And how cool is this?

New Asheville company serves rock stars, organic farms
Creative Allies design contests crowdsource art and design

Asheville, NC — May 11, 2010 — A new Asheville-based website gives everyone the chance to submit poster, t-shirt, and logo designs to famous musicians like Jack Johnson–as well as to nonprofits, small local events, festivals and businesses looking for new designs.

The site is open to everyone, and Asheville businesses are already using Creative Allies for designs. Current contests include not only designs for Jack Johnson and Lollapalooza, but the label design for a new beer from Asheville Brewing.

“We want to give everyone the opportunity to create designs for their favorite bands and organizations they wouldn’t normally have access to,” said Sean O’Connell, CEO of Creative Allies (creativealllies.com).

A local elementary school, an organic farm in South Carolina and a surf shop in Aruba have already used Creative Allies for logos, t-shirts and posters. There’s no cost to use the site, and it’s free to request art or upload a design.

Bands, businesses and non-profits can post design requests, offer a cash prize, and select from the entries submitted.

The contributing designers, called “Allies,” can receive cash as well as prizes including tickets, signed CDs and gift certificates. As well as $250 cash, Jack Johnson offers the winner of his poster contest a trip for two to see him anywhere on his world tour, including airfare and a night of hotel accommodations.

Creative Allies is the second business for O’Connell, who is also the owner of Music Allies, a marketing, consulting and promotional services company whose clients include the Bonnaroo Music Festival and Ani DiFranco.

Contact:? Jennifer Saylor
828-231-7205
jennifer@creativeallies.com

Check out the cool art for Terrapin‘s brand new year-round IPA, Hopsecutioner. I figure you’ve have enough of Santas, angels and elves, so there’s a killer turtle for ya. Enjoy. Also, it occurs to me that I should really change this category to “new this weekend” because I never have a complete list until Fridays, but if you don’t mind, I don’t mind. Alright, here we go:

AVERY duganA IPA
BINCHOISE Belgoo Magus
MAGIC HAT Howl*
LURGASHALL Christmas Mead*
‘T GAVERHOPKE Het Kerstbier*
TERRAPIN Hopsecutioner
TOURNAY de Noël*

(Psssssssst… On Twitter? Follow me. @bruisinales)

Brooklyn Brewing posted this today.

I don’t know about you, but Christmas has literally thrown-up in our house. In the midst of unpacking boxes from my illustrious Cyber Monday Extravaganza Experience (by which I mean, it was raining, the DSL sucked and the router signal was low in the area I needed to be), it now looks like a bunch of drunk elves attacked our house. There are presents unwrapped in piles, scattered rolls of wrapping paper, miscellaneous ribbons floating around, shipping boxes (which we’ll reuse for beer!) and all kinds of weird packing materials. And might I say, not one—NOT ONE—piece of bubble wrap in the mix. Don’t they know you need bubble wrap for the stress of these types of situations? I forgot to write down who was supposed to get which present for the “could-be-for-anyone” gifts causing general confusion. The Bear dog thinks everything is for him, too, making the process even more difficult as he sticks his nose in everything and I find random things in other parts of the house. Oh, plus, I’m doing my pre-holiday cleansing ritual of #nobeer at the worst possible moment, some say backwards. But I digress, as the world is NOT ending, I assure you…

Genesse converts old storage tanks into beer cans
Up in Rochester, NY, the owners of the old Genessee beer plant have converted three old 280,000-gallon tanks into art! Yup, they’re slapping massive wrap-arounds on their old outdoor tanks to look like the old cans of Genessee beer. It wasn’t good beer, but it’s a sentimental thing, so we approve. [Photo: Shawn Dowd, Associated Press]

“Space Barley” has been released in Japan
Yeah, you read that right. Remember months ago (maybe a year?) when Sapporo sent some barley to the Space Station? Well, after five months, they retrieved it and brewed with it, making just 250 six-packs that will be auctioned for charity. Okay, nifty little promotion there, but would you drink it? Personally, I do not know if I’m ready for space beer just yet. But beer IN space is something I can get behind.

ABC discovered Sam Adams Utopias
The beer has been made for years, but we love it when mainstream media discovers old beer news for the first time. It just shows how on top of things they are! So, yeah, Utopias has been released (last week, actually). The 27% beer that comes in a mini-copper brewers’ vessel and costs $150 or more, depending where you are. If you live in one of the few states that actually sees this stuff and have dispensable income, we suggest buying it. Pretty special stuff. “Due to legal restrictions, Samuel Adams Utopias is not offered in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, or West Virginia.”

