50 Fun Facts About Craft Beer

Fritz Maytag, who rescued Anchor Brewing in 1965, was heir to a fortune built on which products?

Washing machines made the Maytag family rich, and Fritz used his share to buy a San Francisco brewery that was about to close. His revival of Anchor Steam made him the father of modern microbrewing.

Which US president signed the 1978 bill that lifted the federal ban on brewing beer at home?

Jimmy Carter signed H.R. 1337, which removed the restrictions and excise taxes on homemade beer. Many of the first craft brewers learned their trade as homebrewers.

Which Founding Father from a brewing family is the namesake of Boston Beer Company's flagship lager?

Samuel Adams was Jim Koch's pick for a lager he first brewed in his kitchen from an old family recipe. The beer went on sale over Patriots' Day weekend in 1985.

Which color of glass gives beer the best protection from the light that turns it skunky?

Brown glass gives some protection, while green and clear glass give almost none. Light breaks down hop compounds into a chemical very like the one in a skunk's spray.

Which English beer writer, who shared his name with a pop superstar, hosted TV's The Beer Hunter?

Michael Jackson wrote The World Guide to Beer in 1977, and its way of sorting beers into local styles became the basis for how brewers and judges classify beer.

Which brewing giant makes Blue Moon, the Belgian-style wheat beer often served with an orange slice?

Molson Coors owns Blue Moon, which was created by Keith Villa, a brewer at the company's small ballpark brewery in Colorado. The Brewers Association once criticized its labels for not naming the parent company.

Which Colorado city hosts the Great American Beer Festival, with medals in over 100 beer styles?

Denver took over a festival that began up the road in Boulder in 1982 with just 24 breweries, 47 beers and 800 attendees.

What name is given to the refillable jug that drinkers use to carry draft beer home from a taproom?

Growler may go back to the 1800s, when beer was carried home from the pub in a lidded pail. One story says the gas escaping past the lid made a growling sound.

BrewDog, the brewer that once sold a 55% beer inside stuffed animals, was founded in which country?

Scotland is home: James Watt and Martin Dickie started BrewDog in the fishing port of Fraserburgh in 2007. The 55% beer, The End of History, cost £500 or more each.

In the beer style name IPA, first used for ales British brewers exported, what does the I stand for?

India was the destination: the style grew from pale ales that London brewer George Hodgson shipped to East India Company traders in the late 1700s.

Which brewery's flagship Pale Ale, first brewed in Chico in 1980, showcases Cascade hops?

Sierra Nevada was started by homebrewers Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi, who pieced together their first brewhouse from discarded dairy equipment and scrapyard metal.

Which state is home to The Alchemist, whose Heady Topper double IPA started the hazy beer craze?

Vermont is where John Kimmich first brewed Heady Topper, at his Waterbury brewpub in 2004. Its cloudy look and soft, fruity taste are why the style is also called Hazy or Juicy IPA.

Which small East Coast state is home to Dogfish Head, the brewer of 60 Minute and 90 Minute IPA?

Delaware is its home, though the name comes from Dogfish Head in Maine, where founder Sam Calagione spent childhood summers. The minutes are how long hops are added during the boil.

Which flagship beer of New Belgium Brewing grew out of a co-founder's tour of Belgian breweries?

Fat Tire recalls the bicycle a co-founder rode from brewery to brewery on that trip. New Belgium opened in Fort Collins in 1991 and parks colorful vintage bikes outside the brewery.

Which Roman naturalist, often credited with an early mention of hops, gives his name to Russian River's double IPA?

Pliny the Elder wrote about a plant the brewery takes to be hops. Russian River's rarer triple IPA is named after his nephew, and its yearly release has drawn lines around the block.

The Brewers Association's independent craft brewer seal shows which object turned upside down?

A beer bottle, flipped on its head, stands for the way small American brewers turned beer upside down. Only breweries certified as independent may print the seal on their cans and labels.

