This week on Drinking Socially we're launching a new segment called "Top Hop Spot" to explore the history and usage of different hop varieties. Our inaugural Top Hop is Centennial and we're diving deep this week so tune in to the episode TOMORROW! Centennial is my favorite hop, and one that helped make American craft beer what it's known for today - big ol' hoppy beers! 

Centennial hops are often referred to as Super Cascade (another hop!) as they share the same citrus forward characteristic. Centennial is known for it's versatility as it's high alpha acids (usually between 9%-14%) help impart solid bitterness when used early in the boil, while it's grapefruit and lemongrass flavor's make it ideal for hop additions later in the boil as well. It's also a favorite of mine for dry hopping!

Centennial doesn't exist in the wild like some other hops (I'm looking at you, Comet). It was actually created by the celebrated hop breeding program at Washington State University in 1974 - although it wasn't released to the brewing world until 1990. Charles "Chuck" Zimmerman and S.T. Kenny are credited with successfully breeding Centennial. Centennial's parentage includes Brews Gold, Fuggle, and East Kent Golding Hops.

You're most likely to find Centennial hops in Pale Ales and IPA's, however I really enjoy how small hop chargers of Centennial in Wheats Beers can cut throw the heavy wheat grain bill and add to citrus flavors commonly found in those beers. Huge hop drops of Centennial in Imperial Stouts also work great at slicing through that big malt backbone.

Here are some beers you can seek out to experience all the grapefruit glory of Centennial Hops yourself:

1). Two Hearted Ale - Bells Brewing

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Brewed with 100% Centennial hops from the Pacific Northwest and named after the Two Hearted River in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, this IPA is bursting with hop aromas ranging from pine to grapefruit from massive hop additions in both the kettle and the fermenter. Perfectly balanced with a malt backbone and combined with the signature fruity aromas of Bell's house yeast, this beer is remarkably drinkable and well suited for adventures everywhere.

2). Lunch - Maine Beer Co.

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(featured on this week's Season 3, Episode 17 of Drinking Socially - DROPPING TOMORROW!)

Our "East Coast" version of a West Coast-style IPA. Intense hop flavors and aromas of tropical and citrus fruits and pine dominate. A subtle malt sweetness brings the beer into balance. 

3). Old Rasputin - North Coast Brewing Company

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(Featured on Season 3, Episode 4 of Drinking Socially)

Produced in the tradition of 18th Century English brewers who supplied the court of Russia's Catherine the Great, Old Rasputin seems to develop a cult following wherever it goes. It's a rich, intense brew with big complex flavors and a warming finish.

4). 60 Minute - Dogfish Head Brewing Company

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60 Minute IPA is continuously hopped -- more than 60 hop additions over a 60-minute boil. Getting a vibe of where the name came from? 60 Minute is brewed with a slew of great Northwest hops. A powerful but balanced East Coast IPA with a lot of citrusy hop character, it's the session beer for hardcore enthusiasts! 

Do you know another beer with Centennial hops that you love? Awesome! Tag me @HarryBeerBeard on Untappd or Twitter the next time you check it in.

Don't forget to listen to this week's newest Drinking Socially episode dropping on Wednesday, August 12th for more information on Centennial and tune in next time when we explore another classic American hop - Cascade! Listen to us wherever you listen to your podcasts (Spotify, Apple, Simplecast and more!).

As we approach the end of a pandemic summer, we've seen so many changes and new trends around beer due to COVID-19. One trend that has been unwavering so far is...hard seltzers.  

If you haven't seen hard seltzers in the coolers and shelves at your local bottle shop or grocery store, you may be living under a rock. They're everywhere. The craze seemed to have ramped up in early 2018 with White Claw trending on the scene first. The trend was quickly followed by big brands such as Anheuser Busch with Bud Light Seltzer, Truly from Boston Beer, Corona Hard Seltzer, and many more. With hard seltzers continuing to gain solid market share, crossing over $100m in sales for 10th week in a row, it doesn't seem like anything is going to slow down the hard seltzer train.

