Greetings, Beerdom! Been awhile. Hope everyone is doing well.

Things are shaping up to be a busy week. Pisgah will be here in just mere hours to kick-off new 22oz bottle-conditioned Pisgah Pale, Valdez coffee stout, and Vortex II Russian Imperial Stout. Then, Thursday, we’ve got Doug Riley from Asheville Brewing coming in to sample his wares. In other local news, The Wedge announced new Sunday hours at the brewery’s tasting room. The Craggie Brewing fellows are brewing a barleywine and a kölsch this week. The Second Annual Highland Cup is scheduled for March 28, for all you homebrewers out there. And head brewer, Drew Barton, of French Broad is going to be the first local brewer featured on Know Your Brewer.

Not a big week beer-wise, but Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball Strong Ale is in and a VERY limited supply of Terrapin’s Side Project, Dos Cocoas, a chocolate porter.

Brewgrass tickets on sale now
They are going to go quick this year. Don’t wait.

Art of Pisgah
This time they’re writing about the stuff on the wall.

Journalist in eastern NC says brewing is recession proof
And there’s another NC brewery opening up: Mother Earth Brewing Company. That name sounds way more “Asheville” than “Greenville.”

Oregon beer drinkers are really pissed
How would you like your beer to get a tax increase of 1900%? Yes, you read that right.

Wait, NY wants to get in on that
Gov. Patterson, not to be outdone by the west coast, also would like beer taxes to go up.

Stay out of our store, government
Look what’s happening in D.C. Ugh, really? You can buy a 6-pack, but you can’t buy one? How does that in any way make sense? The logic is lost on us. It’s especially great that they refer to “22oz of Belgian Trappist ale” with a picture of King Cobra and Hurricane. And, thus, Bud invents the shrink-wrapped 3-pack.