(Gainesville, FL) – More bottled craft beer is on its way in the Sunshine state.

Swamp Head Brewery, less than two years old, is about to introduce its five year-round beers in bottles for the first time: Big Nose IPA, Midnight Oil Oatmeal Stout, Cotton Mouth Belgian-style Wheat Beer, Wild Night Honey Cream Ale and Stump Knocker Pale Ale.

“In the near future, the company will start selling bottled beer in stores,” according to a Gainesville.com article published late last month. Check out the video accompanying the article here.

You can find the beer descriptions at the official website.

Swamp Head Brewery bottles coming soon

[Disclaimer: Beernews.org is a leader in craft beer news and is the original source of this article. If you would like to check out more, please visit the original site. Thanks!]

Photo bootlegged from Facebook

(San Diego, CA) – A new limited release is coming from Karl Strauss Brewing.

Karl Strauss 21st Anniversary Ale will debut later this month in kegs and 22 oz. bottles. Per the brewery, “You’ll be able to get this at select grocery stores and liquor stores that carry a good selection of craft beers. We’ll also have 22’s at each of our brewery restaurants.” It is being bottled today.

Commercial description: “Now that we are 21, our palate has matured like a fine wine. So we created something unique with old vine Zinfandel grape juice added during fermentation to give this brew a subtle vinous quality. Belgian yeast imparts hints of dried fruit in the nose, while a big dose of Vienna and Caramel malts yields a dry warming finish. Aged a month on American oak to take the edge off, this is one to share with friends.

Beer Stats:
Alcohol by Volume: 10.2%
Color: 24 SRM
Bitterness: 28 IBU”

Karl Strauss 21st Anniversary Ale arriving later this month

[Disclaimer: Beernews.org is a leader in craft beer news and is the original source of this article. If you would like to check out more, please visit the original site. Thanks!]

Rumor! There is a lot of talk on Beer Advocate that Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout will be delayed into next month. I haven’t confirmed this but according to one poster (via Greg Hall), the Bourbon County Stout variants will be available in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.

A couple more technical points on the beer for the homebrewers out there: O.G.: 30, 60 IBU, Hops: Willamette, Malts: 2-row, Munich, Chocolate, Caramel 60, Roast Barley, Debittered Black.

From The Bruery on Beer Advocate: “The next Reserve Society offering will be Melange No. 3. It’s being blended and bottled today, but won’t likely be released until late April / early May. We’ll be contacting members about allocations soon! It’ll likely be 3 bottles per member that can be allocated. We are expecting that Reserve Society members will take up the entire batch (around 1000 bottles to be released), but it’ll be on tap on occasion at The Bruery and a few festivals.”

From the Troegs Brewing March newsletter: “For those connecting the dots and wondering what’s happening with Rugged Trail Ale, we have some sad news to report. The last batch of Rugged Trail was brewed in mid-February and has been shipped from the brewery for the final time.” It was the brewery’s weak link and appears to have been replaced by Java Head Stout which shipped in 6-packs for the first time earlier this month.

From STL Hops: “[Schlafly American IPA] that was so popular at this past year’s Hop in the City will become available on June 1st of 2010. This beer will be available in six-packs at the same price point as the other Special Release beers (Pumpkin, Export IPA, Extra Dry Stout, etc.)”

From RateBeer: “This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the St. Louis and Stuttgart Sister Cities relationship. This milestone will be celebrated with the brewing of a collaborative beer. Schlafly Beer and the Stuttgart brewer, Calwer-Eck-Bräu, have collaborated on a recipe and each will brew a German beer style with an American twist: Dry-hopped Märzen.”

Beer notes: Goose Island, The Bruery, Troegs, Schalfly

[Disclaimer: Beernews.org is a leader in craft beer news and is the original source of this article. If you would like to check out more, please visit the original site. Thanks!]

(Easton, PA) – Weyerbacher Tiny will debut in cork-and-caged 750 mL bottles next month.

The beer is a Belgian-inspired Imperial Stout just like Weyerbacher Thirteen was but the brewery has remained mysterious when it comes to what the differences are. The brewery estimated that it will start hitting shelves the first or second week of April. It will be available for a limited time and only in bottles.

Next up in the Brewer’s Select Series will be Weyerbacher Juliet. According to Weyerbacher, it will be a “Doppelsticke which is a strong version of a German Alt.” You might be familiar with Uerige Doppelsticke which is available here in the U.S. Bottles of Juliet will be available only at the brewery and kegs will be distributed to select locations. No release date has been announced.

The beer formerly known as Weyerbacher Zotten will return as Weyerbacher Verboten in May.

Finally, Weyerbacher XV comes out in June. The brewery recently announced that it will be a Smoked Imperial Stout with 70% smoked malt.

Beer notes Weyerbacher edition: Tiny, Juliet and Fifteen

[Disclaimer: Beernews.org is a leader in craft beer news and is the original source of this article. If you would like to check out more, please visit the original site. Thanks!]

Dark Lord Golden Ticket - courtesy of drooo - Creative Commons

(Munster, IN) – Twitter and Facebook aren’t for everyone. They provide two great ways to keep up with news from breweries but some are understandably adverse to new technologies. Twitter especially has its detractors, as evidenced by some of the comments that followed Three Floyds Brewing’s announcement that it would notify people of Dark Lord bottle ticket sales via Twitter.

