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As any long-time BlogAboutBeer readers know, I am very big on putting craft beer in cans. So I was excited to see this little tidbit come through my inbox the other day — it’s good news for MassHoles and good news for those of us in Maine (because good beer in cans is one step closer to reaching our borders).

It appears that San Fransisco’s 21st Amendment Brewing Co. has begun distributing their two canned beers — Hell or High Watermellon and Brew Free or Die IPA — in the Bay State. From the company’s official press release,

Boston-area native Nico Freccia is returning to his home state, and he’s bringing beer. Craft beer in a can, that is. The co-founder of San Francisco’s 21st Amendment Brewery tells Massachusetts craft beer fans today, “We drink what we can; we can what we drink.”

Freccia and Shaun O’Sullivan, the iconic personalities behind one of California’s few canning craft breweries, opened the bustling 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood after meeting in a home-brew class. The release of the Brewery’s two canned brews, Hell or High Watermelon Wheat Beer (recently rated “#1 Beer to Drink from a Can” and “Top Fruit Beer” by Draft magazine) and Brew Free! Or Die IPA (winner of multiple medals internationally) marks the brewery’s first foray into beer sales on the east coast. Both beers will be available in cans and on draft throughout the state of Massachusetts.

“Massachusetts, and in particular, Boston, is a craft beer drinkers’ paradise,” says Chief Watermelon Officer Freccia. “People in Massachusetts just get the CAN-cept of great craft beer, and we are really excited to be a part of the local beer landscape.”

Why craft beer in a can? “Quite CAN-didly,” says Chief Hop Head O’Sullivan, “Cans are simply better for the beer. They keep it fresher by protecting it from light, they fit the craft beer drinker’s lifestyle by going places where glass just doesn’t dare, and cans are better for the environment. They use less energy to produce and transport, and they get recycled more often than glass.”

Hell or High Watermelon Wheat is a classic American wheat beer that undergoes a traditional secondary fermentation using fresh watermelon and yielding a straw-colored, refreshing beer with a kiss of watermelon aroma and flavor. Brew Free! Or Die IPA is brewed with some serious west coast attitude. This aromatic golden IPA starts with a sucker punch of six different hops to the nose, quickly balanced by a solid malt backbone. Both beers are now available in cans and on draft at better bars and stores throughout Massachusetts. For up to date availability, events and promotions, visit 21A’s website at 21st-Amendment.com.

Welcome to New England, 21st Amendment; hope to get my hands on you soon!

New Belgium Brewing Co. — the third largest craft brewer in the country — has officially released their 2007-2008 “Sustainability Report” outlining the results of New Belgium’s “Triple Bottom Line” approach to business using metrics and data gathered over a five-year period. The “Triple Bottom Line” measurement looks at the environmental, economic and social effects of the brewery.

The report also highlights a number of the brewer’s environmental and sustainable initiatives, which include a decade-long commitment to using wind energy, and tracking the greenhouse gas life-cycle of a six-pack of the brewery’s famous Fat Tire beer. According to MSNBC,

“Environmental sustainability has always been a core value at New Belgium, so we felt it was time to take a measure of our progress,” said Jenn Orgolini, New Belgium’s Sustainability Director. “While it is gratifying to know that we have made great strides in our environmental performance, this report will help us set goals and make plans to help us close the gap in areas where we could stand to improve.”

What is fantastic, however, was the fact that I learned about New Belgium’s report through an article on MSNBC. It is always great to see initiatives from within the Craft Brewing industry (especially when those initiatives are environmentally-related) making into the mainstream media. It’s great attention for all the things that matter!

To read the original MSNBC article (which includes a list of some of the New Belgium report’s highlights), click here. And visit newbelgium.com/sustainability to read the full report and learn about all of the on-going sustainability efforts happening at New Belgium. Keep up the great work, guys!

