Breweries

Your favorite Avery beers are getting a new look

Boulder, Colorado-based Avery Brewing is has unveiled refreshed artwork for some of their most popular brands.

With Avery’s 25th anniversary approaching, the brewery teamed up with nationally recognized artist Neil Shigley. The goal was to create unique artwork for the brewery’s popular Continue Reading →

Posted in Terrapin Beer Company, Beer News

Dustin Watts named president of Terrapin starting in the fall

Terrapin Beer Company’s Frank Skorzewski has announced his retirement as of August 31st of this year. A longtime employee of the brewery Dustin Watts will assume the presidential role upon Skorzewski’s retirement on September 1st.

Frank has held the president seat at Terrapin for the past two years. For that duration, he’s been commuting from his home in South Carolina, well as focusing on smart company growth, and the brewery’s transition into the Tenth & Blake portfolio. Watts, along with co-founder and brewmaster Brian “Spike” Buckowski will lead the brewery into 2019 and beyond.

We’ll miss Frank, but we won’t miss a beat because Dustin will succeed him as president. As Terrapin’s vice president of marketing and sales since January 2006, Dustin has been one of the most prominent faces of the brewery with distributors, retailers and beer drinkers. He joined the brewery in late 2003 and has been a driving force in building the brand, growing the business and developing the team and culture that have been so critical in making Terrapin one of the most successful craft brands across the Southeast and beyond. If you’ve gotten to know Dustin, you know he lives and breathes Terrapin! – Pete Marino, President of Tenth & Blake

Terrapin was founded in Athens, Georgia in 2002. In 2017, the brewery opened the Terrapin Brewlab, a 5 barrel brewhouse in Suntrust Park, home of the Atlanta Braves.

In 2018, the brewery is up 25% year-to-date through the end of March and is currently expanding distribution into both Michigan and Wisconsin.

Above: Dustin Watts & his wife Terri in Patagonia – El Chalten, Argentina.

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Against the Grain, Headlines, Jack's Abby Brewing

Challenging the hoppy haze craze, the “clear IPA” is officially here

“The haze craze” has taken the beer industry by storm. The turbid, cloudy, New England IPA, powered by social media, is now being brewed coast to coast and even abroad. The Brewers Association has even added the hazy IPA as an official style.

Over the winter, Massachusetts based Jack’s Abby crossed paths with Against The Grain Brewery from Kentucky. Like damn near everyone else in the beer industry right now, the hazy IPA/New England IPA came up in conversation.

It started as a joke, and now it’s very real. Meet the “clear IPA”.

RED BRICK BREWING CREATES A “MYRTLE BEACH IPA”

Against The Grain teamed up with Springdale Beer, the experimental wing of Jack’s Abby, to create the antithesis of the hazy IPA trend – an IPA that pours nearly as clear as water. No murky glasses of beer that resemble orange juice found here. Why not, right? After all, Crystal Pepsi is a real thing.

How the brewing teams did it is still a secret. However, the result (pardon the pun) is clear. The opposite of the hazy IPA now exists in the world, and it’s called Any IPA.

Incidentally, Any IPA is the first canned collaboration for Springdale. The clear IPA is on tap now at both Against the Grain and Springdale breweries, as well as their distribution areas.

Image: Springdale Beer

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Iron Hill Brewing, New Releases

Brewed with fresh oranges, Iron Hill Hopicana is here for summer

Iron Hill Hopicana brings the “juice” ahead of summer.

The multi-state based brewpub created Iron Hill Hopicana (a west-coast India Pale Ale) to taste like fresh picked orange juice in beer form. So much so, they used fresh oranges.

Hopicana is a hop-forward IPA brewed with real oranges for refreshing, juicy flavor. It’s a West Coast-style IPA that drinks like a cold glass of fresh-squeezed OJ.

The label is inspired by commercial food labels from the 30’s and 40’s.

Iron Hill Hopicana will be available on May 10th in 16-ounce cans and draft.

Style: IPA (w/ Oranges)
Availability: 16oz Cans, Draft. Summer Seasonal.
Debut: 5/10/18

6.6% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Ommegang, New Releases

Rosé all day? Ommegang Saison Rosé arrives for summer

Ommegang Saison Rose is debuting ahead of summer.

Rosé wine surges in popularity as temperatures rise. Beer is bringing their own version of the pink stuff, thanks to Ommegang and their new Saison Rosé.

Blending beer is nothing new to Brewery Ommegang. Their Three Philosophers is a blended beer that debuted in 2002. Saison Rosé is also blended, that starts as light saison brewed with hibiscus flowers. It is then fermented in stainless steel with chardonnay grape juices.

The grape juice/hibiscus saison is then blended with what the brewery calls a “heartier” oak-aged saison with strong tannic notes.

