Archives for December 2021

PORTLAND, Maine – Liquid Riot releases their newest beer series, LRV. Maine’s first brewery/distillery/restro-bar joins a handful of national breweries that make spontaneously fermented beer. While in the broad category of sour beer, spontaneously fermented beer is known for its funky, fruity, sometimes barnyard-y flavors. It is the pinnacle of tasting; balanced and complex with soft, round acidity and beautiful citrus notes. Liquid Riot offers LRV 3 year blend No. 1 and No. 2, which is a collaboration with Novare Res Bier Cafe and Slab Sicilian Street Food. Both are available by the glass and bottles to go at the Portland location. It makes for a great holiday gift for casual beer drinkers and aficionados alike.

LRV, short for Liquid Riot Vessel, is a custom built double-decker oceanside koelschip, which sits outside the brewery during the colder winter months where the wild yeast and bacteria naturally found in the ambient air inoculate our fresh brewed wort overnight. Following the steps of traditional Lambic production (using the internationally recognized Méthode Traditionelle), they make a Three-Year Blend by blending beers that have been spontaneously fermented and aged in oak barrels for one, two and three years, with some blends being further aged on whole fruits.

For More Information:
https://liquidriot.com/packaged/lrv-3yr-blend-season-20-21-no-1/

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ESCONDIDO, CA – Stone Hazy IPA hits the market this week with a truly hazy glow. It is juicy, creamy and unlike any beer of Stone’s past. This week, the 6.7% ABV beer joins Stone’s lineup of year-round offerings nationwide.

Stone Brewing is notorious for its expansive portfolio of IPAs, and often credited with having kickstarted the West Coast IPA style with its iconic Stone IPA. Now, the brewery takes on the hazy IPA category with a masterful beer worthy of its place among the brewery’s award-winning IPAs. While Stone has offered many expressions of the hazy IPA style, this is the one most conventional in style, yet astounding in execution.

Stone Hazy IPA, described by its brewers as an “absolute juicy citrus bomb of a beer,” is ­­­brewed with a unique combination of fruity and tropical hops. El Dorado and Azacca are the primary expressive hops imparting vivid orange, lemon and melon flavors. Sabro adds intense tropical mango and pineapple, creating memorable complexity. Its bitterness is meticulously balanced – perceivable, but predominantly smooth and easy to drink. Most notably, it has a deep golden opaque look hazier than most on the market.

Kris Ketcham, Senior Manager of Brewing & Innovation – Liberty Station, and lead mastermind behind this brew explains, “We wanted a beer that still retained the juicy goodness of a blended East Coast and West Coast IPA style, but with a smoother body, lower bitterness, and lower ABV. We trialed many beers in this style, and although several were really good, it was this one that blew everyone away. It was a big hit at our taprooms.”

Stone Hazy IPA is now available nationwide in 12oz six-pack cans and on draft.

Download Assets QUICK FACTS

Name: Stone Hazy IPA

Stats: 6.7% ABV, 35 IBUs

Packaging: 12oz six-pack cans & draft

Appearance: Opaque haze, yellow-orange, thin white head

Aroma: Pineapple, orange, guava, hints of cedar and vanilla, banana-cream, coconut

Taste: Mango, pineapple, orange, honey-dew melon, herbaceous hop character, lingering pine

Palate: Smooth mid-palate, slight sweetness, short finish and hints of bitterness on the end

About Stone Brewing

The San Diego-based Stone Brewing is the 9th largest craft brewer in the United States. An industry leader in environmental sustainability, Stone averages 4.5 gallons of water usage per 1 gallon of beer, as compared to the 7:1 industry standard. Stone operates breweries in Escondido, CA and Richmond, VA, plus nine tap room and bistro locations and one of the nation’s largest craft-centric beverage distributors, Stone Distributing Co. The company’s long list of environmental efforts includes a LEED Silver Certification, world-class water reclamation, solar panels, creative uses of spent grain, and even live goats for ecological vegetation management. Stone has been called the “All-time Top Brewery on Planet Earth” by BeerAdvocate magazine twice.

For More Information:
https://www.stonebrewing.com/

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AUSTRALIA – One of the world’s oldest industries now has a high-tech twist, with a new South Australian craft beer designed entirely by artificial intelligence (AI), thanks to a special project from the University of Adelaide’s Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML) working in partnership with Barossa Valley Brewing.

