Cleaning up some open items here…another update coming soon as well.

From Tyranena Brewing‘s latest newsletter, the brewery finally hired a new brewer, reported that specialty malt prices will go up 23% for them, and they put a new beer, Imperial Pumpkin-Spiced Ale, on tap Wednesday:

“Our first attempt at brewing a pumpkin beer… this beer appears to be medium to light in body… a little lighter in color than pumpkin pie (but the same sort of hue)… in other words… it’s kinda amberish… about 7.5% alcohol by volume, and a little spice forward. Think if we brew it again we will have to increase the amount of pumpkin used… but we’ll let you be the judge. Growler fills will be permitted.”

Oh, and did you catch that they brewed a batch of Imperial Cherry Porter last week? Perhaps they are already putting some of those couple hundred pounds of sour cherries to work.

Fitgers Brewhouse re-released its highly-rated Bourbon Barrel Edmund Fitzgerald Imperial Stout recently. The ale won a silver medal at the recent Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beers in Chicago. This year’s edition was aged in Woodford Reserve barrels for seven months and finished in Jim Beam barrels for a month according to the latest RateBeer review. They also put on Farmhouse Special Reserve, a “Belgian-style ale with coriander, sweet orange, grains ‘of paradise’ [seriously?], and ginger.” 750 mL Old Cherry is still in stock.

Last but not least, a quick note on Bells Java Stout. Owner, Larry Bell, confirmed on Beer Advocate that the beer IS returning next year in bottles.