took over the brewery, and it took the title of "knightly estate brewery". However, with the promotion of the counts of Reuss-Ebersdorf to princes, the brewery became the "princely brewery in Köstritz" [4] . Köstritzer was really popular in the eighteenth c...

We can't ever know how the first beer was brewed. It is likely that grain was stored in some vessel (a jar or bowl say), and water got into the container. We know (from my previous episode of BSU ) that this would trigger the enzymatic process that would normally lead to fully malted grain. However, the grain-water mix likely was only a little  sweet, and natural yeast got in, making early beer. It's worth noting that the person that drank this [1] was probably one of the first ever drunk people ever [2] . Some years later, and many of the processes (for example, malting, boiling, etc) that lead to a modern beer have been improved, and made far more complex, in the never-ending quest for the perfect brew. It should come as no surprise then that the process of fermentation has also been refined, and can now be done in different ways to achieve very different finished products. The main three ways are: Warm. Cool [3] . Wild or Spontaneous. Figure 1: A graphical repr...