New Blog

Since this blog, "Hoppy Moon," was originally designed to update people on Amy and I's beer advocate of a honeymoon, I've decided it was time for a new name and URL associated with what I plan to blog about going forward. From now on, new posts will appear on my new blog -- Spontaneous Funk. Facebook and Twitter updates for new postings will occur under the new name from the new website. Thanks for reading. Cheers!

Rusian River Torando 25th Anniversary

Russian River is set to release Toronado's 25th Anniversary Ale this year. The beer will be called Oe Ta Meulick. This will be a follow-up to the wildly-successfully Toronado 20th Anniversary Ale, aka T20 (BeerAdvocate). Here is a description and photo of the label, courtesy of Beer Street Journal:

Toronado 25th Anniversary Ale started out as six individual brews, each with their own personality, and all incorporating Brettanomyces and or micro-organisms. Once the barrel aging was complete, Russian River’s Vinnie Cilurzo and Toronado’s David Keene got together to create the final blend. To create its fine carbonation, we re fermented the Toronado 25th Anniversary Ale in this bottle. Spent yeast cells from a thin layer of sediment in the bottom of the bottle. Pour slowly, allowing the natural yeast sediment to remain in the bottle.

This has the makings of a big year for Russian River, as they will also be releasing their Brett-fermented collaboration with Sierra Nevada this summer, via Sierra Nevada's distribution chain. The collaboration was fermented with Brett B., and will be called "Brux."

Allagash Coolship

Allagash looks to be preparing another batch of Coolship Red. Rob Tod a few pictures today, including photos of unlabeled corked and caged bottles, as well as of the blending session.

Resting bottles:


Blending:


Pictures via Rob Tod's Twitter feed.

New Allagash Beers

Allagash is set to release two new beers in the coming months. The first -- Saison Mihm -- will be an 8% saison with Maine honey. The second -- Old HLT -- will be a wild ale with cherries. Saison Mihm will be draft-only, whereas Old HLT will be draft-only to start, followed by a limited 375mL bottle release at Allagash's store in Portland, ME. Here's the Old HLT label:


Thanks to Beernews.org for the scoop and label.

Hill Farmstead Barrel-Aged Beers

Shaun Hill revealed on Hill Farmstead's Facebook page today that he just received some Niepoort Port barrels, and is likely to fill them with an imperial stout and a barleywine. Judging by Hill Farmstead's barrel-aged lineup to date -- as well as basically everything that Shaun has done -- the beers should be fantastic.

The was followed by news via Twitter that Shaun also got some Pappy barrels:

Joyous times are ahead.

New Fermenter for Cascade

Oregon Live recently posted a piece on Cascade's new fermenter, excerpted below. Let's hope their prediction regarding Cascade Noyeaux is correct, as the beer has received excellent ratings and sounds like another gem from Portland. The description, courtesy of the BeerAdvocate profile page:

This one-of-a-kind NW sour is a blend of Belgian strong blondes aged in white port barrels with raspberries, then blended with select barrels of strong blondes that were aged on the toasted meat from the apricot nut, or Noyeaux.

Noyeaux is currently #19 on BeerAdvocate's top American Wild Ales list. Here's the full excerpt from Oregon Live:

Ron Gansberg at the Cascade Barrel House wanted a 100-barrel fermenter (3100 gallons) in which to store the brewery's big-selling blends such as Kriek, Apricot and Noyeaux, but the diameter of such a vessel was too much for the available floor space. But if he went tall --- 18 feet tall --- he could just squeeze the tank into the taller portion of the brewery under the clerestory. That was no problem to Charlie Frye at Metalcraft Fabrication, and yesterday, Ron, Preston, Curtis and Beck raised the new tank, along with two forklifts, dollys, pallet jacks, a come-along, a dozen shackles, a few fathoms of strapping and my occasional help. It took four hours and was a shining example of brewerly ingenuity.

Hair of the Dog / De Proef

Hair of the Dog and De Proef will be collaborating on a Flanders Red as part of De Proef's collaboration series. According to an article from Willamette Week, the beer will be named Flanders Fred, in reference to HotD's own Fred, which itself is an homage to craft-beer legend Fred Eckhardt. A summary of what's expected:

Expect the result to pack a tart cherry sourness and bone-warming boozy heat. It'll be perfect for aging, too. Too bad we won’t get to try it until this summer, as Sprints won’t actually brew the batch of Fred in Belgium until March. The collaboration beer should first see release through the former Michael Jackson Rare Beer Club in June, with full U.S. release in July.