Headlines

Posted in Bell's Brewing, Headlines

Bell’s Oatsmobile Ale will be canned this spring

Bell’s Oatsmobile Ale, launched in April, will be canned in Spring, 2017. This was the first year-round addition since 2010.

Bell’s Oatsmobile Ale, as the name suggests, is brewed with malted oats. The brewery states that the oat addition lends the beer a body you don’t alway get in a session pale ale. The oats plus a dry-hop bill of Mosaic, Citra, and Amarillo makes what Bell’s hopes is a standout low alcohol by volume beer.

“This beer is unique. Aromatics may drive it, but the signature ingredient – oats – are what really makes this beer stand apart and also where the name comes from. It’s approachable and intriguing with a fun personality,” said Bell’s Vice President, Laura Bell.

Bell’s Oatsmobile Ale is currently available in 12 ounce bottles and draft across the brewery’s entire network. 12 ounce cans will be available in the coming spring.

Style: Pale Ale
Availability: 12oz Bottles, Draft. Year-Round
Debut: April, 2016
Cans: Spring, 2017

4.3% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Terrapin Beer Company, Coming Soon, Headlines

S’mores inspired beer: Terrapin Chubby Bunny

Terrapin Chubby Bunny is the both the 4th release in the brewery’s employee brew-off series, and the 29th Side Project Release.

A few years ago, the Athens, Georgia based brewery decided to put their employees to the [brewing] test. Internally, members of the Terrapin Tribe split up and got fermentationally weird. At the staff end of year party, each team presents their recipe, proposed name (which half the time has to be changed to make the government happy), and a skit relative to the beer. Trust us, it gets pretty hilarious.

RELATED: Terrapin Side Project Series

This year’s winning recipe is an imperial s’more milk stout, aka Terrapin Chubby Bunny. Inspired by the fireside favorite, Chubby features local Condor Chocolates, graham cracker, and marshmallows.

Chubby Bunny is our 4th installment of our employee home-brew competition. This Imperial milk stout breaks all the rules by combining flavors of graham cracker, toasted marshmallow and dark chocolate. This mouthful of a stout will challenge any beer lover to say “Chubby Bunny”

Previous employee brew-off releases include Pineapple Express, Saison Poivre, and Turtleneck.

Terrapin Chubby Bunny will be a 22 ounce bottle release in 2017.

Style: Imperial Milk Stout (w/ Lactose, Graham Cracker, Marshmallow, Chocolate)
Availability: 22oz Bottles, Draft.
Debut: Early 2017

9.3% ABV

The winning Terrapin employee team: Tim Fennimore, Kim Fraher, Stephan Fraher, Kelly Guglietta, Geoff Hammond, Bear Jordan, and Marth Sproull

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Left Hand Brewing, Headlines

Left Hand is introducing new “Les Quatre” saison series in 2017

Colorado based Left Hand Brewing is introducing a new saison series dubbed “Les Quatre” in 2017.

This fall, the brewery introduced 12 ounce cans for the first time, starting with Milk Stout, Fade to Black and Extrovert IPA. Next year, the brewery will add 16 ounce cans to the lineup, as well as a new series of seasonal saisons.

Each release will debut with the turning the season, brewed with local Colorado ingredients. Saison au Miel, brewed with wildflower honey will be first.

Other saisons will include Saison au Bledeminuit (brewed with midnight wheat), Saison Au Genievre (with juniper berries), and Saison Aux Baies Ameres (with chokeberries). Chokeberries, often called aronia berries, are very distinct in flavor, often described as sour and slightly bitter. The result will most likely be quite a memorable saison.

Expect the first Left Hand Les Quatre Series release to debut in March, 2017 in 16 ounce cans (4 packs).

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Madtree Brewing Co., Cigar City Brewing, Headlines, Heavy Seas, Union Craft Brewing

Heavy Seas announces 2017 “Partner Ships” collaborations

In 2016, Baltimore, Maryland’s Heavy Seas Beer announced a new collaborative series they call “Partner Ships.”

The series kicked off in February with a red India pale ale, brewed with Maine Beer Company. That release was followed with an “aggressively hopped” doppelbock, aka Hoppelbock in May.

