New Belgium Brewing declares a snow day for everyone! This joyful phrase conjures universal meaning: forget work and enjoy.  Snow Day Ale replaces 2ºBelow as New Belgium’s winter seasonal, bringing warmth and relaxation to cold winter days.

Snow Day carries the subtle chocolate and caramel flavors of the newly developed Midnight Wheat malt. Pleasantly hoppy, the Styrian Golding, Centennial and Cascade hops bring a bright note to complement roasty undertones.  Snow Day is the deep garnet of roasted walnut and presents a creamy tan head.

“With its layered hops, Snow Day delivers the depth people crave in a winter beer but it’s very drinkable,” said Grady Hull, assistant brewmaster at New Belgium Brewing.  “We intentionally created a beer that could carry its weight without weighing you down.”

Snow Day has 6.25 percent ABV and 55 IBUs.  It’s available in most New Belgium markets and pricing may vary.

I’m definitely looking forward to trying it as New Belgium usually produces some pretty good beers.

If you want to see if it’s available near you, visit their beer finder.

Two things that I absolutely love in this world other than my family and friends is beer (of course) and music. When the two get together it makes a magical event.

While I’ve been to many concerts and enjoyed some good beer, there hasn’t been many unions that I know of quite like the latest Dogfish Head beer being released in mid-October to celebrate Pearl Jam’s 20th anniversary as a band.

The beer, named Faithfull Ale, is a belgian style golden ale brewed with 10 incremental additions of black currants and a modest 20 IBUs and 7% ABV. The name comes from their song Faithfull off of their album titled Yield (from 1998).

“To me, ‘Ten’ is the perfect example of a record-lover’s-record. The whole thing rocks. As an off-centered brewery, we believe in celebrating the breadth of our whole portfolio and we feel an affinity for Pearl Jam a long-player band in a singles-obsessed world.” – Dogfish Head President & Founder Sam Calagione

If you’re like me and excited to give it a try (I’m sure it’s worth a try even if you’re not a Pearl Jam fan) you are probably in luck. The company said it plans to distribute the tribute beer to all states in their current distribution.

I wonder how they decided on a belgian style ale with currants. It sounds like it could be pretty good, but I’m curious if there is any connection with the band.

Will you try it?

Living in the Northwest, I sometimes take for granted that I can drive to a local beer shop and choose from hundreds of great craft brews. We do have some bad laws, such as not being able to get beers like Sam Adams Utopias in Oregon or Washington, but for the most part we have access to quite a few beers.

This is not so in Mississippi.

Did you know that Mississippi is the only state in the country that limits alcohol by weight (ABW) for beer to only 5%?

Seriously Mississippi?  5%? Are stakeholders in Anheuser-Busch and Molson Coors running your legislation over there?

What’s strange to me is that they do allow wine over 5%.  That seems like a double standard to me.  There are many beers that are aged similar to wine and are so good, yet because they are considered beer, residents of the state can’t buy them.

According to Raise Your Pint, a grassroots, non-profit organization whose mission is to help bring the highest quality beers in the world to Mississippi, 87 of the worlds top 100 beers (beeradvocate.com) aren’t available to Mississippians because of their laws.

They are unable to buy 19 of 22 Dogfish Head Brewery beers.

On top of the smack to the face to craft beer drinkers, homebrewing BEER is still illegal in Mississippi (Alabama is the only other state in the country).  They can make wine, just not beer.

Mississippi it’s time you change your outdated laws.  If you live in the state, definitely check out Raise Your Pints website to see how you can get involved.

Let Mississippi drink good beer!

I came across this video this morning put out by Bonefish Grill which has Tim Curci (founder of Bonefish Grill) doing an interview at Pike Brewery in Seattle, WA with Charles Finkel. It’s a great interview where they talk about everything from craft beer and prohibition to beer & food pairings.

Check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Just a quick update for all you Maine readers out there: while you’re all patiently waiting for the arrival of Baxter Brewing Co. beers this fall, you’ll have some new out-of-state beery arrivals to help tide you over. Three breweries from across the country have started to distribute their beers in the state of Maine this month and their arrivals are absolutely welcome ones!

First, a the first of May heralded the long-awaited arrival of Southern Tier Brewing Co. Southern Tier (out of Lakewood, NY) began distributing four of their beers, I believe, across southern Maine a few weeks ago, including their Unearthly Double IPA – a personal favorite beer of mine. I just hope that if these four are successful, they’ll ship their Jah*va Coffee and Imperial Oatmeal stouts as well. Southern Tier is being distributed by Central Distributors in Lewiston.

