Last night, we’re sitting around being lazy after a nice dinner, and the other half says, “Oh, did I tell you about Green Flash? I keep forgetting to tell you.” What??!! You keep forgetting to tell me?
Rejoice folks, because we’re soon to see the arrival of another fantastic West Coast brewery out of the booming San Diego beer scene, Green Flash Brewing Company. This is a portfolio of some mighty fine brews and hopheads will love, love, love both the West Coast IPA the Imperial IPA. For such a young brewery—they just celebrated their 5th Anniversary in 2007—the awards are already racking up.
Did you see the Tony Kiss article last week, WNC breweries boom? If you missed it, here it is. We ran into Carl the other week, too, and let’s just say he’s got us excited for the Wedge opening.
The Terrapin Brewery in Athens, Ga., has been up and running since late last year. And they’re having fun with a little Side Project. Side Project is a brand new single-batch 22 oz. bottle series they call Brewing Improvisation. And the first Side Project is almost here. Can you guess the name? Hop Shortage Ale.
2008 will forever be known in professional brewing circles as the year of the hop shortage. Brewers everywhere are scrambling to find hops just to produce their standard line of beers. Some brewers are so nervous, they are even cutting back on brewing hoppy beers. “Not us,” states John Cochran, Founder & President of Terrapin Beer Co. “If there is going to be a shortage of hops, why not put them all into one hop bomb of a beer?”
Better yet? They called us to kick off this brew here in North Carolina! The always-funny John Wetzel will be representing the brewery on Friday, March 21 TODAY from 5-7pm where we’ll be sampling Terrapin Rye Pale (5.3% abv), some wonderfully aged ‘06 Terrapin All-American Imperial Pilsner (7.5% abv), the Hop Shortage IPA, and the ‘08 Terrapin Rye Squared (8.5% abv). This weekend tasting event will be a fundraiser for our charity, Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway. $2/pp at the register.
The second of the French Broad Brewing Company bottles are released today with Dunkel Witte. This hybrid German-Belgian brew is the creation of head brewer, Drew Barton. It’s pretty much its own style. We like that. The naysayers will say, “It doesn’t fit into the BJCP guidelines,” but that’s okay. It’s not for competition, it’s for consumption. What’s wrong with a little stretch of creativity, right? This bottling ran on FBB’s new bottling line, which according to Drew, would not be giving them so much trouble if it were not made in Canada (a tongue-in-cheek dig at the other half of Bruisin’ Ales). Here’s what Drew has to say:
It’s a strong German Dunkel blended with a Belgian Witte. It’s our play on a Belgian version of a Dunkel Weizen.
Weyerbacher says QUAD ranks higher than Roquefort 10 Weyerbacher Brewing Company reports in their newsletter that their QUAD was “the only U.S. beer rated in the Top Ten in a blind tasting by a NY Times panel of 40 Belgian-style and Belgian beers.” They also say the brew ranked higher than “Roquefort 10.” We’re pretty sure they meant, Rochefort, and not the cheese.
The Onion’s A.V. Club tests pizza beer
It appears that Mama Mia Pizza Beer is just one of those things you should try, but then again maybe not. Ever had something where you weren’t sure you wanted to drink it, but had to try it anyway? This seems to be one of those things.
Movie: The Lives of Others We love a good movie after working all day. The Lives of Others won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film (among others) and it does not disappoint. Documenting the Stasi’s monitoring of its own people in East Berlin, you can’t help but feel for the characters. Creepy and moving at the same time, it’s very pertinent in these times of conspiracy, wiretapping, and general hysteria.
First of all, let us apologize to our many friends in the beautiful state of Alabama who have to deal with these elected officials. In case you never quite imagined with Free the Hops is up against, here’s your chance to be in the know. Witness this absolute splendor of a debate on the “Gourmet Beer Bill” by watching this video. It’s hard to imagine that the opponents even took the time to actually read the bill or even pretend to understand it. There’s discussion of cans, getting these “gourmet” beers into the hands of teenagers, and god forbid we bring in “foreign” beer! Nevermind that Alabama laughs all the way to the bank when it takes huge bundles of tax money from Mercedes, which has its largest U.S. manufacturing facility just outside our former home of Tuscaloosa. Oh, and then there’s the issue that you can buy 190 proof liquor in any state-owned ABC store.
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