After 25 years, and 1,550 batches of beer, a large copper kettle at Haines Brewing cracked and sent water running all over while staff were brewing a batch of Doppelbock in early November. Owner Paul Wheeler said they were fortunately able to use a newer kettle to finish that batch but it took a long time to find someone local to repair the breach. When they finally did, Brian Staurseth and Darren Schweinefushelped lift…

Rashah McChesney is a multimedia journalist and editor who has reported and edited newsrooms from the Deep South to the Midwest to Alaska. For the past decade, she has worked in collaborative news as the...