More and more breweries are starting to shift their strategy to making hard seltzers to help meet the growing demographic of drinkers that are looking for something different. We've heard first hand from brewers who've lamented at first when thinking about testing the waters with hard seltzers, but sales have shown that it's a win/win for consumer and local breweries in trying to regain consumer interest in a COVID world.

At Untappd, we love to look at trend data so we've kept our eye on hard seltzers to see how popular they've become and their longevity in the market. This craze reminds me of when Small Town Brewery launched "Not Your Father's Root Beer" back in 2015. Once it hit the market it catapulted to the top of the charts for ratings and check-ins. It grew 150% percent in terms of check-ins from April to July in 2015 each month. However, as the warmer days moved into the colder months, it started to dip in popularity. Looking at its July 2020 check-ins back to July 2015 check-ins, it has decreased over 40k check-ins to only 324 check-ins.

We only recently added hard seltzer as a style on Untappd in 2019. Even though seltzers are still fairly new on the scene, once a beer is updated by a brewery as a hard seltzer, that's updated in your check-ins and we're able to pull historical data on its check-in history. We looked at created entries in July 2019 and we had over 282 commercial beers (113 breweries) categorized as hard seltzer. Flash forward to July 2020, we have 1,446 beers by 524 breweries.

Looking at the raw data, the trends are pretty crazy. Comparing July 2020 to July 2019, check-ins are up 162% and distinct users are up 128% versus the prior year.

Now, as I said before, we have seen this before with the "root beer" craze back that trended significantly but for only one summer in 2015. The difference is that hard seltzers so far have stuck around way longer than the "root beer" craze. Hard seltzers continue to grow year over year. The "hockey stick" effect is something I am curious to see as we move into the fall and winter, but the rapid growth and numerous breweries that are jumping on the hard seltzer train makes me think that this style is here to stay. 

In terms of popularity on Untappd, the big brands such as White Claw and Anheuser Busch still have the top checked in hard seltzers on Untappd. I suspect as more and more breweries start to dabble and make their own, the data will start to filter out the smaller and regional breweries. 

Interested in finding more about what hard seltzers are popular around you? Use the Untappd app and tap "Trending Beers", and filter the selection based on hard seltzer.

What do you think about the hard seltzer trend? Is it here to stay or a passing fad? Let me know on Twitter and don't forget...connect with me on Untappd! Cheers!

First opening its doors in 2015, Levante Brewing Company was founded on values of craft, community, quality, and innovation. Inspired by the drinking atmospheres of rustic Italian vineyards, where customer interaction and quality-focus are paramount, Levante (meaning "to rise" in Italian) strives to elevate the craft and community experience with each pour. Every ounce of liquid is brewed from an insatiable thirst for creativity and unwavering dedication to quality and freshness. Levante brews across styles and welcomes all to enjoy the experience no matter your taste preference.

HOW TO UNLOCK THESE BADGES:

Enjoy one of Levante Brewing's year-round styles - Cloudy & Cumbersome, Tickle Parts, Birra di Levante, AFK, or Escalante - to unlock the "Levante Brewing Company" badge.

To earn the "Hop Cartel" Badge, check-in to three Levante Brewing Company beers of any style.

Earn both badges between August 7, 2020 - November 7, 2020.

Learn more about these year-round styles and the ever-changing specialty releases at levantebrewing.com and get social with @levantebrewing on Instagram and Facebook.

I don't know about you guys but I am so ready to be able to travel again. It's truly all I think about while I'm stuck at home still too weirded out to go sit at a brewery or restaurant (but seriously, take that beer-clean glass standard to the nth degree if your area allows you to go out right now).

To keep myself sane, I've been building out my travel bucket list and using Untappd to pin down exactly what breweries I want to visit and what beers to try when it's safe to get back out there. 

This past Thursday, Jeff Alworth, Founder & Editor of Beervana, joined Greg Avola for a Virtual Happy Hour to discuss the ins and outs of the beer scene in Portland, OR. Now, I've only been to the Pacific Northwest once, and naturally, it's taken a top spot on my travel bucket list so as you can imagine, he had my undivided attention...

