Jamie Bogner

Minnesota’s Surly Brewing has a reputation for brash and unapologetic beers, but head brewer Ben Smith is exploring ways to maximize flavor in IPAs by doing less, not more.

• Podcast
• IPA
• Thiols

For Austin Jevne, cofounder of Forager in Rochester, Minnesota—and now owner and head brewer of the Humble Forager brand—creative flavors are the crux of brewing.

• Podcast

When the former head brewer of a prominent Texas brewery left the large-scale production world for his own small project, the reasons were as much systemic as they were creative. Now, his Costa Rican-based brand is poised to grow… and tell new stories.

• Podcast

Tilquin’s strategy for blending gueuze is one part romance, one part math, as the experience he’s developed with lambics from different Belgian brewers informs every piece of the blend—from age to technical performance and flavor.

• Podcast

Known for their high-gravity beers and irreverent attitude, the Struise Brouwers have injected fresh energy into Belgian beer over the past two decades. Yet the systems they’ve built to brew these big beers are as creative as the beers themselves.

• Podcast
• Belgium
• Struise Brouwers

While the pandemic has led to a general loosening of restrictive Prohibition-era laws regarding beer for takeaway and delivery, there’s still plenty to do to liberalize the United States’ antiquated approach to alcohol regulation.

• Infographic
• DTC
• Shipping

In the Belgian province of Limburg, near the town of Hasselt and the Haspengouw region known for fruit-growing, the Bokke blendery is getting back on its feet.

• Podcast
• Lambic
• Gueuze

Here are two titles worth adding to your shelves—and well worth clearing some you-time to put up your feet, crack a beer, and crack a book.

• Beer Books
• Sexism
• Women Brewers

At The Eighth State in Greenville, South Carolina, cofounder and head brewer Cameron Owen is employing a careful culinary approach to create unexpected layers of complexity in fruit beers and ingredient-laden stouts and barleywines.

• Podcast
• South Carolina
• Fruited Sour

For De Ranke, looking back was looking forward. When the Belgian beer industry was minimizing bitterness, De Ranke embraced it instead, carving out a hop-forward niche that’s been influencing fellow brewers for nearly three decades.

• Podcast
• Hops
• Bitterness

Before her @ratmagnet Instagram stories and the industry reckoning that followed, Brienne Allan was, and remains, very much a brewer. Her chosen six-pack—all lagers, all decocted—are all beers that have played pivotal roles in her professional journey.

• Pick Six
• Lager
• Decoction

In France near the Belgian border, family-run Brasserie Au Baron fuses the character of local ingredients, a distinctive house yeast, and the traditions of both saison and bière de garde.

• Podcast