Another trickle of stuff coming in…

ANDERSON VALLEY Summer Solstice
INNIS & GUNN Oak-aged beer

Until more arrives, we leave you with this clip from our new favorite show, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It’s called Beatbox. We just can’t fully express how much joy we get from it.

After work, we headed over to the new upstairs Pinthouse/Thirsty Monk. There is a stairwell going to the downstairs Belgian beer bar, which is really cool, so you can go back and forth with one tab, depending on what you’re feeling like. The list of brews originally posted is not quite what ended-up on the tap lines, but there’s still a nice selection available. Inside the place is red, white, and blue with some really comfy window seats that actually open to the street. We had the Wedge IPA and a half glass of Allagash Odyssey, both of which were delicious. Then we headed down for a sample of the Duchesse du Bourgogne on-tap downstairs. Still better out of the bottle, but it’s a real treat of sweet and sour if you like Flemish red sour ales.

You can scream and beg until you’re blue in the face, but sometimes it all works out in the end. We are getting Green Man growlers today! (Their new growlers are nice.) Get your Green Man pint glass to go along with it!

GREEN MAN ALES Gold
GREEN MAN ALES IPA
GREEN MAN ALES ESB
GREEN MAN ALES Porter

Also, in what we think is pretty big news, we’ll be getting Olde Hickory Brewery mini-kegs within the next few weeks. (Thanks, Bobby!) Instead of growlers, this brewer from nearby HIckory, North Carolina, packages with mini-kegs. Very cool, no? We should also be seeing 22oz. bottles of their “big” beer, Olde Hickory Bardstown Brand Ale Aged in Bourbon Barrels, a beefy 10.0% abv barleywine.

Again, slow week on new stuff. There’s a lot of stuff in the works for a few months down the road, but it’s just been trickling in as of late.

13th CENTURY Grut Bier
HIGHLAND BREWING Cattail Peak Wheat* (summer seasonal)
WEYERBACHER “13″ Anniversary Ale*

[Okay, so the Grut Bier didn't show up today. Sorry.]

We’re pretty excited about the Grut Bier, especially with the hops shortage. This is much like the Scottish Heather ales, or the Alba, both of which use other preservatives and flavorings than hops. Here’s BeerAdvocate’s description of the style.

Grut beer became especially popular during the middle ages in Germany in the regions of Westphalia & Lower Saxony close to the borders of Belgium & Holland. During this time the ingredients for beer were very expensive, in particular hops.

This interpretation of a traditional Grut Bier is spiced with Lorbeer (Bay Leaves), Ingwer (Ginger), Kummel (Caraway), Anis (Anise), Rosemarin (Rosemarie) & Enzian (Gentian). It is brewed with water, wheat & barley malt, “pollinated wild hops” and fermented using top fermenting yeast.d bacteria (isolated from malt) at 18 °C (64°F).

John Wetzel from Terrapin Brewing Co. will be in town on Thursday, June 26 5-7p.m., to debut the second in Terrapin’s Side Projects, RoggenRauchBier. Due to the baseball event on Friday evening, this will be an abbreviated tasting with just this one beer being samples. Here’s the press release via BeerAdvocate.com:

Each Volume of the Terrapin “Side Project” series of beers is a limited, one time batch sold only in 22oz bottles. A new Volume is schedule to be released every 2-3 months. To Terrapin’s brewers it offers an opportunity to experiment with new ingredients and unique style while utilizing their creativity.