United States of Beer

FROM ALABAMA TO WYOMING,
A COAST-TO-COAST JOURNEY
OF AMERICAN BREWS.
America is a vast, multifaceted and often fractured nation.
Squabbles are constant. Issues are baked in black and
white. As Barack Obama opined, perhaps we all need to
sit down and hash out differences over a beer. Whereas
that once meant grabbing a Bud or Coors, the United
States now boasts a constellation of more than 2,300 craft
breweries—at least one in every state—crafting ales and
lagers as varied as the nation itself. By using indigenous ingredients,
honoring regional history and revitalizing neighborhoods, America’s
breweries have become wellsprings of local pride, rallying points
that cut across class and culture. Many of these states have massive
brewing scenes with numerous noteworthy breweries and must-drink
brews, but we’ve done the impossible and picked one beer that we
think best represents each state’s brewing culture. Consider this a
guide to craft beer’s trailblazers—those visionary drinkers who, pint
after pint, are changing the way their towns and states think about
craft beer. Buckle up and take a trip.
ALABAMA
Back Forty Truck Stop
Honey Brown Ale
Before 2009, Alabama was
a barren land for beer due
to restrictions that banned
ales and lagers stronger
than 6 percent ABV. But
thanks to Free the Hops’
advocacy, limits on ABV
and bottle size have been
lifted, paving the path for
craft breweries like Back
Forty, which is situated in
a former Sears appliance
repair center outside
Birmingham. Its star brew
is Truck Stop, a Britishstyle brown ale made with
Alabama wildflower honey.
ALASKA
Alaskan Smoked Porter
Russian settlers in Alaska,
as well as the Czech and
German brewmasters
who traveled there during
the Gold Rush, dried and
roasted malts over fire.
To honor its forebears,
Juneau’s Alaskan Brewing
enlists a local smokehouse
to smoke its grain over
alderwood, then brews its
Smoked Porter with local
glacier water.
ARIZONA
Four Peaks Kilt Lifter
Founded in a former Tempe
ice plant and inspired by
the surrounding craggy
mountains, Four Peaks
has risen atop Arizona’s
brewing scene with beers
like the massively bittered
Hop Knot IPA and kölschinspired Sunbru. The
brewery’s most decorated
concoction is Kilt Lifter,
a toasty Scottish-style ale
that tastes of toffee and
caramels wrapped around
campfire smoke.
ARKANSAS
Diamond Bear
Honey Weiss
Arkansas is home to black
bears and America’s sole
operational diamond mine,
two factoids that made
it into the name of this
family-owned Little Rock
brewery that opened in
2000. Brewmaster Jesse
Melton, the nephew of
founder Russ Melton,
cranks out beers such as
the lightly sweet Honey
Weiss, a brew a black bear
might be pleased to drink.
CALIFORNIA
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
When Ken Grossman
first brewed his pale ale
in November 1980, he
inspired a generation of
craft brewers in California
and beyond. Scary to think
the piney, grapefruitdriven game-changer
would never have existed
without the achievements
of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture’s hopbreeding program. In the
early ’70s the government
unveiled Cascade, which
boasted a citrusy bouquet
that made homebrewers
like Grossman swoon.
The release of Sierra
Nevada Pale Ale kicked
off California’s hoppy
revolution, helping the
state become a mecca for
bitter beer lovers.
COLORADO
Oskar Blues Dale’s
Pale Ale
From Avery to New
Belgium, beer-crazed
Colorado has no shortage
of boundary-busting
breweries. Back in 2002,
Oskar Blues founder Dale
Katechis received a fax
touting a hand-canning
system suited for small
breweries. For months, he
joked about canning craft
beer. Then the laughter
stopped, and later that
year he began packaging
his self-titled, assertively
hopped pale ale in
aluminum vessels. Thanks
to the Coloradan’s frontier
spirit, the “canned-beer
apocalypse,” as Katechis
has called it, has officially
befallen craft brewing.
