Author Archives: Reid Ramsay
Sierra Nevada Celebration IPA returns in cans this month
It’s always nice to see a venerable beer like Sierra Nevada Celebration IPA still able to stir up some excitement. The brewery posted a picture of Celebration cans ready waiting to be filled, and fans re-professed their love for this seasonal beer all over again. Celebration IPA is an absolute seasonal classic, akin to Bell’s Two Hearted, or Russian River’s Pliny the Elder. Only, you can only get it as the year wind’s down.
Celebration Ale has hit shelves once again.
Sierra Nevada has been brewing this fresh-hopped India pale ale since 1981, just one year after opening in 1980. While craft beer’s #1 selling style [IPA] has seen a lot of trends, Celebration Ale has remained steadfast in simply staying as-is. Perhaps that mix of quality and reliability is what makes it so popular – a fact proven by the overwhelming reactions from Celebration fans after the brewery posted the above photo this week.
Celebration Ale follows Oktoberfest in the brewery’s seasonal series of releases.
Style: IPA
Availability: 12oz Cans, Draft.
First Release: 1981
Latest Return: November 2023
6.8% ABV
PIC: Beer Street Journal
Ecliptic Brewing sells
Ecliptic Brewing in Portland, Oregon has announced the brewery has been sold.
Ecliptic Brewing announced this week that the brewery has officially been sold, per the brewery’s owner and brewmaster John Harris.
In an Instagram announcement, the Harris stated the last two years of brewery operations have been challenging – citing the pandemic, rising cost of goods, and overall economic climate. “It has gotten to the point where we are no longer able to continue operations, and the company has been sold,” the statement reads.
“A Bigger Entity.”
Harris mentioned in the statement that the sale will allow the brewery to pay back debts with a “bigger entity” – which has now been disclosed as Great Frontier Holdings that includes Ninkasi Brewing and Wings & Arrow Beer Company.
The restaurant will be open through Saturday, November 18th.
The Ecliptic Brewing beers and production will presumably continue on through Great Frontier Holdings channels.
Ecliptic Brewing opened their “Mothership” restaurant and brewery in October of 2013. In November 2021, Ecliptic took over Base Camp Brewing’s space in southeast Portland- renaming the location “The Moon Room.”
Anheuser-Busch sells Virtue Cider back to owner
Quietly, Fennville, Michigan’s Virtue Cider has returned back into the hands of the founder Greg Hall.
Virtue Cider is no longer part of Anheuser-Busch. This deal took place back in August, around the same time Anheuser Busch was selling off eight brands to Tilray, and has been flying almost completely under the radar until a mention of the sale surfaced this week in Crain’s Grand Rapids Business.
After reaching out to Virtue Cider, a spokesperson with the A-B Craft Division confirms that Greg Hall reaquired the cidery back in August. Per the email:
Today we announced an agreement to purchase Virtue Cider from our partners at Anheuser-Busch. It’s been a great five years with Anheuser-Busch, and I want to thank my colleagues and fellow craft brewery founders for believing in Virtue Cider and helping us create some of the best cider in the world.
Moving forward, we’ll continue to focus on what we’ve always done: making world-class ciders that are fit for the table, being great stewards of the environment, and helping more people discover Fennville and all that Southwest Michigan has to offer.
Greg Hall, Founder, Virtue Cider
In 2015 it was reported that Virtue Cider had fallen behind financially. Ultimately Hall decided to sell off the controlling stake in Virtue to Anheuser Busch. In 2017, A-B bought the remaining stake in September 2017.
Fast forward to 2023, AB InBev has lost billions over the summer after a failed marketing campaign, and as mentioned earlier, sold off numerous brands including Shock Top, in their portfolio off to cannabis company, Tilray.
The deal is still pending approval through the Michigan Liquor Control Commission. The financials of the deal and closing date were not disclosed.
Beer Street Journal visited Virtue Cider earlier this summer. It’s a bit off the beaten path, but quite peaceful (and delicious).
Pontoon Brewing closing October 28th
Atlanta-based Pontoon Brewing will close both their locations on October 28th.
As is pretty standard these days, Pontoon Brewing took to Instagram to announce the brewery will close their doors after their last scheduled event on October 28th. In the post, Pontoon blames a lack of payments from their main distributing partner for the brewery’s demise, stopping short of naming which distributor that has not paid the brewery.
With the current state of the economy, it’s been a bumpier ride than anticipated, but we continued to grow strike up new partnerships, grow our team, and shine bright! That said, due to one of our main distribution partners not paying us for our product, we are faced with a dire situation and are forced to temporarily close our doors while we find a new partner or buyer for the business.
Pontoon Brewing via Instagram
An email shared anonymously this week from an employee at Pontoon to unknown recipients, was much more direct, stating “Pontoon Brewing closing its doors.”
