10 t hings every Homebrewer

needs to know The American IPA: Hop to it

BON IVER and his beer

August

2012

Bikes and beercraft beer fuels a community on wheels

Story and Photos by Joshua M. Bernstein

One warm spring afternoon in April 2009, friends Sara Morrisson and Tracy Montigny were picnicking in Brooklyn’s lush, rolling Prospect

Park. Idle chitchat turned to talk of bikes and beer, two of the women’s twin interests. Mor-rison mused that she’d love to bicycle across America. Montigny’s ears perked up. She’d com-pleted one cross-country ride and was itching to try a second. But the homebrewing enthusiast also had a hankering to visit breweries. Biking. Beer. The idea was irresistible: pedal from New York to Seattle, camping and visiting craft brew-eries along the way. “I turned to her and said, ‘Let’s do it,’” recalls Montigny, now 28. “It was a perfect storm.”

The Idea:

Pedal from New York to seattle, camping and visit-ing craft breweries along the way

New Belgium’s New SHIFT Pale Lager

Pictured: New Belgium’s SHIFT Pale Lager

the resourceful type, bikers have found a way to marry their two greatest passions

Pictured: New Belgium’s SHIFT Pale Lager

Morrisson and Montigny quit their jobs. They corralled

a couple of friends, visited Beermapping.com to plan a brewery-heavy route and, on August 31, bid New York goodbye—and headed east to Long Island. “For the first week of the trip, we went the wrong direction,” Montigny laughs about the riders’ initial stops at New York’s Blue Point Brewing and Greenport Har-bor. From Long Island, they caught a ferry to Connecticut and wound westward through some of Canada and Ameri-ca’s finest brewers. Michigan’s Bell’s Brewery. Colorado’s Oskar Blues. California’s Sierra Nevada. Portland, Oregon’s Cascade Brewing.

Though the bikers sampled beers at every stop, grueling daily rides made the journey anything but a rolling bash. “We fell asleep by 8 p.m. every day,” Montigny says. “We’d have half a beer and be

like, ‘We’re ready for bed.’ There were even days when we’d turn down beer.” But coffee-fueled breakfasts kept the crew cruising, and in mid-November, 74 days after departing, the weary travelers reached Seattle. They cele-brated with Champagne atop the Space Needle and—how else?—by visiting Pyramid Brewery. They received bike jerseys touting the brewery’s Haywire Hefeweizen and plenty of wheaty brew. “Beer always tastes better if you work for it,” says Montigny. “We want to promote a healthy beer lifestyle.”

Over the last several years, America has entered a golden age of bicycling and craft beer. Each year, just as throngs of new bicyclists fill roads both urban and suburban, swelling numbers of brewers fill tap lines with increasingly innova-tive and flavorful IPAs, stouts and sour ales.

These pursuits may seem sep-arate or at odds—excessive drinking and driving is a di-sastrous recipe, whether it’s on two wheels or four. But dig beneath the chain grease and you’ll discover how pedals and pints overlap.

Fort Collins, Colorado’s eco-conscious New Belgium Brewing bestows bicycles to its employees, hosts a Bike-in Cinema on its front lawn and takes its annual circus-like Tour de Fat bicycle festival countrywide. In Cooperstown, New York, Brewery Ommegang hosts bike races on its proper-ty, while Pennsylvania’s Victory Brewing and California’s Lost Coast Brewery sponsor bicycle teams. Portland, Ore-gon’s Hopworks Urban Brewery orchestrates the annual Bike-tobeerfest and even outfitted a custom-constructed bicycle with dual kegs. Upping the ante, the city of Bend, Oregon, recently welcomed the Cycle Pub, a traveling bike-powered bar that can seat 16.

The Brewery:Fort Collins, Colorado’s eco-conscious New Belgium Brewing bestows bicycles to its employees

August

2012

W henever I suffer writ-er’s block, I climb aboard

my bicycle. Pedaling clears my cluttered head, and my brain simultaneously wanders and sharpens: a state conducive to creativity. One epic ride inspired Colorado homebrew-er Jeff Lebesch to alter his life’s course. Back in 1989, he rode a fat-tired mountain bike through Belgium, sam-pling ales crafted with quirky yeasts, spices and fruits—a lightbulb-lighting revelation. Upon flying home, Lebesch laid the groundwork for Fort Collins’ New Belgium Brewing, launching in 1991 with two Belgian-inspired ales: the sub-tly fruity Abbey and the bis-cuity amber ale he dubbed Fat Tire. “The bike trip to Belgium is the underpinning of New Belgium,” says media relations director Bryan Simpson, 44.