CONNECTICUT
Thomas Hooker Liberator
Named for the Puritan
colonist who founded the
city of Hartford in 1636, this
rapidly growing beer maker,
which is eyeing an expansion
in downtown Hartford, might
be best known for its gateway
Blonde Ale. But its crown
jewel is the velvety Liberator
Doppelbock, a spot-on version
of the Bavarian classic that’s
rich and malty in equal
measures and pays homage to
the state’s German-American
brewing heritage.
Hawaii’s Maui Mana Wheat
is made with Maui Gold
pineapples.
DELAWARE
Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA
Typically, hops are only
added at specific times
during brewing, imparting
bitterness at the beginning
and flavor and aroma at the
boil’s conclusion. Subverting
that, Dogfish Head founder
Sam Calagione jerry-rigged
a vibrating tabletop football
game to constantly drop
hops throughout the boil,
creating a citrusy, balanced
IPA with little tongue-basting
bitterness. Calagione’s
radical thinking is every bit
as revolutionary as the First
State itself.
Stuart Mullenberg
FLORIDA
Cigar City Guava Grove
Farmhouse Ale
Drawing on Tampa’s tobaccomad history, Cigar City
fashions beers such as the
Humidor Series IPA and
Maduro Brown Ale. Likewise
its Jai Alai IPA harkens to a
sport that was once popular
locally, and its Tocobaga Red
Ale was inspired by Tampa
Bay’s indigenous residents.
In the 1970s, a newspaper
columnist nicknamed Tampa
the “Big Guava,” giving rise
to October’s Guavaween
celebration. In honor, brewer
Wayne Wambles blends a
farmhouse ale with pink guava
purée, resulting in a dry, tart
refresher with a fruity edge.
ALABAMA’s craft beer love runs deep. Thirsty citizens, operating under
the name Free the Hops, successfully campaigned to pass a bill in 2009
allowing beers above 6 percent ABV to be sold in the state, then another in
2011 allowing breweries to sell beer both on premise and wholesale, and
yet another last year allowing the sale of bottles over 16 ounces. What’s
next? Easing restrictions on brewpubs and homebrewers.
This page: Chicago’s Half Acre
Daisy Cutter Pale Ale; Opposite:
Half Acre’s Gabriel Magliaro (left)
and head brewer Matt Gallagher.
Photos this spread: Matthew Gilson
GEORGIA
Terrapin Rye Pale Ale
Seeking to make a hoppy
beer suited to the Southern
palate, Terrapin brewmaster
Spike Buckowski dialed
up a pale ale recipe that
blended citrusy and earthy
hops with a grain bill
incorporating 10 percent
rye. The outcome was a
crisp and clean thirstquencher with a flash of
bitterness and a drying
finish. Since its 2002 release,
Rye Pale Ale has become
one of the Southeast’s most
popular craft beers.
HAWAII
Maui Mana Wheat
After burning out as an
investment consultant, San
Francisco’s Garrett Marrero
bid the corporate world
goodbye and relocated
to Hawaii to found Maui
Brewing. The Aloha State’s
pastimes and indigenous
ingredients heavily
influence the brewery’s
beers, whether it’s the silky
CoCoNut Porter, floral
Bikini Blonde or smooth,
tropical Mana Wheat. It’s
made with sweet and juicy
Maui Gold pineapples
grown on the island.
IDAHO
Grand Teton
Sweetgrass APA
Siblings Charlie and Ernie
founded Otto Brothers
Brewing in Wyoming
before relocating to Idaho
in 2000 and renaming the
company Grand Teton
for the famous peak.
The brewery’s continued
success can be credited to
its proximity to hop and
barley farms and Idaho
glacier water, as well as the
skills of brewmaster Rob
Mullin. His hazy, sublimely
piney Sweetgrass pale ale
is loaded with layers of
resinous flavor, like the
Gem State in liquid form.
ILLINOIS
Half Acre Daisy Cutter
Pale Ale
With Two Brothers and
Goose Island calling Illinois
home, Prairie State beer
drinkers have never lacked
for excellent brews. However,
it was the 2006 arrival of
Chicago’s Half Acre, which
curates accessible ales and
lagers sold by the stylishly
decorated 16-ounce can, that
heralded a new era of Illinois
beer. Standouts include the
brisk Pony Pilsner, hoppy
and wheat-fueled Akari
Shogun and Daisy Cutter.
