Enjoy your weekend and be sure to drop in this weekend for some liquid happiness!

Big thanks to the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce for putting out this new radio spot on 98.1 the River, Mix 96.5, 105.9 The Mountain, and ESPN 1310 and 970. Cheers, y’all!

We love, love, love our new radio spots for 1310 Big Wise! Have a listen!

Bruisin’ Ales – Kilt Lifter Jan 2010
Brusin’ Ales – Chocolate Yeti Jan 2010

Today is the last day to vote in the MountainXPress “Best of WNC” poll. If you please, vote for Bruisin’ Ales for “Best Beer Selection”; “Best Beer Store”; and you really want to humor us, give a shout for “Best Blogger” and “Best Twitterer.” That would really help validate our existence. Also, we would really, really like a purple wig. For reals.

Don’t steal beer in Austin (or anywhere)
You’ll get shot and your body will taken away and left in a vehicle.

“Boutique” beers are all the rage, apparently
We have no effing clue what a “boutique” beer is (Reuters, we’re talking to you), but apparently the economy has created a “perfect storm” for craft beer sales. “I wouldn’t say that (beer) has the same complexity (as wine), but it’s not supposed to,” said Saillard, who is French. “It’s unpretentious. You don’t need to know the grape.” And that’s not true either, but anyway, it’s good news, yes?

Some Chicago Cubs fan threw a beer at the Phillies
Bad sportsmanship. Not news.

Gluten-free beers will now be labeled as such
The FDA is taking over labeling for gluten-free beers, which will list all the ingredients in the beer. Nutritional labels on beer have been debated for some time, but for now, we think this is just a health/safety precaution.

Phelps, Phelps, Phelps
Problem child. If you live in $1.7 million dollar mansion, you can probably afford a designated driver. Just sayin’.

And this, just because:

Unless you’ve been living in a cave or under a rock, you know there’s a pandemic (always use scary words to freak the public) of Swine Flu that originated in Mexico. So, everyone panic, stay indoors, or if you dare venture outside, absolutely wear a face mask. I’m not really mocking it. It is a little scary and there are sick people and some dying. I’m just sick of hearing about it. Wash your hands, cover your cough—y’know, all the stuff you should be doing anyway. Some dude even wrote a (horribly boring) song about it. What the hell, people?! At any rate, we don’t want it; we’ll have an Avery Hog Heaven instead and toast all the piggies getting snuffed because of the outbreak. Just whatever you do, don’t forget to fear the crap out of everything right now, until “they” tell you otherwise. It’s the aporkalypse! (Thanks @samharrelson for that term.)

DFH Weekend
We’re down to just a few weeks and the events are almost completely sold out. There are just a handful of tickets for the second private tasting and very few seats left for the DFH Beer Brunch. Make your reservations this week. Trust me.

There’s a new blog in town
A beer blog, that is. Beer is My Poison made its debut this week. Go check it out. Author Steve says, “I’m a beginning home brewer, brewery tourer, and overall beer connoisseur. I’m by no means an expert, but maybe one day I’ll gather enough knowledge to claim so. I’m not a beer snob, either. So you won’t find anything here related to beer snob values, IBU ratings, or anything else along those lines. To me, beer is good, and I’m cool with that.” We’re cool with that, too.

Happy Anniversary, Pisgah
Pisgah Brewing Co. in Black Mountain celebrated their 4th anniversary last weekend. We missed the party. Boo.

Highland Dinner @ PF Chang’s
To celebrate American Craft Beer Week, Highland is holding a beer dinner at the new PF Chang’s on Tuesday, May 12 @ 5:30pm. Four courses, plus a welcome reception. $50/pp, pre-pay. Call the restaurant (828) 681-2975.  Anyone else know of other local brewery events for that week?

Pint Night
Tonight after our Bison Tasting, hop on over to The Thirsty Monk for Pint Night. French Broad will be tapping a cask of Imperial Porter and another of Kölsch. Wheee!

Baseball with the Tourists just got more fun
The Beer Guy reports that the local ballpark added four local breweries to their line-up at the park. Instead of the old BMC, watch the games this seasons with brews from Highland, French Broad, Asheville Pizza and Green Man.

Apparently, this photo is stirring up controversy again. But we just love that beer is the President’s beverage of choice. We like that he takes down time on a Friday for a game and a brewski. And, what the hell? People are angered by this? We say the man’s got one of the toughest jobs on the planet. He deserves it.

Ah, warm fuzzies.

President Obama, if you’re reading this (ah, humor), please come back to Asheville and sample our wares.

Tomorrow’s the biggest game in football—Superbowl XLIII. Who are you cheering for? We’ll be rooting for the Steelers, since we lived in Pennsylvania. And, because of that we’re offering 5% off all PA breweries this weekend (Sat/Sun)!

What goodies can you get with that?

STOUDTS American Pale Ale
STOUDTS Double IPA
STOUDTS Fat Dog Stout
STOUDTS Gold Lager
STOUDTS Pils
STOUDTS Scarlet Lady ESB
STOUDTS Triple
STOUDTS Winter Ale*
VICTORY Baltic Thunder
VICTORY Golden Monkey (750ml’s)
VICTORY Hop Devil
VICTORY Hop Wallop*
VICTORY Old Horizontal*
VICTORY Prima Pils
VICTORY Storm King
VICTORY V-Saison (750ml’s)
VICTORY V-12
WEYERBACHER Blasphemy*
WEYERBACHER Blithering Idiot
WEYERBACHER Double Simcoe I.P.A.
WEYERBACHER Heresy*
WEYERBACHER Hops Infusion
WEYERBACHER Insanity*
WEYERBACHER Merry Monks Ale (750ml’s)
WEYERBACHER Muse*
WEYERBACHER Old Heathen Imperial Stout
WEYERBACHER QUAD*
WEYERBACHER Slam Dunkel*
WEYERBACHER “12″*
WEYERBACHER “13″*

In completely unrelated business, Jason was on WLOS last night and this morning in the Absolute Le segment, “Do you have a second?”, featuring local businesses doing one-second commercials, a la Miller’s big advertising plan for the Super Bowl. Very clever! (And some free WLOS lovin’.) He’s wearing one of our boxing gloves and “punching” the camera while saying “Bruisin’ Ales.” Then, he got an extra spot in which he laments the end of football season. We believe the complete quote was: “It’s sad.” Man, that is great television right there. We hope WLOS posts a video of the spot! Jason can’t live without his football. This half would just like to see the TV room without the Fat Head.

And just in time for the Big Game Weekend, here are your new beers. (Go Steelers!)

ABITA Abbey Ale
ABITA Andygator
ALLAGASH Interlude ’08
FOUNDERS Double Trouble IPA
FOUNDERS Imperial Stout
SHIPYARD Imperial Porter
SHIPYARD Barleywine
SIERRA NEVADA Bigfoot*
SIERRA NEVADA Early Spring Beer
SIERRA NEVADA Torpedo Extra IPA

More later, as soon as we’re finished dealing with life things this week.

A small group helped us kick-off Labor Day Weekend with dinner at the ballpark last Friday evening. The food and, of course, the beer were paired just perfectly. Hooray, Ommegang!

Beer spies also tell us that Ommegang is planning a Biere de Mars for the spring!