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.

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.

Daily Beer Digest -- 06.29.2011

Flying Dog now has a partial victory in its battle with the Michigan Liquor Control Commission. Yesterday, the Commission reversed its earlier decision banning Flying Dog's signature Raging Bitch Belgian IPA because of the name and supposedly graphic artwork. Flying Dog previously filed a lawsuit in federal court in Michigan, alleging violation of its First Amendment rights. The brewery's blog indicates that the lawsuit will still go forward as the brewery seeks to vindicate the rights of breweries to engage in free speech, and also seeks damages for lost sales during the period in which the beer was banned.

Top 100 News: Funky Buddha's "No Crust" debuts on Beer Advocate's Top 100 list at #97 with a 4.79 average (14 reviews).

The Wall Street Journal has an article on session beer, recommending Troegs Sunshine Pils, Full Sail Session Black Lager, Great Divide Samurai, Deschutes Twilight Summer Ale, and Sixpoint Sweet Action.

Short's and Dogfish Head have a new collaboration coming out -- a Baltic Porter base that includes Delaware beach plums, horehound from Michigan, and some red popcorn sent in by Nick Floyd at Three Floyds.

The Bruery makes beer geeks everywhere salivate with a photo of their barrel room.

Daily Beer Digest -- 05.19.2011

Back at it, yet again with a big day for news.

The Bruery announced its Project Quercus Maximus. The highlight is that the brewery has leased a new warehouse that will hold THOUSANDS of barrels for an expanded barrel series. With this, The Bruery will be cutting Orchard White from production and making Rugbrod available only in the fall and winter. Hottenroth will be available in the spring and summer.

New Belgium -- following in the footsteps of Sierra Nevada's recent announcement -- also plans to open an East Coast brewery. This will increase production and reduce the environmental impact of sending beer to the East Coast. This falls on the hells of the brewery's announcement that it will expand its distribution to Virginia, DC, and Maryland by the end of 2011.

Daily Beer Digest - 05.05.2011

Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams) announced that its shipments were up 10% in the first quarter of 2011.

Founders line of 750mL releases -- the "Backstage Series" -- will start up this summer with the return of Blushing Monk, a Belgian-style beer with raspberries. Future beers will include some of the "one-off" beers from Founders' taproom, though there was no mention of any beers in particular. While CBS and Black Biscuit are not taproom-only, we can all hope those will be part of the series at some point.

Cigar City bottled Batch 4 of 110k+OT today. The beer will be a hoppy imperial amber.

Daily Beer Digest - 04.26.2011

Miller plans on releasing a version of the already-atrocious MGD 64 with a "nice" twist--"natural lemon flavor" and sucralose aka Splenda. Wow. Really, I mean, REALLY?!?! (Hulu SNL Video).

Daily Beer Digest -- 04.21.2011

Growth updates: Stone grew 42% in Q1 2011, while Dogfish grew 25% in the same quarter. Dogfish hopes to level out at a "lower" level like this for a smoother growing process.

John Trogner, one of the "Troegs" brothers, is helping Stone brew a Cherry Chocolate Stout with the winners of Stone's recent AHA contest.