The pale ale aligns a dainty
ABV (just 5.2 percent) with a
grassy bitterness and, on the
nose, plenty of tropical fruit
and pine.
INDIANA
Three Floyds
Gumballhead
Few breweries get beer geeks
in a lather like Munster’s
Three Floyds, which put
Indiana on the craft-brewing
map with its Dark Lord
imperial stout and densely
tropical Zombie Dust pale
ale. But its Gumballhead
is our desert-island quaff.
Christened after a cat
created by underground
comic artist Rob Syers, the
seriously drinkable and
hoppy wheat ale juggles a
juicy sweetness with a nose
of pineapples and lemons.
IOWA
Millstream Schild
Brau Amber
Iowa’s Amana Colonies, a
collection of seven religious
villages settled primarily
by German immigrants
in the 1850s, is one of
America’s National Historic
Landmarks. Amana’s sole
beer maker is Millstream,
which began brewing in
1985. Then as now, its
flagship is this full-bodied
Vienna lager that rides a
road paved with caramel,
brown sugar and, for
balance, spicy Hallertau
hops from Germany.
KANSAS
Free State Ad Astra Ale
When Lawrence’s Free
State opened in 1989, it
ended Kansas’ century-plus
brewery drought. The first
beer to flow from brew
kettles was Ad Astra, which
is named after the state’s
Latin motto: ad astra per
aspera, or “to the stars
through difficulties.” The
heavenly pale ale matches a
roasty caramel complexity
with a touch of chocolate
and a fruity hop bouquet.
KENTUCKY
West Sixth IPA
In a state known primarily
for bourbon, craft beer
is on the rise, and since
opening last year in
Lexington’s former Rainbo
Bread Factory, West Sixth
is leading the way, winning
over Kentuckians with
Deliberation Amber, Dead
Heat Wheat and this canned
namesake IPA. It wades in
the deeper end of the alcohol
pool (7 percent ABV), with
a lovely cloudy, dark-orange
hue and concentrated
flavors of mango, citrus and
caramel malt.
LOUISIANA
Bayou Teche Bière Noire
Brothers Karlos, Byron
and Dorsey Knott founded
Bayou Teche to craft
beer that complements
Louisiana’s Cajun and Creole
cuisine. Saison d’Écrevisses
(“crawfish season”) is perfect
for cleansing palates while
munching mudbugs, and
biscuity LA-31 Bière Pâle
goes great with jambalaya.
Our favorite release is LA-31
Bière Noire, a dark, beguiling
brew that calls to mind
strong coffee and is sublime
with blackened catfish or
perhaps a sausage po’boy.
MAINE
Allagash Curieux
Mainers love their beer—the
state is fifth in the U.S. for
craft breweries per capita—
and Allagash has become
synonymous with the state’s
suds scene. Founder Rob
Tod’s Curieux was born in
2004 when lack of glass led
him to pour his Belgian-style
Tripel into several empty Jim
Beam casks hanging around
the brewery. The results were
transformative, creating a
transcendent new elixir that
tasted of vanilla, coconut
and bourbon.
This page: Our cover beer—Indiana’s Three
Floyds Gumballhead Wheat Beer; Opposite:
Three Floyds’ head brewer Chris Boggess
(left) and co-founder Nick Floyd.
Photos this spread: Matthew Gilson
Stuart Mullenberg
Maryland’s Flying Dog Pearl
Necklace Oyster Stout is
made with local bivalves.
MARYLAND
Flying Dog Pearl
Necklace Oyster Stout
Few Maryland breweries
embrace terroir like
Flying Dog, which makes
Pearl Necklace with
Rappahannock River
Oysters harvested from the
Chesapeake Bay. A sprinkle
of sea salt accentuates the
bivalves’ natural brininess.
Overall, the dry stout drinks
roasty and chocolaty, with a
slight oceanic undercurrent
that’s underscored if you
simultaneously slurp an
oyster. Proceeds from Pearl
Necklace sales benefit
the Oyster Recovery
Partnership.
