Archive for August, 2008

Join us for a special Friday night tasting the evening before the Brewgrass Festival!

Devin of Dogfish Head will be in-store on Friday, September 19 from 5-8pm for an extended three-hour tasting of five four brews by DFH, including (IF it arrives in time) the new Theobroma chocolate beer. 60-Minute IPA will be run through Randall (and who knows what we’ll put in there to spice things up). Festina Peche will be on hand with its tarty goodness. Other beers mark the end of Aprihop season with a little Black & Blue on the side. Sweet!

$4 entry with ID / Proceeds go to FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway

The normally hawkeyed editing staff of one was sleepy yesterday and inadvertently decided to have some fun with the calendar and declare both today and tomorrow the 15th of August. This is clearly not the case.

The Weyerbacher and Sugar Momma’s tasting is NEXT THURSDAY, August 21.

InBev warns of tougher beer market
InBev recently alerted investors to a rocky road ahead with rising costs in production, more or less saying, that they’re leveraging The Merger with Anheuser-Busch to “offset rising packaging, shipping and grain costs.” Sales in the UK are flat, but booming in other parts of the world, like Brazil. Yet, their second quarter profits were up due to less taxes. “‘Rising costs continue to put pressure on our margins,” said chief executive Carlos Brito. InBev sees some easing ahead, saying costs should moderate by the end of the year.”

Beer goggles are real, people
The University of Bristol, UK, recently did a controlled study that proves “beer goggles” are real. Here’s what they did: “They randomly assigned 84 heterosexal students to consume either a non-alcoholic lime-flavoured drink or an alcoholic beverage with a similar flavour. The exact amount of alcohol varied according to the individual but was designed to have an effect equivalent to someone weighing 70 kilograms drinking 250 millitres of wine—enough to make some students tipsy. After 15 minutes, the students were shown pictures of people their own age, from both sexes. Both men and women who had consumed alcohol rated the faces as being more attractive than did the controls (Alcohol and Alcoholism, DOI: 10.1093/alcalc/agn065). Surprisingly, the effect was not limited to the opposite sex—volunteers who had drunk alcohol also rated people from their own sex as more attractive.”

Video games are much more concern than beer
Video watchdog group, What They Play, says that when it comes to their children, parents are more concerned about violent (or “mature”) video games than they are about other such things as smoking pot, watching p*rnography or drinking. Hmm. Interesting. “The deleterious effect of video games gets more press coverage than beer, so it makes sense to me. Also, most parents haven’t played ‘GTA,’ but most have had a beer. So they are less concerned about the devil they know than about the devil they don’t know,” Michael Pachter, a Wedbush Morgan analyst told TechNewsWorld.

Get a DD
The Citizen-Times reports that the “Booze It or Lose It” campaign will be in full force from now through Labor Day weekend with more patrols and checkpoints.

The newest beer from Green Flash Brewing Company is really unique. Le Freak is a hybrid beer—and we predict you’ll see more of this—combining a Belgian-style Tripel with an IPA. Following in the footsteps of Houblon Chouffe, a delicious Belgian IPA (and one of our top sellers), this beer is a cascade of flavors. The Belmont Beer Station has a fairly recent interview with Chuck Silva, head brewer at Green Flash, in which he talks about the Le Freak.

CS: When I created Le Freak—a beer that wasn’t an existing beer style, that was a special moment for me. It’s a convergence of styles and an emerging style. It’s our Imperial IPA meets Belgian Trippel. For that to come out as savory and flavorful as it did, to me, is a crowning achievement and special moment to have that creativity come out in a beer. It wows me still.

AD: Does the Le Freak draw any influence from the Houblon Chouffe?

CS: Sure. That’s a Belgian beer inspired by what American brewers are doing with hops. In turn, I was inspired to do it my way—West Coast Style. I used a lot of all-American hops and two yeast strains—Belgian and American and I still used a little bit of American hops for a little bit of dry hopping. So, it’s richer and a little more over-the-top with the hop bitterness, super zesty. So, I was inspired by Belgians being inspired by us. It kind of goes back and forth. We weren’t the first to do it, for sure. The Urthel Hop-It is another beer that was inspired by American brewing that has a Belgian flavor to it. Maybe even DeRanke or a couple other beers that are kind of in the similar realm. The Le Freak is an American beer inspired by Belgian tradition.

This half of Bruisin’ Ales is back and relaxed from vacationing on the lake with Mary and D-Fly. It was the first trip back to Bama since we opened the store, and whew, it’s hot there in August! We nearly forgot, living up here in our dryer, higher climate. Alabama is a lovely state, though. It gets a bad rap. (And bad beer, but you can help.)

Friday with the Tourists
So, this week is Beer 101: Beer Basics at the ballpark with the Asheville Tourists. Tickets are still available at Bruisin’ Ales or McCormick Field. Event is pre-game, starting at 5:30, through the second or third inning (depending). Full details here. Your ticket includes hors d’ouvres and entry to the game. Great beer line-up! And MALT will be demonstrating how to brew, if you’re curious about that.

Fundraising
We still need another $440 in our pledge to Bruisin’ Ales charity, Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway on Facebook. Will you help and join the cause? The goal is $500 by August 31.

A happy ending?
While this is old news during the hiatus, the Pisgah Pale Ale name “problem” seems to be fixed with the introduction of Old School Pale Ale at Asheville Pizza & Brewing. Seriously, we’re so glad that’s over. If it is, anyway.