Portland Maine’s own Peak Organic Brewing announced today that they’ve released their new fall seasonal brew: Espresso Amber Ale. The Espresso Amber Ale is brewed with Maine-roasted, organic fair trade espresso in collaboration with Coffee By Design. The beer is in partnership with Transfair, a non-profit that works to ensure that farmers and farm workers behind Fair Trade Certified goods are paid fair, above-market prices, helping to support a better life for farming families, community development and environmental stewardship. Peak Organic Espresso Amber Ale is the first Fair Trade Certified™ beer brewed in the United States. According to the official company press release,

“Our Espresso Amber Ale is a celebration of tasty, local ingredients and organic, fair trade
practices,” said Jon Cadoux from Peak, a passionate craft beer brewer. “As foodies, we’ve
always appreciated hand-crafted coffee roasters, so we jumped at the opportunity to work with
our friends down the street at Coffee By Design, who craft amazing coffee. We feel like this is
more than just a delicious craft beer, but also a positive experience from start to finish, farm to
glass” said Geoff Masland from Peak.

According to Cadoux, The Espresso Amber Ale is a flavorful, robust ale with toasty notes from the espresso in the front palate that delicately compliment the sweeter notes from the malts in the back palate.

Be sure and check back here for a review of Peak’s Espresso Amber Ale as soon as I get my hands on it. In the meantime, be sure and check out (and pick up a bottle of) my previous review of the Peak Organic Maple Oat Ale and my September ‘07 interview with Peak founder Jon Cadoux.

Very big & exciting news for fans of Portsmouth’s own Smuttynose Brewing Co.: A new brewery has been a discussion for Smuttynose for quite awhile (I first wrote about it back in December of ‘07) as they’ve long since outgrown their relatively small Establishment on the outskirts of Portsmouth. Well, according to SeacoastOnline.com, the brewery and its owner, Peter Egelston, gained approval from all the right Planning Boards last night to move its brewery to Hampton, NH. From SeacoastOnline,

Smuttynose Brewery is moving to Hampton. The Planning Board on Wednesday night approved Smuttynose president Peter Egelston’s plans to build a bigger and better brewery in Hampton.

Smuttynose is currently located at 225 Heritage Ave. in Portsmouth in a 25,000-square-foot facility. The lot soon to be the new home of the brewery is a 14-acre property owned by Gregory and Jennifer Sancoff at 105 Towle Farm Road in Hampton.

The new brewing facility will be 42,000 square feet. On the same property, Smuttynose will convert a barn into a restaurant.

And Peter seems to be true to his word. As he told me in December, he would like the new brewery to be as “green” as possible. And sure enough, according to the article, he’s:

planning for the new brewery to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification qualification. Some “green” technology that Egelston is considering includes the use of rainwater in plumbing and a co-generation power source, which is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and heat.

No word yet on when the new brewery and restaurant will be open or if there will be any sort of grand opening celebration (but you can bet, if there is, I sure as shootin’ will be there) but I’ll keep you posted when I hear of anything. In the meantime, congrats Pete & crew; a bigger brewery can only mean more Smuttynose and that’s alright with me!

source: Smuttynose gains approval in Hampton for brewery, restaurant [SeacoastOnline.com]

Tom Quinn and ethanol scientist Floyd Butterfield founded the E-Fuel Corporation in March 2007 to create efficient ethanol micro-refinery products for people who want to break their dependency on oil. And it looks like they’ve done it. And done it using beer.

The company recently rolled out a portable machine called the MicroFueleris, which is about the size of a stackable washer-dryer and could easily fit in a standard driveway. The MicroFueler produces ethanol that can be used in any car converted for flex fuels.

The ethanol is created when sugar or beer is poured into the MicroFueleris’ fermentation tank through a grate-covered opening on the machine. The sugar or alcohol from the beer then mixes with a measured amount of water already in the tank and the conversion process begins.

However, if you want to get your hands on such a machine, it’s going to cost you. The MicroFueler sells for just under $10,000. It weighs 200 pounds and can produce up to 35 gallons of ethanol per week.

my only question is – why would anyone have left over beer?!

Source: “Entrepreneur Converts Leftover Alcohol To Gas” [WCSH]

photo by: Sergio Moraes/Reuters