MASSACHUSETTS
Pretty Things Jack D’Or
For years, the Bay State
has been fertile ground
for brewing, with the
homegrown talent counting
Harpoon, Sam Adams
and veteran brewer Dann
Paquette. In December
2008, Paquette and his wife,
Martha, drained their bank
account and brewed the dry,
pleasingly bitter Jack D’Or
saison. Bottles hit shelves,
decorated with a whimsical
label featuring a grain of
malted barley sporting
a handlebar moustache.
Would this beer break them?
Or would it be their big
break? Within weeks the
saison was nearly sold out,
and Jack has since become
a modern Massachusetts
classic.
MICHIGAN
Bell’s Oberon
Michigan takes its
Shakespeare seriously (it has
an official state Shakespeare
festival, held each summer
in Jackson), so when a
trademark dispute led
brewer Larry Bell to change
the name of his star beer, he
chose Oberon, the king of
fairies from Shakespeare’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream.
When Tom Young and Eric McLary, founders of NEVADA’s Great Basin, first
set out to open a brewery in the early ’90s, beer production wasn’t even
allowed in the state. Before they could start making beer commercially,
they had to lobby the Nevada legislature to make it legal. They succeeded
and opened the floodgates for more than a dozen other brewers who have
since set up shop in the state.
The smooth, subtly fruity
wheat ale remains a runaway
hit more than two decades
after it was born.
MINNESOTA
Summit Extra Pale Ale
Instead of getting his
master’s degree in social
work, Minnesota’s Mark
Stutrud turned an autoparts warehouse into
Summit Brewing, named
after St. Paul’s stately
avenue. In 1986, one of
the first beers to grace tap
lines around town was the
Extra Pale Ale, a biscuity
beauty with a fragrant nose
supplied by Cascade hops.
EPA remains an enduring
favorite in the Twin Cities
and farther afield.
MISSISSIPPI
Lazy Magnolia
Jefferson Stout
Under husband-wife
duo Mark and Leslie
Henderson—he handles
finances, she’s the brewer—
Lazy Magnolia (the state’s
first brewery since 1907)
has embraced Mississippi
agriculture, flavoring
Southern Gold with local
honey and using whole
roasted pecans in the
Southern Pecan Nut Brown
Ale. For Jefferson Stout,
a chef ’s suggestion led
Leslie to brew the light and
luscious milk stout with
sweet potatoes for a true
taste of the South.
MISSOURI
Boulevard Unfiltered
Wheat Beer
Back in the early ’90s, sales
of Boulevard’s wheat beer
were so slow that founder
John McDonald considered
discontinuing the brand.
Before killing it, the 24-yearold Kansas City brewery
dialed up a draft-only,
unfiltered version, which
debuted in 1994. The cloudy,
visually striking beer was a
runaway success. Since then,
Unfiltered Wheat Beer has
become Boulevard’s topselling brand, as well as the
Midwest’s best-selling craft
beer brand.
MONTANA
Big Sky Moose Drool
Brown Ale
After Big Sky founders Neal
Leathers, Bjorn Nabozney
and Brad Robinson decided
to create a line of Montana
animal-themed beers,
they enlisted Nabozney’s
mother, Jane, to paint
creatures including a fox,
mountain goat and moose,
which was drinking from a
pond—and appeared to be
drooling. The name stuck. A
legend was born. Today, the
creamy and malty brown
ale is Montana’s best-selling
craft beer.
NEBRASKA
Empyrean Dark Side
Vanilla Porter
In 1990, homebrewer Rich
Chapin was hired as head
brewer of Lincoln’s Lazlo’s
Brewery & Grill, which
became Nebraska’s inaugural
brewpub. The success of its
unfiltered, unpasteurized
British-inspired beers led
the brewpub to spin off
Empyrean—named after
the mythical fiery paradise
at the universe’s center—
which, in 1999, became
Nebraska’s first brewery to
bottle beer. Blended with
Madagascar vanilla beans,
this chocolaty porter has
been a standout since its
2001 unveiling.
NEVADA
Great Basin
Wild Horse Ale
Long before casinos cropped
up, Nevada had stallions
that freely ranged across
the desert landscape. For
the state’s oldest brewery
(founded in 1993), the steeds
serve as the namesake for
its medal-winning altbier,
which was finally tamed—or
bottled, rather—last year.