Next, on May 10th, Morrisville, VT’s Rock Art Brewing Co. announced via their Facebook Fan Page that they were about to begin shipping beer to Maine via Portland-based distributor Mariner Beverage. I’m not sure how many Rock Art varieties have arrived, but according to one Facebook comment, at least the Vermonster and a Belvidere Big IPA are now available at RSVP in here in Portland. You may remember the Rock Art name from the little legal battle they had with beverage giant Monster Energy Drinks in October of 2009.

Lastly, I just discovered this one this morning: New Orleans’ Abita Brewing Co. (which is actually located in Abita Springs, Louisiana, 30 miles north of New Orleans) have sneaked their way into the state. While I haven’t yet seen their beer on any store shelves and Maine isn’t listed on the “beer finder” page of their website yet, according to the below screenshot of an official Abita Tweet, it certainly looks like their beers should be in state by now.

This is all very exciting news as Maine finally begins to catch up with the rest of the country as far as beer availability and diversity. The summer beer drinking is definitely looking up!

A few BlogAboutBeer.com readers probably already know the news I’m about the share but I’m pretty sure that most do not. What I am about to write has been a non-stop, full-time eleven months in the making (and many years in a dream): I am opening my own brewery.

Baxter Brewing Co. will be the first brewery north of Connecticut to can its entire line of beer. Located in the historic Bates Mill in Lewiston, Maine, Baxter beers will be distributed throughout the state of Maine beginning in September 2010 and across northern New England in 2011.

What’s With the Flying Moose?

The creature in our logo is Pamola, an Abenaki and Penobscot legend of a spirit which is said to be the god of Thunder, the cause of cold weather and protector of Mt Katahdin, the tallest peak in the state of Maine. The Indians described him as having the head of a moose, the body of a man and the wings and talons of an eagle. Pamola was both feared and respected by the tribes who believed in him.

Personally, I will be handling the marketing, sales and administration side of the company and have hired local Brewmaster Michael LaCharite – who founded Casco Bay Brewing Co. in the mid 1990s – to run the brewing side of the business. You can expect to see cans of our flagship Stowaway IPA across the state of Maine beginning around Labor Day. Our brewery itself will feature a nearly-new, state-of-the-art 30 barrel brewing system, manufactured by Newlands Systems Inc (NSI) and an automatic canning line capable of filling thirty cans a minute from Cask Brewing Systems Inc.

What Happens to BlogAboutBeer.com?

What does this mean for the future of BlogAboutBeer.com? Well, undoubtedly I won’t have the time any more necessary to devote to the blog (clearly, since it’s been nearly a week since my last update and posts are getting much less frequent as my schedule gets busier). And it would be unfair to all of you if I were to either turn this blog into an entirely Baxter-centric blog (I will have one of those I’m sure, but it will run as part of BaxterBrewing.com), or abandon it all together (the last thing I want to happen). I do plan to list the site for sale on Flippa and would hope for it to get what it’s worth, but more importantly, I hope that whatever hands it ends up in continue to develop the site, its content and its culture in the same vein I have been doing for the past 2+ years. So if you have an idea for the site, or are interested in purchasing it or taking it over, please get in touch with me.

So in Conclusion…

As for Baxter, I’m sure there will be questions from the crowd, so I’ll leave it at that. But please fire away (maybe they will require a couple of follow-up posts). And check out www.baxterbrewing.com and follow us on Twitter @BaxterBrewing.

Most importantly, I want to thank you all so much for all of the support you have shown BlogAboutBeer.com since its inception in August of 2007. Thousands and thousands of people have visited the site, have commented on posts, emailed me, introduced themselves, written guest posts, sent me beer and schwag, invited me into their events and into their homes and bars and without the site and without all of you, I certainly wouldn’t love craft beer nearly as much as I do and I damn sure wouldn’t be starting a brewery. So I thank you all from the bottom of my heart (and my glass) and please keep reading and keep in touch! Cheers!

Tactical Nuclear Penguin, the beer which had for a couple of weeks been the most alcoholic beer in the world — before German brewer Schorschbrau released a 40% ABV beer called Schorschbock and BrewDog fired back with their Sink the Bismarck!, which checks in at 41% ABV and a highly-alcoholic and somewhat pointless cock fight ensued — is now making its away across the pond for limited release across the U.S.ofA (Mainers, I know that Central Distributors in Lewiston got a few cases but I don’t know where they’ll end up). A move which only makes sense in the eyes of the folks at BrewDog, since about half of the bottles of Tactical Nuclear Penguin which have been sold or traded online (through either the BrewDog website or eBay) have gone to the United States.

