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We blame the industry for this… It used to be that when we wrapped up our Weekend Picks on Friday, we could coast through the weekend. There was little need to check in for updates – things were pretty much done. But clearly all that’s changed. So here’s some of what’s happened in the world of craft beer while you were enjoying yourselves.
Stone’s Greg Koch to go “Off-The-Grid” (Escondido, CA) – Craft beer media reeled late last week as word spread like wildfire that Stone Brewing Company’s Co-Founder and CEO, Greg Koch, would be taking a six-month sabbatical to travel the world – and that he’d be totally off-the-grid! “This comes as a shock to all of us who cover the craft beer scene” said Tom Bobak, the Editor-In-Chief of American Craft Beer. “We may all have to go back to ripping-off badly written press releases or just start making shit up again.” “Koch could always be counted on to stir things up,” Bobak continued. “He’s been off-the-wall before, but never off-the-grid.”
“Best Beer Name of The Week” Awarded! (Houston TX) – This week’s American Craft Beer Name of the Week goes to Saint Arnold Brewing Company for a classic pumpkin beer name. Saint Arnold Pumpkinator is the name of their awesome fall seasonal, an Imperial Pumpkin Stout. It also pays homage to the Terminator movies, which were also pretty awesome. This was a first “Best Beer Name” win for the Houston-based brewery and we’re thinking they’ve got to be psyched about it.
And So It Begins (Mills River, NC) – “Test brewing has started at Sierra Nevada’s big East Coast expansion,” reports The Asheville Citizen-Times, and the brewers are testing “a stout that brewery founder Ken Grossman first made in 1980.” The company has said that they still plan to make beer for sale by this year’s end.
Saint Arnold Enters New Belgium’s Brutal Pumpkin Carving Competition (Houston, TX) – You’d have to be a saint to even think about entering a competition as aggressive and potentially ugly as New Belgium’s Craft Carve-Off and that’s exactly what the folks at the Saint Arnold Brewing Company have done! As we detailed last week, what might appear to be nothing more than a polite pumpkin-carving contest for charity has attracted some of craft beer’s biggest and most competitive names. “These are all alpha-breweries – every one of them expects and intends to win,” said Amber Medin, Co-Editor for American Craft Beer. “Competitions like these can go nuclear quickly,” Medin added, “I just pray that the folks at Saint Arnold’s know what they’re getting into.” Public voting has already begun and runs through October 15 at Eater.com. And as we’ve reported, New Belgium will donate $5,000 to a charity of the winner’s choice.
Wild Heaven to Break Earth (Decatur, GA) – Our friend Nick Purdy and his crew at Wild Heaven will be building a new 8,000-sq-ft brewery close to where they launched a little more than three years ago. The new facility will be based seven miles east of downtown Atlanta and will be outfitted with a 30-barrel brewing system that has its own history in Georgia brewing, having served both SweetWater Brewing and The Terrapin Beer Company.
