Craggie Brewing Co.:
The last Craggie Brewing tasting was amazing, with a dead-on English-style ESB, a nice stout, and a strawberry porter. Strawberry Porter!! We had seconds on that one. The brewery sent us an update this morning, and they are sure busy, busy, busy:

Brewing two golden ales using US & UK goldings. One will be fermented with Pacific/east coast/ California ale yeast strains and the other will be fermented with a Burton ale yeast strain. Next Thurs, we will be also brewing two more ales—a pre-civil war receipe and another TBA. We also have a Belgian Wit Brite abbey conditioning and a Dunkelweiss fermenting. Plus a lager and a schwartzbier lagering. GOT BEER?

Highland Brewing Co.:
Schenk’s Cream Ale, the recipe of the winner of the Highland Cup, was released at the Highland brewery yesterday. We should be seeing it in-store very soon, as our tasting is next week. Just on the heels of that brew is the new Clawhammer Octoberfest. And, don’t forget the release of Imperial Black Mocha Stout the day after Brewgrass Festival.

Asheville Pizza & Brewing is giving away Brewgrass tickets… with a catch
The Beer Guy has the story, but here are the nuts and bolts of it:

Two tickets will be given to the beer lover who e-mails the brewery with best reason why he or she deserves them. Keep that begging down to just 100 words or less. Going on and on won’t get you anywhere.

And two more tickets will go to the aspiring filmmaker who submits the best You Tube video along the same lines. Those clips must be 60 seconds or less. And each set of winners also gets $50 for cab fare.

First thing to do is click over to www.ashevillepizza.com to get going. The deadline for entries is Sept. 15, so that doesn’t leave much time to get creative here. Please do not e-mail or call me. I can’t help you.

Also, the article notes that APB’s newly-named Old School Pale Ale has gone organic. (And, yes, we do see the irony in that.)

Pisgah Brewing Co.:
Pisgah Brewing Co. is releasing Valdez this week, only this time in big 750ml bottles, like Solstice, Hellbender, etc. Beer spies say that this batch is a tad heftier than the first—maybe a hair over 7.0% abv this time around—and also bottle-conditioned. Asheville Coffee Roasters provided the fair-trade beans again for popular coffee stout. (And, the beer is pronounced Valdez, as in Juan Valdez the coffee roaster, NOT Valdese, like the oil spill.)