Artwork: Mary Tremonte of Pittsburgh

(Pittsburgh, PA) – It would appear that East End Brewing Owner, Scott Smith, locked himself up in a basement for 24 hours…

…I’ve never seen such a lengthy newsletter update from a brewery owner. Sign up for the newsletter here to get these directly. He’s also a Twitter addict that updates his status frequently.

Note: Below is an excerpt from the newsletter. Oddly enough, there is no mention of this year’s East End Gratitude Barleywine which was bottled in mid-late September. No release date has been announced though Smith told me that he hopes that it will be ready before the end of the year (no guarantee). Onto the newsletter update…lots of new stuff here.

– SESSION ALE #40: Wood St. Kvass
We’ve brewed this downright weird beer so many times now, that soaking 60 loaves of stale rye bread in hot water overnight to make a liquid we ferment with bread yeast the next day… well it almost seems “normal”. So this time, we mixed it up a bit, brewed it a little starchier than usual and diverted a good portion of this batch to oak barrels for hot-aging this summer, in hopes of making some of that wonderful lactic sourness we saw in the early batches….and boy, did it deliver! We’re going to let this sleeper of a project finish out over the cold months of winter, so the beer can condition, clarify, and ready itself for bottles by Spring. We’ll release it under the name DEBASER which aside from the possibly obvious musical reference, is also a really bad pun about the incredibly high level of acidity and sourness in this beer. Yum!

– SESSION ALE #41: BlackberRye Ale
Yes, we brewed a rare FRUIT BEER! Usually they’re not my thing personally speaking, as they’re often too sweet, or have a really rough and astringent finish to them. But Brendan convinced me he could make a good one, and of course, he can. And now it’s all gone.

– SESSION ALE #42: Slartibartfast
Someone once said “Drink up. The world’s about to end.” So, we brewed a beer to answer the ultimate question. A nice English Style Best Bitter. It’s gone too.

– SESSION ALE #43 BluebeRye Ale
Okay, so they’re getting a little less rare around here. But this one’s gone too.

– SESSION ALE #44:”Weisse this beer sour?”(aka Big Pour Brew)
There’s a big push these days to brew the most extreme “beer” in the world, sometimes upwards of 50% alcohol. With an 11% barleywine in our catalog, we’re not shy about going big, but we try to balance that out with the idea of brewing a beer that you might actually want to drink. And while the humor and charm of a packaging a rare beer
inside a squirrel carcass is not lost on us (look it up), we will instead opt for non-extreme re-usable Growlers for our entry in the extreme category. Yes, we’re jumping on the “extreme” bandwagon, but I think ours may be rolling backwards, down the hill, in the other direction.

A stinky 3-day sour mash to make a champagne-like beer that’s just under 3% abv??? You bet! There’s still a couple kegs kicking around at the brewery for Growler fills, but it’s definitely winding down. Berliner Weisse is wonderful style of beer for people who are “Sour Curious”, but are maybe a little scared off by all the funk that an un-fruited Lambic can bring to the glass. So give it a try. I’ve said it before: SOUR is replacing STRONG as the new HOPPY. Any minute now…

– SESSION ALE #45: “Redd Up Red Ale”
Our very first Red Ale, quickly redd up into your Growlers, is now fully depleted. But I have a feeling it will come back around at some point. Maybe it was the crowd-sourced name we got from our GOOD FRIENDS on Twitter?

– SESSION ALE #46: Bitter End 2010
Our annual tradition of “Small Beer” brewed from the second runnings of our Gratitude Barleywine. It’s quite different this year from previous models, and it’s still on tap… for now.

– SESSION ALE #47: RaspberRye Ale
The third in our increasingly less-rare fruit beer series, just went on tap October 22nd weekend at the brewery and the Growler Shop in the Strip. Like its more-rare fruit beer predecessors, it’s been a big mover, so get some while the getting is good!

-T.R.A.S.H. HOMEBREW CONTEST WINNER: “EAST END SESSION BEER AWARD”
Dave Mutschler brewed a Pils and entered it into the biggest homebrew contest in town, and it scored quite well. So, we took his recipe, scaled it up, and brewed it on the big rig. “Czech Please!” is a nice hoppy (think “European hoppy”) lager that will go on tap in another week or two, once it’s finished lagering. But Dave gets the first Growler, okay?

– (the beer we can’t call) EYE OPENER COFFEE PORTER IS BACK!
Featuring our two favorite brewed beverages in the same glass, we did a double batch of this beer, and in addition to packaging a bunch of kegs, we bottled just over half of it in 1 liter swingtops so that itwill be around for a while. And this time, we used coffee from our newest, bestest, GOOD FRIENDS at Commonplace Coffee, a local roaster putting out some of the freshest, tastiest coffee I’ve ever had. They do their roasting in Indiana PA, but you can find their beans around town in all the better coffee joints, including their very own shop onForbes in Squirrel Hill. Plus, their website even sounds beer friendly: www.IPACoffee.com, so how perfect is that?

Look for the release in a few weeks, possibly draft coming out before bottles as we wait for labels to come through. Watch the website for an announcement.

-HOMEWOOD RESERVE 2010 RETURNS
I probably mentioned before that we’ve got a bunch of Bourbon Barrels in here, full of Black Strap Stout and aging for a few months. In a few more weeks, we’ll bottle it all up and release this beer as our special Homewood Reserve. You’ll also see the odd firkin or keg here and there as well, just to help get the word out. More on this beer as it progresses.

-FESTIVAL OF DARKNESS II:
With the return of Homewood Reserve, Coffee Porter, and Snow Melt Winter Ale, regular offerings like Fat Gary Nut Brown Ale, and Black Strap Stout, and our current bottled beer, Illustration Ale (Belgian Dark Strong Ale)…it seems like we’re at a bit of a tipping point with darker beer offerings. So we’re going to add one more to the list, a big robust Oatmeal Stout that will go on tap only at the brewery, and call it our Festival of Darkness II.

While we don’t have the capacity to roll them all out at once, bit by bit we’ll let them sneak up on you, just like the short days of winter. Except this year, you’ll be properly prepared. Bigger than the F.O.D. we did two years back, we’ll feature a total of SEVEN DIFFERENT TREATMENTS (also known as BEERS) to combat your “Seasonal Affected Disorder” which comes on as the days get shorter and the nights get long. Wow. I know I’m already feeling better, just thinking about it.