Latest news with #craftbeer
BBC News
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The science behind brewing tastier non-alcoholic beer
On warm summer days, there's nothing quite like a drink with friends - but what's in the glass is changing. With low and alcohol-free options growing in popularity, brewers are rethinking their craft. The Tech Now team visits Wiper and True, a UK brewery using a pioneering technique called 'reverse osmosis' to craft flavourful low-alcohol beer. This video is from Tech Now, the BBC's flagship technology programme.
CBS News
10 hours ago
- Business
- CBS News
Colorado craft beer "all-stars" are reshaping the Denver beer scene
A sixth-generation Coloradan has made it his mission to bring together the leaders of Colorado's craft beer industry and keep the beers people love in their state. CBS Charlie Berger, at a young age, fully embraced Denver's craft beer scene after working for Great Divide Brewing Company. "My first job in the brewing industry was taking bottles off the bottling line over there," Berger told CBS Colorado. "I fell in love with craft beer as a result." Now, it's all come full circle. Berger co-founded Denver Beer Company nearly 15 years ago, and helped spearhead the creation of Wilding Brands. "Wilding came together as a result of a handful of Colorado craft beverage producers who have known each other in a tight-knit industry for years and years. Over a beer, over a hard cider, having conversations about what this industry looks like now and what it could look like." The result: It was a family of local brands such as Denver Beer Co. and Stem Ciders joining forces and recently acquiring two popular Denver breweries -- Station 26 Brewing Co. and Great Divide Brewing. "We're bringing the all-star team of the Colorado craft beverage industry together," Berger said. It's safe to say Wilding Brands is reshaping the Denver craft beer scene, and Berger maintains that's a good thing -- by making sure these brands exist in the future, and that the core of what made each one popular remains. "This is a different business model than has been done in the past, certainly in Colorado, but really, probably in most of the country," Berger added. "Running a small business in this environment with this kind of uncertainty, we felt like we could grow our way through it by doing some consolidation, some acquisitions, some mergers, and still give all the Colorado consumers all the choices they've always had." Berger assures consumers their favorite beer will remain their favorite beer. "I'm really excited about making sure our customers know that Denver Beer Co. is Denver Beer Co. Stem Ciders is Stem Ciders. Great Divide, this Great Divide. We're still very much founder owned, founder run and, in Colorado, independent."
Bloomberg
16 hours ago
- General
- Bloomberg
Why It's Time to Turn Down the Volume on Craft Beer
Hello! It's Tony Rehagen, your measured moderator of all things brew-related, here for your monthly serving of Top Shelf beer culture. In this edition, we'll be talking about resisting the bladder-busting trend going on in high-alcohol beer. But first your regular ration of industry news: I was in the gas station recently, picking up a six-pack of Dos Equis for a day on the deck, when I paused in front of the cooler and marveled at the selection of 'road sodas.'
Washington Post
20 hours ago
- Business
- Washington Post
The sign of a good bar: Tiny bottles of one German digestif
The wall behind the bar at Lost Generation Brewing Company is a shrine to a distant time. A row of unmarked taps and the handwritten tap list are flanked by shelves sparsely adorned with backlit antiques. There's a gramophone, patinaed jazz-age horns, a manual typewriter, a candlestick telephone, and a few dusty volumes of Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Gertrude Stein, who inspired the name of the brewery in Washington's Eckington neighborhood. Beneath the relics of America's Roaring Twenties sits something that dates back much further and hails from much farther away. On the counter rests a small display of tiny bottles, each wrapped carefully in brown shipping paper and labeled with a green-and-white sticker that reads 'Underberg.' Inside is 0.7 ounces — 20 milliliters — of herbal bitters made in Rheinberg, Germany, since 1846. Founder Hubert Underberg created his namesake product as a digestif, an alcoholic swallow served after a meal thought to aid digestion. But this liqueur isn't necessarily here to help your food-truck tacos settle. The reason these palm-sized bottles are popping up at breweries, dives and bars across the D.C. region and throughout the country — in countertop racks, miniature green delivery trucks and bandoliers hanging behind the bar — is in part a triumph of branding. But it's also something of a secret handshake among bartenders, brewers and beverage enthusiasts in the know. 'It's a nice little wink,' says Jared Pulliam, head brewer and owner of Lost Generation. 'You know when you see it; someone behind the bar is not new to being behind the bar. You can presume ownership has experience.' But the 'secret' behind the wink-and-nod is actually a trick of the beverage trade, a long-standing regulatory loophole that makes this unassuming little bottle of 44 percent alcohol more of a necessity to brewers and bar owners than a novelty. Herr Underberg originally concocted his German brand of bitters using herbs and botanicals from 43 countries, though the exact ingredients and extraction and distillation techniques are tightly kept secrets, known only to select members of five generations of Underbergs. 'It's all-natural, no added sugar,' says Jeff Wells, Underberg brand ambassador for D.C., Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. 'The recipe and processing methods have been secrets held and closely guarded by the Underberg family since 1846.' The Underberg label instructs that, unlike most digestifs, which are meant to be taken slowly after a filling meal, Underberg is 'not to be sipped but taken all at once and quickly because of its aromatic strong taste.' The label also boldly claims (if in very small print): 'It is not a beverage.' In a sense, the United States government agrees. The Food and Drug Administration classifies Underberg as a food product, not an alcoholic drink, despite it consisting of nearly half alcohol (making it 88 proof). This helps explain why, even though it was sold in the U.S. starting in 1860, Underberg saw a domestic boost in popularity during Prohibition — because it was not, in fact, illegal. This strange classification might explain Underberg's recent resurgence as well. When Lost Generation's Pulliam left his native D.C. for Sonoma, California, in 2014, to brew beer for Lagunitas, he noticed that all the bars and taprooms had Underberg behind the bar. In California, he was told, liquor licenses were hard to come by, so most establishments settled for permission to sell beer and wine. For drinkers looking for a shot in these places, Underberg provided a convenient and legal fix. 