Which fruit aroma, made by the yeast rather than added fruit, is a hallmark of German hefeweizen?

Banana notes come from an ester called isoamyl acetate, which hefeweizen yeast gives off as it ferments. The same yeast adds a spicy hint of clove.

In craft beer, which word describes a lower-alcohol brew meant for drinking several in one sitting?

Session comes from British and Irish pub talk for a long, sociable stretch of drinking. The idea is a beer you can enjoy a few of and keep your wits about you.

Which technique adds hops while the beer ferments, after the boil, to boost aroma in an IPA?

Dry hopping happens once the wort has cooled, so the hops give up fragrant oils without being boiled. The DDH on some IPA labels stands for double dry hopped.

Which creature has glared from the labels of Stone Brewing since its first beers in 1996?

Gargoyle figures traditionally guard buildings against evil spirits, and Stone calls its own the guardian of its beers. Greg Koch and Steve Wagner opened the brewery in San Marcos.

Which nuclear engineer turned homebrewing author founded the Great American Beer Festival?

Charlie Papazian also wrote The Complete Joy of Home Brewing and founded the American Homebrewers Association. National Pie Day, held on his birthday, was his idea too.

Which British consumer group, formed by four men in an Irish pub in 1971, champions cask beer?

Campaign for Real Ale, or CAMRA, began in Kruger's Bar in Dunquin, County Kerry, among drinkers opposed to mass-produced beer. It publishes the Good Beer Guide to pubs that serve it well.

Which I Love New York logo designer drew Brooklyn Brewery's logo and was paid in company shares?

Milton Glaser was hired by founders Steve Hindy and Tom Potter, downstairs neighbors who quit their jobs to start the brewery in 1988. Hindy had learned to brew while living in the Middle East.

Which Colorado brewery began canning Dale's Pale Ale in 2002, when craft beer rarely came in cans?

Oskar Blues started as a restaurant in the small town of Lyons and first brewed in its basement. By 2011 about 50 American craft brewers had followed it into cans.

Which Chicago brewery's Bourbon County Stout was among the first beers aged in used bourbon barrels?

Goose Island brewer Greg Hall made the stout after Jim Beam passed along a couple of used barrels. The brewery was sold to Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2011.

Which Michigan city, home to Founders Brewing, is known by the nickname Beer City USA?

Grand Rapids tied with Asheville, North Carolina for the title in a 2012 online poll, then won it outright the next year. Founders is known for stouts such as KBS.

Which brewing giant bought half of Lagunitas Brewing in 2015 and the rest two years later?

Heineken's stake meant Lagunitas, founded by Tony Magee in 1993, stopped counting as a craft brewery, because the definition requires a brewer to be independent of the big groups.

Which brewery, begun at the back of a San Diego homebrew shop, was sold for $1 billion in 2015?

Ballast Point grew out of Jack White's Home Brew Mart. Four years after buying it, Constellation Brands sold it to a Chicago-based brewery for what observers put at a fraction of the price.

Black Butte Porter and Mirror Pond Pale Ale come from which brewery in Bend, Oregon?

Deschutes takes its name from an Oregon river, and began in 1988 as a small downtown brewpub opened by Gary Fish.

Which Maine brewery did Rob Tod found in 1995 to make a Belgian-style wheat beer called White?

Allagash started with that single beer because Tod saw German and British styles all over America while Belgian ones were hard to find.

The IBU number on many craft beer menus measures which quality of a beer, mostly supplied by hops?

Bitterness in beer comes from alpha acids in the hops, and the International Bitterness Units scale puts an approximate number on how much is there.

Which app, started in Santa Monica in 2010, lets drinkers check in beers, rate them and earn badges?

Untappd was founded by Greg Avola and Tim Mather. It also shows tap lists from nearby bars and what your friends are drinking.

Shiner Bock comes from the Spoetzl Brewery, founded by German and Czech immigrants in which state?

Texas is home to the small town of Shiner, which gives the dark lager its name. Spoetzl is the oldest independent brewery in the state.

