Mashing-In News: pFriem Christmas, Why Galaxy Hops Changed
GOOD MORNING, SOUTH PUGET SOUND!
Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025 — Nikki Sixx turns 67 today!
Craft beer enters the week with big shifts—from brewery expansions and closures to hop revelations, industry awards, and evolving drinking trends—offering a snapshot of how rapidly the beer world is reinventing itself heading into 2026.
pFriem Brings Holiday Magic Back to Peaks & Pints
Peaks & Pints welcomes Hood River’s pFriem Family Brewers on Dec. 11 for a festive tap takeover featuring a stacked lineup of world-class styles, rare barrel-aged releases, and an appearance by Farmer Matt, turning the Tacoma beer hall into a full-tilt holiday celebration. (Peaks & Pints)
Bent Bine Brew Co. Closes Taproom, Seeks New Owners
Bent Bine Brew Co. in Belfair, Washington has closed its taproom and is actively seeking new ownership after an earlier sale attempt fell through, with current owners hoping to find successors who will keep the community-focused brewery alive. (Washington Beer Blog)
Cloudburst Brewing Marks 10 Years of Game-Changing, Genre-Bending Beer
Cloudburst Brewing will celebrate its 10th anniversary on January 9–10, marking a decade of boundary-pushing, era-defining beers from founder Steve Luke—a Seattle brewery whose inventive IPAs, visionary influence, and cult-level reputation have reshaped modern American craft beer. (Washington Beer Blog)
Why Galaxy Hops Changed — And How Terroir Brought Them Back
Galaxy hops’ rise, fall, and resurgence shows how terroir in hops is shaped not just by where they’re grown but by harvest timing and post-harvest handling, with small shifts in region, pick window, and oxidation dramatically transforming their signature passionfruit-and-citrus profile into the harsh “diesel/onion” character brewers once lamented. (Shan Ferments)
Pink Boots Unveils 2025 Hop Blend to Support Industry Equity
Yakima Chief Hops and the Pink Boots Society have released the 9th annual Pink Boots Blend—Centennial, Mosaic, Ekuanot, and HBC 638—with $1 per pound supporting scholarships and professional development for women and non-binary fermentation industry professionals. (Washington Beer Blog)
Finnriver Shows How Biodiversity Builds Better Cider
Finnriver Farm & Cidery explains how embedding biodiversity into every level of its orchard—through organic practices, habitat building, soil-health investments and climate-resilience strategies—creates healthier trees, steadier harvests, and consistently higher-quality fruit for premium cider production. (The Brewer Magazine)
Hop Culture Gift Guide
Hop Culture rounds up 2025’s 19 best beer-lover holiday gifts, from curated beer boxes and brewery trips to apparel, gadgets, games, glassware, and even beer-centric travel experiences, offering a full guide to festive gifting across the craft beer world. (Hop Culture)
Brewers and Distillers Blend Worlds With Beer-Inspired Whiskeys
Brewers and distillers are increasingly borrowing from each other’s playbooks—using craft-beer ingredients in whiskey production and aging whiskey in former beer barrels—to create new hybrid styles that blur the line between beer and spirits. (All About Beer)
How North Park Builds Hop-Saturated Beers
North Park founder Kelsey McNair shares his advanced methods for building intensely hop-saturated beers—covering malt simplicity, careful pH and water adjustments, selective hop formats, and layered hopping techniques—in a new video course outlining his approach to capturing maximum aroma and flavor. (Craft Beer & Brewing)
New Trail, Deschutes, and New Belgium Leaders Top Brewbound’s 2025 Honors
Brewbound announced its 2025 Award Winners and Rising Stars, honoring standout breweries, industry leaders, innovative products, and emerging beverage brands that demonstrated resilience, growth, and category-shaping impact over the past year. (ProBrewer)
Gen Z Turns Away From Taprooms, Forcing Craft Breweries to Rethink the Model
A new industry report shows Gen Z is turning away from brewery taprooms—once craft beer’s most reliable growth engine—as younger drinkers seek more energetic, experiential venues, revealing that the once-untouchable taproom model has lost cultural relevance and now faces a major generational and economic reckoning. (Beervana)
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