The Hop Press
In the world of beer sites, the two big players are still RateBeer and BeerAdvocate. Normally, we have used the latter more often in the past, but I gotta say, RateBeer’s redesign without all the eye-bleed-inducing emoticons and colors is slick; the numbers rating system is a bit bitter—gives a better understanding than A, A- and B+—and now they’ve got the Hop Press. If you haven’t noticed this addition to their site, now you know. Regional reps from across the country. We’re proud to say that RateBeer actually asked us for help in finding someone for our area of the world, and that person is Brian Cendrowski of Untamed Beer. He lives in Greenville, SC. (He’s also the person who picked-up Sam Calagione from the airport back in May for us and we’re forever grateful he didn’t actually steal him.) So check it out often. And you can follow Hop Press on Twitter, too, @hop_press.

Hey! Remember back in May when Asheville was so, so very lucky to score a full weekend with innovative brewery owner and founder, Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head? Well, our baby sister-in-beer (by choice, not biological parenting), The Beer Wench (@thebeerwench), did a very cool video interview with him at the release of Life & Limb in California a few weeks back. She covers a lot of ground here.

By the way, we have all of Sam’s books in-store. Great gifts and great reads for the beer lover. Oh, and shhhhhh, but we also got one more case of Life & Limb. It’s in the back, though. You must ask for it!

Warren Haynes Unites With Asheville Brewing Company For ‘Christmas Jam White Ale’

~ All Proceeds From Limited Edition Beer To Benefit Families In Need ~

Warren Haynes—renowned guitarist and singer for Gov’t Mule, The Allman Brothers, and The Dead as well founder and producer of his world renowned Christmas Jam concert, of which the 21st annual installment will take place in his native Asheville, NC this December 12th—is proud to announce a partnership with hometown favorite Asheville Brewing Company to create a fantastic winter-time beer: ‘Christmas Jam White Ale.’ Like the Christmas Jam itself, all proceeds from the sales will go to the W&S Charitable Foundation, which works in partnership with Habitat for Humanity to provide essential housing for area residents in need.

The special-edition brew will be offered locally in Asheville—on draft at area restaurants and in bottles at selected retailers—as well as nationally thru mail-order, and will only be available from November through January.

The beer will be available at Greenlife, Bruisin Ales, Asheville Brewing Company and The Orange Peel exclusively on November 1st thru November 8th.

After that it will be available through-out Asheville.

Asheville Brewing has been making fantastic craft beers since 1998, and has won several awards for its beers. As an active supporter of local non-profit groups they are thrilled to be working with two great groups like the Warren Haynes folks and Habitat for Humanity.

Started as a way to bring local musicians together for a good cause, the Christmas Jam has since grown into an event that the London Times calls “one of the top ten concerts in the USA.” Composed of a multi-faceted series of activities including daytime concerts and art exhibits—and now with the support of Asheville Brewing, its very own limited edition beer of choice—the foundation has raised close to a million dollars for Habitat for Humanity in just the past five years.

An announcement on this year’s Christmas Jam line-up and ticket information will be made shortly.

###

Sweet! The former Bruisin’ employees (and Dotson brothers), Chris and Philip, went on a little trip to Belgium for ten days. They also managed to leave some Bruisin’ Ales love in their wake. This photo is from the ‘t Brugs Beertje beer bar in Brugge.

Speaking of the Dotsons: Mini-Dotson, Adam, is playing tonight at the Orange Peel, opening for Mike Gordon! His band The Rubblebucket Orchestra is really groovy. Check it out. We’ll see you there!

It’s coming in pieces, but the first part is here. Most of this is Mikkeller, but all of it is awesomesauce! Enjoy. We’ve marked the brand new items for you; the others are back in stock (finally)! There should be new Jolly Pumpkin and more Haandbryggeriet coming in September.

[Check out that label! It's creepy, but I love it.]

DIEU DU CIEL Rigor Mortis Abt* (new!)
JOLLY PUMPKIN La Roja
MIKKELLER Draft Bear Imperial Pilsner
MIKKELLER It’s Alive* (new!)
MIKKELLER It’s Alright* (new!)
MIKKELLER Monks Brew (new!)
MIKKELLER Not Just Another Wit (new!)
MIKKELLER Single-hop Cascade IPA (new!)
MIKKELLER Single-hop Nugget IPA (new!)
MIKKELLER Single-hop Warrior IPA (new!)
MIKKELLER Stateside IPA
NØGNE-Ø Sahti (new!)
NØGNE-Ø Toshi Double IPA
RIDGEWAY Foreign Export Stout (new!)
STRUISE-MIKKELLER Elliot Brew

(via PostSecret)