Seasonal Release

New Belgium Springs Springboard for Spring

January 30, 2007

New Belgium Brewing will be releasing their spring seasonal, Springboard, a unique beer made with oats, Mt. Hood hops, Schisandra (an ancient Chinese herb), Gogi berries, and wormwood. Then it’s blended with a small amount of one of New Belgium’s other beers aged in wood. According to the press release, “Springboard opens with fruity berry-like [...]

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Strong Beer Month Coming

January 17, 2007

Beginning on February 1, 21st Amendment Brewery and Magnolia Pub & Brewery, both in San Francisco, will team up again to host their fifth annual Strong Beer Month. Each brewpub will create five new and different seasonal beers — and if you haven’t figured it out yet, they’ll all be strong — that will be [...]

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Chow Down with These Holiday Beers

December 14, 2006

The food website Chow had an article recently on holiday beers by food and music writer Heather Shouse. It’s a nice beginner’s overview of the topic with an interview with Fritz Maytag and some history of holiday beers.

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Full Sail’s LTD Series

December 12, 2006

Full Sail Brewing of Hood River, Oregon announced a new limited series of beers to celebrate their 20th anniversary. The “LTD Series” 01 will be released this month. From the press release: Hood River, Or – For the last year the Full Sail brew-masters have been working to develop a special line of beers to [...]

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If You Happen to Be in Belgium …

December 10, 2006

If you happen to be in Belgium next week, you should do whatever you have to to do to get to Essen for the 12th annual Kerstbierfestival. They’ll be tasting over 100 holiday and winter beers over the two-day festival. And please note they use a cartoon on the poster. You know what would happen [...]

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Bay Area Holiday Beers Chronicled by English

December 9, 2006

The Friday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle had a beer article about holiday beers by spririts writer Camper English, who I met at the Anchor Christmas party on Thursday. At least English’s article wasn’t an embarrasment like the Chronicle’s last beer article fiasco. He at least did a thorough job and there were no [...]

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Pacific Coast Brewing’s Holiday Tasting Announced

November 28, 2006

Pacific Coast Brewing’s 18th annual holiday beer tasting will be held at the brewery in downtown Oakland on December 9, from Noon until 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $40. Call 510.836.2739 for reservations. If you’re planning on going, make your reservations to be there now, because it will sell out quickly. 12.9 Pacific Coast Brewing’s Taste [...]

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Rodger’s Jolly Rodger Times Seven

November 17, 2006

Wednesday night, Drake’s Brewing had a fun little event at the Toronado called Seven Different Jolly’s, where they had seven different versions of their holiday beer, Jolly Rodger, from four different years. The recipe changes from year to year, and in ’05 they did two different styles, plus two years some of the beer was [...]

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Seasonally Inquiring Minds …

November 10, 2006

As pointed out to me by Lew Bryson, the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday had a fairly decent article on local winter seasonal beers along with a descriptive list of the beers profiled. It was written by Brian Rademaekers, a staff writer at the paper, proving it can be done well.

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Anchor Christmas Ale Released

November 6, 2006

The 32nd release of Anchor’s “Our Special Ale,” the official name of their annual Christmas Ale, takes place today and the seasonal beer will be available through January. The traditional date for the release of Anchor’s Christmas Ale was always the Monday before Thanksgiving, making it one of latest releases for the holidays. However, demand [...]

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Here We Go a-WASSAIL-ing

November 2, 2006

Today is the 18th anniversary of the first release of Full Sail Brewing’s holiday beer, Wassail. Full Sail’s holiday favorite was inspired by the traditional English wassail, which is a “spiced ale or mulled wine drunk during celebrations for Twelfth Night and Christmas Eve.” The word itself’s origin is Old Norse and is a contraction [...]

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New Belgium Frambozen Brown is Back

October 25, 2006

New Belgium Brewing‘s tasty Frambozen Raspberry Brown Ale has been released for the holidays again this year, and will be available in select markets until the end of the year. At previous Celebrator tastings, we’ve given it high marks. Last year we described as: Strong raspberry fruit aroma with red tinged amber color. Rich tart [...]

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Oaked Arrogant Bastard Now in Six-Packs

October 23, 2006

Beginning next Monday, October 30, an Arrogant Bastard Ale that uses American Oak Chips will hit the stores. This is the third year now that Stone Brewing has made available this oaked version of their popular Arrogant Bastard. And this year, Oaked Arrogant Bastard will be available for the first time in 12-oz, bottles sold [...]

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Stoudt’s Seasonals … and More

October 19, 2006

Stoudt’s Brewing of Adamstown, Pennsylvania has announced expansion plans. According to their press release, at the end of the year they will increase the size of their fermentation cellar by 25%. And by the holiday season, 750 ml cork finished bottles will return with the release of two styles. Fat Dog Imperial Oatmeal Stout and [...]

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Hell for Certain: A Beer … and a Town

September 6, 2006

Bluegrass Brewing’s beer, Hell for Certain, has been out before but something caught my eye in a short article about it’s impending re-release (perhaps seasonally) in the Louisville, Kentucky Courier-Journal. It seems the Belgian-style ale is named for an actual town in Leslie County, Kentucky whose name really is “Hell for Certain.” If you were [...]

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Laughing Dogs & Huckleberries

June 27, 2006

Laughing Dog Brewing of Ponderay, Idaho (the Sandpoint area) announced the release of their newest ale, a Huckleberry Cream Ale. The summer season, which will be available in six-packs and on draft through August, was brewed with several hundred pounds of crushed huckleberries. You can read all about it in the Bonner County Daily Bee. [...]

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