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So many beers, So little time…From special collaborations and craft beer one-offs to exciting new fall and winter seasonals, Newbies is your essential map to the “best of the best” and the hottest new craft beers rolling out each week. So welcome to this week’s edition of Newbies – your guide to great new craft beer releases!
Time Again for a Fireside Chat (San Francisco, CA) – With the seasons changing, the 21st Amendment Brewery is releasing their 2013 spiced winter seasonal. Hearkening back to the Golden Age of radio, when the Great Depression held the country in its sway and people longed for better times, Fireside Chat is a subtle twist on those times, these times, and the holidays. This dark ruby brown English-style ale displays a subtle blend of spices that balances nicely with the malt flavor. It’s undeniably warming, weighing in at a roaring 7.9% ABV.
A Bastard Tsunami (Escondido, CA) – The Stone Brewing Company has just unleashed this year’s Double Bastard Ale along with three other mean-spirited bastard variations sure to piss off human rights organizations everywhere.
Double Bastard Ale was first released in November 1998 to honor the one-year anniversary of Arrogant Bastard Ale. This year’s edition of the classic clocks in at an unforgiving 11.2% ABV.
Southern Charred is the Double Bastard barrel-aged for 10 months in heavily charred Kentucky bourbon and American oak barrels, then transferred to second-use Kentucky bourbon barrels to age for an additional 13 months. The dark amber beast was brewed with a huge malt bill and a belligerent amount of hops.
Crime and Punishment are two other unforgivingly takes on bastards…
First brewed in 2010, Crime is Lukcy Basartd Ale brewed with red and green jalapeño, Fatali, Caribbean Red Hot, habanero, Ghost, Black Naga, Super, Moruga Scorpion, 7 Pot, Aji Amarillo, Scorpion, Giant White Habanero, 7 Pot Douglah, and Douglah peppers.
The 12% ABV Punishment is Double Bastard Ale brewed with all of Crime’s hotness and oak barrel-aged to up its swagger to cataclysmic levels.
Who Wants a Cookie? (Baltimore, MD) – Our Friends at Full Tilt Brewing are releasing their first winter seasonal – it’s both a stout and a tribute to Charm City’s beloved Berger Cookie. The roots of Baltimore’s legendary fudge and wafer cookie can be traced back to 1835 when German immigrant Henry Berger arrived in the United States and opened a bakery in East Baltimore. The Berger Cookie recipe is now owned and baked by DeBaufre Bakeries and they’ve collaborated with Full Tilt to create Berger Cookie Chocolate Stout. This draft-only specialty will debut on Friday, November 15 at The Admiral’s Cup in Baltimore’s Fell’s Point and should be available throughout the region in December.
Limbo Down (Bridgewater Corners, VT) – Long Trail Brewing’s got a new year-round IPA and we’re pretty damn excited for them. Long Trail Limbo IPA was first brewed as part of their small batch draft-only Brown Bag Series and was so well received that one customer’s e-mail remarked, “You’d better not leave me sitting here in limbo waiting for you to brew some of your new IPAs year-round.” And that’s how Limbo became part of its name.
The Mother of All Wet Hops Returns (Chico, CA) – Sierra Nevada just released an ACB favorite and we’re all about it. Northern Hemisphere Harvest Ale is the beer that launched the “wet hop” craze. Brewed with wet hops plucked straight from the fields in Yakima, WA, and into their brew kettles within 24 hours, this 6.7% ABV seasonal is an autumn specialty always worth waiting for!
