Beginning December 15th, fans of the Central Coast’s original craft brewery will be able to pick up a six-pack of their favorite SLO Brew beer at select retail outlets throughout the region. With a history that spans over decades, SLO Brew is putting the finishing touches on their new brewing facility and tasting room, the SLO Brew Rock. With a Criveller rotary canning line and a 30-barrel capacity at The Rock, production of SLO Brew’s most popular and award-winning craft beers is in full swing.
Today Block 15 Brewing Company releases its early winter seasonal, Cosmic Cold Brew, Café Borgia, available bottled and on tap at bottle shops and beer bars around Oregon. Block 15 worked alongside their south Corvallis neighbors, Bespoken Coffee Roasters, to elevate their classic stout Nebula with additional malt and a 24-hour cold extraction on freshly roasted Ethiopia Celinga coffee. Both varietal and roast profile were selected to complement this stout with bright acidity, pie spice, and hints of caramel and citrus. For their Café Borgia variation, they also added sweet orange peel to the boil and cocoa extract to the tank— additions that layered notes of citrus and chocolate onto the base stout and coffee blend.
In an effort to establish itself as the country’s top beer curator, Craft Beer Cellar, a popular Massachusetts-based retail franchise, plans to alter how it purchases beer in 2017 by implementing a list of required and banned products from its stores. In a December 1 memo sent to franchisees and obtained by Brewbound, Craft Beer Cellar founders Kate Baker and Suzanne Schalow outlined changes they say will enable store owners to be viewed as “industry leading” retail operators and not just resellers of beer.
Saint Arnold Brewing Co. (www.saintarnold.com), the oldest craft brewery in Texas, is releasing Bishop’s Barrel No. 16 today. Bishop’s Barrel No. 16 is another foray for the brewery into the world of blurring beer and wine. Brewer and Wood Cellar Manager Aaron Inkrott aged the Sorachi Ace Dubbel, previously released as the 2014 Icon Red, in red wine barrels from the French region of Bordeaux for 11 months with Brettanomyces, a wild yeast added to the barrels for a secondary fermentation.
A year after opening for business, Castle Island Brewing Company is releasing ONE, the brewery’s first imperial stout, to celebrate their one-year anniversary.
What do beer drinkers really want for the holidays? How about something crisp, refreshing and decidedly different? Everett-based Down the Road Beer Co. is releasing the newest iteration of its well-received Feyborn Berliner Weisse – this time with a cherry twist. At 4.5% ABV, this new brew features a kettle-soured wheat base with a blast of sour cherries and will be available this winter for a limited time only!
Goose Island is migrating to Europe. Anheuser-Busch InBev is planting a series of pubs branded with the Chicago craft brewery’s name, starting with a pilot launch in London before Dec. 25, followed by a second London location and a third in Belgium, according to the Telegraph. The opening of the Goose Island Vintage Ale House marks the first launch by A-B InBev’s “brand experience” division, which reportedly hopes to gain notoriety for its craft brands. The pubs will offer Goose Island’s barrel-aged beers and American smokehouse-style fare.
Three of the country’s top craft breweries unveiled their 2017 beer release schedules this week, sharing plans to introduce a host of new products and packages over the course of next year.
2016, the twentieth year of Silver City Brewery, has been far & away the busiest and most action-packed experience in company history. We’ve seen the revival of classic recipes such as Macfarlane’s Scotch Ale and Copper Mountain Maibock, as well as brand-new additions to our solid frickin’ lineup of year-round and seasonal beers including Nice Day IPA and Sesh Appeal Classic Lager.
Twisted Pine Brewing Company is set to release its 2016 Northstar Imperial Porter on Friday, December 9th. Available in the taproom on draught as well as in 22-ounce bottles, this annually-brewed American-style imperial porter is the quintessential winter warmer with malt-driven flavors of molasses, cocoa, and toffee at 9.5% ABV. According to Head Brewer Kay Witkiewicz, “This year’s batch is already tasty, but I can’t wait for the flavors to really come together a couple of years down the line.”
Just in time for the Holiday Season, we are excited to change things up with a Belgian style white IPA. Focused on delivering complexity with a blend of Belgian Yeast strains and traditional West Coast hopping. This will be the closest thing we Californians get to a white winter…and we like it that way!
MadTree Brewing announced today the date for the Grand Opening of their new state-of-the-art ‘2.0’ brewery, taproom, beer garden, and private event space. Just over a year ago, they began the project to renovate the former Rock Tenn building, an obsolete brownfield manufacturing facility, located at 3301 Madison Road. They will celebrate the opening of the new location at 3301 Madison Road in conjunction with their annual Winter Bonanza anniversary party on Saturday, February 11,2017.
As cider offerings from larger producers have hit a dry spell, those from smaller, regional producers are gaining market share as consumers continue seeking out sweeter alcoholic beverages. For proof, look no further than Virginia’s Bold Rock Hard Cider, which has seen year-to-date dollar sales (through Sept. 25) grow more than 100 percent, to nearly $8 million, according to market research firm IRI Worldwide. That ranks Bold Rock as the sixth-largest cidery – the top five sellers are all national brands – by market share, even though the company’s products are distributed in just nine states.