The medium-bodied ale is
earthy and toasty, with a
pleasing mouthfeel and a bit
of malt sweetness.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Smuttynose Old Brown
Dog Ale
Sail off Portsmouth’s coast
and you’ll soon encounter the
Isles of Shoals, an archipelago
that includes the uninhabited
Smuttynose—the namesake
for New Hampshire’s largest
craft brewery, which Peter
Egelston founded in 1994.
One of its most beloved beers
is Old Brown Dog, a forcefully
hopped, full-bodied Englishstyle brown ale that features
Egelston’s canine companion
Olive on the label. Sadly,
Olive passed away in 2007.
NEW JERSEY
Flying Fish Exit 16
In its series of beers inspired
by New Jersey Turnpike stops,
Flying Fish has featured an
oyster stout (Exit 1), tripel
(Exit 4) and one of the state’s
finest double IPAs—Exit
16. Since wild rice once
flourished in the Hackensack
Meadowlands, the brewers
added that to the brew kettle,
and Chinook and Citra hops
ring out with aromas of
mango, lychee and pine tree.
NEW MEXICO
Santa Fe Chicken Killer
Barley Wine
Several years ago, the owners
of this New Mexico brewery—
the state’s first—were caught
in a quandary: What should
they call their brand-new
barley wine? To decide the
name they held a contest, but
none of the monikers seemed
appropriate. Shortly before
the competition concluded,
a miniature dachshund that
belonged to an owner broke
into a nearby chicken coop,
murdering numerous fowl.
And so the Chicken Killer
Barley Wine was christened,
with the unfortunate event
forever stamped on the beer’s
label.
NEW YORK
Brooklyn Lager
To create their launch beer,
Brooklyn Brewery founders
Steve Hindy and Tom Potter
enlisted German-American
brewer William M. Moeller,
who for inspiration turned
to the brewing records of his
grandfather, who previously
brewed in Brooklyn. Brewed
at Utica’s F.X. Matt, Moeller’s
masterpiece was a lightly
hoppy, amber-colored
Vienna-style lager bearing
a logo designed by Milton
Glaser—the brains behind
the iconic I ♥ NY campaign.
NORTH CAROLINA
Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout
Eastern North Carolina
summers are not for
the fainthearted, with
temperatures regularly
topping 90 degrees.
While pale, frosty lagers
may seem like the ideal
antidote, philosopherturned-brewmaster Paul
C. Philippon focused on
porters, schwarzbiers and
other midnight-colored ales.
His reasoning: When dark
beers warm up, they remain
flavorful. His top-seller is Milk
Stout, a balanced convergence
of sweetness, roasted coffee
and dark chocolate.
NORTH DAKOTA
Fargo Wood Chipper IPA
In 2010, a quartet of Fargo
natives decided to fill North
Dakota’s gaping brewery
void. While planning a Fargo
production facility (it debuted
this summer), brewer Chris
Anderson crafted a range
of easygoing, approachable
beers brewed at Wisconsin’s
Sand Creek. The winner is
the generously bittered Wood
Chipper IPA, which is named
after a gory scene in the Coen
Brothers’ Fargo.
OHIO
Rockmill Tripel
You may never mistake
southeastern Ohio’s rural
Lancaster for Belgium’s
Wallonia, but Matthew
Barbee’s farm shares one
vital trait with the famed
brewing region: a close
match to the water’s mineral
and bicarbonate makeup.
In a converted horse barn,
he hand-corks bottleconditioned organic beers
with a Belgian bent. Our pick
is the sweet and spicy Tripel
with a fruitiness that flits from
peaches to lemons and pears.
OREGON isn’t just home to more than 135 breweries—it’s also the second
most prolific hop-producing state in the country (after Washington), supplying
brewers locally and around the world with premium hops. And Oregon’s
institutional hop research and development of new hop varieties, led by
scientists at Oregon State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
continues to be a driving force in the American craft beer movement.
