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Lydia Broussard

Bruery’s Servers Collapse Under World-Class Pressure

by Lydia Broussard
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When talking about communities like craft beer, you’re going to hear buzzwords that evoke eyerolling and the occasional rant. I’ve found in that in craft brewing, one of the most overused terms is ‘Rockstar.’ How, exactly, does a brewery attain rockstar status, and is it a good thing? California’s The Bruery can easily be classified [...]

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The Netflix of Beers? BeerChooser Might Be It

by Lydia Broussard
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It’s the dog-days of summer, a time when local beer stores fill up with buyers headed to weekend barbeques and patio hangouts. A week ago, I found myself in a store that could have doubled for a museum of fine art, the way the people around me were pensively staring at the cooler, trying to [...]

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Anchor Steam, Magic Hat Sold! MillerCoors Attempts Serious Re-Branding

by Lydia Broussard
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This week, three massive actions shook up the business side of American craft beer, guaranteeing your pallet and wallet will have interesting times ahead at the beer store. A San Francisco based investing group dubiously named ‘Anchor Brewers and Distillers LLC’ closed an acquisition of Anchor Brewing Company, the makers of Anchor Steam and several [...]

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DuClaw Brewing Company: Cult Brewing with a Twist

by Lydia Broussard
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To the naked eye, Maryland-based DuClaw Brewing company is an absolutely overwhelming micro-brewhouse: modest in size but huge in imagination. When I sat down with DuClaw president David Benfield, he said he’d told his marketing department, “You can’t be obvious. I hate being obvious,” when designing logos for ales with names like ‘Bare Ass Blonde‘ [...]

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Craft Beer Hits Reality TV: Extreme Creativity or Just Extreme Drama?

by Lydia Broussard
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Regardless of how you feel about reality television, it’s coming for your beer. This past week, yet another craft beer reality show has been put into commission. On a number of popular beer forums, a mystery producer posted a casting note for a nationwide search to “find someone with a vast knowledge and passion for [...]

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21st Amendment Brewery Back in Black IPA

by Lydia Broussard
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Even though they have been around for a good twenty years, black IPAs are catching on like a remarkable kind of wildfire and creating a different kind of controversy than the extreme beer debate. Several west-coast breweries have experimented with the genre, adding roasted malts to give traditional American Pales a more rounded flavor. While [...]

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What’s 55%, $765, and Wrapped in Roadkill? Say hello to "The End of History"

by Lydia Broussard
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Just for a second, imagine your personal end of beer. Would it be a Holy Grail of a Pilsner, or an IPA brewed with a historically accurate recipe? Would it have the freshest of ingredients, or the most sophisticated technology behind it? Would you have brewed it yourself? Would you find yourself unable to open [...]

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Cleveland Brewery Takes Shot At Dethroned King, LeBron James

by Lydia Broussard
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“We are All Witnesses.” Admit it, you saw the ads. A few weeks ago professional basketball player LeBron James’ face was plastered along sides of buses, taking up full pages in the newspaper and nabbing television’s ‘breaking news’ headlines. The hype was huge and at the end of it all, LeBron James announced that he [...]

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Spice is Not The Enemy: Five Tips for Pairing Beers with Southern Barbecue Alternatives

by Lydia Broussard
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Summer is upon us northern hemisphere dwellers, and that means one thing: cookouts. If you’re in the north, you may be preparing for another season of barbecuing: “man cook with fire, drink brews.” However, a serious amount of cookout culture comes from the American South. Recipes yanked from years of family reunions and southern tourist [...]

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A Young Drinker’s Dilemma: Spaghetti Westerns + Good Beer + McLovin?

by Lydia Broussard
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A craft beer bar hosting ‘four-dollar draught week’ should be approached with equal doses of caution and glee. In my old neighborhood, the occurrence of such a week at the bar down the street was timed for the flood of college students back into the area. The owner wanted to let them get a taste [...]

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