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The 21st Amendment Brewery’s cans debut on store shelves today in San Francisco and BevMo stores around California. The two beers, Brew Free or Die IPA and Hell or High Watermelon Wheat, are the first to be distributed by the San Francisco landmark. There will be a release party tonight at 6pm at the Toronado Pub (SF). Continue On! »

(Leuven, Belgium) - Chances are that you’re not reading about this for the first time but we feel obligated to post something about it. News outlets began reporting on Sunday that InBev was close to acquiring Anheuser-Busch after upping the bidding price for the American beermaker last week. Yesterday, it became official: Anheuser-Busch will now be owned by InBev.

According to the press release, “the world’s leading global brewer. Anheuser-Busch shareholders will receive $70 per share in cash, for an Continue On! »

[8/2 Update: Both Avery Ale to the Chief and Lagunitas We're Only In It for the Money are both in stores. Call around for availability.]

Avery Brewing announced in its most recent newsletter that it will debut one beer this summer and re-release another early this fall. Avery The Beast Grand Cru, a Belgian-style Strong Ale, will return to store shelves around September 15. The brewery will also debut a hoppy 8.5% American Pale Ale in mid-July to celebrate the upcoming elections and a new president. A RateBeer page has been created for Avery Ale to the Chief with complete label information.

Lagunitas Brewing will soon release its next beer in the Frank Zappa series. The beers, paying tribute to Zappa’s career one record at a time, have earned the brewery some of its most respectable beer ratings to date. The fourth installment, Lagunitas We’re Only In It For the Money, was supposed to come out last month according to the web site, but the beer just got label approval two weeks ago. Rumor is that the beer may not go out until July.

Tyranena Brewing revealed in its latest newsletter that it brewed Tyranena Scurvy late this past week. “Thinking we will be going with a fairly straightforward malt profile (although a bit bigger than Bitter Woman) to really showcase the hops and orange peel.” Scurvy will be available beginning in mid-June.

A few quick notes on a slow Wednesday morning:

Weyerbacher Riserva, one of the special release beers to be sold at the brewery on June 13, just got label approval. It is the second beer in the Weyerbacher Brewer’s Select Series, a run of limited edition beers only sold in Pennsylvania. In case you missed it:

Over a year in the making, this American Wild Ale is fermented with Brettanomyces yeast and aged with red-raspberry puree in Oak barrels for over 1 year, then bottle conditioned in champagne bottles. This beer is incredible and will be a bit pricey to purchase at $145 per case of 12, only at the brewery. We’ll only have 50 cases of this one to sell in house, and another 50 to ship out to a few select wholesalers. That’s it until next year.

For what it’s worth, Weyerbacher keeps an updated list on its website of what is available at the brewery on weekends.

Toronado San Diego could be opening as early as today. Rumors are flying in every direction as to the exact date but Tom Nickel of O’Brien’s Pub, also in San Diego, sent out a newsletter yesterday mentioning that the pub would be opening today, Wednesday, May 21. Someone posted on BA that the pub looked like there was still some work needed to be done. Will Nickel prove to be a reliable source? We’ll find out.

Novare Res Bier Cafe IS a beer bar officially opening on Wednesday, May 21 (4pm). This Belgian-themed bar will greatly bolster the craft beer scene in the Old Port (downtown) section of Portland, Maine. What has people so excited about this place? It will be run by one of the former managers of The Moan and Dove in Amherst, Massachusetts. Beer Advocate named this bar the Best Place to Have a Beer in America back in 2006.