Friday, July 29, 2011

Daily Beer Digest -- 07.29.2011

Keeping with the pattern of thinking that daily is once or twice a month:

Good day for beer. Received my order from Blackwell's complete with Almanac Summer 2010 Vintage - Blackberry, Russian River Consecration, and Marin White Knuckle Double IPA. Also stopped by Whole Foods to pick up bottles of Anchorage Whiteout Wit and Stillwater / Brewer's Art Debutante.

Anheuser-Busch will take over some of the responsibility for brewing Goose Island's 312, which isn't a bad thing at all as far as I'm concerned. Why? This means that Goose Island is going to bring back Nut Brown and Christmas Ale, and will also have more room for barrel-aged beers and sours.

This article from the Chicago Tribune provides a bit more info, including John Hall's hope to build a large brewery in Chicago in a few years, bringing all of Goose Island's production back to the Windy City. Additionally, the article reveals that Anheuser has already put $3 million into Goose Island's existing Fulton Street brewery.

Cigar City and Mikkeller are collaborating on a quadrupel aged with all sorts of tropical fruits (label). And that's the most-normal thing about it. The official description (from Beernews): "The Quad is a Belgian-Style Ale made in collaboration with Cigar City Brewing. It was brewed with Citra and Simcoe hops and aged in Grand Marnier barrels with papaya, mango and Brettanomyces claussenii. It will be released in 500 ML bottles.” The beer was brewed at Amager Bryghus in Denmark."

Cigar City bottled rum-barrel Hunahpu's.

Ithaca is releasing Brute today with a case-per-person limit.

An interesting article with thoughts on the subjects of beer terroir and Belgian beer (primarily on innovators such as Struise and Alvinne) over at the Thirsty Pilgrim. The blog entry links to an in-depth article over at Draft Magazine.

Alexandria's own Port City has the keg label ready for its first seasonal, an Port City Oktoberfest.

In other local news, Virginia may have charged ahead in the hunt to become the destination for Sierra Nevada's East Coast brewery.

De Struise to open a shop in Bruges.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Blue Point ESB

Blue Point finally, finally, finally re-releases their highly-acclaimed Extra Special Bitter. It's currently on draft at the Bronx Ale House in New York, and will hopefully be making the rounds. If anyone can get a growler, please help out.

As background, Blue Point's ESB is the #1-ranked ESB on Beer Advocate. I have long argued that it is retired, given that it has not been reviewed on either Beer Advocate or Rate Beer for over two years. If I can get a growler, I'll surely change that.