• A high point of Metro Brewing's 2008 beer festival season - The Great Taste of the Midwest.
• Metro Brewing has a blast at AleFest, and gets some great press!
• Metro Brewing parties down at the sh*##y barn
• Metropolitan Brewing at the 10th Annual Pavliscak Invitational Bocce Tournament
• Metropolitan Brewing at the 2008 Drinking and Writing Festival.
• Metropolitan Brewing has been enjoying a little early press.
• Once again, the craft beer industry shows'em how it's done. In 2007, sales increased 12% in volume; 16% in dollars.
• Reintroducting Gary, Walt, and Eunice: homebrewers extraordinaire!
• Metro News Archive

The best Great Taste of the Midwest yet; Metro's first... coincidence?

Saturday, August 9th was a big, big day for Metropolitan Brewing. The Dugg, Tracy, Jen and Jason Beaumont, and Kayla Labunski all dedicated their entire weekend to promoting Metro in Madison, WI. As you might imagine, a good deal of Metro's beer (as well as others') was consumed by all.

The Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild knows how to put on a damn good fest. Their dedication to craft beer and the craft beer culture in the Midwest is unmatched. Is it next year yet?

See the work-hard, play-hard ethic here.

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Fun in the Chicago sun!

On Saturday, July 12th, craft beer lovers swarmed the Soldier Field Stadium Green to sample beers from breweries all over IL at AleFest Chicago 2008. Glunz, a distributor based in Lincolnwood, IL, also provided many delicious brews from their portfolio.

This was the 2nd such festival put on by Joe Waizmann, the brains and brawn behind AleFest. Moving the fest to Soldier Field was no doubt one of the reasons behind the excellent turn out. The enthusiasm of the crowd as well as the brewers was enough to convince anyone that this should definitely be an annual event. Mark your calendars - AleFest Chicago 2009 will be on Saturday, July 11th.

A particularly cool result of AleFest 2008 was an article written about Metropolitan Brewing by Julia Thiel, featured in The Reader on Thursday, July 24th. To read it, click here.

See our photos from the best outdoor party in Chicago here.

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Copious amounts of beer, rock, and hospitality

On June 28th, our friends at Furthermore Beer once again proved their prowess in throwing one helluva party. They introduced us to Aran's newest brainchild: Oscura. Just pray this beer shows up in Chicago sometime soon. We also met the folks behind RePublic, Madison's brewpub-on-the-horizon. Joe was pouring an excellent mint porter.

And the rock. The rock was good. By this we mean the rock was amazing. Boheme 66 and Old Panther made the barn walls pulse with... yep. Rock.

Now we know how the Burning Man pilgrims feel as they count down the days to next year's burn.

See our photos from the barn bash here.

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Lawn Bowling, anyone?

On Saturday, June 21st, Metropolitan Brewing provided beer for and competed in the 10th Annual Pavliscak Invitational Bocce Tournament in Blue Mounds, WI.

We've been in attendance for 9 of the past 10 years. The regular participants have watched us grow from zealous homebrewer and beer appreciater to bona fide professional brewers. As a matter of excellent timing, we were pleased to honor the tournament's 10th anniversary by pouring beer from our swanky jockey box.

See our photos from the event here.

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Saturday, June 14th - The Drinking and Writing Brewery's 4th Annual Drinking and Writing Festival

We were once again invited to participate in this ridiculously fun festival, held at the Hopleaf Bar in Chicago. Beers from Metro, Goose Island, Rock Bottom, Flying Dog Brewery, and local homebrewers were available for quality quaffing.

This year's honoree was the late, great Hunter S. Thompson. Artwork by Ralph Steadman was featured, natch. Doug and I were once again compelled to channel Raul Duke (HST's alter ego) and Dr. Gonzo in physical form. Fortunately, I did not wake up the next morning with a giant lizard tail duct-taped to my ass.

And if honoring Dr. Thompson wasn't enough, we were also fortunate enough to drink with and hear a speech from this year's recipient of "The Drinking & Writing Brewery's Award For Outstanding Achievement in Drinking & Writing. Write Till You Puke": Frank Kelly Rich from Modern Drunkard Magazine.

See our photos from the event here.

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The enterprising and friendly folks at Monday Night Brewery in Atlanta recently interviewed us for their Interview with a Brewer series. Read the interview here. They, like us, are on the path to setting up their own operation. Here's to their success!

If you've ever given our website a glance, you know how much we love the Drinking and Writing Brewery. A few weeks ago, they asked us for an interview. Behold! Our very first official interview with the media. Well, very casual media. Guerrilla media. Media that drinks and swears. Hear the 10 minute or so exchange of genius here. If you'd like to hear the entire radio show from April, 2008, click here.

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Weeee aaare the CHAMPions... WE are the champions...

The 2007 numbers are in and it's good news, once again, for the American craft beer industry.

Craft beer sales were up 12% by volume and 16% in dollars in 2007. For those keeping track, that amounts to 58% growth since 2004.

See the Brewers Association press release here.

For more numbers, information, and other bottom-line reporting, see the Brewers Association stats page here.

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Gary, Walt, and Eunice!

Homebrewing gave birth to the craft beer revolution in America. Many wildly successful professional breweries were started by homebrewers. The way we see it, homebrewing is where it's at.

Allow us to introduce you to three of our favorite homebrewers: Gary, Walt, and Eunice. Visit their website, read about their adventures, and feel free to share your own homebrewing stories.

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