As part of their machine learning internship, two University of Adelaide computer science students, Christopher Fusco and Jash Vira, created a neural network that was able to learn how to make beer by studying a vast trove of brewing records. The result is a unique AI-designed IPA which will be available for sale from early next year.

The Rodney AI²PA is named in honour of Rodney Brooks, an Australian robotics pioneer and co-founder of iRobot, the company behind the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner.

Working under the guidance of AIML’s machine learning researchers and Barossa Valley Brewing’s experts, the two students set about building a large dataset from more than 260,000 existing craft beer recipes available online, before creating a neural networkthat learned how to make beer by studying the data.

“We generated 200,000 new recipes, and then we trained a neural network to pick the best ones and rank them,” Christopher said.

Most beer contains only four main ingredients: malt, hops, water and yeast. Slight variations in those ingredients—and precise changes to the times and temperatures at certain steps of the brewing process—result in the diverse variety of beer available today.

But if creating AI that can make its own beer isn’t complex enough, creating AI that can actually make good beer is significantly more challenging.

“That was actually very difficult. We had to come up with our own mathematical formula using statistics from those original recipes,” Christopher said.

“By getting statistics on these variables, we were able to judge the significance of each variable, this also helped us deal with any possible biases that could have occurred in the data,” Jash added.

Data such as how many times particular beer recipes had been viewed online, and how many people said they’d made it, all give an indication as to a beer’s popularity. The students then created a neural network that learned to judge the AI’s own recipes and give each a popularity rating.

AIML’s neural network produced recipes with around 60 data points, or ‘features’, that included not just the required ingredients and quantities, but also specific process information such as how to handle the hops, the yeast fermentation temperature, and boil times; as well as predictive indicators for bitterness (IBU), colour (SRM) and alcohol content (ABV).

The project was not without its technical challenges, with the neural network sometimes outputting strange feature outliers, such as absurdly large or small quantities, or very high temperatures.

“We used some statistical and graphical methods to analyse our data and then decided to cap some of these outliers. This method helped us preserve the inherent variability of the data as well as evaluate if the decision we made appropriately reflected the final product we wanted to create,” Jash said.

The result was 30 potential AI beer candidates. AIML left the final decision on which to brew to the experts at Barossa Valley Brewing.

The brewery’s founder, Denham D’Silva, was excited about the opportunity for AI to augment his company’s creative process, but initially thought the technology was too nascent to add value.

“The willingness to experiment and create interesting and premium beers has been a foundation of the brewery for 16 years. So, to largely place this process in the hands of AI, was in a word, terrifying,” he said.

“Beer is traditionally a very hands-on process, and even more so for a small craft brewery like Barossa Valley. When you’re a smaller craft brewery you can’t compete on scale, so you have to be different and clever.”

Australia’s demand for craft beer is strong. While per-capita consumption of beer, generally, has declined in recent decades, craft beer sales are growing at a rate of 10% per year.

“Most people think of AI and machine learning as something that only the huge tech companies can do. This project has shown us that AI can take our artisanal skills and augment them to allow us to compete.” Denham said.

“It’s really important that small and medium enterprises embrace the opportunities that AI offers. Craft producers need to get involved to ensure AI incorporates the art which makes us special.”

Christopher and Jash plan to continue on their machine learning career paths, with both students intending to pursue postgraduate studies after completing their undergraduate programs at the end of 2022.

“I think it’s a very exciting time for machine learning, because we’re reaching a stage where we can collaborate with other industries using what we know and what we’re good at. There’s a lot of growth in the field,” Christopher said.

To complement the high-tech beer experience, AIML engineers have also built a robotic ‘bartender’ that can automatically detect when an empty glass is placed on the bar, and quickly refill it with cold beer straight from the keg.

As for the important question of what the AI beer actually tastes like, Denham D’Silva is enthusiastic.

“It tastes like the future! Seriously, it’s a fruit driven IPA which I am very proud of and can’t wait to release,” he said.

The Rodney AI²PA by Barossa Valley Brewing will be available for limited retail sale from mid-January 2022.

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FREDERICK, Maryland – This holiday season, Flying Dog Brewery is giving three cheers for those amazing people who deliver your beers. In honor of the hard-working individuals who spend long days driving big trucks, Flying Dog has launched the Haul of Fame program, happening now through Thursday, December 23rd.

