Breaking news: Bands like beer
We joke. This is actually really cool. If we had the stamina to try this, we would, but we just don’t: All 26 North Carolina breweries and brewpubs in one week, playing shows all along the way. Yep. One flippin’ week. According to The Beer Guy, local band Rat Jackson is taking a roadtrip across the state from July 18 through July 25. The inspiration was the film, American Beer, which is sort-of a cult classic in the beer geek arena. In the end, they will be recording their adventure and turning it into a film, called Drunken State.

French Broad’s Berliner Weiss is ready and new bottles are coming
We had the fortune of trying this the other week. Well, the Berliner Weiss is ready at the tasting room in Biltmore Village. Go get yourself some. They’ve even got a variety of syrup to go along with it. Beer spies say that the Alt Bier and Gateway Kolsh will be in bottles by end of summer. Cheers to that.

New Belgium is coming to North Carolina next year
Not sure how we missed this one, but Asheville Beer Blog ran into the owners of New Belgium Brewing on his birthday at The Thirsty Monk last week and they told him that NB’s brews are soon to make an appearance in North Carolina. They were just “checking out the scene.” Soon, as in next-year-soon. We are asked daily “Do you have Fat Tire?” Pretty soon, the answer will be “Yes. Yes we do.” Until then, you can get your Fat Tire over there in Tennessee.

Beer for a Cause: Pints for Prostates
Yes, you read that right. Rick Lyke, a writer of blog Lyke2Drink and regular feature writer for All About Beer and other publications, has launched his campaign, Pints for Prostates after a scare last year. “Pints for Prostates is an awareness campaign designed to reach men through the universal language of beer. We want to communicate with them in a friendly and non-threatening way about the need for regular PSA testing,” says Rick Lyke, a 47-year-old Charlotte, N.C., marketing executive and drinks journalist who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in February. “Early detection is the key to fighting prostate cancer and a PSA test and a physical exam are the best method to catch it early.” Make a contribution here.