Ninkasi Brewing of Eugene, Oregon is named after the beer goddess of which ancient people?

Sumerians honored Ninkasi with a hymn of her own. The brewery that borrowed her name was founded in 2006 by Jamie Floyd and Nikos Ridge.

Which Sonoma brewery, opened by Jack McAuliffe in 1976, was America's first modern microbrewery?

New Albion never turned a profit and brewed its last batch in 1982, but it showed later founders that a tiny brewery could be built. Boston Beer revived the name in 2012.

Old Foghorn, launched by Anchor in 1976, brought which very strong English ale style to America?

Barleywine was printed as one word on the label because Anchor feared that the word wine on a beer would displease regulators.

Because Anchor trademarked the term steam beer, other brewers sell the same style under which name?

California common is brewed with lager yeast at warmer, ale-like temperatures. Anchor once sued a Canadian brewer over the steam name and lost.

Which tart German wheat beer, long popular in Leipzig, is brewed with salt and coriander?

Gose breaks the German beer purity law with its salt and coriander, but is allowed as a regional specialty. Its name goes back to Goslar, the town on the river Gose where it was first brewed.

Which pale, dry, highly carbonated Belgian ale did an American importer rebrand as farmhouse ale?

Saison reached America in the late 1980s, when importer Don Feinberg brought in Brasserie Dupont's version. US brewers often copy Dupont's yeast, which likes unusually warm fermentation.

Which word, trademarked by a certification program, is the US term for a trained beer sommelier?

Cicerone is an old word for a guide who shows sightseers around museums and galleries. The Cicerone program that owns the trademark is one of the largest beer certifications.

Imperial stout was first brewed in 18th-century London for the court of which Russian ruler?

Catherine II, better known as Catherine the Great, had the strong dark beer shipped from Thrale's Anchor Brewery, and the style is still often called Russian imperial stout.

Which river valley in Washington state grows most of the hops harvested in the United States?

Yakima Valley farms grew 77% of America's hops in 2011. The valley was also Washington's first official wine region, recognized in 1983.

What name is given to the yellowish, waxy substance in hop cones that gives beer flavor and aroma?

Lupulin shares its name with the hop plant itself, Humulus lupulus. Only female plants are grown commercially, because they are the ones that bear the cones.

Lambic brewers leave wort overnight in which shallow open pan so wild microbes can settle on it?

Coolship pans leave the wort open to the air, where more than 120 types of microorganism may seed it. The brewer relies on those wild yeasts and bacteria instead of a cultured strain.

Which Indiana brewery sells its Dark Lord stout only at a yearly festival with heavy metal bands?

Three Floyds brews Dark Lord in the town of Munster with coffee and Mexican vanilla. A ticket to Dark Lord Day has covered four bottles of the stout plus a fifth in a variant flavor.

Which word for the science of fermentation names the American Homebrewers Association's magazine?

Zymurgy, also called zymology, covers the yeasts and bacteria behind brewing, winemaking and other fermented foods. The magazine goes out to members six times a year.

Berliner Weisse and many quick kettle sours get their tartness from which bacteria?

Lactobacillus lets a kettle sour be finished in days, where beers soured by wild yeast can take months to ferment and years to mature.

Diacetyl, a yeast by-product that brewers clear with a short warm rest, gives beer which flavor?

Butter is the telltale taste, because the same compound flavors cultured dairy foods. A little of it is welcome in some Czech lagers and British ales.

Which US arrangement, set up after Prohibition, puts a distributor between brewery and retailer?

Three-tier system rules were written to outlaw tied houses, bars bound to a single producer. Brewpubs are the usual exception, since they make beer and serve it under one roof.

Which Russian River brewmaster is credited with inventing the double IPA while at Blind Pig Brewing?

Vinnie Cilurzo and his wife Natalie bought Russian River in 2002, when its founder, the sparkling wine house Korbel, gave up on brewing.