The dog days of summer are on the horizon, so you know what that means: It’s time for another edition of The Beer Connoisseur magazine!

This July marked the debut of our brand-new Atlanta/Georgia local print edition, which are available now in select local establishments!

Beyond that local edition, our Summer 2022, Issue 61 continues our trend of featuring all the brew that’s fit to drink, and we provide a stable of interesting stories for you to imbibe while sitting on your back porch and sipping a brew.

What We’re Drinking Now is a new segment in the magazine that will serve as an ongoing series highlighting some of the beers we’ve been enjoying recently. These beers will usually be stylistically or thematically tied to the time of the year or season in which the issue is being released. For this edition, sultry summer sippers are all the rage!

We check in with Arches Brewing’s Co-Founder Jeff Dake on his brewery’s exceptional Yurei Japanese-style lager, which was highly rated in our Official Review.

Stone Brewing Co. in Escondido, California is among the most recognizable names in craft brewing. Their evangelizing about hoppy beers and use of striking marketing materials (such as spicy beer names like Arrogant Bastard, Sublimely Self-Righteous and Ruination) have made them a favorite of craft beer fans for years.

On June 23, Stone announced that they were being acquired by Sapporo U.S.A., makers of the number one-selling Asian beer brand in the U.S.

This marks a seismic shift in the craft brewing landscape, as Stone – and especially its founder Greg Koch – has long been a loud voice in espousing the main values of craft brewing: independence, quality and community over all else.

Following on the heels of a successful lawsuit against Miller Coors due to the branding of the latter’s Keystone Light beer, Stone once again made major headlines with this sale.

Stone joins two other top 10 Brewers Association craft brewers in being sold to a parent company that is based in Japan: both New Belgium Brewing Co. and Bell’s Brewery were acquired by Lion – an Australian subsidiary of Japan-based Kirin Beer.

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone as important to craft beer and brewing as Charlie Papazian. The founder of the Brewers Association and the American Homebrewers Association stepped down from running the Great American Beer Festival a few years ago, and in 2019, Papazian exited the Brewers Association after 40 years in the brewing industry – just after his 70th birthday.

Papazian’s mantra is “Relax. Don’t worry. Have a homebrew.” This famed phrase was first coined in his book, The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, which boasts sales above 1.3 million copies – though the amount of readers is likely far higher thanks to the book being passed around from homebrewer to homebrewer for decades.

Though Papazian is not so much in the public eye anymore when it comes to beer and brewing, that doesn’t mean that the legendary craft beer figure isn’t getting his due from various establishments.

NFTs (aka Non-Fungible Tokens) have quickly filtered into the beverage industry, much like they’ve infiltrated almost every other industry in the world. But what exactly are they?

The phrase “non-fungible token” is already fairly confusing, so let’s break it down. “Non-fungible” by definition, means “unique.” A fungible element would be something that could be easily replaced and replicated – such as a bottle or can of a widely available macro lager.

Sometimes, such as in the case of a few examples you’ll hear about later, digital NFTs have a real-world equivalent. As such, think of the “non-fungible” aspect of NFTs like the title of a car or the deed to a house.

Tokenizing (aka minting) is the process of someone staking a claim of ownership on the blockchain of a specific digital asset – such as a beverage industry NFT. There are many blockchains, some of which you might have heard of (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, etc.), and as long as the NFTs are minted on them, they are safe, secure and tamper-proof.

So where do beverages fit in!? Great question.

I spoke with Arches Brewing Co-Founder Jeff Dake about his brewery’s summer seasonal Japanese-style lager that received high praise from our judge Michael Heniff. Yurei is a wonderfully engaging summer sipper that is sure to pair well with all manner of foods, as its mild sweetness and light, piquant maltiness would complement rich umami flavors in backyard favorites such as burgers and barbecue as well as sweeter desserts. This beer is only available for a limited time during the summer months, so be sure to nab a six-pack or three before they’re gone!

BC: What’s your favorite aspect of this beer (flavor, aroma, etc.)?
The stone fruit that underlies the flavor profile really sets this beer apart. You get a clean apricot aroma and taste, and the bitterness is reminiscent of the sharp bite of the fruit near the pit. The light body makes the sweet fruit flavor so powerful, and it leaves a distinct aftertaste. 

BC: Where does this beer’s name come from?
The name is Japanese and approximately translates to "ghost." We named the beer as an amalgamation of both the country of origin for the style and the primary hop used (Grungeist, which is German for "Green ghost.")

We saddled up with the masterminds behind the highest rated brews and asked them about the inspiration behind the recipes. Follow the links below to the individual Q & A's, or you may access Q & A's from all editions here.

Summer 2022, Issue 61

Flying Lion Brewing Head Brewer Andy Reimer and Production Manager Griffin Williams Talk Rye Stout

Judging Process
Our reviews are conducted in a single-blind tasting format. This method provides the best opportunity to rely on facts and to avoid favoritism, insuring a level playing field for all brewers. It serves both the industry and the consumer to have unbiased and objective scores from qualified experts. To best implement this approach, the Judges Review is open to those with established experience as a Master Cicerone® from the Cicerone® Certification Program or as a judge that has accomplished the rank of National or higher from the Beer Judge Certification Program. In the single-blind tasting format, judges are presented with a chilled, properly poured beer and given its style category. Scoring is then done on the following basis using a 100-point scale:

Score Breakdown:
100 to 96: World Class – You need this beer in your life.
95 to 91: Exceptional – Don’t hesitate.
90 to 86: Very Good – A brew to savor.
85 to 75: Average – Somewhat unimpressive.
74 and below: Not Recommended – Just walk away.

Exceptional (95 to 91)