Bruisin’ Ales: Small Biz of the Month for April 2010

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″*

We expect to get some heat for this, but why would you camp outside the Civic Center overnight in freezing temps for Phish tickets? Driving by there last night, after having Allagash Interlude ON TAP at The Thirsty Monk, folks were just kinda hanging out, huddled up from the cold and partying a bit. This we do not understand. We do not care for Phish. (*gasp* Did she just say that?) It’s not for lack of talent on their part—Phish is an incredibly talented group—it’s just that the whole “jam band” thing eludes us. We like a song structure. And we like songs to end in, let’s say, under 5 minutes. Guided by Voices is one of our favorite bands and some of their older ditties run about 30 seconds, which makes them sort-of the anti-Phish. But people go absolutely bonkers (including our friends) and we don’t know why. And, no, we have never been to a Phish show and, regardless, we don’t think it would change our opinion. That being said, we hope everyone got their tickets! It sold out in 6 minutes.

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

After some pretty wacky dental work done, cut us some slack for the lack of posts this week. But we’ve still been busy. Starting today, if you’re a sports fan, you can hear our new radio spot on 1310 WISE—The Bruisin’ Ales Fantasy Football Sports Injury Report. Check it out during drive time after work.

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!

Join us for the Ommegang Dinner tonight with Asheville Tourists as they take on the Greenville Drive. Event starts pre-game with a reception at 5:30. $50/pp, including a FREE Ommegang ballcap, FREE Ommegang glass, game admission, and a five-course menu!

Terrapin is coming out with a variety 12-pack
It’s true! Terrapin is also adding a new beer addition called Sun Ray, a wheat beer—for now, only available in the mixed packs. (Sun Ray will be available in sixers by spring ’09.) Now we’ll see if we actually end-up with any of these 12-packs. Speaking of, if you haven’t tried the barrel-aged Rye Squared, it may still be on upstairs at the Pinthouse.

Founders, Founders, Founders, Founders
Everyone’s talking about it, the arrival of Founders Brewing. No bottles yet, however, it seems that the Flying Saucer in Raleigh already has Dirty Bastard and Breakfast Stout on tap. Pretty hefty choices for warm weather.

From the Incredibly Stupid Department
An Iowa community college president stepped down after photos of him pouring beer directly into a woman’s mouth from a mini-keg surfaced online. Way to go! If I got $400K severance for every time I did something stupid, I’d be rich! Damn you, digital cameras!

Mumpower’s son clocked someone at Wild Wings
You just have to read it.