New Belgium’s bicycle commit-ment begins with its employees, who are encour-aged to cycle to work and are given cruiser-style bikes to commemorate their first anni-

versary with the brewery. But perhaps the brewery’s most impressive achievement is the annual Tour de Fat. Touching down in 13 cities across the U.S., this circus-flavored stew incorporates a costumed bicy-cle parade, death-defying bike tricks (watch out for the fire!) and vaudeville acts, all washed down with plenty of Fat Tire and environmentalism: At each stop, New Belgium makes a trade with an attendee: a tricked-out commuter bike in exchange for their car, which is donated to charity. “We’re turning folks onto things be-yond the bottle,” says Simpson. New Belgium isn’t the only brewery with a bicycling devo-tion. San Antonio, Texas’ Blue Star Brewing runs an adjoining bicycle shop.

At Portland, Oregon’s Hop-works Urban Brewery—a.k.a. HUB, a bike component—vis-itors to the brewpub will find covered bicycle parking and a repair stand, including tools and a pump to plump tires. Blow one?

Belly up to the copper bar—suspended overhead are 42 bi-cycle frames—and buy a tube. HUB even serves the low-al-cohol Totally Radler cocktail modeled after the classic Ger-man Radler (bicyclist) cocktail. It’s a blend of snappy lager and tart lemonade that slakes thirst and, for lagging riders, provides a carb-packed energy boost.

“There’s a reason why I have two water-bottle holders on my bike,” jokes owner Chris-tian Ettinger. The dedicated cyclist’s deci-sion to focus on bikes and beer was due to a common thread: shared passion between con-sumer and creator. “Bikers love riding their bikes, and people love building and fixing them,” says Ettinger, 38. “It’s the same thing with beer: Drinkers love their beer, and people love making it.” Encapsulating that passion, HUB hosts the annual Biketo-beerfest bash, with a bicycle showcase, trick BMX riders and a “Huffy toss” in which competitors launch a kid’s bike through the air.

August

2012

Pictured: The 2008 New Belgium Felt Cruiser

New Belgium Has a Program to trade cars for bikes

In the world of competitive racing and organized group rides, craft beer is almost as commonplace as a Clif Bar. This may seem counterin-

tuitive, but you can’t overlook the car-rot-on-the-stick factor. “You work hard, play hard and want to be rewarded by a beer with flavor,” says Jason Randles, 37, the digital marketing manager for Deschutes Brewery. “There’s something to be said about celebration.”

Based in biking-mad Bend, Oregon, De-schutes sponsors regional races, such as the Cascade Cycling Classic, and brews the Phil’s Trail Pale Ale for the Central Oregon Trail Alliance spring fund-raiser. Most notably, Deschutes serves as a site of madcap cyclo-cross races, an off-road European sport in which bikers (some in costume) portage their bikes past a series of natural and man-made obsta-cles. Beer is consumed before racing, after racing and, occasionally, while racing. With cyclo-cross, “it’s an excuse to drink beer and get out on your bike,”

says Randles, who helped start the De-schutes Dirt Riders Club, which finishes its Tuesday rides with cold ones served tailgate-style.

Countrywide, breweries have incorporated cyclo-cross races and recreational rides into their DNA. In Middleton, Wisconsin, the Capital Brewery Cycling Club’s rides depart from the brewery, while Pittsburgh’s East End Brewing has the annual Pedal Pale Ale Keg Ride: Hundreds of cyclists pedal together as the brewery delivers its summer seasonal to a local bar. Coo-perstown, New York’s Brewery Omme-gang runs an annual cyclo-cross race on its grounds (and sponsors a Central New York cycling team), while Team Lost Coast Brewery is composed of Northern California mountain-bike racers.

Victory’s support of cycling makes sense when you meet its cofounder and brew-master, Bill Covaleski. He’s a fervent cyclist, steering his road bike across the

rolling Pennsylvania hills near his home. “My business partner Ron has no con-cerns when I show up late for meetings,” says Covaleski, 48. “He knows I’ve just been on the road, and I’ll come back with three or four great ideas.” Along with sponsoring Philadelphia’s Tri-State Velo cycling team and serving beer at cy-clo-cross events, Victory’s Downington, Pennsylvania, brewery doubles as an unofficial headquarters for local cyclists.

On Wednesday nights, mountain bikers depart from the brewery—and return to knock back beers. “Cycling burns a lot of calories, and riders are not compelled to restrain themselves,” Covaleski says of the bikers, who favor snappy Prima Pils and Whirlwind Wit-bier.

