June 27—5:30pm
McCormick Field
$25/pp

Pop the Cap: A Celebration of NC Craft Beer
Bruisin’ Ales and Sean Wilson, President of Pop The Cap, co-host this pre-game Asheville Tourists’ event at McCormick Field celebrating North Carolina’s craft brews from the coast to the mountains. You  might remember we had a lot of fun with him last year. A selection of beer samples from around the state (and around the corner) will be sampled, with each brewery bringing something to the table.

*Hors d’ouvres and game admission included.*

Tentative breweries:
1. Highland Brewing Company
2. French Broad Brewing Company
3. Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company
4. Green Man Ales
5. The Wedge (coming soon!)
6. Pisgah Brewing Company
7. Catawba Valley Brewing Company
8. Duck-Rabbit Brewing Company
9. Big Boss Brewing
10. Foothills Brewing Company
11. Azalea Coast Brewing Company

To save and buy the three-event pre-game package, click here for more info.

Now this is surprising. From a press release on BeerAdvocate.com today:

SEATTLE & SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (April 2008) - Pyramid Breweries Inc. (NASDAQ: PMID) (”Pyramid”) and Magic Hat Brewing Company & Performing Arts Center, Inc. (”Magic Hat”) today announced the execution of a Letter of Intent (”Letter of Intent”), which contemplates a transaction by which Magic Hat will acquire Pyramid, through an agreed all-cash tender offer and subsequent merger, at $2.75 per share of Pyramid common stock on a fully-diluted basis. … 

The closing of the proposed transaction, subject to the conditions referred to above, is anticipated to occur not later than August 31, 2008.

The board of directors of Pyramid has approved the transactions contemplated by the Letter of Intent.

“The combination of these two well established, high profile craft breweries will be very complementary given our respective brand portfolios and the geographies in which we predominantly operate. Additionally, there will be a number of important benefits for Pyramid to be part of a private company versus continuing to operate as a stand alone public entity. This consolidation makes both good strategic and financial sense and is well timed, particularly as the beer industry’s competitive dynamics continue to intensify,” said Pyramid CEO Scott Barnum. “The Company will continue to have offices in Seattle, its historical home, and will seek opportunities to capitalize on the enhanced assets and capabilities of the new combined entity,” he added.

Martin Kelly, CEO of Magic Hat said, “We have a great deal of respect for Pyramid’s brand heritage, award-winning beers and its dedicated employees, and look forward to consummating this transaction, which provides both strategic and financial benefits both to Pyramid’s and Magic Hat’s stakeholders.”

The Orange Peel rocks
How we missed this story is beyond us, but Ashvegas reports that the Orange Peel was just named one of the top five clubs in the U.S. by Rolling Stone. We love the new entrance there, by the way. It’s nice to have a place to hang and relax. And they have Asheville Pizza slices with Shiva on-tap!

Brixx Pizza coming to town
Brixx is coming to Long Shoal’s Road. We ate at the original Brixx in Charlotte some years ago and still love the place. They have good beer, too.

Brewgrass tickets are on sale now
Tickets for the ‘08 Brewgrass Festival are on sale now. Go get ‘em! They always sell out. You can keep up with the music line-up here. Our friends in Brushfire Stankgrass are playing.

Please don’t bring this beer to the U.S.
Gross. (second paragraph)

Answers to the Top Five Questions of April

Do you have Fat Tire?
No. New Belgium does not distribute to NC. Although it does read “soon to be Tennessee.”

Do you have Arrogant Bastard?
No. Stone Brewing does not distribute to NC. Again, you’ll find some of the Stone brews in Tennessee.

Weren’t we supposed to get Founders?
Yes. Please be patient.

Weren’t we supposed to get Lagunitas?
Yes. The labels are in the approval process. Lagunitas is ready and anxious to ship as soon as NC gives the go-ahead.

What happened to Gordon and why don’t we have Ten Fidy?
Your guess is as good as ours. We have written and called both Oskar Blues and the distributor. (There was definitely no shortage of either in Georgia last weekend.)

Congrats, Aaron!
Aaron Schenk, one of Asheville’s most awesome home brewers, won the Highland Cup with his Cream Ale. His beer will be brewed by Highland Brewing Co. and he gets an all-expenses paid trip to the GABF. Way to go!

Asheville Beer Blog returns
He’s back! And he reports that Green Man’s Abbey Ale is ready and on tap. This is a Chimay Grand Reserve clone and when we had it out of the tank even a month ago, it was delicious. Go get some at Dirty Jack’s.

Sam Adams bottle recall
If you’ve got any Sam Adams at home, check the bottles. If you see an N35 on embossed on the bottom, take it back to where you got it or throw it out. There could be fragments of glass in the bottle. There have been no reports of injury so far.

Ararat picked-up SBS Imports
Thank god! We have been waiting for this news. SBS handles all the special collaborations for the De Proef Brewmaster’s Series that started with the Tomme Arthur & Dirk Naudt’s Signature Ale. The next one we’re looking forward to is the Allagash/De Proef brew. It will be available through the Michael Jackson Rare Beer Club and in the market by next fall/winter.