Jeff came out swinging with TONS of suggestions for must-visit breweries in Portland, OR. that need to go on your list including Breakside Brewery, Wayfinder Beer, Upright Brewing Company, Great Notion Brewing, Ruse Brewing, and Little Beast Brewing.

Breakside Brewery - NW SLABTOWN, Image Source

To really round out my Portland, OR. bucket list, I wanted to pull beer and brewery suggestions straight from the Untappd community. I looked into what Portlanders are really drinking the most of out there via Untappd check-in stats. Looking over unique user check-ins in Portland, OR. over the month of July 2020, here are my findings: 

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IPA Day is here! Thursday, August 6th is the celebration of the internationally popular beer style, the India Pale Ale. Whether you enjoy a double, triple, or any other of the 20+ qualifying IPA Styles (see list below), this beer is worth celebrating. Check-in to your favorite IPA between August 6th and 8th, 2020, and earn this year's "IPA Day (2020)" badge! Use the Untappd app to search for Trending IPAs near you! 

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It's unbelievable that it's already the end of July. This year is cruising by but we're making the best of it. We dug into the top checked-in styles worldwide this July to review the beer trends of the summer season. Our findings were…well, let's just say we could've expected this. The IPA - American style was the most checked in overall. You guys really love IPAs, don't you?

We pulled the top 5 checked-in IPAs worldwide in the month of July to see what's quenching your thirst during these hot months. 

#5: Sommar IPA - Oppigårds Bryggeri

This is definitely the dark horse of the top 5 list. We first started seeing check-ins to this beer on July 8th. It's just getting out there into the marketplace and already has a ton of check-ins! Brewed by Oppigårds Bryggeri out of Sweden, this "summer" IPA is considered a West Coast IPA, which has a "piney" finish. 

Find This Beer Near You 

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We had a hard time finding beers that really make it easy to talk about Yeast. Our impulse was to look for classic Belgian beers as an entryway to speaking about the characteristics of different yeast strains. However, as the landscape of beer retail changes during COVID, we found ourselves unable to find a Chimay or Piraat.  After some shopping around, we're excited to check off a beer on Jon's Mount Beermore — and bring in a classic from Flying Dog.  Sit back and enjoy a pint as we talk about Yeast.

What We're Drinking: 

1. Raging Bitch - Flying Dog Brewery

Two inflammatory words…one wild drink. Nectar imprisoned in a bottle. An anything-but-delicate blend of sharp hoppiness and fruity aroma, this beer is a life-changing backyard knife-fight for your palate. Once you've had a Raging Bitch, everything else pales in comparison. Fermented with a volcano-like Belgian yeast strain called "El Diablo," Raging Bitch earned its polarizing name from the aggressively active nature of the yeast—unleashed, untamed, unbridled…and in heat. Enjoy its golden glow and white foaming head alongside bold flavors like spicy BBQ wings, blue cheese salads, or that bag of family-sized Cool Ranch Doritos you're going to destroy later while binge-watching Netflix.

2. Franziskaner Premium Weissbier Naturtrüb - Spaten-Franziskaner-Löwenbräu-Gruppe

 

Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier Naturtrüb is a natural and elegant wheat beer protagonist from Bavaria with a lush white foam. The copper-golden wheat beer with yeast-over opalescence unfolds an aromatic fragrance with harmonious fruit in which bananas and citrus fruits greet.

Due to the higher carbonic acid content, it is particularly lively and sparkling. Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier Naturtrüb unfolds its unmistakably particularly fresh, subtly spicy and fruity taste with a mild-sweet finish when you gulp it down.

Beer. Convince me there's a better beverage to get us through the week. You can't. Your check-ins speak for themselves. I see you all out there earning your New Brew Thursday and Liquid Lunch badges.  You deserved that lunchtime beer after this hard week, Tammy. Get after it, sister. I'm right there with you.

