ACB is a consortium of writers, artists, industry professionals, and dangerous hopheads that cover the craft beer scene for us and for you. Many of them are based in different cities and they all bring wildly differing perspectives as to what’s important in the world of craft beer. So when we asked some of them to look back at 2013 and give us their highlights and lowlights – we got so much back from them that we were forced to make this a series.

So check out Part 1 (if you haven’t already), and welcome to More Good, Bad, and Ugly.

Kevin Bastian – Chicagoland Correspondent

The Good – As soon as my tickets were secured for Dark Lord Day, Three Floyds’ annual party/release day of its coveted Russian Imperial Stout, my mind began to wander with thoughts of how they would top the previous two years’ festivals I attended. Leave it to FFF to completely massacre my expectations and throw down not only its best event to date but also probably the top beer festival of the year in Chicagoland. Expanded festival grounds, outrageous guest beers, a lineup of eardrum-numbing metal bands, and plenty of FFF’s own award-winning drafts flowing. The bar has been set…again.

The Bad – Living in one of the hottest craft beer markets, I know I’d get nothing but an orchestra comprising the world’s tiniest violins to play if I was to complain too much about anything. Therefore, my “bad” is being tossed at the United States Postal Service and its stubborn rules against shipping alcohol. Reports state it’s working on changing them, but until that day, “USPS” is synonymous with “buzzkill” in beer-trading circles.

The Ugly – With the head-spinning number of breweries opening up in Chicagoland last year, it was only natural for a panic to penetrate the area that our craft beer “bubble” was in danger of bursting. The plain truth is that as long as these breweries are producing quality beers that sell well, shop owners will find space on their shelves or in coolers, bars will put them on tap, and savvy consumers will continue expanding their palates to try new labels.  

Sara Simonsen – Nebraska/Midwest Correspondent – Lincoln, Nebraska

The Good – So much “good” happened in Nebraska in 2013 when it comes to craft beer. But I will narrow it to two things. My favorite thing, of course, was the expansion of craft beer in Nebraska. New breweries and brewpubs opened all over the state – including one in a place you’ve probably never heard of: Ord, Nebraska, home to Scratchtown Brewing Company. Of course, the main hubs of activity are Lincoln and Omaha, the two largest cities in the state. Not only did a lot of new breweries open, but there are so many in planning for 2014–rumor has it, there could be 14 new breweries that open this year. Crazy! Also, a lot of great out-of-state breweries such as Stone, Deschutes, Founders, and Lagunitas have finally started distributing to Nebraska.

The Bad – In late 2013, a soon-to-open brewery in Omaha received a cease and desist letter from another brewery, claiming that their names were too similar. That would be the formerly-known-as Goldenrod Brewing Company, which is set to open in the first quarter in Omaha, and the letter was from Golden Road Brewing out of California. C’mon man – the goldenrod is our state flower! While I kinda get it, and the Goldenrod folks took it in stride (better than I would have), the whole thing was a major buzzkill.

The Ugly – The liquor commissioner for Nebraska. How is this guy in charge?! While attending a state legislative hearing about proposed resolutions that would change self-distribution laws in Nebraska, I also sat in on a hearing about potentially letting beer bars (not breweries) fill growlers for their customers. During the latter hearing, our liquor commissioner essentially said that bacteria in tap lines would probably be okay, seeing as beer is alcohol and alcohol kills bacteria, therefore the bacteria would not negatively affect the beer. Um. What? Not exactly… 

DC Steve – ACB Technical Samurai – Washington, DC

The Good – I live in the Nation’s capital, a city that has one of the best craft beer scenes in the U.S. From great craft brew bars (Meridian Pint, Churchkey, Pizzeria Paradiso) to great breweries (Atlas, DC Brau, Right Proper) to great craft brew festivals, I can’t keep up with it all and new ones continue to pop up nearly weekly. There’s too much good to focus on just one thing. 

The Bad – The week I spent in Jamaica and had no options other than Red Stripe. It’s just an awful beer, unless you don’t like beer to begin with, in which case I guess it’s probably delicious. I finally gave up on beer and switched to rum and coke, a syrupy sweet mess that turned me into a raging alcoholic with full-blown diabetes. Just kidding…I don’t have diabetes. And I’m not knocking Jamaicans. It’s an amazing country with great people and I’m sure they could make some great craft beer if they really valued my opinion. They’re probably right to ignore me though. Seriously, I’ve made some extremely questionable life choices. I wouldn’t listen to me either. Yeah, let’s just pretend I never brought this up. But the water is so nice there. So warm. I miss it already. Ok, I was just kidding about what I said earlier, Jamaica. Let’s make up. Give me a hug. There’s the stuff. Oh yeah, sweet, sweet Jamaica. 

The Ugly – Budweiser’s continued attempt to go craft with their ongoing Project 12–brews that are kind of, maybe, sort of craft-like with names like North Pacific Style Lager, no doubt dreamed up by the boys in Marketing to sound kind of crafty but still retain a hint of corporate staleness and Big Brother evilness. 

But according to their spokesperson, these aren’t intended to be craft beers at all: “Is this Budweiser trying to do craft beers? No. Absolutely not,” Budweiser’s Brian Perkins said. “We’re very proud of our bigness and what we’ve built. If you define craft as small and independent – that’s not what we assert to be.” 

Did he really say bigness? Mmmm, I loves me a refreshing Budweiser. It’s so full of yellow and bigness. 

So I nominate Budweiser for The First Annual ACB Ugly Award. Actually, we don’t have such an award. But we should. Although Budweiser would probably use wily tactics to make sure none of the other nominees were even able to make it to the awards ceremony. Knee-cappings (I kid, I kid), bribery, limiting the distribution channels, you know, whatever it took. A stream of Budweisers would sweep the awards, taking every place: Bud with lime, Bud with asparagus, Bud with tuna: the seafood edition, etc.