This Week's Beer News: FoBAB Weekend Recovery Edition
Powered by fond memories of delicious barrel-aged beverages
Anyone else still have a headache?
If you do, you probably had as much fun at this year’s FoBAB as I did … well, plus the trips to Monochrome, is/was, Demo, Other Half, Electric Funeral and others I also squeezed. It’s hard work being a beer writer, especially when all this research has to be packed into one busy weekend.
I will put my thoughts on this year’s FoBAB into a separate post soon, but suffice to say that there were a lot of really, really good barrel-aged beverages being served this year. Towards the end of the recent BCBS media tasting, Goose Island president Todd Ahsmann stated that “I think we’re in a golden age of barrel-aged stouts ... There are so many other brewers that are getting better at it.”
Based on my cross-section of beverages on Saturday, I think that’s a perfectly accurate assessment - though I’d argue that the barrel-aged lagers, wild beers, brett beers and other non-stout options are potentially even more excellent. I remember a half-decade or so back when the beers at FoBAB were equal parts hit and miss, so having this much improvement from brewers across the country is pretty exciting to see.
I was also really glad to see the event so well attended — the Guild stepped up their efforts to get people out this year and it seemed to have paid off. The main floor was pretty packed throughout most of the afternoon along with a lot of folks on the concourse and definitely in the Lager Lounge as well.
PorchDrinking has all your winners here if you want to cruise through and see who won what. I had a bit of a crazy re-entry day today so please allow me to sort through my notes and photos before I share my recap ASAP.
And now, on to some mostly-non-barrel-aged news!
The Chicago Tribune looked at Mayor Brandon Johnson’s alcohol tax proposal, with comment from Damon Patton of Moor’s Brewing, as did Eater.com.
Shana Solarte (current Haas Hops marketing manager, former Omega Yeast/Cicerone/Dovetail-er) went on WGN-TV to preview this weekend’s FoBAB.
The Wednesday Journal featured all the things going on at Oak Park’s One Lake Brewing.
Jackson Hole’s Roadhouse Brewing Co. partnered with Half Acre for a new IPA in their Interstellar Kush series.
Of course, we have to share this Old Style-adjacent story: “Chicago man's beer igloo goes viral after first snow of the season”
Printers Row Brewing is hosting a pop-up Christmas tree sale in a few days.
It’s three months away, but the Indiana Brewers Guild is already gearing up for their Winterfest.
Job alert: If you want to sell Toppling Goliath beers in Minnesota, they’re looking for you.
PorchDrinking tells the story of the Ruckinator Doppelbock from Tri-City Brewing, including exactly what a Ruckinator is.
Two Bandits is closing their Coldwater taproom to focus on production.
Bell’s is selling their UP brewery Upper Hand.
RacketMN looks at a few delicious sounding dark beers to drink this fall and winter, including one called Nacht Nacht from Schram Haus.
This Star-Tribune piece is paywalled, but including for sake of completion: “A California road trip helped a Minneapolis design firm bring Lagunitas back to its roots”
The new Florissant tap room for Narrow Gauge Brewing is finally open (they purchased the space in 2019).
Canton’s Royal Docks Brewing has opened a new taproom called Tied House + Kitchen in Ohio City.
Mellotone Beer Project is set to open soon in Cincy’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, led by former Rhinegeist and Three Weavers people.
Elsewhere in Cincinnati, 16 Lots Brewing Company announced that they’d be closing both of their taprooms.
One of the founders of 1840 Brewing Co. has been diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic pancreatic cancer, and they’ve set up a fundraiser for her but you can also go in and drink their beer and talk about how shitty cancer is.
Workers at Lakefront Brewery have voted to unionize, but ownership countered by filing for an NLRB election, though the Journal-Sentinel notes that they filed “a day late of its two week deadline to respond.“
Isthmus looks at some of the barrel-aged beers emerging from Madison breweries around now, including ones from Vintage Brewing and Delta Beer Lab.
Ope! Brewing’s disc golf league is drawing big crowds, per WTMJ.
“O’so Brewing Company recently released Pavelski Pils, honoring Joe Pavelski, a Plover native who played for the San Jose Sharks and Dallas Stars for 18 seasons in the National Hockey League before retiring this year.”
The Milwaukee Record’s Meet a Brewer series talks with Torzala Brewing’s Jeff Torzala.
Milwaukee has a LOT of Black Friday beer releases, and Milwaukee Magazine rounded them all up.
Sapporo-Stone is pulling out of all 50 of their export markets, which apparently represents only 1% of their business.
Lagunitas is getting a new CEO.
Most-clicked link in last week’s email: I asked you to send them some traffic, and you did! Last week’s most-clicked link was to the Readers Choice Best in Beer lists.
Thanks for reading! If you’ve made it all the way to the end of this email and you’ve learned something beer-y from this, you should share this with a friend!
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