Craft Beer News Roundup – Stone, Saint Arnold, Appalachian, Lost Abbey + More
We have some good craft beer news tidbits to share with you.
Read on for news about Stone Brewing, Saint Arnold Brewing, Appalachian Brewing, Clown Shoes, Lost Abbey and Sonoran.
Stone Brewing – Earlier this year, we reported Stone Brewing would be opening up another company store in South Park. A reliable source told us they will be doing growler fills at this future new location. The only way Stone would be able to do that is if they brew at that location. So what we’ve learned is, Stone will be brewing pilot batches to meet that requirement. It should be interesting to see what kind of cool stuff will come out of the new South Park location.
Saint Arnold – Saint Arnold has some more cool beers in the pipeline. They kicked off their Movable Yeast series earlier this year, and will be continuing on with this next month and for the first quarter of 2011. December 2nd will be #2, called Altared Amber (Amber Ale with Belgian Trappist Yeast), February 15th, 2011 will be #3, called Bitter Belgian (Elissa IPA with Belgian Trappist Yeast) and May 15th will see #4, called Brown Bitte (Brown Ale with Chico/Cal Ale Yeast). Of note, Divine Reserve 11 will be dropping some time in March.
Appalachian Brewing – Volks Weizen Bock is being released tonight, November 19th at the Harrisburg location. From one of their email alerts: “..limited batch release of 22oz. bombers of Volks Weizenbock on Friday, November 19, 2010 at 11AM. 40 cases will be available to the public for $48 per 12/22oz bottle case. Be one of the first 40 persons to purchase a case and get a complimentary Volks Weizenbock T-Shirt!”
Clown Shoes Beer – After Clown Shoes big Pecan Pie Porter release, they are revving up to release two more beer released for the beginning of 2011. Within the month of January, look for Their 1st Anniversary Beer, Hoppy Feet 1.5 and Tramp Stamp, which is set to be a Belgian-style IPA. Clown Shoes is in the think tank as we speak, formulating what they will drop for Spring. Stay tuned.
Sonoran Brewing – Sonoran Brewing will be dropping some in state only releases in the beginning of 2011. In limited quantities, look for Sonoran Old Saguaro Barleywine in 22 oz.bottles as well as on draft, and look for Sonoran Inebriator Stout in 22 oz. bottles in early to mid February.
Lost Abbey – Lost Abbey sent out a message yesterday mentioning the Cuvee de Tomme release has been pushed to December 11, 2010, after already being postponed a few times. From The Lost Abbey “Cuvee has been bottled but the release has been pushed to December to allow the bottles to condition before release. This year’s run was really low. Only 11-16 barrels out of 60 were used.
Of course, we needed to dig in a little deeper, so I asked Lost Abbey if there might be something wrong with their system, or if that percentage of successful beer is the norm for barrel aged, strong sour beer. Here is there response:
It wasn’t an issue with the brewhouse as those barrels live in the barrelhouse. Problem is after the barrels are inoculated, we depend on warmer weather to slowly bring the barrels up in temp thereby kicking up the bacteria’s eating. However, winter was cool, spring was cool and even summer was cool (only 1 day in the 100’s and that was September) so the barrel’s bugs just sort of languished. Of the 60 barrels only 16 were found to have the right sour characteristics for Cuvee — the rest are going back to the barrelhouse to keep aging.
And yeah, it’s pretty typical — a lot of barrels don’t make the cut for one beer or another. Generally they go back as “orphans” and find their way into limited beers like (Double Framboise, Funky Barrel, Broewer’s Imagination, Deliverance, etc.).
Just part of the fun on depending on Mother Nature to help you brew.