There are still skeptics that ask, “Why would anyone care what I had for lunch?” Just realize that you can still “lurk” on Twitter just like you can on any old-fashioned message board. You can subscribe to my updates (@beersage / @beerpulse) and those of hundreds of breweries without ever posting a single message. The fact is that there is no service that is faster for breaking news, beer-related or in general.

One of those breaking news items will be Three Floyds Brewing’s announcement that Golden Tickets for Dark Lord bottles will go on sale this Wednesday. From what I recall last year, they went on sale at the wee hours in the morning and still only lasted a few hours. How long will they last this year? An hour or two, if that? Especially with a lucrative secondary market that arose in eBay- 50 postings for Golden Tickets last year . . .

For the record, according to Three Floyds, “The twitter announcement will coincide with an announcement on this site, beeradvocate.com and ratebeer.com at almost the same time.” Still, Twitter provides an advantage that these others sites do not and that is immediate text message alerts for new postings. So if they put the tickets on sale in the wee hours of the morning again and if you’ve set your phone to go off with a text message alert from the Three Floyds account, you will be right on top of it. Here is how to set that up.

1) Go to the Twitter home page and sign up for a free account.

2) Once logged in, click on “settings” in the upper right.

3) In the horizontal menu on the next page, click “Mobile.”

4) Follow the instructions to turn on device updates.

5) Go to the Three Floyds Twitter account and click “Follow” underneath the avatar. You will see the button change to say, “Following.” Then click on the tiny mobile phone icon next to it to turn on device updates for that account. You will now get Three Floyds updates sent immediately to your phone. To undo at any time, just click that mobile phone icon again.

Disclaimer: standard text messaging rates apply! Though I’m pretty sure that you will not hesitate to pay 30 cents for your chance at some Dark Lord . . .

6) For good measure, you can also repeat step 5 for the Three Floyds Pub account but I’m nearly certain that they will be tweeting the announcement from their main account first. There’s also a mysterious Dark Lord Day account but I have no idea whether this is the brewery’s account or started by a random person.

And there you have it. Good luck getting your tickets and give Twitter a shot!

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Photo credit:

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Dark Lord Golden Tickets and Twitter

[Disclaimer: Beernews.org is a leader in craft beer news and is the original source of this article. If you would like to check out more, please visit the original site. Thanks!]

(Portland, OR) – It’s not quite spring yet but many breweries will start introducing summer ales beginning in April. Widmer Brothers is no exception and will launch its new summer seasonal, Widmer Brothers Sunburn, next month.

Commercial description: “Inspired by the long and hopefully hot days of summer fun, Sunburn is a refreshing tribute to the Brothers Widmer and their unending dedication to making beer people love as much as they do. This radiant golden ale is the perfect protection factor as the mercury climbs. The light caramel body and Citra dry hopping provide a balanced and flavorful beer that’s sure to refresh any summer afternoon.”

Expect to find this on shelves in 6-packs and on draft beginning around mid-April with supplies lasting through the end of July.

Beer Stats:

ABV: 4.3%
IBUs: 15
O.G.: 10.5 Deg. Plato

Currently available from Widmer Brothers:
Widmer Brothers Deadlift Imperial IPA
Widmer Pitch Black IPA

Coming soon:
Widmer Brothers’ Reserve Prickly Pear Braggot

Widmer Brothers Sunburn Summer Brew debuts in April

[Disclaimer: Beernews.org is a leader in craft beer news and is the original source of this article. If you would like to check out more, please visit the original site. Thanks!]

Before we get into the update, I did a couple Brooklyn write-ups recently. Brooklyn Sorachi Ace is coming out this spring as a special release to be sold in 750 mL bottles. Brooklyn Dark Matter is the next Brewmaster Reserve Series offering; it will be appearing on tap very soon. Oh, and the brewery’s top-selling seasonal beer, Brooklyn Summer Ale, will be hitting shelves April 1st and sell throughout the summer.

To the updates . . .

Brewery Expansion

In about five weeks or so, the light demolition in our new space, next door, will have been completed and new construction can begin. We just purchased the new brewhouse from a German manufacturer named Rolec. It will take six months to build, and one month to ship. We will see it here in Williamsburg at the beginning of October.

International News

Internationally, some big moves are happening.

o Brazil – currently clearing in customs are shipments of Brooklyn Lager, Brown and East India Pale Ale.

o Italy – testing out our first batch of East India Pale ale at Amarcord Brewery in Appecchio, Italy. Max Krieger, Amarcord’s German head brewer will be visiting Brooklyn Brewery the week of 3/22 to see how we do it, Brooklyn-style. Once the recipe is perfected at Amarcord, the EIPA will be distributed in Italy and later, throughout Europe.

o Finland – for the 3rd year, we will be brewing Brooklyn American Ale exclusively for Finland.

Citi Field

When baseball season starts, Brooklyn will once again have some killer seats at The Mets’ Citi Field.

o Sabroso a Light Ale brewed with orange peel will be available at El Verano Taqueria.

o The Citi Field outpost of Blue Smoke will serve Brooklyn Blue Smoke, an English style pale ale.

o Brooklyn Shackmeister, a dry-hopped light dinner ale, will be on tap at Shake Shack.

o And Brooklyn Pilsner will be at Box Frites.

Brooklyn Brewery spring update

[Disclaimer: Beernews.org is a leader in craft beer news and is the original source of this article. If you would like to check out more, please visit the original site. Thanks!]