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The Changing Landscape for Draft Beer Demands a Dialed-In Keg Fleet

Kegs are expensive and attrition is inevitable, even as the market for draft beer gets tighter. The good news: When it comes to managing that fleet, brewers today have more options than ever.

By: Kate Bernot

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Congrats, You Got Your Beer on the Shelf! Now What?

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How to Effectively Communicate the Flavors of Your Beers

Your brewery has the potential to tap into a wider audience, bearing in mind that today’s typical drinkers aren’t beer geeks. Here’s how to grab their attention with flavor descriptions that resonate.

By: Courtney Iseman

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Surprise Hits: Beers that Unexpectedly Went Big for Their Breweries

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Brewing Trends: Is There Smoke on the Horizon?

Amid craft lager’s surge, smaller maltsters are sending up signals for an unlikely trend, producing small batches of unusual smoked malts made with a variety of woods. Brewers dig it, too—but will drinkers follow?

By: John M. Verive

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Brewing with Malted Corn? We’re All Ears!

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Your Brewery’s Most Valuable By-Product? Its Data.

Craft breweries are awash in raw data, and the road to higher quality and wider margins begins with making better use of it.

By: John M. Verive

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Yield and Efficiency: How to Get More Juice from the Squeeze

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Where Breweries Can Find Bright Spots in the Economic Data

The boom days are over, but in many ways independent breweries are in a better place than other alcohol producers and other hospitality segments. Meanwhile, pockets of growth remain.

By: Kate Bernot

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How to Build an Events Calendar that Drives Traffic

Infographic: Global Hop Shifts

While the Pacific Northwest has been cutting back on acreage amid an ongoing hop surplus, the international picture is more complex. Here’s a look at 2024 acreage in various countries versus the previous year.

By: Jamie Bogner

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Infographic: Hops In, Hops Out

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Hops Insider: Federal Cuts Hit Hop Research

Cuts to the federal workforce are directly hindering programs that breed new hop varieties and work to solve agronomic problems.

By: Stan Hieronymus

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More Exotic Hop Varieties Are on the Way—and These Won’t Be Proprietary

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How the Beer Week Can Stay Strong

Local beer weeks started happening when craft beer was the new kid on the block, and they were ideal for attracting new customers. Yet they can still shift to appeal to today’s informed consumers—and breweries can benefit.

By: Courtney Iseman

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On Special: Evaluating Happy Hours for Your Brewery Taproom

Case Study: Strangebird Is Rochester’s Special Blend

In Rochester, New York, a dream team of beer and hospitality pros has formed a brewpub Voltron that’s thrilling locals while rapidly earning state and national attention.

By: Kate Bernot

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How Some Breweries Are Expanding in a Tough Market

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Hops Insider: Too Many Hops, Too Little Visibility

American farmers won’t reduce acreage as dramatically as they did in 2023 and 2024, but the industry has yet to find a healthy balance. What’s it mean for brewers, in the near-term?

By: Stan Hieronymus

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Hops Insider, Q&A Edition: What Should Brewers Be Asking Suppliers?

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Quality Control: No Cell Counter? No pHroblem.

Many smaller breweries lack the resources to perform regular cell counts on their yeast pitches or slurries. Luckily, yeast share some of their secrets with us via pH values, and that can be an easy way to check on their health. Here’s what to know.

By: Jessie Smith

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How to Improve Quality Control Without Breaking the Bank

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Yield and Efficiency: How to Get More Juice from the Squeeze

With costs up and growth flat, here’s how skilled brewers are making the most of every brewhouse turn.

By: John M. Verive

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Building a Leaner, Meaner, More Cost-Effective IPA

Case Study: Wooly Pig Brews Lager for the Locals (and for the Hogs)

In the hills of rural eastern Ohio, you won’t find Wooly Pig Farm Brewery by accident. Yet with an accomplished brewer who brews only unfiltered lager, sells it all on-site, and feeds spent grain to the hogs, there are plenty of reasons to find it on purpose.

By: Joe Stange

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Hope Grows at Wheatland Spring Farm + Brewery

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On Special: Evaluating Happy Hours for Your Brewery Taproom

As taprooms seek more creative ways to attract customers, it’s worth considering how happy-hour specials might (or might not) work out at your brewery.

By: Courtney Iseman

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How to Build an Events Calendar that Drives Traffic

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