This Week's Beer News: Some Fun Midsummer Award News
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As if you needed more evidence that the American Midwest is a pretty great place to be a craft beer drinker, here are the nation’s top ten breweries, according to the 2024 U.S. Open Beer Championship:
1. Third Eye Brewing — Ohio
2. Monday Night Brewing – Georgia
3. Sun King Brewery – Indiana
4. O.H.S.O. Brewery Gilbert – Arizona
5. Cherry Street Brewpub at Halcyon – Georgia
6. Urban Artifact – Ohio
7. Boulevard Brewing Co. – Missouri
8. Feather Falls Brewing Co. – California
8. Toppling Goliath Brewing Co. – Iowa
9. Sonder Brewing – Ohio
10. Burgeon Beer Co. – California
Okay, more accurately, it’s a great time to be a craft beer drinker in the Cincinnati area, assuming awards like these are important to your beer drinking decision making. Those three Ohio breweries are all within about a half hour of each other, and if you wanted to hit all three plus make a quick trip to Sun King in Indianapolis, it would only take you a couple hours of driving.
Third Eye Brewing was also named the contest’s Grand Champion, less than a year after being named a Brewery of the Year at GABF, in case that moves them to the top of your breweries-to-visit list.
Plenty of Illinois breweries racked up medals, including some big wins for names you don’t often see in these rankings, like Adams Street Brewing, Riverlands Brewing and Hop District Community Brewing alongside stalwarts like MORE and Mikerphone.
Werk Force and Brothership both had particularly good showings, with the former earning three medals including Gold for a barrel-aged fruit beer (no surprise there, after seeing how they do at FoBAB in that category) and the latter taking Gold for both NEIPA and Imperial Pastry Stouts (two pretty big categories). Ike & Oak racked up a full four wins for beers in categories like Imperial Red Ale and American Fruit-Strawberry.
Congrats to all of this year’s winners!
Most-clicked link in last week’s email: We had a tie! Attention in last week’s news email was equally split between the three Minneapolis breweries producing variety packs based on their flagship IPA, and the news about Heineken shuttering a huge brewery in Vietnam.
After the news came out last week that One Trick Pony was closing their brewery and taproom soon, The Lansing Journal chatted with owner Mark Kocol about his future plans for a new location.
Job notices: Cruz Blanca is on the hunt for a Brand Ambassador, Great Central needs a Maintenance Technician and Half Acre needs a Head of Hospitality.
A paywalled publication called Westlaw served a short update about the Ravinia Brewing lawsuit, basically saying that the insurers don’t want to pay for it.
The Elgin Courier-News previewed the upcoming Adult Big Wheel Race at Emmett’s 25th anniversary party in West Dundee. (Apparently they’ve been racing these since 2007.)
NCTV reported on last week’s announcement of the strategic partnership between Naperville’s Go Brewing and Noon Whistle.
After some ownership shuffles, Champaign’s Blind Pig Brewery is once again brewing beers and is looking ahead to reopening a taproom.
Despite the rumors, Yuengling wouldn’t confirm that their beers would enter Illinois this year.
The Southern Illinoisan paid a visit to Scratch Brewing following their inclusion in the recent NYTimes “Best Pizzeria in America” story.
The IndyStar site has a photo gallery featuring a few of the city’s many beergardens, should you find yourself in need of an outdoor beer sometime soon. (I liked the Rathskeller on my one very hot visit last year.)
Big Grove Brewing is now the official craft beer of University of Iowa athletics.
The biggest news in Michigan this week is the new self-serve beer bar in the former Founders Detroit space called Elephant & Company. It’s the second location for the company behind Eastern Market Brewing Co, serving donuts, Detroit-style pizza and fifty draft options.
The second-biggest story is the closing of Bandit Tavern after just eight months in business, which moved into the former Jolly Pumpkin and Bastone Brewing space in Royal Oak.
In Stevensville, Watermark Brewing received a state grant to help them expand their beer garden. That’s one more thing to celebrate this week, as they have a full itinerary of 8th anniversary parties tomorrow through Sunday. They even got a ferris wheel!
Handmap Brewing celebrated their fourth anniversary recently, which is a big deal considering that means they opened in the very first couple months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A new law went into effect on July 1 allowing breweries to put THC beverages on draft, and places like HeadFlyer and 56 Brewing are already pouring them.
Feast Magazine reports on the new menu at Bluewood Brewing.
The official beer of Ohio University is being made by Jackie O’s, as announced this week.
The Cincinnati Enquirer covered the many local winners at the US Beer Open, with Gear Patrol publishing an accurate, yet clickbaity, story called “America’s Best Brewery Is One You Probably Haven’t Heard Of.”
Beer Baron Chris Drosner chatted with 3 Sheeps and came away thinking maybe June isn’t too early for Oktoberfest.
Three major breweries announced some closures during the Republican National Convention this week, mostly due to private events, but one was closing due to its proximity to the convention venue.
OnMilwaukee has a first look at the new Innovation Brewhouse taproom from Third Space Brewing … which is still waiting on its brewing equipment.
WTMJ profiled “the man who helped revive the Historic Pabst Brewery in Milwaukee.”
Apparently there’s now a second Goose Island Tap House in Dubai.
Good news here: Czech brewer Budvar’s profits are back up nearly 50% after dealing with the loss of the Russian beer market.
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