Beth Demmon

A monthly column of interviews featuring diverse voices in the global craft beer community.

All work (print and digital) for San Diego Magazine

With an average of 266 sunny days every year, 17 miles of world-class beaches, and adventures on tap year-round, San Diego is an ideal place for families to explore. Here are our top multi-generational picks in California’s second largest city.
Splash around at the San Diego Zoo
The world-famous San Diego Zoo completely revamped its Children’s Zoo into the Wildlife Explorers Basecamp in 2022. It now features a treehouse-style activity area, kid-sized animal burrows, and a sprawling splash pad...

December 2024 Print Issue
There’s never been a more exciting time to drink American cider.
After a long hiatus, American cider is on the rise once more. Some 200 years ago it was the beverage of choice for Indigenous tribes and European settlers alike, an easy way to preserve plentiful apple harvests and transform them into something not only delicious but often safer than water. But times changed. Everything from the widespread migration from farms to cities during the Industrial Revolution and the ...

San Diego Mission Bay Resort- A budget-friendly San Diego hotel that welcomes all (including dogs)
Orli La Jolla - Royalty in the heart of La Jolla
Town and Country Resort - A kitschy, mid-century modern oasis
Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinitas - This minimalist property makes the most of its world-class ocean views

If the beer and cider industries had royalty, Greg Hall would be close to the throne. He spent 20 years as brewmaster at Chicago’s Goose Island, where he created Bourbon County stout, one of the first bourbon-barrel-aged beers and one that remains a cult phenomenon to this day.

But it was on a beer trip to England — years before Anheuser-Busch InBev purchased Goose Island for $38.8 million — when Hall and a group of brewers inadvertently stumbled into a pub hosting a cider festival. Sampling ...

Apple picking is a quintessential part of many American autumns, stretching back to colonial days in orchards across the Mid-Atlantic and into New England. And for many, there’s nothing quite so refreshing or seasonally appropriate as a tall glass of cider after an afternoon of reaching, grasping and pulling the choicest fruit from the branches.
The tradition of drinking apple cider during apple harvest is a boon for cidermakers. It’s a core (pun intended) memory for many that can go back gen...

In May 2021, an exasperated Brienne Allan had had enough. In a single morning, two different men had approached the now-former brewer at Notch Brewing in Salem, Massachusetts, and questioned her craft-beer credentials.
“What sexist comments have you experienced?” Allan later asked her roughly 2,200 Instagram followers.
The offhand remark sparked the largest reckoning against misogyny the craft beer industry has ever seen, leaving her with nearly 60,000 new followers and worldwide media covera...

Breweries are beginning to clue into cider’s potential. Cider has increased its retail share more than 10 times over the past decade, according to Nielsen, and today there are commercial cideries in all 50 states as well as the District, with about 1,000 cideries across North America. Comparatively, there are more than 9,000 operational breweries in the United States — by far the most in American history — but in 2021, overall U.S. beer volume increased by only 1 percent.

Apple picking is a quintessential part of many American autumns, stretching back to colonial days in orchards across the Mid-Atlantic and into New England. And for many, there’s nothing quite so refreshing or seasonally appropriate as a tall glass of cider after an afternoon of reaching, grasping and pulling the choicest fruit from the branches.

The tradition of drinking apple cider during apple harvest is a boon for cidermakers. It’s a core (pun intended) memory for many that can go back generations, and a charming activity orchards and cideries can tap into for a bump in seasonal sales.

“It’s very American to have our identities completely driven by our professions,” says Julia Herz.
Herz is both familiar with the concept as well as representative of it. For over 16 years, she was an integral part of the Brewers Association, and for 13 of those years, she served as the face of its craft beer programming. Her responsibilities included writing and publishing content for CraftBeer.com, helping update bylaws and codes like the 2017 Marketing and Advertising Code, presenting at n...

Two features for Craft Beer & Brewing - one about Farmhouse Ciders and one spotlight on single varietals by Bauman Ciders.

A case for why cider shouldn't be in the beer aisle.
American cider is in the midst of a rebirth. In all 50 states, cider makers work to redefine this once-favored beverage of choice and refamiliarize drinkers with the breadth and diversity of the category. And as with any courting process worth the effort, a little awkwardness in the beginning is only natural.
For example, cider is often shelved next to beer, but it’s actually a type of wine. Both wine and cider are made by fermenting juice,...

Every time I walk into a public bathroom with my autistic, preschool-aged son, I instinctively do a visual sweep. Are there paper towel dispensers, or do they have air dryers? Does the toilet flush automatically or manually? Is there anyone in a stall who might flush unexpectedly, which may trigger him to have an unpleasant sensory reaction?
If there are any air dryers or automatic flush mechanisms, I know what comes next. My son will reflexively cover his ears, prompting me to help him use t...

I’ve never been a picky eater. I chow down on meat, plants, plant-based meat alternatives, and pretty much anything put in front of me. (One big exception is honeydew, which tastes like a slushie made of burps and depression.) But despite my general open-mindedness about what I consume, I have yet to try what some consider to be the future of food: cell-cultured meat.
Cell-cultured meat, sometimes called lab-grown meat or “clean” meat, is produced by taking actual animal cells and culturing t...