PICS: PONTOON BREWING’S 2ND ANNIVERSARY
Pontoon Brewing opened it’s doors in Sandy Springs, Georgia in January of 2018, and opening a 2nd location dubbed “The Lodge” in nearby Tucker, Georgia in September 2022.
Messages to Pontoon Brewing were not immediately returned.
Below, Beer Street Journal images of Pontoon Brewing’s ribbon cutting ceremony from January 2018.
Birds Fly South Ale Project to close October 10th
Greenville, South Carolina’s Birds Fly South has announced they will close on October 10th, 2023.
Shawn and Lindsay Johnson started Birds Fly South Ale Project 7 years ago in the Hampton Station area of Greenville, South Carolina. The couple met and married while Shawn was in the Coast Guard in Clearwater, Florida. Shortly after getting married, the opportunity came for the Johnsons to move to either Hawaii or Alaska and they chose Alaska. As you can imagine, the weather in America’s 49th state isn’t as conducive to outdoor activities as Florida, so they took up brewing beer. Indoors.
A few years later, the family transferred back to Florida, and that’s where Shawn & Lindsay’s brewing career really took off. From the first time Beer Street Journal met Shawn, he always spoke so highly of his brewing mentor, Bob Sylvester, founder of St. Somewhere Brewing in Tampa, Florida.
Before Greenville, there was a stop in Washington D.C., putting in time assisting in the opening of Fair Winds Brewing Company, then getting transferred to South Carolina.
Last night, Shawn and Lindsay announced on Instagram the brewery would close after their final jazz event on October 10th.
We wish that this was a fairy tale ending, but recognize all good things must come to an end. Timing is everything, and we embarked on an expansion to increase our taproom sales that have taken a hit over the last year. We don’t regret that decision, only the way we went about it.
The silver lining is that we are able to step away from the stress of running a business to have more time to focus on our family. This is our opportunity to embark on a new adventure and enjoy a new pace of life.Birds Fly South via Instagram
On a personal note, Shawn and Lindsay, as well as the entire brewery crew and fans they call “The Flock” are some of the kindest, outgoing, family-focused breweries I’ve ever been to. Their wild ale Skin & Bone is still one of the best of its kind In the southeast. It’s heartbreaking to hear this brewery won’t be there on the next trip to Greenville.
Below are some pics from Beer Street Journal’s first visit to Birds Fly South, featuring Shawn, Lindsay, and family back in August of 2016.
ATL Brew Fest 2023 – beer with 106 heat index
It was 97 degrees in the shade in Atlanta on this particular Saturday, but the festival must go on. Live! at The Battery Atlanta and Terrapin Taproom held their annual beer festival right right at the gates to the Atlanta Braves stadium.
One thing is certain, it doesn’t matter if the heat index is 106 degrees, it’s still summer and there is drinking to do. The VIP section was inside, complete with food and free tie-dyed t-shirts, so those VIP ticket holders really won the day on that purchase.
Besides the heat, a few standouts on the day was Stillfire Brewing’s Blood Orange Diva, a wheat beer and Atlanta Hawks DJ, Chika Takai that threw down dance party all the way to the end – where incidentally it started to rain at the final seconds of her set.
Plus it’s not many beer festivals where you can leave the festival and walk into a bar 100 feet away. That’s The Battery Atlanta for you.
Maybe next year’s fest will be a little cooler.
Biden “Alcohol Czar” says U.S. may recommend only 2 beers per week
Under new U.S. government guidelines, Americans could soon be warned not to drink more than 2 beers per week.
The Biden Administration’s “alcohol czar” Dr. George Koob says Americans might be told to limit themselves to just two beers a week under potential new alcohol guidelines.
Koob made big news Friday (of all times of the week) that the USDA might soon revise their drinking guidance to just two drinks per week. The genesis of this potential guidance comes on the heels of a “grand experiment” in Canada, where the government advises their citizens to limit themselves to two beers per week.
Currently, United States guidelines state women can have one bottle of beer, or a small glass of wine, or a shot PER WEEK, doubling that for men.
Digging through USDA references, alcohol intake is defined as
“Containing 14 grams (0.6 fl oz) of pure alcohol. The following count as one alcoholic drink equivalent: 12 fluid ounces of regular beer (5% alcohol), 5 fluid ounces of wine (12% alcohol), or 1.5 fluid ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits (40% alcohol).”
Koob told the DailyMail there were “no benefits to drinking alcohol in terms of a person’s physical health while admitting he enjoyed buttery Californian chardonnays weekly.
Canada’s restrictive drinking guidelines were announced earlier this year, dropping previous suggestions of 15 drinks for men and 10 for women to two or less. Canada’s announcements come after new research from multiple academic institutions suggests that drinking even minimally can lead to many health risks.
If the United States changes the drinking guidelines, they won’t be announced until late 2025.