According to Time Magazine (Time.com),

Because of the painstaking process involved with producing such a strong drink, an 11.2-oz. bottle of Sink the Bismarck! costs some $60, minus shipping. [While] Tactical Nuclear Penguin costs about $53 a bottle, and can also be ordered online.

For those concerned that the high levels of Alcohol in T.N.P. will lead to chugging and binge drinking (despite the bottle’s ungodly price tag), a warning label on the Tactical Nuclear Penguin bottle does state, “This is an extremely strong beer; it should be enjoyed in small servings and with an air of aristocratic nonchalance. It is exactly the same manner you would enjoy a fine whiskey, a Frank Zappa album or a visit from a friendly yet anxious ghost.”

For more on Tactical Nuclear Penguin, including an explanation of the (admittedly very cool) way in which the beer was made, check out this promotional video from BrewDog (warning! The video does include simulated penguin sex and a naked Scot… you’ve been warned):

Tickets went on sale yesterday for the 3rd annual American Craft Beer Festival. Sponsored by BeerAdvocate and Harpoon Brewery, the American Craft Beer Fest features over 325 craft beers from over 80 American brewers. The festival is held at the Seaport World Trader Center on the waterfront in Boston, Massachusetts. The ACBF is the largest annual craft beer festival on the east coast.

This year’s event will take place over two days, June 18th and 19th; tickets are $40 a piece (plus service charges) and unlike many beer festivals — including all those here in Maine — include unlimited 2 ounce pours (no drink tickets required). Be sure and get your tickets early, however, as all sessions of the ACBF will undoubtedly sell out. For more information, visit beeradvocate.com/acbf/

That’s the question. Apparently there’s a big hullabaloo about it in Twins Nation (thanks to Beernews.org for bringing it to my attention). Target Field, the will-be new home of the Minnesota Twins organization will be selling cans of Surly Brewing Co. beers at games for a whopping $10 a pop. I guess the high price point (which I assume is decided upon by the Twins organization and not necessarily Surly themselves) is causing some major drama among the Surly faithful. There’s even a poll (with lengthly follow-up comments) on the Surly Facebook Fan Page. But is it too much?

You sort of have to put it into context. While I’m not familiar with Twins games, I’ve spent a fair amount of time at Fenway Park in Boston where a cup of Coors Light is $8. If I was willing to spend that much to drink crappy beer at a ballgame — I’m not — I would happily fork over an additional $2 to drink something better. However, I have to wonder how many craft beer fans really go to major league games. And of them, are there enough willing to spend $10 to make selling Surly cans worth the Twins’ while?

I do know that the Portland Sea Dogs (the AA affiliate of the Red Sox who play their home games here in Portland) feature a “microbrew tent” at every game with many of the local craft brews, including Shipyard, Gritty’s, etc. The cups of those beers go for a reasonable $6 (I believe); only a dollar more than Bud. And the line for the “Microbrew Tent” is always 20 people deep at every game.  I would venture to bet that the Sea Dogs sell more $6 Shipyards at a home game (note that there are not more than 7,000ish people at every game, max. Most of whom are under 21) than the Twins will sell $10 Surly cans.

And Adam at Beernews.org raises a good point,

The problem with offering beer at a venue like a ballpark is that the venue can get away with price gouging which, in turn, can hurt the brand.

By the looks of the comments on the Facebook page, Surly fans are pretty, well, surly over the price point. What do you think? Would you pay $10 for a good (and believe me, if you haven’t had anything from Surly, it’s pretty damn good) beer at a ballgame? Worth it? And how much is too much?

It’s always fun to see examples of craft beer-related stories popping up in less-than-traditional mainstream media outlets. The most recent example of this was a story which appeared this month in The Atlantic Monthly of all places (or at least their website; I’m not sure if it made the print edition of the magazine or not) on Maine’s favorite boundaries-pushing brewery Allagash. The article, which describes Allagash as “The future of American craft brewing”, details their recent use of a “koelschip” and the incredible, intricate beers its producing. Says The Atlantic,

The future of American craft beer sits in a shed on the industrial outskirts of Portland, Maine. Built by the Allagash Brewing Company in 2007, the shed holds the country’s first commercial “koelschip,” a shallow, 15-barrel steel pan used to cool down beer wort–and expose the beer to naturally occurring yeasts that float in through the shed’s open stained-glass windows. The results, which are still aging in the brewery’s warehouse and could be ready for drinking early next year, will be the first American lambic produced according to the traditional methods used in Belgium, where wild-yeast fermentation is considered a national treasure.

Congratulations, of course, to Allagash for their continued varied and hugely successful media coverage and I for one cannot wait to taste what comes out of the koelschip first! Read the rest of the Atlantic piece here.