Aromas of grapefruit and red berries are followed by a hint of oak. Flavors of sweet berries and lightly-tart citrus resolve to subtle oak tannins and spicy Belgian yeast. The beer is light-bodied with a soft mouthfeel, crisp, dry finish…

Ommegang Saison Rosé is available in 12-ounce bottles and draft for a limited time in summer 2018.

Style: Saison (w/ Hibiscus Flowers. Chardonnay Grapes. Oak Aged.)
Availability: 12oz Bottles, Draft. Summer Seasonal.
Debut: May 2018

7.7% ABV

Image: Ommegang

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Avery Brewing

Your favorite Avery beers are getting a new look

Boulder, Colorado-based Avery Brewing is has unveiled refreshed artwork for some of their most popular brands.

With Avery’s 25th anniversary approaching, the brewery teamed up with nationally recognized artist Neil Shigley. The goal was to create unique artwork for the brewery’s popular beers that was “modern and fresh” yet still paid homage to beer’s heritage and recognition.

“Our goal was to stay true to the artistry that each beer represents while also building a beacon of light in a sea of choices. We are driven to create inspiring beer experiences and the new artwork reflects the focus of our craft.” – Adam Avery, Founder and CEO

Avery and Shigley spent a good amount of time together in both Shigley’s San Diego home and at Avery Brewing ahead of the refresh, getting a feel for the new artistic direction. Above are the first designs going into production now.

Fans can expect to see newly designed artwork on their favorite beers over the rest of 2018 and into 2019.

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Pontoon Brewing, Coming Soon, Don't Miss This

Find out what Roald Dahl really meant, plus Pontoon Snozzberries Taste Like Snozzberries

This one is for Willy Wonka fans. Pontoon Snozzberries Taste Like Snozzberries debuts this weekend.

In real life, snozzberries aren’t real. You’d be surprised how many people didn’t know that. There’s more to snozzberries though. Sure, they are fictitious, but there’s an ongoing debate running around the internet that Dahl’s snozzberries were actually penises, thanks to a reference from this 1979 novel My Uncle Oswald. How he used “snozzberry” in that book was years after defining it differently.

In 1948, Roald Dahl published Some Time Never: A Fable for Supermen. In the book, Dahl defines snozzberries as the main source of food for displaced gremlins that humans drove underground. 16 years later, Wonka himself in references it again with his lickable, fruit-laden wallpaper.

As for the beer, the brewery has envisioned what a snozzberry might actually taste like, and it doesn’t require licking wallpaper.

Pontoon Snozzberries Taste Like Snozzberries is a Berliner Weisse brewed with 2 pounds of boysenberries and black currants per gallon, as well as vanilla and lactose milk sugar. The end result is basically an alcoholic fruit smoothy that finishes with a touch of tartness and lingering vanilla. If fruit/dessert beers are your thing, don’t pass this release up.

Pontoon Snozzberries Taste Like Snozzberries will be available at the brewery in 16-ounce cans on May 12th.

Style: Berliner Weisse (w/ Boysenberries. Black Currants. Vanilla. Lactose.)
Availability: 16oz cans, Draft.
Debut: 5/12/18

?? ABV

PIC: Beer Street Journal

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Highland Brewing, Headlines

Highland Brewing teams up with Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats

Highland Half Yuszch Pilsner debuts this month, a collaboration with the band Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats.

S.O.B. (Son of Bitch) is the song that brought Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats to national fame, selling out shows wherever they travel. This year, the band is currently touring and promoting their newest album, Tearing at the Seams with the hit single “You Worry Me”.

A few years ago, Highland Brewing teamed up with AC Entertainment and Orange Peel Events in order to bring larger music acts to play at the brewery. That move has brought Nathaniel Rateliff to play at the Asheville, North Carolina brewery this month. Highland approached the beer-loving Night Sweats about collaborating on their own craft beer, and the band was more than happy mash in.

Highland Half Yüszch is a Czech-style pilsner, named in honor of the band’s yüszch (meaning usual) tradition of downing a beer and a shot (presumably pre or post-performance). The pilsner is brewed with traditional Saaz hops and Asheville’s soft mountain water. The brewery says the result is “crisp and crushable”.

Half Yüszch will be available at the brewery on May 10th, as well as Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats soldout show at the brewery on May 11th. $1 from each beer sold will support The Marigold Project, a foundation established by Nathaniel Rateliff to address issues of economic and social justice.

Style: Pilsner
Hops: Saaz
Malts: Weyerman Pilsner

Availability: 12oz Cans, Draft
Distribution: Brewery Only

Debut: Early May 2018

4.5% ABV

Image: Beer Street Journal

by Reid Ramsay