If you’ve been reading us regularly, you may already be following our Craft Beer – Good, Bad, and Ugly series – where our regional correspondents look back at 2013 and weigh in on craft beer’s highs and lows in their parts of the country. What started as a simple idea quickly turned into a three-part regional manifesto and we’re wrapping things up in a big way today.

So welcome to our grand finale – Even More Good, Bad, and Ugly, and if you’ve not already checked out Part 1 or Part 2 – we’re pissed at you!

Warren Wills – Portland Correspondent

The Good – As in many other regions throughout the country, the state of Oregon has seen a huge increase in specialized, barrel-aged focused, and/or nano breweries. These artisans have seen an increased market share as a result, which has in turn boosted start-up capital for new craft brewers who focus on smaller batches of “extreme” or experimental brews. Those of note in Oregon are the Crux Fermentation Project in Bend, de Garde Brewing in Tillamook and The Commons Brewery in Portland.

The Bad – With smaller brewers being snatched up by bigger brewers or joining conglomerates of craft brewers (i.e. Craft Beer Alliance), the original intent of what the brewery stands for has, in some instances, become compromised. Case in point: Laurelwood Brewing, one of my favorite brewpubs in Portland, has removed it’s designation as an organic beer for its mass-produced offerings so as to decrease cost in the face of increased production after joining the CBA. Sure, it’s great that I can now buy a six-pack of their beer in most any Oregon market, but their original, better-tasting organic recipe is now available only in their restaurants.

The Ugly – I have to concur with a local craft beer poll that the worst trend of 2013 was a spike in beer prices. While demand for craft beer is reaching the heavens, we’re also witnessing the largest production of specialty beers by small brewers since the late 1800s. In 2012, Oregon brewed nearly 1.3 million barrels of beer, an 11% increase from 2011, yet the price for beer has increased as well. The culprit for these price hikes? Hop production has been struggling to keep up with demand, making them scarcer. Craft brewers are focusing all-the-more on seasonal offerings, which are generally smaller batch and harder to find. Lastly, as our palates have become more refined, the push to make stronger or more unique styles has increased, creating greater costs to small brewers. All these factors have contributed to increased costs, thus higher prices at the barstool and the market.

Lucas Morgan -Washington, DC Correspondent

The Good – 2013 saw three new industry players crop up in the Nation’s Capital…

The Right Proper Brewing Company opened its doors to customers and residents of the Shaw neighborhood on December 10^th and premiered with four in-house brews that day, as well as three collabs with their regional cronies at DC Brau, Lost Rhino, and Devil’s Backbone.

Bluejacket – Only a ten-minute walk from the Nationals stadium and located in an old 1919 industrial building known as the Boilermaker, the Bluejacket brewery opened this past October. It’s got its own restaurant called The Arsenal and at any given time, twenty (that’s right, TWENTY) different Bluejacket beers and five of their cask ales.

Atlas Brew Works is the brainchild of DC homebrewer Justin Cox, who won the 2010 DC State Fair homebrew competition, and Will Durgin, an accomplished professional brewer who relocated here from Portland. It opened in September and premiered with three distinctive signature brews: The Rowdy, a hop-forward American-style Rye ale, accented by the peppery notes of rye; the District Common, a California Common featuring Czech Saaz hops; and the NSFW, a black IPA.

In addition to Snallygaster, there were plenty of notable beer festivals…

The DC Beer Festival is held at the Nationals baseball stadium and occurs over a two-day span in early September, and this year’s event (which I worked) was awesome! There’s something special about enjoying serious craft beer in a state-of-the-art baseball stadium. This was a one-of-a-kind event and everyone needs to go when it returns next year.

The Bad – 2013 was a good year for DC’s craft beer scene – with very little to complain about, I’ll save my rant for The Ugly…

The Ugly – The ugliest thing to come out of DC last year was the Federal Government Shutdown. For those of you who don’t know, every brewery needs a federal permit in order to produce suds, and every label on every beer in the country has to be approved by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade bureau as well. So when the government shutdown happened, everything got backed up – leading to all kinds of scheduling delays and disruptions for brewers everywhere.