Quick Hits – New Hampshire’s Craft Beer War, Flying Dog, Hop Trials And More!

American Craft Beer|July 24th, 2017|

The beer biz never sleeps at American Craft Beer. And here’s just some of what’s been happening in the world of craft beer, while you were binge-drinking your way through the weekend.

New Hampshire vs Vermont Beer War (Concord, NH) – New Hampshire’s craft beer community is reportedly sick and tired of being overlooked by beer tourists on their way up to Vermont. Sure Vermont has Hill Farmstead and The Alchemist but it’s not like New Hampshire craft beer scene totally blows.

In fact New Hampshire has upped their game considerably over the last couple of years – they’re done playing second fiddle to Vermont’s craft beer scene and they’re taking a stand.

Take This Vermont! New Hampshire currently has more craft breweries and brew pubs than Vermont (that’s 60 compared to 48), and they’ve twice as many breweries per capita as Massachusetts according to the Brewers Association.

Kiss Off New Hampshire (Burlington, VT) –Vermont has countered New Hampshire’s argument, by reminding their whining neighbor, that they still out produce New Hampshire nearly 3-1. That in 2016 New Hampshire produced around 100,000 barrels of beer compared to Vermont’s 295,000 barrels. And that last time they checked Vermont still did have Hill Farmstead and the Alchemist…just sayin’.

Words To Drink By (Frederick, MD) – “Consumers vote with their hard-earned dollars billions of times every day….It’s called a free market.” – Jim Caruso CEO, Flying Dog Brewing

Flying Dog’s Agricultural Partnership (Frederick, MD) – Flying Dog has partnered with the University of Maryland’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources on an impressive beer-centric agriculture initiative that will focus on local brewing ingredients.

The University of Maryland in the midst of hop trials involving 24 different hops, tracking how Maryland’s climate affects their overall profile and harvest times. And Flying Dog has signed on for this fist of its kind study to help analyze and evaluate each test crop.

The culmination of these hop trials will be the release of a guide to growing hops in the mid-Atlantic, and the East Coast Hop Project, a variety pack that will highlight different East Coast hop farms and the regionally-viable hops they produce.