Alright, Untappders. I'm doing the first weekly roundup of what got you beer-heads through the week and highlighting your incredible check-ins. These are the top 5 most checked-in beers worldwide. Let's get into it. 

5. Guinness Draught -  Guinness

THIS is the energy I'm looking for. Anytime IS Guinness time, you are so correct and I'm inspired. May all our days be filled with beverages as delicious and so very classic as this dry Irish stout! 

VACATION, YES! Go off, Dylan! There truly is nothing as smooth as a perfect Guinness Pour. 

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When we first started Untappd TV, our goal was to help bring the physical world of beer to a virtual space, providing entertainment and connecting industry professionals, enthusiasts, and fans together to chat about beer. We wanted to bring together a community disrupted by COVID-19 for a Virtual Happy Hour so we could continue drinking socially, but virtually. 

As our entertainment offerings grew, we decided the platform deserved its own unique brand identity. We worked with our amazing design team to come up with the new look for Untappd TV!

We took a good look at our current offerings and asked, "How can we attract and help people discover our media content better?"

With that in mind, we've redesigned our main page to be more palatable, adding guest headshots and bios so you can better connect with the individuals who will join the show. If a show resonates with you, you can mark that you want to attend one of these events to get alerted via the Untappd app when we go live for that show.

Enjoying all of the Virtual Happy Hours? You can subscribe to all Untappd TV content to get alerted on the Untappd app whenever we go live. When you get notified, tap in and open up the livestream right in the app! Livestreams are also viewable via the official Facebook and Twitter page and our YouTube Channel. 

We hope you enjoy the new look of Untappd TV! If you have any feedback on what media content you'd like to see, please let us know at by using the Contact link at the top of untappd.tv. Cheers!

At the end of June our Founder, Greg Avola, shared with us the top 10 emojis used in Untappd check-ins over the past three months. 

In honor of World Emoji Day, I decided to dive deep into this tweet.
I read this list over and over. You guys have really trampled my tulips with some of these results. I've lost sleep trying to make sense of some of these (I'm looking at you number 8, responsible for gray hairs 45 through 53 showing up and caused a stress blackout during which I lost my phone and cooked an entire Thanksgiving dinner). 

I'm stepping in here to break down the emoji-use case. It's the only thing that's going to help me sleep at night although the week's worth of turkey sandwiches have been helping out too.

LET'S DIVE IN.

1. 🍻 - Clinking Beer Mugs: This is fine, no surprises here. The clinking beer mugs take the top spot for an app dedicated to drinking socially. I have nothing else to say but well-done. We did it. I feel closer to you all already thanks to these floating mugs, like two ghosts cheersing celebrating their death-day. Jokes on you, ghosts. That beer will go right through you. 

2. 👍 - Thumbs Up: Pretty classic. However, unexciting. This is number 2? The "thumbs up" is the lamest cousin of the super-rad 🤙 and the life-of-the-party 🤘. Imagine all the dads out there sitting on their porches sneaking a mid-day beer while sweat-drenched junior mows the lawn for them in the beaming sun.

Check-in caption: "👍 Good work, junior. Greater work, beer." 

I hope junior shuts the mower off before he hits the gravel path near the sunroom this time.

3. 🍺 - Beer Mug: Ok, phew. If this didn't make the top three, I'd have to reevaluate what we're all actually doing here. Shut it down, let's all go home. But no, BEER! It's why we're all here (in Untappd's orbit, not planet earth…but we may be on to something). BEER! It's what's for lunch and dinner…and under the right circumstances, breakfast.

4. 👌 - OK Hand: "OK"?????  "OK" is even less cool than the thumbs up. Let's unpack this. This one's kept me up at night but somewhere between coffee number four and stout number two it became clear. The 👌 sign has also come to mean "nice"… a close relative to "very nice" (you know the voice). I've found myself many-a-time mustache-deep in a barleywine and thought: "very nice - great success!". Yup, now that's an emoji I can get behind!