OKLAHOMA
Prairie Artisan Ales
Prairie Standard
Brothers Colin and Chase
Healey helm the irreverent
gypsy brewery specializing in
bottle-conditioned Belgian
saisons, such as the fruity
and tropical Prairie Hop; the
funky, effervescent Prairie
Ale; and Prairie Standard,
a brisk everyday drinker
with lime notes supplied
by New Zealand’s Motueka
hops. Thanks to a successful
Kickstarter campaign, the
siblings are constructing a
facility where they’ll focus on
wood-aged beers.
OREGON
Deschutes The Abyss
With more than 135
breweries, Oregon rightfully
wears its crown as Beervana.
One of the state’s brewing
kings is Bend’s Deschutes. It
debuted in 1988 with Black
Butte Porter, foreshadowing
a quarter-century of affinity
for the dark side of imbibing.
Few Deschutes releases are
anticipated like the Abyss,
an imperial stout brewed
with licorice and molasses,
then partly aged in oak and
bourbon barrels. Consider
it a love letter to Oregon’s
culinary-inspired ingenuity.
PENNSYLVANIA
Victory Prima Pils
While working at the
Baltimore Brewing Company
in the early ’90s, friends Ron
Barchet and Bill Covaleski
brewed the brisk, hoppy
pilsner DeGroen’s Pils.
After founding Victory,
the pals wanted to brew
a similar beer. Problem
was, in America pilsners
typically meant macrobrews.
Distributors balked.
Unbowed, the friends drafted
a pilsner recipe heavy on
whole-flower hops, creating
the persistently bitter,
beguilingly aromatic Prima—
since 1997, an American
institution.
Montana’s Moose Drool
Brown Ale is the state’s
best-selling craft beer.
Stuart Mullenberg
Photos this spread: Andrea Behrends
Linus Hall, founder and brewmaster
at Nashville’s Yazoo Brewing.
RHODE ISLAND
Grey Sail Flagship
Summer days spent staring
at sailboats cruising off the
coast of seaside Westerly
inspired Jennifer Brinton and
her homebrewer husband,
Alan, to open a nautically
inspired brewery. Brewed in
a former macaroni factory,
the canned Flagship is a soft
and smooth cream ale with a
sweet, grassy character and a
low ABV—just 4.9 percent—
that makes it ideal for beach
drinking.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Westbrook White Thai
One night while eating Thai
food, Edward Westbrook,
who founded the eponymous
brewery with his wife,
Morgan, had a brain flash:
What if he laced a Belgian
witbier with lemongrass
and ginger? That Southeast
Asian inspiration led to
the creation of White Thai.
With the addition of lemony
Sorachi Ace hops, it’s the
perfect companion to both
curry and a steamy South
Carolina afternoon.
SOUTH DAKOTA
Crow Peak
Pile-O-Dirt Porter
When Jeff Drumm opened
his Black Hills facility in
2007, it marked South
Dakota’s first commercial
brewery since 1942. Within
several years Crow Peak
expanded and began
canning creations like malty
11th Hour IPA and rich,
espresso-touched Pile-O-Dirt
Porter, which was inspired
by a federal mandate: Since
the brewery was located in
a floodplain, Crow Peak was
forced to build atop a fourfoot mound of earth.
TENNESSEE
Yazoo Sue
Due to the South’s tendency
to smoke everything from
swine to tobacco, the
Linus Hall needed a distiller’s license to
make his 6.3 percent-ABV Yazoo Sue.
downtown Nashville brewery
decided to devise the Sue—a
sticky-sweet imperial
porter made with plenty
of chocolate, caramel and
cherrywood-smoked malts,
packing a strong campfire
presence and a charredcoffee finish. As the state’s
first higher-alcohol beer
(above 5 percent alcohol by
weight, or about 6.3 percent
ABV), Yazoo needed a
distiller’s license to make it.
The hassle was worthwhile—
Sue was an instant hit.
TEXAS
Spoetzl Shiner Bock
Today, Shiner Bock is poured
at bars from the Texas
Panhandle to the bayous
of Houston. However, the
crisp, malt-sweet lager was
not always so ubiquitous.
Originally, Shiner Bock was
a spring seasonal brewed for
consumption during Lent.
Demand was so strong that
in 1973 the bock graduated
to year-round status. Shiner
Bock currently accounts
for more than 80 percent of
Spoetzl’s sales.
