The American Craft Beer Rumor Mill – January 9, 2013

American Craft Beer|January 9th, 2013|

It’s Wednesday and it’s Rumor Mill Time! 2013 has just begun and it’s already shaping up to be a remarkable year! SweetWater Brewing is living the “sweet life” and things are poised to get even better! We’ll be giving you everything that we know so far, plus we’ve got some fast-breaking news from Remarkable Liquids and the New Belgium crew…….We also have a hot new craft beer release that you’ll want to look out for. So fasten your seatbelt because…… THIS WEEK’S RUMOR MILL IS ON!

Sweet Things Are Made of This (Atlanta, GA) – 2012 was a very good year for our friends at SweetWater Brewing Co. SweetWater sold roughly 110,000 barrels last year and that’s a 15% increase over 2011! They also increased their regional footprint significantly, expanding into new Southeastern markets including: Tampa, Orlando, Sarasota and Ft. Myers, FL; Rock Hill, SC; and Cookeville and Clarksville, TN. But they’re not stopping there. In 2013, the brewery will be adding the finishing touches on the final stages of its $19 million expansion. This final stage includes the brewery’s new 250-barrel brew house – a considerable upgrade from their original 50-barrel facility. With 10 new 1,000-barrel fermentation tanks, four new 1,000-barrel brite tanks and a slew of shiny new brew house equipment, they will soon be firing up the lines!

New Belgium Kicks off Its 2013 Lips of Faith Series (Fort Collins, CO) – New Belgium Brewing has just announced the first round of their Lips of Faith beer series for 2013. Heavenly Feijoa Tripel is a collaboration beer with Montreal’s Dieu du Ciel! Brewery and Cascara Quad is an ale that channels the Trappist tradition. The beers will be available in 22 oz. bottles in select markets now through March, or at least while supplies last.

Remarkable Liquids Gets Even More Remarkable! (Albany, NY) – Remarkable Liquids has signed a distribution agreement to represent the Global Beer Network in 42 counties across upstate New York. Global Beer Network is the exclusive U.S. importer of more than 60 Belgian beer labels from nine award-winning Belgian breweries. Labels include: Gulden Draak, Piraat, Monks Café and Petrus Aged Pale. Both draft and package will be available by the end of January.

The Bruery Closes Provisions (Placentia, CA) – This one’s a total bummer. Cries of anguish greeted The Bruery’s announcement that they’ll be closing their Orange, California bottle store and bar, Provisions, so that they can concentrate on their core mission – brewing beer. Their decision to forgo their retail operation created such an uproar that it crashed their website according to our friends at beerpulse.

A New Release You Want to Look Out For

21st Amendment Brewery has just launched a Sneak Attack and you’ll want to be ready for it! Sneak Attack is the brewery’s newest seasonal offering, a Belgian-style Saison, brewed with a traditional spicy Belgian Saison yeast. It’s dry hopped, but not overly bitter. Co-founder and Brewmaster Shaun O’Sullivan says, “while this is the time of year when brewers are typically introducing strong, heavy beers, we wanted to brew up a bit of an alternative! At 6.2% ABV with 38 IBUs, it drinks light and refreshing but really has some heat behind what is seemingly a tame beer.”