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You want water puns? 💦 We've got buckets of them. Jon & Harrison talk about the role that water plays in beer while they enjoy two outstanding lagers from New England, USA. Who's thirsty?

What We're Drinking:

1). Nite Heavy by Night Shift Brewing 

Image Source: Night Shift Brewing

Nite Heavy is a gold, bold, pure American lager. Pours honey gold with a pillowy white head. Aromas of cereal and lemon citrus. It sips smooth and refreshing, with notes of barley malt and honey. Light-bodied with a crisp carbonation that rolls off the tongue.

2). House Lager by Jack's Abby Craft Lager

Image Source: Jack's Abby Craft Lager

What the Helles is a Landbier? Ours is sweet and golden with a full malty body, inspired by the country lagers of Bavaria. This Pale Bier is our House specialty. From Jack's House to Your House!

The Two Rivers Beer Route is the very best way to experience Saint Awesome's award-winning craft brewing scene. Starting and finishing in historic Uptown Saint John, the route takes you on a scenic tour from brewery to brewery – up the Kennebecasis River to Hampton, and then down the Kingston Peninsula along the mighty Saint John River. There's even a side trip to Sussex you can add on if you like!

Along the way you'll sample everything from experimental small batch brews to modern craft selections, with some excellent mead and cider thrown in for good measure. You'll sample in heritage warehouses, country garages, a riverside orchard, and even a small-town barber shop. Get ready to nerd out about beer with some of the country's friendliest brewmasters!

Check-in to any beer from three (3) of the participating venues using Add location OR Purchased Location between July 13, 2020 - October 13, 2020.

Visit Base Camp Saint Awesome for the complete map, and to make a reservation at a Saint John Hotel Association member hotel.

Badge List:

• Hilton
• Big Tide Brewing Company
• Hampton Inn & Suites
• Delta Hotels by Marriott Saint John
• Chateau Hotel Saint John
• Holiday Inn Express & Suites Saint John Harbour Side
• Hillside Motel
• Travelodge Suites by Wyndham Saint John
• York Bistro Pub
• Best Western Plus Saint John Hotel & Suites

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Rivers, Trails, and Ales Festival takes place in Marietta, OH, which has been named one of the top 100 Adventure Towns in the U.S by National Geographic. Due to COVID-19, the festival is facing an unprecedented obstacle with far-reaching impact on what would have been its 10th Anniversary. One of the festival's primary goals is to support our local businesses. With that goal and everyone's safety in mind, the focus this year is shifting to a virtual campaign in lieu of the physical events they are accustomed to hosting. This badge was created to drive support for the breweries who have supported the festival in the past, or were on the docket to do so this year. Thank you to Ameriturf, for sponsorship and who's helping make this possible! To earn this badge, check-in to any from the participating breweries between July 10, 2020 - August 10, 2020! To burn off some of those beer calories, go for a spin on your bike, paddle a kayak, or hike a local trail. For more information about our festival, please visit rtafest.com. Cheers!

Badge List:

• Listermann Brewing Company
• Marietta Brewing Co.
• Crafted Artisan Meadery
• Parkersburg Brewing Company
• The Phoenix Brewing Company
• Royal Docks Brewing Co.
• Lineage Brewing
• Taft's Brewing Company
• Urban Artifact
• Devil's Kettle Brewing

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It's July, which means it's time to fire up your grill, open up a cold beer, and enjoy the summer heat! Just because your Independence Day may look a little different this year, doesn't mean you can't celebrate!

Check-in any beer from a brewery from the United States of America between July 3, 2020 - July 5, 2020 to receive this years "Independence Day (2020)" Badge.

Happy Canada Day! This holiday celebrates the anniversary of the effective date of the Constitution Act, which united the three separate colonies of the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into a single Dominion within the British Empire called Canada. So let's raise a glass to our friends in the Great White North as they celebrate this day!

Check-in to any beer from a brewery in Canada between July 1, 2020 - July 2, 2020 to unlock this years "Canada Day (2020)" Badge.