August saw A Rye Wit brewed with Athens, Georgia based Terrapin Beer Company, followed by this winter’s Imperial Brown IPA brewed with Stone Brewing.

That was 2016. 

Coming in 2017 are three more collaborations coming to the Heavy Seas Partner Ships Series. This first is in February with neighboring Union Craft Brewing.

In July, the Floridians of Cigar City Brewing (Gulf of Mexico waters) will collaborate with the brewery on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

Rounding out the year will be Madtree Brewing out of Cincinnati, Ohio. (To keep them from feeling left out of the waterway association theme we arbitrarily started, their closest body of water is the Ohio River.)

Heavy Seas tells Beer Street Journal that the first release’s style  (with Union Craft Brewing) has been decided. The beer will be an 8.5% alcohol by volume old ale, brewed with locally based Domino Brown Sugar.

Hints of nuts, cocoa, molasses and dried fruits oat over a chewy, luscious body of English malt goodness. Inspired by the rich, warming brews of a bygone era, the addition of local Domino Brown Sugar and neighborly camaraderie helped us produce a true comfort ale that should kindle its own Baltimore nostalgia.

 

Each release will be available again in 22 ounce bottles.

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Anheuser-Busch, Asahi Brewing, Headlines

Asahi buys five European AB InBev brands for $7.8 billion

Leuven, Belgium based AB InBev is selling five eastern European brands to Asahi.

Five brands are involved in the deal, including Pilsner Urquell (Czech Republic), Tyskie and Lech (Poland), Dreher (Hungary), and Ursus (Romania).

Each of the brands were owned by SABMiler before AB InBev’s $100 billion takeover, finalized this fall.

Besides their brands that bear their own name, Asahi Breweries purchased Tsingtao from AB InBev in 2009, and London based Meantime Brewery, Grolsch and Peroni from SABMiller earlier this year.

Asasi has apparently been shopping the eastern European market for years. The purchase is the largest to date by Asahi, who seeking to become a stronger player in the global beer market.

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in SweetWater Brewing, Headlines

Sour, wild, a ton of oak. SweetWater The Woodlands in pictures

It all started with Pit and the Pendulum, SweetWater’s peach fruited wild ale. What was supposed to scratch an itch for funky brewing, blew the door wide open for The Woodlands.

Coming in January is SweetWater’s Through the Brambles, the first release from the completed Woodlands Project. The inaugural release is nothing short of fantastic. Fresh raspberries were added to a light sour base (one of which will serve as the brewery’s “mother” beer), in oak barrels.

In place now are 500 oak barrels ranging from red wine to rum and bourbon, 15 puncheons (larger wine casks), and six oak foudres. The 37,000 square foot facility signals a new era of sophistication for the brewery.

Get to know this names if you don’t know them already. Mark Medlin, Troy Montrone, and Chris Meadows. That is the funky bunch that is making Lactobacillus, Brettanomyces, oak and fruit, work for tastebuds affections. Once you taste Through the Brambles, you’ll find out they are off to one hell of a great start.

The Woodlands will be open to the public in January, 2017.

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in New Belgium, Headlines

New Belgium 8 Hop Pale Ale, a brand new year-rounder

New Belgium 8 Hop Pale Ale debuts this month. An all-new beer and a part of the brewery’s Voodoo Ranger Series.

As the name suggests, New Belgium 8 Hop Pale Ale features a blend of eight hops. Which eight you might ask? The lineup is Nugget, Cascade, Centennial, Nelson Sauvin, Amarillo, Mosaic, Simcoe, and Citra.

A brilliantly balanced pale ale packed with citrus and tropical fruit flavors from eight different hops.

New Belgium 8 Hop Pale Ale will join a newly re-branded series you come to know as Voodoo Ranger. The series includes Voodoo Ranger IPA, Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA, and 8 Hop Pale Ale.

This year-round offering will be available in 12 ounce bottles, cans, and draft.

Style: Pale Ale
Hops: Nugget, Cascade, Centennial, Nelson Sauvin, Amarillo, Mosaic, Simcoe, Citra

Availability: 12oz Bottles, Cans, Draft. Year-Round.
Debut: December, 2016

5.5% ABV, 35 IBUs.

by Reid Ramsay