As a holiday ‘thank you’ to the many drivers who frequent Flying Dog’s loading docks, drivers who pick up/deliver to the brewery during the week of December 20 – 23 will be greeted with festive signage and balloons before they are treated to a meal and gifted a Flying Dog-branded jacket.

“Without the drivers who get products from point A to point B, there would be no delicious beer on store shelves – we couldn’t do our job without them,” said Ben Savage, Chief Marketing Officer at Flying Dog. “So, this holiday season we wanted to let our drivers know how much we appreciate them with a bite to eat and a gift from our team to say thank you for all of their hard work throughout the year.”

Flying Dog staff from throughout the brewery will form a holiday hype team and gather to help greet drivers this week as they pull into the Frederick, MD-based facility.

About Flying Dog Brewery

As one of the fastest-growing regional craft breweries in the United States, Flying Dog has been brewing world-class beer that pushes the confines of traditional styles for 30 years. Flying Dog attracts everyone from craft beer connoisseurs to those just catching the wave with up to 20 styles available at any given time. Introduced to Flying Dog by the Gonzo writer Hunter S. Thompson, artist Ralph Steadman has produced original art for Flying Dog’s labels since 1995. Recent accolades for Flying Dog include its Pale Ale ranked as the #1 American Pale Ale in the U.S. by The New York Times.

For More Information:
https://www.flyingdog.com/#

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Louisville, Ky. — Goodwood Brewing and Spirits is partnering with Mayfield locals Jake Guhy and Luke Lewis Band to host a benefit event on December 30, 2021 at the Goodwood Taproom. 100% of proceeds and donations from the event will go directly to Mayfield High School fund and City of Mayfield rebuild, both of which were devastatingly affected by recent tornadoes that hit Western Kentucky.

The event will host live music from Guhy Brothers and the Luke Lewis Band. Goodwood Brewing’s kitchen and bar will be open. Monetary donations will be accepted at the taproom and at all Goodwood locations; the Guhy brothers have organized a gofundme page to accept donations to be split between the high school and the city rebuild funds.

Beers to Benefit Western Kentucky is December 30, 2021 at the Goodwood Taproom at 636 East Main Street, Louisville, from 7-10pm. There is no cover charge to attend, however, donations are appreciated. Early donations are being accepted directly at https://www.mightycause.com/story/Beers-To-Benefit-Mayfield.

Updates for the event will be posted in their event page on Facebook @goodwoodtaproom and on the website at www.goodwood.beer.

About Goodwood Brewing & Spirits

Headquartered in Louisville, KY, Goodwood has been producing award winning craft beer since 2005. They expanded their portfolio to beer barrel finished bourbon and rye in 2019. Goodwood operates restaurants in Louisville, Lexington, Frankfort and Indianapolis and soon to be Owensboro and Columbus.

Goodwood beers are available in Kentucky, Indiana, Alabama, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Florida, and Texas. Goodwood spirits are available in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas.

For additional information or press inquiries, please visit www.goodwood.beer 

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NEW YORK – Loverboy, one of the fastest growing alcohol brands in the better-for-you beverage category, continues to expand its robust product roster of Sparkling Hard Teas, Spritzes, and Canned Cocktails with the release of their limited-edition holiday Espresso Martinis in two festive flavors – Peppermint Mocha and Salted Caramel – available for purchase exclusively on the Loverboy website.

Both the Peppermint Mocha and Salted Caramel boast premium ingredients such as real espresso, maple water, sea salt and MCT oil complete with a special holiday twist. Equivalent to two cocktails per can, these indulgent holiday espresso martinis include 12% ABV, are 125 calories, dairy-free and are perfectly sweetened with only 3.5 grams of sugar per serving.

“After selling out of our Espresso Martini three times in the past year, we knew we had to one up ourselves for the next launch.” said Kyle Cooke, Founder and CEO of Loverboy. “The Peppermint Mocha was inspired by Amanda’s mom always adding a candy cane to her hot chocolate as a kid, while I’m a sucker for anything caramel flavored this time of year. They really do make for the perfect gift because they taste just as festive as they look.”

Loverboy’s Peppermint Mocha and Salted Caramel were created in the hopes of bringing the magic of the season to this year’s special occasions. The new Peppermint Mocha Espresso Martini embraces reminiscences of a childhood favorite – hot chocolate, but with a cheerful twist. Combining the perfect amount of chocolate and peppermint, this delicious craft cocktail brings back the memories of the past with each sip. Loverboy’s Salted Caramel Espresso Martini combines the perfect blend of espresso and sweet caramel with a hint of real sea salt, creating an indulgent yet savory ready-to-drink craft cocktail that’s perfect to enjoy this holiday season.

