Here’s more area Brews News for your delectation (some cross-posted and updated from my column at Mountain Xpress:
Craggie Distributing
So I talked to Craggie Brewing master brewer Bill Drew last week, and he told me they’ve been picked up by Tryon Distributing, which distributes all over the state of N.C. This is big news for this young brewery. Initially, they’ll just be sending out kegs, but they hope to start bottling in the next few months.
Drew also has brewed a wheat beer with apple wood branches from Hendersonville apple orchards, called Hendo Schwarzweis, for the North Carolina Apple Festival in Hendersonville on Sept. 3 – 6. It’s a 3.7 percent ABV session beer–dark in color but light and slightly sweet. Interesting flavor, for sure. That beer will be available around the area and at Lexington Avenue Arts Fun Festival on Sept. 5 as well.
Pack’s Tavern and Bruisin’ Ales beer shop hosted the Blind Eye Beer Battle on Thursday, Aug. 26, in the upstairs area at Pack’s. I popped by for a bit–tasted some yummy lamb kabobs and actually ate a couple of sweet breads (thymus glands–eeeekkkk). I also tasted a few of the porters–my favorite beer style. Mostly, I took photos and watched. Seemed like folks were having fun and finding a blind tasting to be more difficult than anticipated. This will be the first in a series of educational blind beer tastings that will be co-hosted by these two businesses.
The highest-rated beers, from Bruisin’ Ales blog were:
The highest-rated IPAs: 1) Sweetwater IPA 2) Terrapin Hopsecutioner 3) Bell’s Two Hearted Ale
The highest-rated porters: 1) Smuttynose Robust Porter 2) Founder’s Porter 3) Highland Oatmeal Porter
Brews Cruise expands to Oregon
Brews Cruise owners Mark and Trish Lyons have licensed the Asheville Brews Cruise brewery tour brand to Joel Bender, former guest services manager for the Grove Park Inn. The Lyons, who also set up a Brews Cruise licensee in Denver, will expand their business to Bend, Ore. The couple will relocate there in mid-September. Asheville Brews Cruise tours will continue as scheduled. Check the website for information. The Lyons will still help organize Asheville’s annual Winter Warmer Beer Festival, slated to take place on January 22, 2011.
Oktoberfest already?
Oktoberfest beers seem to get released earlier and earlier each year, which is fine by me, as they’re among my favorites.
Beating the other local breweries to the punch, Lexington Avenue Brewery has already released their Oktoberfest Marzen beer. Speaking of punch, it comes in at seven-percent alcohol per volume, and is available on tap at their brewpub at 39 N. Lexington Ave.
Highland Brewing Company releases their latest mountain-monikered seasonal, Clawhammer Oktoberfest, around September 1. It’s a full-bodied Marzen made with, of course, all German hops, that comes in at five-percent alcohol by volume. It’ll be available on tap and in 12-ounce bottles throughout the region.
Pisgah Brewing Company’s Oktoberfest beer is in the fermenter and should be on draught in their Taproom and around town by the end of September. The Pisgah folks say it was the Southeast’s first organic lager and leans toward authentic German domestic versions of this seasonal.
French Broad Brewery‘s Zepptemberfest, a Marzen brewed with a Kolsch yeast, is out and around town.
Green Man Brewing also is putting out an Oktoberfest brew. Check out their rocking new website as well.
Oktoberfest beers are typically lagers, which means they take longer to brew than ales. But look for French Broad’s take on the style regionally on tap and in 22-ouncers by the end of September as well.
At Craggie Brewing Company, Drew is test batching a mix of the Doppelbock and the Toubab Brewe (a Bavarian-Style Zwickel) beers to make an Oktoberfest brew.
If you’d like to try many of these Oktoberfest-y beers and more, plan to attend the second Annual Asheville Oktoberfest. Located on Wall Street downtown (kind of like a bier garten), it’s organized by the Asheville Downtown Association and will run from noon till 6 p.m.
Thank you for the lagers, y’all.
More on the Moog
Asheville Brewing Company’s Moog Filtered Ale was featured in a write-up in Wired Magazine this month. Wired loves the geeky science aspect of this beer, brewed to benefit Asheville’s Bob Moog Foundation and released on the anniversary of what would have been the world-famous inventor’s 76th birthday (May 27). Alas, the brew has sold out, but Asheville Brewing’s Mike Rangel says they’ll roll the filtered pale ale back out during MoogFest, on Oct. 29 – 31.
It’ll be on sale at the Asheville Civic Center and the Orange Peel throughout that weekend’s musical extravaganza. Rangel says proceeds from the sale of the beer to the Foundation total more than $5,000 so far. He expects the final donation to be $7,000 or $8,000.
