THE CRAFT BEER QUIZ: How Well Do You Know Your Craft?

Yes sir, Dogfish Head created the tasty 60 Minute IPA, Deschutes the dark and delicious Obsidian Stout, New Belgium the now classic Fat Tire, Green Flash has been wrecking palates for years with their Palate Wrecker, and what would Firestone Walker be today without Union Jack.

Surprise, surprise… Per the Brewers Association’s 2014 year-end data, “According to retail scan data, IPA is up 47 percent by volume and 49 percent by dollar sales, accounting for 21 percent volume share of craft and 23 percent dollar share of off-premise beer sales. Additionally, the style was the number one entered category at the Great American Beer Festival®.”

The Great American Beer Festival kicked off in 1982, the Oregon Brewers Festival shortly after in 1988, the World Beer Festival in 1996, the American Craft Beer Fest in 2007, and most recently the Brewmasters Craft Beer Festival started in 2010.

Blue Moon, Shock Top, Sofie, and Magic Hat are all owned by Big Beer.  Good old Sam Adams is the only beer that although brewed by a pretty big brewery (Boston Beer Co.), the brewery itself still isn’t big enough to be considered un-craft.

Stone HQ is situated in Sunny California, Redhook in the Pacific Northwest state of Washington, Left Hand in the proud craft beer state of Colorado, Bell’s in the Great Lake state of Michigan, and finally Rogue has been cranking out liquid wonder in Oregon since 1988.

Ommegang’s Hennepin is a tasty Farmhouse Saison, all the rest are sours.

Yuengling, which is technically considered a craft brewery as of 2015, was founded in 1829, Boston Beer Company in 1984, Anchor in 1896, Sierra Nevada in 1980, and although considered the father of craft breweries, New Albion Brewing Co. opened their doors in 1976, and sadly closed them in 1982.

Tricky, tricky!  Pliny the Elder is actually an Imperial (or Double) IPA.

In order to accommodate the growth of the Boston Beer Co., the Brewers Association redefined the definition of “small” brewery, which now refers to any independent brewery that produces up to 6 million barrels of traditional beer (it was previously capped at 2 million barrels). Being defined as a “small brewery” also affords Boston Beer Co. an excise tax break of paying only $3.50 per barrel on the first 60,000 barrels and then $16 on up to the next 2 million instead of $18 tax on every barrel.  Did we mention that Boston Brewery’s co-founder and chairman, Jim Koch, got his MBA from Harvard?  Yeah.

You can find gold flakes in Goldschläger and Kayne’s tears, but not yet in a craft beer.  That said, Mamma Mia’s Pizza Beer contains tomatoes, BrewDog’s Beer Geek Brunch Weasel is brewed with coffee beans pooped out by a civet cat, bull testicles were used in brewing Wynkoop’s Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout, and curry has been used in a few beers including Ballast Point’s Indra Kunindra.

Yep, per the Brewers Association’s data,  poor ol’ Mississip only had 4 craft breweries as of the end of 2013.   North Dakota was at 6, West Virginia 7, and both Hawaii and Rhode Island tied at 8.

Flying Monkeys Alpha Fornication = 2500 IBUs
Mikkeller X Hop Juice 2007 IBU = 2007 IBUs
Hart & Thistle Hop Mess Monster v2.0 = 1066 IBUs
Arbor / Steel City DCLXVI = 666 IBUs
Hill Farmstead Ephraim = 280 IBUs

Per recently released data from year-end 2014, craft beer represents 19.3% of the total beer market retail dollar value in the U.S.

Collaboration not Litigation Ale = Russian River Brewing and Avery Brewing Co.

Hydra Cuvée (SAVOR Commemorative Ale 2014) = Firestone Walker Brewing Co. and Flying Dog Brewery

Infinium = Boston Beer Co. and Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan

Liquid Breadfruit = Dogfish Head and Maui Brewing Company

Thelonious Monk beer = North Coast Brewing Co.’s Brother Thelonious Belgian Style Abbey Ale.

Primus beer = Voodoo Brewery’s Wynona’s Big Brown Ale

Outkast beer = Terrapin Brewery’s So Fresh and So Green, Green Ale

Ghost Face Killah beer = Twisted Pine Brewing’s Ghost Face Killah

Nail Brewing’s Antarctic Ale (auction price of $1850 for 500 ml bottle)

BrewDog’s The End of History ($765 for a 330 ml bottle)

Carlsberg’s Jacobsen Vintage No. 1 ($400 for a 375 ml bottle)

Samuel Adam’s Utopias ($200 for a 750 ml bottle)

BrewDog’s Sink the Bismarck! ($80 for a 375 ml bottle)