2013 was a great year for us and we want to thank you all for continuing to read and share our articles, tagging your photos #hookedonhops, and saying hello to us when we are out at a bar or festival. We appreciate all of it, and we are excited for what’s to come in 2014!

In the meantime, I have compiled the articles and topics that were the most popular over the past year. Enjoy!

Interview with New Belgium’s Lauren Salazar – This was by far the most popular article of the year. Lauren announced on Hooked on Hops the massive expansion that the brewery was about to go through in their wood cellar. She also explained the process she goes through creating some their sour beers.

The IPA Glassware Review – Glass maker Spiegelau, in collaboration with Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head, released stemware specifically designed for the IPA style of beer. In this article, we not only review the IPA glass, but we compare against the more traditional stemmed tulip glass.

What The Hell Does Hoppy Even Mean? –  A bit of a rundown on the purpose of hops and how they are used in the brewing process. I tried to highlight the fact that hops contribute a lot more to a beer besides just bitterness. 

The Adulteration of Westvleteren – This was one of my favorite posts. You can hate us all you want for this, but the fact remains that Westy XII makes one of the best beermosas we have ever had!

Aces & Ales Tenaya – We were very excited about Aces & Ales opening a second location. Rumors had been going around for a while, and once it was confirmed, we couldn’t help but to keep writing about one of our favorite bars in Las Vegas.
Here Armando shares the reasons why he was so excited about the new location.
Early on, it was suggested that the new location may not serve any macro beers. This was my response to those who felt that this was snobbish and would be a bad business decision.
If you still want to read more about Aces & Ales, we recently attended a Coronado beer pairing dinner and reviewed the event here.

Sound Brewery: Tradition Liberated – I interviewed Mark Hood, one of the founders of a small brewery that recently opened up in my hometown of Poulsbo, Washington. It was great to learn about what it was like for them to go from homebrewers, to professional brewers, and to hear about the struggles that they faced.  If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend their beers!

Mikkeller Bar SF Grand Opening – Danny did a phenomenal job building the Hooked on Hops website and he offers up his photography skills from time to time. When he visited the Mikkeller Bar in San Francisco, he decided to write his first article for the site. I really enjoyed reading this!

Crafthaus Brewing Company- CraftHaus will be one of Las Vegas’ newest breweries when they open their doors later this year. I sat down with owners Dave and Wyndee Forrest to sample their beers and to discuss the launch of their Kickstarter campaign to finalize their funding stage. Later, I caught up with them again to discuss some of their next steps since surpassing their Kickstarter goal.

Taco Tuesday – Between this and the Westvleteren post, it might seem like we are only trying to piss off beer nerds. But the truth is: beer should be fun, and if we think of something funny, we run with it. Even if that means combining The Bruery’s Black Tuesday in a French press with a taco. Hell, I’d like to think that Cellermaker and Tire Hands took inspiration from us when they decided to brew their taco beer (editors note: they probably definitely didn’t).

Lagunitas Brewing Company – Lagunitas is one of my favorite breweries, and a big part of that has to do with owner Tony Magee’s sense of humor, and incredible sense of honesty and integrity. If you are at all interested in what goes on behind the scenes in the beer industry, follow his twitter account here (though admittedly, he isn’t as fun as he used to be. He’s since learned to bite his tongue when it comes to publicly criticizing other breweries by name). Below are some of the articles that took inspiration from Tony Magee and Lagunitas:
How To Suck Like Lagunitas
Lagunitas’ Tony Magee on Craft Beer Growth
Death and Taxes… And Beer
Lagunitas Fleur Beer Paring Dinner