Archive for February, 2009

Sorry for the lack of updating the beer list as of late. We’re crunching the broken links project in with the updated product listing and it’s been a nightmare, to say the least. But it’s getting there, bit by bit. You can be sure you don’t miss anything by following New This Week.

More Asheville Twestival Info
Asheville Twestival is on Thursday @ Windows on the Park, 6-11p.m. Tickets are on sale now! Tonight there is an Official Beer Walk, starting at Bruisin’ Ales at 6p.m. If you can’t make it to the event, you can donate online from the Asheville Twestival page, by clicking the “give & tweet” button on the right. The organizers are working VERY hard to put this thing together in less than a week. Big ups to all sponsors and especially the folks from Applied Solutions Group, who really took the lead on this one. Details.

Kate the Great debut
The other “famous” Impy Stout, next to Struise Black Albert, was released today at Portsmouth Brewery. Read about the nonsense here. Our friend, Voitus, was in attendance. Maybe we’ll get to taste it this year. (Or maybe not.)

Enough with Phelps already
But, wait, there’s more than the infamous water bong picture. He bet on beer pong, too. Our “Who Cares?” folder is getting pretty thick. But we’d bet he didn’t know about all this grossness. Ewwww.

Thomas Jefferson had a beer cellar?
Charlie Papazian wrote a blog post for the Examiner about President Thomas Jefferson, homebrewer and beer enthusiast. Lincoln loved beer; Jefferson loved beer; Obama likes beer. How can you not be patriotic?

Found this bit on Celebrator today. It’s old news, but good news. The Archbishop of York hand-delivered the Holy Grail to Pope B XVI. Too bad we’ve not been able to get this brew in a long while. We’re going to have to revisit this. This Pope prefers beer over wine. So, who’s gonna step up and brew a Pope/Benedict beer?

ASHLAND, MASSACHUSETTS — When meeting the Pope it is customary to offer him a gift. Tony Blair gave him a painting of the Catholic convert Cardinal Newman and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah presented him with a jeweled scimitar. When the Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, met the pontiff he gave him the Holy Grail, a beer brewed by the Black Sheep Brewery located in Masham, England.

The gift of the Holy Grail bottle to Pope Benedict XVI was the highlight of the archbishop’s first visit to Rome to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity to strengthen ties between the two churches.

Monty Python’s Holy Grail was specially commissioned to mark the 30th anniversary of the television program that made household names of such performers as John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman and Terry Jones. The Pope is said to prefer beer to wine and water and this wasn’t the first time that he had sampled one of the brewery’s beers.

Managing director Paul Theakston states, “We were absolutely delighted, if not a little surprised, when we received the request from the archbishop to provide the Pope with a bottle of Holy Grail. We do not imagine that His Holiness will be swapping holy water for Holy Grail just yet, but to have him enjoy one of our favorite tipples is a real honor for the whole brewery and give the Holy Grail ale name a whole new meaning.”

Via Ashvegas. Love it!

We’re happy to welcome Triangle Brewing Co. from Durham, NC, into the Tasting Room for the first time! The only brew we can say for sure that is coming is their Belgian-style Golden Ale and the rest of the libation line-up is going to be a surprise for all of us! We love surprises!

Sheesh! We almost forgot about our beer art project from Penalty Box Photography. Above is Week #4 with Thomas Hardy’s; Below is Week #5 with Smuttynose Finestkind IPA.