(Fort Collins, CO) – Odell Brewing has begun a barrel-aging program and hopes to release the first beer in the series of one-offs later this summer. According to the press release, “Woodcut No. 1 will have hints of vanilla and dried fruit flavors derived from the medium toast of the oak cask.” Continue reading
(Baltimore, MD) – The Brewer’s Art, a small brewpub in Baltimore, released its third beer in bottles recently. The beer joins Green Peppercorn Tripel, the brewery’s highest-rated beer, and Canard; all three have been spotted at retailers around the area recently as well as at Max’s Taphouse.
The Brewer’s Art Ozzy is an ode to the Belgian devil beers as they call them, such as Duvel and Lucifer. It is currently sporting an A- rating on Beer Advocate.
(Leuven, Belgium) – Chances are that you’re not reading about this for the first time but we feel obligated to post something about it. News outlets began reporting on Sunday that InBev was close to acquiring Anheuser-Busch after upping the bidding price for the American beermaker last week. Yesterday, it became official: Anheuser-Busch will now be owned by InBev.
According to the press release, “the world’s leading global brewer. Anheuser-Busch shareholders will receive $70 per share in cash, for an Continue reading
(Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland) – Brewdog, the relatively new Scotland brewery revolutionizing craft beer in the UK, is drawing fire from health officials there after the release of a 12% ABV beer, Brewdog Tokyo. While that doesn’t come close to the highest ABVs among US-brewed beers, it is among the strongest beers ever to be released to the UK market.
According to Brewdog’s website, Tokyo sounds like a very interesting beer: “a 12% imperial stout brewed with jasmine and cranberries added in Continue reading
(Chicago, IL) This news came out a few days ago via the Chicago Tribune food blog. According to the post, “Midway IPA, Hopscotch Ale and Old Clybourn Porter” will be among fifteen beers to be released as part of the special Goose Island 20th Anniversary Cellar Collection.
Sales of all fifteen beers will be spread out over the next six months. In order to get them, you’ll have to sign up at the brewpub and then pick up the beers as they are released. No online sales for these brews. They are, indeed, special, too, considering that they are the last beers that will be bottled at the original brewpub, which will be closing this December. The brewery is looking for another location for next year with its business growing so quickly; President, James Hall, projected that Goose Island could produce nearly 120k barrels this year.
Goose Island 20th Anniversary Ale will Midway IPA was the first beer in the set to be released. The next beer to be released will be Hopscotch. About 150 beers are produced for each release, some of which will be sold individually outside of the subscription package as the schedule moves along. [ed: Thanks to bgramer for the corrections!]
(Brooklyn Center, MN) – And the hype starts…We got this tip from an astute Beer Advocateer named beerbeagle! According to Surly Brewing’s calendar, this year’s Darkness Day, also referred to by some as “D-Day,” will take place on Saturday, October 25. No details have been released yet on what will take place that day but expect live music and a bottle limit!
Surly Darkness is currently ranked #5 at Rate Beer and #6 at Beer Advocate. The last release took place in December of 2007. It seemed like the first beer to draw nearly as much hype as Three Floyds Dark Lord which is quite an accomplishment. Only 480 750 mL bottles were released in 2007 with a two-per-person limit. Here is a news report with a video from last year’s event. There are also several videos of the 2007 event on Youtube.
The picture above comes courtesy of Adam Turman who has previously done the Surly Darkness bottle label. It can be purchased as a large poster at his website. He has also done some other very cool work for Surly Brewing and the Minnesota Oktoberfest.
And for those wondering where bottle #057 of 450 went, I drank it last night!
(San Francisco, CA) – Russian River Pliny the Elder made its long-awaited debut in bottles yesterday in the Bay Area. The Imperial IPA was joined by Russian River Blind Pig, the brewery’s American IPA. The 500 mL bottles are being released in a crown finish with an affordable price tag of less than $5.
According to Co-Owner, Natalie Cilurzo, at the Russian River blog, the beers will start to hit other parts of the state shortly: “We will ship bottles of Blind Pig IPA to SoCal next week with Pliny the Elder bottles hitting our SoCal distributor Stone Brewing the second week of August.” It’s unclear at this time whether Oregon, Seattle, and Denver will see Pliny the Elder though it looks like Oregon will at least get Blind Pig. To see a report on the first bottling of PtE with photos, visit the Brookston Beer Bulletin.
