News — Education

You’ve probably heard the saying, “Life’s too short to drink bad beer”. Well… that's right. In recent years the craft beer industry has exploded, with craft brewers nationwide, even all over our home state of Virginia. Since creativity and passion runs high for these brewers, it deserves to be recognized. While the Brewer’s Association celebrates American Beer Month in July, in 2006 they decided they wanted to honor these modest craft brewers before the summer beer rush flooded in. The Association narrowed focus in on toasting to the techniques and traditions that these craft brewers live by and established American...

March is National Women’s History Month and March 8th is International Women’s Day - a day to celebrate the accomplishments of women everywhere. The brewing industry is often seen as a male-dominated world but did you know, the vast majority of ancient brewers were women? While it’s true that currently there’s room for growth in the percentage of female brewers, history is there to remind us that it was ancient women who first mastered the task. If you think back to what you may have learned about ancient civilizations and gender roles; men were the hunters and women the gatherers. While...

Teachers taught us who invented the light bulb and the telephone… but they never taught us the history of the world’s first canned beer. Richmond, VA lays claim to the title of not only our state’s capital but the site of a monumental moment in beer-story.  85 years ago on January 24th, 1935, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company together with The American Can Company debuted the world’s first canned beer for sale. Feedback for their product exceeded expectations and 80% of distributors were handling the canned beer within 3 months of its debut. Rivals soon caught on and over 200 millions cans...

Beer is comprised of four main ingredients: barely malt, yeast, hops, and water. While you may know that beer contains hops… do you know what they are and why they’re used? We’re here to lay it out for you. The brewing process is more complicated than most tend to realize. While winemaking carries it’s own weight in difficulty, brewers take on a different set of challenges: they’re basically magicians. To produce the exact product they have envisioned, a brewer must meticulously choose and combine an array of items in perfect proportion. This includes malts, roasted grains, unmalted grains, sugars, dozens...