Update: Beer will be available for sale online toward the end of April at this link. -> Struise got its new label for Cuvee Delphine (aka Barrel-Aged Black Albert) last week. The brewery won’t be importing this beer to the U.S. Rather, you will have to order it online via the web. It should be available online at the end of April.

The big news on Monday came out of California where Alesmith and Ballast Point both announced new bottle releases:

AleSmith Barrel-Aged Decadence 2007

“On Friday, March 13th, at 12:00pm we’ll be selling bottles of our Barrel-Aged Decadence 2007 Imperial Porter. Decadence 2007, a gold medal winner at the 2008 San Diego County Fair’s Craft Brewer’s Competition, is a full-bodied Imperial Porter that showcases rich flavors of toffee, caramel and chocolate, and balances with just the right amount of English hops. Now, imagine this beer with rich vanilla and bourbon-like oak notes […]

Bottles will be sold for $20 each with a three (3) bottle limit. Tickets will be handed out starting at 9am to save your place in line for the 12:00pm sale, so get there early! Yes, you can leave with your ticket and come back, but be sure to be back before your number is called!”

Ballast Point Double Dorado

“While the world-wide hop shortage is not over, our 2008 hop contract is. Along with 2009 comes a huge pile of Crystal hops and a new release of our popular Dorado Double IPA. We have been waiting for this for quite some time and are glad to be able to release 22 oz bottles for the first time in over a year! These bottles will be available at our two brewery locations beginning Saturday 3/7, and all over town in coming weeks.

For those of you who don’t remember, Dorado is a ludacrisly hopped IPA clocking in above 9% ABV. To help celebrate this long-awaited release, we are going to tap a firkin at our Scripps Ranch location on Thursday March 5th. In addition to the silly amounts of dry hops in the fermentation vessel, we have added four different hop varieties directly to the cask.”

Speaking of California, Tomme Arthur also recently announced that the brewery would be releasing Bourbon Angels Share this month.

Elsewhere, this comes from Beer Advocate member, mikesgroove: “I know some of you have seen [Pisgah Vortex II] around, but this one will go fast, only 600 bottles for this release which comes around once every few years. Look for Vortex I with around the same number or less in the next few weeks.

New batch of Valdez as well with some new coffee that is roasted locally, well within a mile or so of the brewery, really nice now in 22’s and the Pisgah Pale Ale now going to be a regular in 22’s.”

Finally, Stone Brewing’s Greg Koch recently announced that he’d be part of the panel discussion simulcast for the new Beer Wars Movie. So no, not just Ben Stein, folks!