Beer Advocate ranks Pliny the Elder and Blind Pig IPA as 9th and 48th overall, respectively. RateBeer ranks PtE as #46 overall and Blind Pig IPA sits just outside the top 20 in the IPA category.
[7/20 Update: As it turns out the only reason for the surrender was so that they could change the name from Imperial Brown to Imperial Helles. Still on track for release in late 08]
(Lakewood, NY) – Southern Tier Brewing will debut a new holiday ale later this year. Southern Tier Krampus will be a big lager at 9% ABV, kettle hopped with Chinook and dry-hopped with Willamette.
Krampus, the monster pictured on the label, is apparently responsible for handing out Santa Claus’ punishment to those on the bad list. The label’s status changed from approved to surrendered this week. While we don’t know what that means exactly (call has been made to the TTB), it wouldn’t surprise us that the label might have some controversy surrounding it. Stay tuned.
Related Stories:
Southern Tier Creme Brulee and Cherry Saison get approval
Southern Tier Cuvee Series to debut this fall
(Escondido, CA) – Stone Brewing will launch another new beer soon. Stone Cali-Belgique will be a Belgian-style IPA, a Belgian twist on Stone IPA, and it may be released in bombers as soon as August. And those hitting up Escondido in late July will be able to get a taste much sooner.
The beer, also known as Stone Cali-Belgie (read the bottom of the back label photo below), will be made available the weekend of July 25-26 at the Stone store in growler fills. The bottle release also marks the fourth new beer in a three-month span including Stone 12th which debuts this week. Stone 08.08.08 will come out during the first week of August and Belgian Style Triple Ale, the brewery’s collaboration with Mikkeller and Alesmith could arrive as early as September.
The beer comes in at 6.9% ABV.
Online ordering link up as of 9/2
(Bloomington, IN) – Within the last couple weeks, news has filtered through the channels about the return of Upland Brewing’s popular Belgian-style Lambic ales. The beers, which can be spotted atop Upland’s beer ratings at RateBeer, will be made available this coming fall. All seven styles, three are new this year, can be reserved beginning September 1.
With the 2008 release, Upland Brewing will bring three new flavors into the Continue reading
(Saint Paul, MN) – From what we’re reading, Minnesota is about to get blasted with some new beers from this young brewery out of Saint Paul. We have confirmed that the brewery is set to come out with at least two more beers this year including a new sour ale. Rumor has it that a few more are on the way, too.
Continue reading
[7/10 Update: Didn't realize this was resource was online but here is the official Stone 12th Anniversary beer website with a list of stores that will be getting this beer! Just click on the distribution link]
It is July 7th and the day has finally come! In terms of where to look for it if you live in Southern California, here are some stores where Stone is distributed. As for the rest of us, here are the sales managers for the various distribution networks in the U.S. You may be able to contact them to find out if it will be carried in your area.
John Foylston of The Beer Here, a fantastic Oregon beer blog, is taking the next few days off from writing so it gives us the perfect little opportunity to scoot in and cover for him while he’s gone. So without further ado…
Deschutes Brewery updated its site this past week with a new summer newsletter. What stood out was some new info about the long-awaited Deschutes The Dissident, the brewery’s follow-up to Black Butte XX in the Special Reserves Series. Describing the beer: “The Dissident — a distinctive, Continue reading
(Escondido, CA) – It’s now 1:50am on the East Coast but I thought this would make for a nice Independence Day surprise. We first broke the story in April that Mikkeller would be collaborating with Alesmith and Stone Brewing on a beer in San Diego. We later got some details that 120 barrels were brewed, and that the beer would be a Belgian-style Tripel released in 12 oz. bottles (not the expensive 375 mL kind, phew). Mikkel said a couple weeks ago that he was hoping for a mid-September release on this but as always, nothing is set in Stone. (Keep in mind that the label isn’t definite either until it finds its way onto the bottle).
It will be interesting to see under which brewery Belgian Style Triple Ale gets cataloged on the beer ratings websites. Our money would be on Stone considering it was brewed there and the packaging matches Stone’s other offerings. We’ll leave it at that and let the labels speak for themselves. Enjoy your Independence Day.
