Monday, August 8, 2011

Daily Beer Digest -- 08.08.2011

The Brewers Association reports that U.S. craft beer growth is up 15% in terms of dollars and 14% in terms of volume over last year. The number of breweries in planning has also increased nearly two-fold from the same point last year.

The Chicago Tribune has an article about gypsy brewing, focusing on Stillwater.

Three Floyds got approval for its Zombie Dust label. The label confirms that the brew will be available in 12-ounce bottles. Thanks to Beernews for the image.

Alan Sprints of Hair of the Dog gave an update to the Brewing Network on his barrel-aged collaboration with Deschutes. A transcript of that portion of his talk is available via Beernews.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Daily Beer Digest -- 08.04.2011

Today is International IPA Day.

Stillwater is releasing an oak wine barrel-aged version of Cellar Door. This is part of its barrel-aged series; the brewery previously got label approval for a bourbon barrel-aged version of Existent.

Miller Lite has a problem with sales. Vortex bottle and triple hops brewed no longer effective selling points? That's too bad. Granted, this is from an advertising periodical, but I love how the article points out that the solution isn't making a better beer, but "to find marketing solutions" to the problem. Miller is on top of the problem, though, assuming "record rainfall" doesn't "limit beer occasions" in future quarters.

The Bruery has been active on Twitter lately, posting a photo of their raspberry sour blending session, as well as a photo of the groundbreaking for their new warehouse, which will hold a whole bunch of new barrels. The barrel-room expansion was discussed previously here.

Hair of the Dog's Adam from the Wood debuts on the Beer Advocate Top 100 at #94 with 21 reviews and a 4.63 average.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Daily Beer Digest -- 08.03.2011

Embrace The Funk has a short interview with Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River. In it, Vinnie states that Framboise for a Cure should be released again this October.

The ninth installment of Avery's barrel-aged sour series, Immitis, will be a dark sour in Zinfandel barrels.

New Belgium will make its official launch in DC on August 22, 2011. Bombers to start with kegs to follow.

DRAFT Magazine has an article on the "white IPA" from Boulevard and Deschutes. Is this the next IPA iteration? Aside from the standard, we already have black, red, and brown.

SweetWater is expanding its capacity to 500,000 barrels.

Stone is finally debuting its Quingenti Millilitre series, which consists of 500mL bottles of limited beers. The first installment is a barrel-aged version of the Ken Schmidt / Maui / Stone Kona Coffee Macadamia Coconut Porter.

Seattle Mariners pitcher Chris Ray teamed up with Femont Brewing to put together an IPA that was partially aged with baseball bats.

White Labs' "San Diego Super Yeast" (WLP090) is starting to make the rounds. This is a strain that is fairly similar to the standard California Ale (WLP001; Wyeast 1056) yeast, but features faster fermentation times and higher attenuation.

As of April of this year, it looks like Surly still had at least one keg of Darkness '07 around.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Belgium

Amy and I are headed to Belgium one month from today, which I'm quite excited about. There's nothing like looking forward to a week of spending nearly every morning at either Cantillon or Drie Fonteinen, then proceeding to go visit Trappist breweries and other beer-related goodies.

Daily Beer Digest -- 08.02.2011

Anchorage Brewing will be releasing two more Brett beers through the Shelton Brothers soon. The first is a Belgian Double IPA that is aged in Chardonnay barrels with Brett. The second is a saison with hibiscus and other goodies, then aged in Pinot Noir barrels with Brett.

Charlie Papzian explains the history of adjunct lagers in the United States and why our mass-produced lagers don't replicate the original European styles.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Daily Beer Digest -- 08.01.2011

Bloomberg has a video with a profile of Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione.

It looks like The Bruery did some sour barrel blending today.