Loverboy’s limited-edition holiday Espresso Martinis are $49 for an 8-pack, with 4 cans of each decadent flavor, now available in 44 states for direct purchase on the Loverboy website. These craft cocktails are best served when shaken and poured over ice in a festive glass.

About Loverboy

Loverboy is a premium alcohol and lifestyle brand that trailblazes new standards in the better-for-you and ready-to-drink beverage categories. Considered to be the fastest-growing alcohol brand in the U.S., Loverboy was founded by Kyle Cooke, accredited by Bravo’s “Summer House” fame. Best known for its better-for-you Sparkling Hard Teas, Spritzes and Canned Cocktails that transform any occasion into something spectacular, Loverboy is the only RTD beverage brand that has its own unique line of exclusive merch ranging from t-shirts, hoodies and sunglasses that sellout within minutes of each drop. The purpose-driven brand has also donated over $80,000 to charitable organizations including the U.S. Bartenders’ Guild COVID relief, No Kid Hungry, NQAPIA, and Human Rights Campaign.

All of Loverboy’s beverages are made with pure, high-quality ingredients such as organic brewed tea, real juices and purées, and monk fruit, helping everyone let loose a bit more and live life with no regrets. Loverboy’s Spritzes and Canned Cocktails are available in 44 states for direct purchase on Loverboy’s website, with its Sparkling Hard Teas sold at select retailers nationwide, including Kroger, Total Wine, Target and Whole Foods (currently available in 19 states with nationwide expansion plans to be completed in 2022).

For More Information:

https://drinkloverboy.com

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DENVER, Colorado – The Colorado Strong Fund was brought to life at the beginning of the pandemic, providing breweries with a way to give back to the local supply chain, small independent breweries and raise funds for the Colorado Strong Fund by doing what breweries do best: brewing beer. River North Brewery previously brewed Colorado Double Strong, a barleywine that was also released in a barrel aged form. It only makes sense that River North Brewery brewed a tripel for this year’s version: Colorado Triple Strong.

Colorado Triple Strong is exactly what you expect from a brewery that started out focused on Belgian style beers. River North Brewery took all Colorado ingredients and brewed up a classic tripel with flavors of apricot, stone fruit, ripe banana and hints of lemon and honey. This dry finishing, crazy drinkable tripel dances across your palette and is sure to make the monks proud at 11.3% ABV.

This version of Colorado Triple Strong releases Saturday, December 18th at both taprooms on tap and in bottles to go with 20% of all sales going to the Colorado Strong Fund. Stay tuned for the barrel aged version, set to release sometime early Spring of 2022. Colorado Triple Strong is River North Brewery’s last beer release of 2021, making it even more special that not only is it the last release of the year, it’s also a beer that gives back.

For More Information:
http://www.rivernorthbrewery.com

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DENVER, Colorado – This month Our Mutual Friend Brewing (OMF) will release an unusual smoked beer that’s inspired by a Nordic brewing tradition from the town of Stjørdal. This small municipality in Norway has a concentrated area with malthouses and homebrewers; the non-commercial brewers are so dedicated to their craft that they use traditional malt made in the region to make Stjørdalsøl, a traditional Norwegian Ale that uses 100% Alder-smoked malt, an ingredient that is so impactful to the beer that a true Stjørdalsøl cannot be made without it.

In 2017, Jan Chodkowski of OMF and Josh Cody of Colorado Malting Company traveled to Norway to learn about the type of beer and malt made in the region. Sharing a passion for smoked beers, the duo was delighted to get first hand exposure to the Stjørdalsøl brewing tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation.

“The beer is made at a såinnhaus, or brewing co-op, by non-commercial brewers in the town,” says Jan Chodkowski, Head Brewer at OMF. “The style is relatively unknown because it is extremely regional and because of its high ABV, which is above the ABV limit for commercial production in Norway.”

Because of its hyper-locality and process, Stjørdalsøl is a beer that most may not have heard of or tried, but the flavor is incredibly dynamic. Made with barley that is grown and malted by Colorado Malting Company that is then smoked over European-sourced alderwood, OMF’s Stjørdalsøl is a 9% ABV Norwegian-Style Ale that has just the right amount of smoke character, as well as toffee and dark fruit attributes. Stjørdalsøl will be available on draft and in four-pack 16-ounce cans on Tuesday, December 21 at OMF.