“Cycling burns a lot of calories, and riders are not compelled to restrain themselves”

August

2012

10 things every Homebrewer needs to know

The american IPA: Hop to it

BON IVER and His Beer

August

2012

bikes and beercraft beer fuels a community on wheels

Story and Photos by Joshua M. Bernstein

One warm spring afternoon in April 2009, friends Sara Morrisson and Tracy Montigny were picnick-ing in Brooklyn’s lush, rolling Prospect Park. Idle chitchat turned to talk of bikes and beer, two of the

women’s twin interests. Morrison mused that she’d love to bicy-cle across America. Montigny’s ears perked up. She’d completed one cross-country ride and was itching to try a second. But the homebrewing enthusiast also had a hankering to visit breweries. Biking. Beer. The idea was irresistible: pedal from New York to Seattle, camping and visiting craft breweries along the way. “I turned to her and said, ‘Let’s do it,’” recalls Montigny, now 28. “It was a perfect storm.”

The Idea:

Pedal from New York to seattle, camping and visiting craft breweries along the way

the resourceful type, bikers have found a way to marry their two greatest passions

Pictured: New Belgium’s SHIFT Pale Lager

August

2012

Morrisson and Montigny quit their jobs. They corralled a couple of friends, vis-ited Beermapping.com to plan a brew-ery-heavy route and, on August 31,

bid New York goodbye—and headed east to Long Is-land. “For the first week of the trip, we went the wrong direction,” Montigny laughs about the riders’ initial stops at New York’s Blue Point Brewing and Greenport Harbor. From Long Island, they caught a ferry to Con-necticut and wound westward through some of Canada and America’s finest brewers. Michigan’s Bell’s Brew-ery. Colorado’s Oskar Blues. California’s Sierra Nevada. Portland, Oregon’s Cascade Brewing.

Though the bikers sampled beers at every stop, grueling daily rides made the journey anything but a rolling bash. “We fell asleep by 8 p.m. every day,” Mon-tigny says. “We’d have half a beer and be like, ‘We’re ready for bed.’

There were even days when we’d turn down beer.” But coffee-fueled breakfasts kept the crew cruising, and in mid-November, 74 days after departing, the weary travelers reached Seattle. They celebrated with Cham-pagne atop the Space Needle and—how else?—by visiting Pyramid Brewery. They received bike jerseys touting the brewery’s Haywire Hefeweizen and plenty of wheaty brew. “Beer always tastes better if you work for it,” says Montigny. “We want to promote a healthy beer lifestyle.”

Over the last several years, America has entered a golden age of bicycling and craft beer. Each year, just as throngs of new bicyclists fill roads both urban and suburban, swelling numbers of brewers fill tap lines with increasingly innovative and flavorful IPAs, stouts and sour ales. These pursuits may seem separate or at odds—excessive drinking and driving is a disastrous recipe, whether it’s on two wheels or four.

But dig beneath the chain grease and you’ll discover how pedals and pints overlap.

Fort Collins, Colorado’s eco-conscious New Belgium Brewing bestows bicycles to its employees, hosts a Bike-in Cinema on its front lawn and takes its annual circus-like Tour de Fat bicycle festival countrywide. In Cooperstown, New York, Brewery Ommegang hosts bike races on its property, while Pennsylvania’s Victory Brewing and California’s Lost Coast Brewery sponsor bicycle teams. Portland, Oregon’s Hopworks Urban Brewery orchestrates the annual Biketobeerfest and even outfitted a custom-constructed bicycle with dual kegs. Upping the ante, the city of Bend, Oregon, recently welcomed the Cycle Pub, a traveling bike-pow-ered bar that can seat 16.

The Brewery:Fort Collins, Colorado’s eco-conscious New Belgium Brewing bestows bicycles to its employees

#5 on New Belgium’s 10 point Mission Statement: Honoring nature at every turn of the business.

August

2012

W henever I suffer writer’s block, I climb aboard my bicycle. Pedaling clears my cluttered head, and my brain simulta-neously wanders and sharpens: a state

conducive to creativity. One epic ride inspired Colorado homebrewer Jeff Lebesch to alter his life’s course. Back in 1989, he rode a fat-tired mountain bike through Bel-gium, sampling ales crafted with quirky yeasts, spices and fruits—a lightbulb-lighting revelation. Upon flying home, Lebesch laid the groundwork for Fort Collins’ New Belgium Brewing, launching in 1991 with two Belgian-inspired ales: the subtly fruity Abbey and the biscuity amber ale he dubbed Fat Tire. “The bike trip to Belgium is the underpinning of New Belgium,” says media relations director Bryan Simpson, 44.

