Dear god…straight-up bullet points this week:

Great Taste of the Midwest parties are going down tonight and the fest is, of course, tomorrow.

Toronado San Francisco celebrates its 21st anniversary tomorrow evening. Among the beers that will be on hand is the (presumably) new release of Lost Abbey Cable Car and last year’s Toronado 20th Anniversary Ale. Rumor has it that some Cable Car bottles will make their way to the San Diego location as well. If you don’t know much about this beer, you should: “Cable Car was a special blend of three oak barrels which was created for THE Dave Keene and the world famous Toronado at 547 Haight Street.” – Lost Abbey blog. It also happens to be one of the top 50 beers in the world at RateBeer.

Speaking of Lost Abbey, The Angel’s Share was named the Best American Cask Beer at the Great British Beer Festival this week. What beer award hasn’t Tomme Arthur and Co. won this year?

A couple of releases of which to be aware…

The East End Gratitude 2007 bottles will be sold at the Pittsburgh-based brewery tomorrow.

Thanks to a tip from Austin at Hey Beer Guy… “the 3rd bottle of Goose Island’s anniversary series, Old Clybourn Porter, was released yesterday. Bottles are being released on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month until year’s end.” Some of the releases will come with extra bottles kicking around the brewery so keep those Wednesdays open and you may be able to take home a few bottles, even if you are not “subscribed” to the releases.

After a long battle, Smuttynose Brewing will finally be free to open a new brewery and restaurant over in Hampton, New Hampshire (somewhat near the current Portsmouth location). Smuttynose has plans to expand to a 42,000 square foot facility, up from the current 25,000 square feet.

Finally, if this article didn’t fully whet your appetite, head on over to the Kalamabrew blog and check out a ten minute interview with Larry Bell of Bell’s Beer.

The first look at the upcoming Weyerbacher Harvest Ale label is coming soon.