American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
So many beers, So little time…With so many craft breweries, releasing so many beers, we thought it might help to provide a weekly update on all the new beers that are hitting the streets…So welcome to this week’s edition of Newbies – your guide to great new craft beer releases!
It’s Time to Get Elevated (Poncha Springs, CO) – And Elevation Beer Company has two upcoming summer seasonals in its Black Series and Double Black Series to do it with! Elevation will be releasing a 7.8% ABV Wild Flowers Imperial Saison and Engel Weisse, a 4% ABV barrel-fermented Berliner Weisse Sour, later this month.
The People Have Spoken (Athens, GA) – It seems that more and more craft breweries are reaching out to their fans to crowdsource brewing recipes and to gage drinking preferences. Terrapin Beer Co. recently jumped on the peer-driven bandwagon when it asked its fans to vote to reinstate their favorite retired Terrapin beer. After some serious campaigning, the 2008 Side Project Vol. 4 release reigned supreme – Dos Cocoas Chocolate Porter. And it’s easy to see why – brewed using cocoa nibs and shells from Nashville, TN’s small-batch chocolatier Olive & Sinclair, Dos Cocoas is its own sweet and velvety voter stimulus package. Dos Cocoas will be packaged in 22 oz. bottles and available starting mid-July within Terrapin’s ten-state distribution network.
Rip Cord Now Year Round (Shelbyville, IN) – The Daredevil Brewing Company’s hopped-out-of-its-mind Double IPA is now year-round and the world is a better place because it is. Rip Cord Double IPA is a 9% ABV monster that will be available on draft throughout central and southern Indiana beginning July 22.
Good Beer For Bad Weather (Somerdale, NJ) – New Jersey’s largest craft brewery, Flying Fish Brewing Company, has debuted a bottled version of their wildly popular Forever Unloved (F. U.) Sandy – a hybrid wheat-pale ale. Originally available only on draught, the beer has already generated more than $45,000 for New Jersey victims of 2012’s Superstorm Sandy and that’s a good thing.
Coming Together for 19 Heroes (Prescott, AZ) – The Arizona Craft Brewers Guild will be coming together to brew a special beer, “Heroes 19,” as a tribute to the 19 firefighters who lost their lives on June 30 trying to contain a 2,000-acre fire just south of Prescott. To honor each of the 19 fallen firefighters, the American Brown Ale will feature 19 hops, all of which were donated by Arizona breweries. Brewing will begin at Prescott Brewing Companynext week. All proceeds from the beer will go towards the Prescott firefighter’s charity foundation to support the families of the 19 heroes. Only 60 barrels will be produced, with keg allocations going to breweries belonging to the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild.
Things Get Odder at Elysian (Seattle, WA) – When Elysian Brewing provided Seattle artist Jim Woodring with the grist of their idea for the second beer in the collaborative Oddland Series, it was really pretty simple: pear and cardamom! Oddland Spiced Pear Ale is brewed with pears, Yakima Cascade, and Czech Saaz hops and (oh yeah) cardamom, and it’s a drinkable 6.25% ABV oddity. Jim Woodring’s label art tells his part of the story, transporting those paying attention once more to Oddland.
FCB Comes Out Of The Ashes (Fort Collins, CO) – The Fort Collins Brewery has been brewing smoke beers since its founding in 2003, but they are approaching this niche style from a new direction with Out of the Ashes, a series of limited release beers intended to explore the varied and unique qualities that smoked malt can contribute to beer. The first two members of the series, Rauchbier (which won a Gold Medal at GABF in 2012 under the name Bambostic) and Mesquite Chili Lime Ale, will be released at a party at FCB on August 25. Thereafter, a limited number of bottles will be available to bars, restaurants, and liquor stores – so you know what to do!
