American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
(Courtesy Pure Project / Function)
The beer biz never sleeps at American Craft Beer. And here’s just some of what’s been happening in the beer world while you were enjoying the weekend.
Rotating Breweries Visit Portland
Function is a unique taproom concept with two locations in Portland, Oregon that reimagines the craft beer experience through its rotating brewery residency model. Each month, Function partners with a different brewery at each location to feature a curated selection of the beers, alongside exclusive merchandise and events, effectively transforming their spaces into taprooms that embody the spirit of each brewery’s hometown location.
And in April Function is featuring visits from two SoCal breweries, San Diego’s Pure Project Brewing and Anaheim-based Radiant Beer Company.
“The brewing industry is such an amazing community, which is one of the reasons our model has evolved to hosting two breweries a month, rather than just one,” says Casey Armstrong, Owner of Function. “Seeing the absolute collaboration that Pure Project and Radiant dove into across all facets of the residency is a testament to the idea that community outweighs competition. We are more than excited to showcase these awesome brands to all of Portland.”
To mark the occasion, Pure Project and Radiant collaborated on four new specialty beers: Limitless Light, a double IPA; Pouring Sunshine, a West Coast IPA; and two barrel-aged brews. All four beers will be available on draft at the pop-ups, as well as in cans or bottles to go.
We’ve always admired the vibrancy of Portland’s beer scene, and are extremely excited to bring our beers there through this partnership with Function,” says Winslow Sawyer, Pure Project’s Co-Founder and Brewer. “The team at Radiant are long-time friends of ours, and we’re proud to be representing sunny SoCal with these four new collaboration beers.”
Words to Drink By
“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask.” – Jim Morrison the lead singer and primary lyricist for the rock band The Doors from 1965–1973
(Courtesy New York State Brewers Association)
New York State’s Best Beers & Breweries
Now in its ninth year, the New York State Craft Beer Competition is the largest state-level competition in the country and an awesome celebration of the New York State craft beer community.
Sponsored by the New York State Brewers Association, this year’s competition featured 1,320 beer entries from 207 breweries across 32 different style categories.
On March 21 a total of 96 medals were awarded at the Awards Ceremony in Albany, NY, as well as the Governor’s Excelsior Craft Beer Cups and the “Brewery of the Year” awards.
This year’s Governor’s Cup went to Grimm Artisanal Ales (Brooklyn, NY) for “Grimm Weisse” which won in the Wheat Beer category.
For the second time in the Competition’s history there was a tie for the “NYS Brewery of the Year Award“. The two winners were Grimm Artisanal Ales (Brooklyn, NY) and Wayward Lane Brewing (Schoharie, NY). Grimm Artisanal Ales was previously named “Brewery of the Year” in 2021, 2022, 2024 and Wayward Lane Brewing in 2023.
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