Beer lovers can also try two new draft-only beers on December 21. Clemens Smoked Lager is a 5.4% ABV beer brewed with A.D. Laws Bourbon Barrel Smoked Malt from Colorado Malting Company and Pilsner malt and hopped with Colorado Crystal Hops. This delicious golden smoked lager is sessionable on it’s own, extremely pairable with a hearty winter meal, and great to cook with. Golana Juicy Double India Pale Ale is brewed with T-45 Huell Melon, Vic Secret and El Dorado hops. This fruit forward IPA has strong tropical flavors and clocks in at 8.2% ABV.

On Friday, December 17, OMF welcomes back Pro, a 4.9% ABV Blonde Ale, and Fully Acclimated, a collaboration Juicy India Pale Ale with Around the Horn Brewing Company out of California. Pro is an all-Colorado ingredient beer that pays homage to when most cans just said beer. Fully Acclimated is an 8.5% ABV IPA brewed with Clasita and Idaho 7 hops. Both beers will be will be available on draft and in four-pack 16-ounce cans

“Making the malt for Stjørdalsøl is extremely labor intensive, so when people drink it I hope they enjoy it and recognize all the hard work that goes into it,” said Chodkowski. “I want to thank Josh Cody for such a memorable trip in Norway and for making the malt for us every year.”

About Our Mutual Friend Brewing

Established in 2012, Our Mutual Friend is a relaxed brewery and taproom in Denver, CO whose goal is to create world-class beer using local ingredients whenever possible and serve as a gathering place for the Five Points neighborhood. This small but mighty brewery has earned acclaim and awards with a 2018 gold medal for Saison Trystero at World Beer Cup and six Great American Beer Festival medals, including a silver medal in the Mixed-Culture Brett Beer category for Biere Ovale and a gold medal for Inner Light in the Australian Pale Ale category in 2021.

For More Information:
https://www.indiecreativeco.com/news/omfdec2021beerreleases

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Frederick, Md. – From the brewery that produces big-ABV favorites – like The Truth Imperial IPA (8.7% ABV), Gonzo Imperial Porter (10% ABV) and Double Dog Double IPA (12% ABV) – comes Triple Dog Triple IPA, an all-new epic beast with a so-big-you’ll-need-to-clear-your-calendar-that-night-high ABV to match. Maryland’s Flying Dog Brewery is releasing their highest-octane beer this October in 4-packs of 12 oz. bottles.

Citrus and resinous hop notes dominate the aroma and flavor profile in this triple brew with a Citra and Simcoe hop blend. The beer ends with a touch of alcohol sweetness and a dry finish, making it incredibly drinkable for a big brew. Triple Dog’s ABV will clock in at 18% however, due to the nature of brewing such a big beer, this number could vary batch to batch. When consumers reach for a 4-pack of Triple Dog they will be faced with the fun opportunity to scan the package’s QR code to find out that batch’s final ABV. The first batch being released in early November, has clocked in 1t 18.6% ABV.

“We’re always looking to push the boundaries of what an IPA can be, so when one of our salesmen dared us to see how far we could push the ABV on Double Dog we had to accept the challenge,” said Ben Clark, Brewmaster at Flying Dog Brewery. “The result is a super drinkable monster of a beer that’s perfect for enjoying around the bonfire as fall evenings continue to cool down.”

To complete your evening with Triple Dog, pair this big beer with a big meat and cheese plate. Throw together some salty charcuterie and sausages with a sharp cheddar and stanky Stilton for a feast fit for a beast.

About Flying Dog Brewery:

As one of the fastest-growing regional craft breweries in the United States, Flying Dog has been brewing world-class beer that pushes the confines of traditional styles for 30 years. Flying Dog attracts everyone from craft beer connoisseurs to those just catching the wave with up to 20 styles available at any given time. Introduced to Flying Dog by the Gonzo writer Hunter S. Thompson, artist Ralph Steadman has produced original art for Flying Dog’s labels since 1995. Recent accolades for Flying Dog include its Pale Ale ranked as the #1 American Pale Ale in the U.S. by  The New York Times.

For more information, visit www.flyingdog.com.

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