UTAH
Epic Brainless on Peaches
Epic might be the Beehive
State’s most exciting
brewery, crafting quaffs
both classic (lightly herbal
Pfeifferhorn Lager Beer) and
offbeat (tart and cinnamon-y
Sour-Apple Saison). Brewer
Kevin Crompton’s magnum
opus is this strong, Belgianstyle golden ale blended with
peach purée and consigned
to French Chardonnay casks,
resulting in a fruity, winelike indulgence with a dry
conclusion.
VERMONT
Long Trail Ale
Named after a 273-mile
hiking path that cuts across
Vermont from Canada to
the Massachusetts border,
Long Trail Brewing has
been a linchpin of the
Green Mountain State
since 1989. Then as now,
the brewery’s flagship is
the smooth and full-bodied
Long Trail Ale, influenced
by the top-fermenting,
cold-conditioned altbiers of
Düsseldorf, Germany. After
nearly a quarter century, the
ale remains Vermont’s topselling craft beer.
WEST VIRGINIA
Mountain State Coal
Miner’s Daughter
In the early 1990s, West
Virginia natives Willie
Lehmann and Brian Arnett
began tinkering with their
parents’ homebrewing
equipment, a pastime that
blossomed into a business
by 2005. Mountain State
specializes in accessible,
balanced ales such as this
oatmeal stout inspired by the
Italian immigrants who toiled
for coal. Daughter is as dark
as that fossil fuel, with a silky
mouthfeel and light body.
Rhode Island’s Grey Sail
Flagship cream ale was
inspired by the sailboats
dotting the state’s coastline.
VIRGINIA
Devils Backbone
Vienna Lager
At 2012’s Great American
Beer Festival, Devils
Backbone and its
brewmaster Jason Oliver
were huge breakout stars.
In addition to being named
the country’s best small
brewpub, Devils Backbone
won eight medals for its
brews. The haul included
silver for the Danzig Balticstyle porter, bronze for Gold
Leaf Lager and gold for both
Black Berliner Techno Weiss
and Vienna Lager. It’s clean,
malty perfection best sipped
by the six-pack.
WASHINGTON
Elysian Dark o’ the Moon
Washington has long been
revered for its impeccable
potables and cultural
irreverence, two traits fully
displayed by Seattle’s Elysian,
a local institution since the
city’s grunge days. Elysian
takes pumpkin brews so
seriously that it runs the
annual Great Pumpkin Beer
Festival, where you’ll find
more than 60 gourd-fueled
beers sourced countrywide.
While all of the brewery’s
contributions, such as the
sour Mr. Yuck and PK-47 malt
liquor, are fun to sample,
we especially dig Dark o’
the Moon. The creamy
pumpkin stout is spiced with
cinnamon, resulting in a
spooky-good fall seasonal.
web extra
WYOMING
Snake River Zonker Stout
Jackson Hole’s preferred
après-ski brewery is Snake
River, where head brewer
Cory Buenning devises
Czech pilsners, West Coast
hop bombs and English
ales with equal aplomb.
But after a cold, exhausting
afternoon on the slopes, few
beers are as appealing as the
warming Zonker. Brewed
with boatloads of roasted
barley, the velvety stout is
a bittersweet symphony
of chocolate and caramel
candy.
Which beer do YOU think best represents
the beertitude of your state? Let us know
on Facebook or Twitter!
Stuart Mullenberg
WISCONSIN
New Glarus Spotted Cow
One day, New Glarus
brewmaster Dan Carey
and his wife, Deb, visited a
museum called Old World
Wisconsin. While perusing a
historic German-American
farmstead, Carey watched
historical re-enactors brew a
beer. Inspired, he designed a
recipe for a rustic brew that
settlers might have made
in the 1850s. Concocted
with corn, flaked barley
and kölsch strain, Carey’s
“Wisconsin farmhouse ale”
has grown into the state’s
top-selling draft craft beer.
Dick Cantwell co-founded Seattle’s
Elysian Brewing in 1995 and
remains the head brewer, crafting
local favorites like the Dark o’ the
Moon pumpkin stout.
Olivia Brent