This Week's "Best of the Year" Beer News
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While I still believe that winning a GABF medal remains the highest honor that can be bestowed in craft beer, earning acknowledgement from the annual Craft Beer & Brewing Best of the Year list is quickly becoming a close second.
This year’s edition has plenty of Midwestern accolades, including at least one truly fun surprise, starting with their lineup of The Best 20 Beers in 2024. I’m very happy to see Goldfinger’s Heller Bock on the list, and from elsewhere in the Midwest we see Strange Days from KCMO earn a nod for their Paragon Czech lager and Jolly Pumpkin’s Bam Biere is an interesting if sentimentally timely but worthwhile inclusion.
But wow, how about Round Lake Beach’s Black Lung Brewing earning inclusion for their Left Fork Kentucky Common? “Excellence is excellence,” they said, giving it top marks “scored highest we called Amber, Red, or Brown Ale.” Quite a wide net to cast there! And to come out on top, for a brewery that is very much off the radar for most Midwestern drinkers, is a really nice acknowledgement that some of the best beers in the country really can come from anywhere.
Beyond that, here are the Midwestern winners for Readers Choice Favorite Breweries; and please click through to see where they all rank:
Small (fewer than 5,000 barrels per year): Goldfinger, Triptych, Alma Mader (KCMO), Side Project
Small Regional (5,000–25,000 barrels per year): Hop Butcher, Solemn Oath, Dovetail
Midsize Regional (25,000–100,000 barrels per year): Revolution, Half Acre, Toppling Goliath, DESTIHL, Fat Head’s, Surly, Big Grove
Large (100,000+ barrels per year): Founders, Three Floyds, Bell’s, New Glarus, Boulevard, Great Lakes, Goose Island
More locally, in the Who Brews It Best section, I’m happy to see Chicagoland represented by is/was and Off Color for Favorite Saison Brewer, Hop Butcher for Favorite Hazy IPA brewer, both Goose Island and Revolution in Favorite Stout Brewer, Half Acre and FFF as Favorite Pale Ale Brewer, and Goldfinger and Dovetail both earning entries to the Favorite Lager Brewer list, with Goldfinger right up there at #3 behind Bierstadt Lagerhaus and Highland Park.
Another good year to be a beer drinker in the Midwest!
Add another accolade to the list for the Dovetail brewery tour; Chowhound.com says it’s one of 15 you need to take around the nation.
Job alert: Maplewood needs a new regional sales rep.
Fox32 chatted with Lodi Tap House about this year’s advent calendar.
As mentioned on Friday, Block Club covered the opening of Humboldt Park’s Suncatcher Brewing.
Shaw Local shared the news of Penrose’s Graham’s Chocolate Ale holiday release and giveaway.
The Homewood-Flossmoor Chronicle reported on the winning beers from Flossmoor Brewing at Journeyman Distillery’s Barrel-Aged Brewfest last month.
ABC7 and Fox32 chatted with ICBG ED Ray Stout about this year’s FoBAB.
Laporte County Life published this feature on Michigan City’s Burn’Em Brewing.
The Iowa Brewers Guild announced their inaugural Iowa Ambassador of Craft award winners, and one of them went to an entire town.
The Eastern Echo chats with the owners of Maniacal Mead and 734 Brewing.
Kalamazoo’s Brite Eyes Brewing announced plans to close after nearly ten years, citing nearby road construction as the final nail in the proverbial coffin and calling it a “heartbreaking end.”
MLive featured the downtown taproom and the production facility for Frankfort’s Stormcloud Brewing.
“A new beer collaboration between HeadFlyer Brewing and the University of Minnesota's Raptor Center is raising funds for bird conservation.”
CHNI News checked in with the new Tremendous Brewing Company in St. Peter following their opening weekend.
After a few years of outage and repair, the Flying Eagle neon once again illuminates St. Louis at the Anheuser-Busch plant.
Fat Head’s is bringing back their holiday Pimp My Sleigh in barrel-aged form this year…
…and Saucy Brew Works is bringing back their Stealing Signs ale just in time for the UofM / OSU game.
Boston Beer Company just acquired more land — about an acre, apparently - near their Cincinnati taproom for efficiency and streamlining efforts.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has a roundup of all the big releases available on Black Friday including beers from 3 Sheeps, Black Husky and Component Brewing.
Oconomowoc’s Brewfinity Brewing announced plans to open a second location in Pewaukee.
Lakefront Brewery has brought back their Hop Houses for another year of outdoor winter dining.
A-B didn’t just announce the impending shutter of the Elysian production facility and taproom last week (the Teamsters Union is definitely calling BS on that); they also “ announced plans to close its malt house in Moorhead and sell its elevators in West Fargo and Sutton, North Dakota.”
Most-clicked link in last week’s email: The Eater story about the potential increase to beer and liquor taxes in Chicago.
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