New Belgium’s bicycle commitment begins with its employees, who are encouraged to cycle to work and are given cruiser-style bikes to commemorate their first anniversary with the brewery. But perhaps the brew-ery’s most impressive achievement is the annual Tour de Fat. Touching down in 13 cities across the U.S., this circus-flavored stew incorporates a costumed bicycle

parade, death-defying bike tricks (watch out for the fire!) and vaudeville acts, all washed down with plenty of Fat Tire and environmentalism: At each stop, New Belgium makes a trade with an attendee: a tricked-out commuter bike in exchange for their car, which is donated to charity. “We’re turning folks onto things beyond the bottle,” says Simpson. New Belgium isn’t the only brewery with a bicycling devotion. San Anto-nio, Texas’ Blue Star Brewing runs an adjoining bicycle shop. At Portland, Oregon’s Hopworks Urban Brew-ery—a.k.a. HUB, a bike component—visitors to the brewpub will find covered bicycle parking and a repair stand, including tools and a pump to plump tires. Blow one? Belly up to the copper bar—suspended overhead are 42 bicycle frames—and buy a tube. HUB even serves the low-alcohol Totally Radler cocktail modeled after the classic German Radler (bicyclist) cocktail. It’s a blend of snappy lager and tart lemonade that slakes thirst and, for lagging riders, provides a carb-packed energy boost.

“There’s a reason why I have two water-bottle holders on my bike,” jokes owner Christian Ettinger.

The dedicated cyclist’s decision to focus on bikes and beer was due to a common thread: shared passion be-tween consumer and creator. “Bikers love riding their bikes, and people love building and fixing them,” says Ettinger, 38. “It’s the same thing with beer: Drinkers love their beer, and people love making it.” Encapsulating that passion, HUB hosts the annual Biketobeerfest bash, with a bicycle showcase, trick BMX riders and a “Huffy toss” in which competitors launch a kid’s bike through the air. Moreover, Ettinger recently opened a second HUB location, dubbed Bikebar for its position alongside a busy bicycle corridor. “We’re push-ing the envelope with what we can do with integrating bicycles into the pub,” Ettinger says of the new location that shares a wall with the United Bicycle Institute, which trains mechanics and frame builders. At Bikebar, you’ll find stationary bicycles linked to power genera-tors, a mid-air gallery of Oregon-built bikes and dual water-bottle filling stations outside the front door. But in this town, the riders do not subsist by water alone. “The bikes in Portland are powered by hops,” Ettinger says.

New Belgium has created a program where you can trade a car for a bike

Pictured: The 2008 Felt New Belgium Cruiser

August

2012

In the world of competitive racing and organized group rides, craft beer is almost as commonplace as a Clif Bar. This may seem counterin-

tuitive, but you can’t overlook the carrot-on-the-stick factor. “You work hard, play hard and want to be rewarded by a beer with flavor,” says Jason Randles, 37, the digital marketing manager for Deschutes Brewery. “There’s something to be said about celebration.”

Based in biking-mad Bend, Oregon, De-schutes sponsors regional races, such as the Cascade Cycling Classic, and brews the Phil’s Trail Pale Ale for the Central Oregon Trail Alliance spring fund-raiser. Most notably, Deschutes serves as a site of madcap cyclo-cross races, an off-road European sport in which bikers (some in costume) portage their bikes past a series of natural and man-made obstacles. Beer is consumed before racing, after racing and, occasionally, while racing. With cyclo-cross, “it’s an excuse to drink beer and get out on your bike,” says Randles, who helped start the Deschutes Dirt Riders Club, which finishes its Tuesday rides with cold ones served tailgate-style.Countrywide, breweries have incorporat-ed cyclo-cross races and recreational rides into their DNA.

In Middleton, Wisconsin, the Capital Brewery Cycling Club’s rides depart from the brewery, while Pittsburgh’s East End Brewing has the annual Pedal Pale Ale Keg Ride: Hundreds of cyclists pedal together as the brewery delivers its sum-mer seasonal to a local bar. Cooperstown, New York’s Brewery Ommegang runs an annual cyclo-cross race on its grounds (and sponsors a Central New York cycling team), while Team Lost Coast Brewery is composed of Northern California moun-tain-bike racers.

Victory’s support of cycling makes sense when you meet its cofounder and brew-master, Bill Covaleski. He’s a fervent cyclist, steering his road bike across the rolling Pennsylvania hills near his home. “My business partner Ron has no con-cerns when I show up late for meetings,” says Covaleski, 48. “He knows I’ve just been on the road, and I’ll come back with three or four great ideas.” Along with sponsoring Philadelphia’s Tri-State Velo cycling team and serving beer at cyc-lo-cross events, Victory’s Downington, Pennsylvania, brewery doubles as an un-official headquarters for local cyclists.

On Wednesday nights, mountain bikers depart from the brewery—and return to knock back beers. “Cycling burns a lot of calories, and riders are not compelled to restrain themselves,” Cova-leski says of the bikers, who favor snappy Prima Pils and Whirlwind Witbier.

“Cycling burns a lot of calories, and riders are not compelled to restrain themselves”

Pictured: Victory Prima Pils