'My wife runs restaurants, and we knew all the bartenders,' Pulliam said. 'After work, we'd go grab a beer and everyone would do a round of Underberg. That's how I became indoctrinated.' Meanwhile, back in D.C., the green-labeled bottles began to sprout up throughout the metro area. 'It really picked up steam in 2016, and since then we've seen exponential growth,' Wells said. Area professionals push Underberg as an after-meal digestif, Wells said, but also as something you take before or during drinking to assist in digestion of beer. Some adherents swear by it as a preemptive hangover cure; others wait to slip it into their coffee as a hair-of-the-dog salve the next day. Barkeeps and mixologists all over have started incorporating Underberg into their mixed drinks, riding the recent wave of fascination with bitter-forward European-style cocktails (think Negroni). For instance, Philadelphia's Human Robot brewery, which playfully refers to Underberg as a 'liquid tummy rub,' on its menu, puts the tiny bottle upside down in a mini bottle of Fever-Tree ginger beer for a cocktail they call 'Feverberg.' 'The sweetness of the ginger beer cuts the bitterness,' says Human Robot co-founder Jake Atkinson. 'It looks good and works as a good-tasting cocktail. And it's really good for your tummy.' And of course, there are those who take the label at face value and down it one swallow. 'People are always looking for that dare shot,' said David Grenaldo, co-owner of Snappy's Small Bar in Petworth. 'It's something you buy for all your friends to see their reaction. They're often surprised when it's not that bad.' Grenaldo also credits the company's loyalty program as a reason for the brand's success. Bars and individuals can turn in the tiny green caps in exchange for merchandise: 48 caps for a license plate holder; 384 for a mini 1930s-model Herb Mobile display; 480 for a green suede belt that holds 12 bottles. 'We have a couple thousand caps,' Grenaldo said. 'But we heard a rumor that they might come out with an Underberg Vespa for a million caps, so we're saving up.' When Pulliam returned to Washington in 2019, Underberg was still scarce in the area. But when he opened Lost Generation, the District had a law that breweries could serve only their own beers at their taprooms — and Pulliam knew a way to add a shot to the menu. Not that it was ordered that frequently at the time. 'When someone ordered a round of beers and Underbergs, we always asked 'Where do you work?'' he says. 'It was almost always someone in the industry.' Since then, Pulliam has spotted the little bottles behind the bars of more and more taprooms, breweries and restaurants. He rarely acknowledges the display, much less orders one of the tiny bottles. But all the same, he takes comfort in knowing that the odds are good that the person making the drink knows what they're doing.
The Sun
a day ago
- Business
- The Sun
Price of popular pints rises AGAIN as some big brands hit £6 for first time ever – how much will YOU pay?
PINTS of some of the UK's best-loved craft beers have soared in price over the last few months, new data shows. Drinkers may have noticed the cost of Camden Hells, BrewDog IPA and Camden Pale Ale rising. The average cost of a BrewDog IPA has increased by a whopping 12.5% since the start of the year, according to analysis by The Morning Advertiser. At the start of the year, a pint would have set you back an average of £5.64. Now it's increased to beyond the £6 mark, hitting £6.34. Camden Hells is up by a huge 10.8% on average, rising from £5.72 at the start of the year to £6.34 now. That makes Camden Hells and BrewDog the most expensive pints in the UK now. Camden Pale Ales have also increased in price, but by a more subtle 1.7%. They cost £5.69 on average, up from £5.59 in January. There is one brand that has actually decreased in price, though. Beavertown's Neck Oil had cost an average of £6.36 but that's gone down to £6.24. The Morning Advertiser previously found the average price of a pint had risen from £5.08 at the start of the year to £5.17 now. Fury as cost of 12-pack of beer set to soar by £1 thanks to sinister new tax brought in by Labour The trade magazine regularly examines the average cost of a pint across London, the Midlands, the North East, the North West, the South East, the South West, Scotland, and Wales. Beer prices have been rising sharply thanks to higher alcohol taxes, soaring utility bills and increased staffing costs. It's probably no surprise that the priciest pints are found in London, where the average pub charges £6.10. The latest research found pints of Guinness have reached £6.45 and Birra Moretti is £7.17 in the capital. If you're looking for the cheapest pint in the UK, the Midlands is the place to go. There an average pint will set you back £4.68. Tennent's lager is the most affordable option there at £3.50, followed by Carlsberg at £3.72. Foster's and Greene King IPA are a little more expensive - but still very affordable - at £3.80 and £3.85 respectively. But even in the Midlands, pint prices increased by 5.15% between January and April. They rose by 3.87% in Wales and 2.54% in the South East. During the same period, prices in London actually fell by 1.22%. Which brands are the cheapest and most expensive? The survey also looked at the average prices of over 30 beer brands. As we mentioned, Camden Hells and BrewDog Punk IPA are the most expensive pints at £6.34. But Beavertown Neck Oil follows closely behind at £6.24. A pint of Peroni costs an average of £6.12. Only slightly cheaper is Asahi at £6.11. On the more affordable end of the scale, Tennent's and Carlsberg emerged as the cheapest options. Drinkers will pay an average of £4.23 a pint for these. Greene King IPA, Budweiser, and Foster's, come with an average price of £4.36, £4.38, and £4.47 respectively.
