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MICROBREWERIES
![]() ![]() ![]() Prohibition killed off most of America's historic small breweries. But starting in California in the 1970s, microbreweries began making a comeback. These days, regional breweries and brew pubs can be found in most states. To beer aficionados, a microbrewery is a brewery that produces no more than 60,000 barrels of beer a year, but we've included some of the larger breweries and sites. Many of the single brewery sites are similar in content, but there are a few comprehensive sites worth checking out.
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The Real Beer Page is a must-see for microbrew lovers on the Web: It's the biggest and the best, chock full of information on breweries and events. You'll find three on-line magazines at this large site: The Celebrator Brewspaper, Brew Magazine, and Southern Draft Brew News. The sudsmasters here have thought of everything, even a page of links to public transportation, so you can get back from your favorite brew pub in one piece. There's lots of lighthearted fun, too, with a page of drinking games and audio clips of belches.
Part of the larger New York City Reference pages, the New York City Beer Guide is the complete guide for beer connoisseurs in New York City and the surrounding area. The information is commendably up-to-date, featuring news about where beer is brewed, tasted, and sold. Along with the factual news, you'll find a rumor mill you can contribute to and a classified section where you can learn about investment opportunities with NYC brew pubs. Worth a look when you're visiting the Big Apple.
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"Brewed with an attitude," Shiner Bock has been around since 1919. Find out about the history of Spoetzl Brewery and its main product. This site is a great example of clean design (the look mirrors the Shiner label) without the use of enormous graphics. Once you're up to speed, take a virtual tour of the brewery. There's not much there, but the amazing graphics make it worth the trip.
Bert Grant's World Famous Ales, elegantly welcomes you to the world of Bert Grant's Brewery Pub in Yakima, Washington, and the Yakima Brewing Company. The philosophy: Never cheap, always innovative. Bert claims to have opened the first modern brew pub in 1981, and his Celtic Ale is notable for being a low calorie/low alcohol beer that's still tasty. As at so many other microbrewery sites, you can learn the history of Grant's and download graphics of the brewery, brew pub, and staff. You can check out the logoed merchandise, but you can't order it on-line. Perhaps the best part of this page is Bert's Pale Internet Ale recipe.
Anderson Valley Brewing Company has been brewing in Boonville, California, since 1986. Use its Beer Hound search engine to find Boonville beers near you. Find out what "It's not just shy sluggin' gorms neemer!" really means. (Hint: The glossary of the historic Anderson Valley dialect here will help you out.) As with other brewery sites, you can order merchandise, learn about the specific beers, and get a calendar of AVBC appearances at national microbrew festivals.
Beautiful graphics of the various labels and ads more than make up for the otherwise cookie-cutter look of the Redhook Ale Brewery site. Redhook has grown to a bicoastal operation, but it remains true to its Seattle roots: Its Double Black Stout is brewed with Starbucks Coffee! The news on this page is happily up-to-date. Take a virtual brewery tour, find out where you can get Redhook Ales in your state, buy Redhook merchandise on-line.
Spring Street Brewing Company is stamped from the same mold as many other microbrewery sites. What's unique here is the beer: Wit Beer, based on the Belgian witbier style, is a wheat beer flavored with orange peel and coriander--light and refreshing with no aftertaste. Distribution is currently limited to larger cities, but fans will want to monitor this site for news about the launch of additional Belgian-style beers.
The rather slow pages of The Almost Complete Microbrewery and Brewpub Guide let you search for brew pubs and microbreweries across the U.S. While the guide is thorough, the information on each brewery or pub is the part that's "almost complete": It's spotty, mostly limited to the address and names of the featured beers, though some entries have more data and a scant few have links to relevant pages. A good resource to use when you're on vacation or a business trip.
You may never drink anything made by the crazy San Francisco boys at Avalanche Brewing Company, but you should still stop by this site. The brewmasters are also obviously net.geeks, as this site features live CU-SeeMe video broadcasts of keg-tapping, an audio file of the Avalanche theme song, and other gonzo brewing fun.
Yes, Zima is the transparent corporate antithesis of microbrews, but microbreweries could learn a lot from the not-so-transparent marketing at The Zima Fridge. You can look at images (of Zima bottles), download some Zima sounds and icons (and also shareware games that the Webmasters think are cool), post your notes (preferably paeans of praise to Zima) to the graffiti wall, and upload your (Zima-related) artwork to "the bin." Get the idea?
McAuslan Brewpage is the first Canadian brewery on the Web, and, as with Avalanche, somebody at McAuslan is obviously a nethead. Along with the standard brewery information, you'll find an interactive beer cap game you can play to enter a monthly T-shirt drawing, a WAV file from Mr. Peter McAuslan, and information on cultural events in Montreal.
The best of the beer-of-the-month clubs is Red, White & Brew. Michael Jackson (the highly respected beer critic and author, silly, not the gloved one) assisted Red, White & Brew in developing its operation: Each month an advisory panel samples a particular beer style (bock or Pilsner, for example) and chooses two microbrewed brands. Club members receive a six-pack of each selection every month. Memberships are $15.95 a month and include a subscription to Ale Street News. Gift baskets and other merchandise are also available.
The Boston Beer Company. html), brewers of the popular Samuel Adams Boston Ale and other beers, has won more awards and tastings than any other American brewery. Here is one fan's view of the company and its products. The site isn't as comprehensive as others.
Web Compendium of Alcohol Beverages is a useful jumpstation to other sites related to beers, wines, and spirits. Admirably complete, if graphically uninspired.
The Casco Bay Brewing Company page is part of the Maine Brew site. Learn about the brewing process behind the beers, find out which go with certain foods, buy the logoed merchandise. Go to the top-level Maine Brew page and take a microbrewery and brew pub tour of the Lobster State.
Latona Pub News is mostly a musical calendar for this pub in Seattle, Washington, that features a great, ever-changing selection of microbrews. Points taken off for use of annoying Netscape "flashing" feature.
The Beer InfoNet proclaims proudly to be about content, not form. These basic Web pages are supposed to be the Internet resource for beer fans, but when we reviewed them the information was still spotty and under construction.
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Copyright (c) 1995 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company is prohibited. Internet Life and the Internet Life logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. |
![]() QUICK CLICK! The Real Beer Page New York City Beer Guide Spoetzl Brewery Bert Grant's World Famous Ales Anderson Valley Brewing Company Redhook Ale Brewery Spring Street Brewing Company The Almost Complete Microbrewery and Brewpub Guide Avalanche Brewing Company The Zima Fridge McAuslan Brewpage Red, White & Brew Boston Beer Company Web Compendium of Alcohol Beverages Casco Bay Brewing Company Latona Pub News The Beer InfoNet |