Learn More About Ben Butler

Certified Cicerone® and founder of Top Hat — a branding agency with nationally acclaimed work for breweries from Seattle to Pittsburgh including Iron City Beer and Reuben's Brews.

Currently Drinking:
Reuben's Brews Bits & Bobs

Latest Content

My Beloved Community: How Metier Brewing Company Became One of our Top Breweries of 2024

Brewing damn good beer.

I’m standing before a large blackboard with the words “Give A Beer, Take A Beer.” Tacked all across the surface are Polarids with captions like ...

What Is a Belgian Quad?

Four times the fun.

With its signature rich, malty flavor, medium bitterness, and impressive ABV, the Belgian quad is a beer that has literally stood the test of time. ...

What Is Bierstacheln? Stoking the Fires of a Historic Beer-Poking Surge

Heat. Sizzle. Foam.

Groups of thirsty people waited in line, huddled around a fire pit, stamping their feet to keep warm. At the front, someone drank half their ...

The 17 Can’t Miss Beer Festivals of 2025

Mark your calendars now.

A few years ago, we traveled around the country, hosting a beer festival in a different city almost every month—Oakland; San Diego; Chicago; Portland, ME; ...

Busting Non-Alcoholic Beer Myths With Sam Adams Award-Winning NA Brewer

All the way on NA

Non-alcoholic beer is here to stay. That’s not a myth. According to NielsenIQ, off-premise non-alc sales from the last fifty-two weeks recorded $740 million, up ...

The Top 14 People to Watch in Craft Beer in 2025

We all spend an enormous amount of time appreciating the liquid in the can, but what about the person behind the beer? At the beginning ...

The 11 Craft Beer Trends to Watch in 2025

To thrive in 2025...

When the calendar page flips each year, we have a few things at the top of our minds. First, we put down on paper our ...

Hop Culture’s Most-Read Articles of 2024

Grab a beer and catch up on what you missed!

With 2024 all wrapped up like a holiday present under the tree, let’s look back at the most-read articles of the last twelve months. Hop ...

The Top 10 New Non-Alcoholic Beverages We’re Drinking for Dry January

What's in our fridge.

Are you participating in Dry January this year? You’re not alone. According to research by The New Consumer/Coefficient, forty-nine percent of Gen Z and Millennial ...

The 17 Best Breweries to Watch in 2025

👀🍻

A new year means 365 new days to try new beers and visit breweries new to us. Hopefully, you’ve already checked out everything from “The ...

The Top Places We Want to Travel for Beer in 2025

Make sure your passport is updated.

We went to a lot of top places for beer in 2024—London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Czechia, Paso Robles, CA, Bellevue, WA, the Yakima Valley, and Denver, ...

Our Top 6 Beer Resolutions for 2025

5...4...3...2...1

For the first time last year, we actually took a moment from our breakneck pace of drinking, traveling, discovering, and writing, not just to look ...

Learn More About Ben Butler

Latest Content

Varsity Brews: 10 Questions With Gali Hernandez

What the Czech!? Why Cohesion Brewing Is America’s Best Czech-Inspired Brewery

At Brown Girl’s Brew, You Can Eat Your Cake…And Drink It Too