Categorized under: event

What’s trending in the craft beer market?

As we are almost at the half-year point and some of the 2012 craft beer trends are starting to settle out. 2011 brought us many surprises, included an explosion in the craft canning movement, an onslaught of collaborations and an influx of new breweries requesting licenses.

This year brings us a new story, with new brewery openings (like Riverwalk, Night Shift and more), additional brewery expansions (on site and new locations), more players in the craft cider market, marriage, babies, Brewdog ruling the world and bottle sharing — yes, I said bottle sharing. With the popularity of craft beer increasing, the frequent of bottle sharing is increasing.

Note: These may not be completely new this year, but are increasing in popularity.

Please post a comment if you are noticing additional trends..

What is bottle sharing?

Similar to a knitting club or a poetry group, a bottle share is a gathering of people, inspired by craft beer, sharing what they love — beer, bottles of beer to be exact. Whether it is hard to find beer or beer in limited quantity, craft beer fanatics are gathering to share the nectar with their fellow kin. Craft Beer is better shared with Friends!

We recently attended a share in Maine and Portsmouth. Both were fantastic and epic! We met many new friends and our hosts were gracious to welcome us into their world. The Maine tasting included some top-notch saisons and sour ales, hosted by Dawn. We were impressed by the selection of beers. So impressive, that our palates were shot by the end of the night.

The Portsmouth sharing was hosted at A&G Homebrew and was also a celebration for SeacoastBeverageLab.com Second Anniversary, along with a fundraiser for the Alysha Miller Harris Baby Fund. Our gracious hosts, Brian & Alex, brought 40+ people together, sharing all sorts of beers from New England and Beyond. The District Restaurant provided some brilliant food for the event.  Check out Brian’s post for a complete recap: blogs.seacoastonline.com/seacoast-beverage-lab/

Tips for hosting a bottle share:

  • Set a theme for the beer
  • Suggest a food pairing with the offering
  • Invite some new and old friends
  • Share stories about your beer inspirations and journeys.

 

Hope to see you at the next bottle share!

Sean
2Beerguys.com

Drink Craft Beer, You’ve Earned It!!!

### More about the The Alysha Miller Harris Baby Fund ###

We are grateful for the outpouring of support that we’ve received from the community after Tuesday’s tragic accident in Portsmouth. Ben Harris had been a member of the Redhook family for more than seven years, first working at the Cataqua Pub and most recently as part of our brewing operations team. His wife, Alysha Miller, is expecting his child and is also part of the Redhook family as a server in our pub. Ben was a wonderful man, a dedicated member of our team and a friend to all who knew him. We are heartbroken by this tragedy and are grieving with the family.

We would like to thank the community and the media for respecting the family’s privacy as well as that of our employees as we mourn together. We would also like to thank our family of employees for their support in this process, as this is an extremely difficult time for all of us and our top priority is taking care of Ben’s family and our team. In the meantime, we ask for continued thoughts and prayers for Ben’s family, friends, and everyone touched by this accident.

The family asks that memorial contributions be made to: The Alysha Miller Harris Baby Fund c/o TD Bank, 20 International Drive, Portsmouth, NH, 03801,

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