(Portsmouth, NH) – Todd Alstrom of Beer Advocate reported yesterday that Redhook Brewery, based in Portsmouth, NH, and Woodinville, WA, will bring out of retirement its top-ranked Redhook Double Black Stout (with an all-new look vs. what is shown above). The redux of this beer in bombers is the first in a series of new limited releases to come from the brewery beginning early November 2008.
Double Black first debuted in 1995 and generated a cult following. Though it hasn’t been brewed in eight years, its following spawned dozens of Continue reading
Quick update on a prior item…Paul Cain of Southern Tier informed that the much-anticipated Creme Brulee will ship next week and should start showing up on store shelves around 7/14!
Latest on Lost Abbey Isabelle Proximus is that 120 cases were sold this past weekend with 30 remaining, all of which are going to Patron Saints and Sinners Club members in an online sale starting at 8am PST Thursday. As for the rest of us, we will have to wait to see what bars will be getting Isabelle. Tomme has confirmed so far that Monk’s Cafe in Philadelphia and Brouwer’s Cafe in Seattle (likely in August) will be getting some.
Alpine Beer Co. just sent out a newsletter. Alpine Chez Monieux (“Shame on You”), the brewery’s Belgian-style Kriek that was first released this past spring, will go on sale for $19.90 at South Bay Drugs and Pizza Port Carlsbad. Some will also be available at the Stone Sour Fest (<- beer list and tickets).
Lastly, per the Alpine newsletter: "To make the holiday closure easier to accept, we will be releasing a fresh, delicious batch of Alpine Duet, our single West Coast IPA on Thursday, July 3rd. It’s the one made with Simcoe and Amarillo hops “in harmony.” We’ll have it on for growler fills and should be able to get some out to an account or two before the weekend. And, to show some love, we’ve brewed another excellent batch of Alpine Exponential Hoppiness. It should be ready in under 6 weeks from now.”
(Easton, PA) – Matt Guyer of The Beeryard informed that, as of last night, there were twelve cases of Weyerbacher Thirteen in stock at the Pennsylvania store. The 13.6% ABV Belgian-inspired imperial stout marks the 13th anniversary of the brewery, and is starting to filter its way through the U.S. this week.
According to johnmichaelson on Beer Advocate, if you want to get your hands on Weyerbacher Riserva, a raspberry American wild ale: “down here [Baltimore, MD] Max’s got some, and it appears so did State Line. Probably the Wine Source got a case or two as well, and maybe one or two other places in Maryland.”
[ed: Please click photo above to try a new feature we are testing! Let us know if errors occur.]
(Dexter, MI) – Looks like another one that slipped through our fingers as we transitioned from our old WordPress.com site to Beernews.org during those two weeks in April. Kudos to Schroppfy at RateBeer for pointing this beer out to the community earlier this afternoon. He’s also throwing a party next Monday featuring this beer!
Jolly Pumpkin Weizen Bam Farmhouse Wheat Beer will become the fourth beer in the Bam Farmhouse Series later this year. The beer is billed as a “traditional farmhouse style hefeweizen.” According to the OP (aka original poster in the thread), Ron Jefferies, Brewer/Owner of Jolly Pumpkin, said, “This year we were thinking draft only, with limited bottles. We are doing a bottling for the MJ beer club folks, and will have some here. I imagine a few cases will make it to wholesale.”
Bam Noire, Bam Biere, and E.S. Bam were the first three releases in the Bam Farmhouse Series.
[8/14 Update from John Bryan: Estimated 550 cases of BBQ (Nov. 1ish release) and 995 cases of Saison-Brett (Oct. 1ish release)]
(Kansas City, MO) – Boulevard Brewing, ranked #8 in the top 50 craft breweries in 2007 sales, will release two of the most rare, top-rated beers in its arsenal in bottles for the first time this fall. Boulevard Saison-Brett will become the fifth beer in the Smokestack Series and the first addition to the set in close to a year. It will be joined by Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quadrupel as the 6th in the series.
Boulevard Saison-Brett and Boulevard “BBQ” are not to be confused with Continue reading
(Santa Rosa, CA) – Russian River Brewing is holding another surprise sale on its website starting today only for California residents. According to the blog, Russian River Redemption and Damnation are available along with its barrel-aged releases, Beatification, Supplication, and Temptation. If you missed the boat the first time around, don’t wait to jump on this as most of these beers will sell out fast. Just click on ‘Gift Shop’ and then ‘Bottled Beer’ on the website.