Thanks to everyone who came out to Gene McCarthy’s on Tuesday for the release of The Jam #3: Reprise IPA. It was a fun night filled with great beer and conversation, and it wouldn’t have been possible without you. There should still be some Reprise left now if you missed it and need an excuse to go to the Old First Ward.

“But Dan,” you say. “What if I want a growler of Reprise?” You, hypothetical straw man, are in luck! We saved two kegs of it, and will be tapping one today and one tomorrow during our retail hours.

Wooden on the outside, beery on the inside

That’s right! The brewery (15 Lafayette 14213, in case you’ve forgotten) is now open every Thursday and Friday from 3-7. Come down and get some Frank, Whale and Jam! (Yes, unfortunately all the De Maas we’ve made has been sent to bars this week. It will return next week.)

Now that The Jam #3 has landed, we’ve set our sights on the next target: the Ballpark Brew Bash. If you haven’t gotten your tickets yet, you really ought to! A VIP ticket will get you, in addition to all the many, many other great beers available, access to The Whale that’s been aged in a whiskey barrel from Finger Lakes Distilling. There it is on the left, full of Whale-y goodness. I once said it was “Whale-y good” and then Rudy wouldn’t talk to me for a while.

The mash tun was… full.

We have some long term plans as well. Last week Rudy brewed a batch of Heatrays, our American Barleywine. It’s named Heatrays because his initial homebrew batch was made last summer on the hottest day of the year, and with a three hour boil he was sweating buckets. We don’t have a release date yet: it will be ready when it’s ready is the best we can offer. It’s been transferred from fermenters into half kegs for aging and conditioning, and we’ll be tasting samples — such a rough job! — periodically to gauge its progress. It will be a limited release, and likely our first in bottles.

One last thing before we go: the folks at craftbeer.com put together a guide matching NFL teams to breweries from their city. We’re honored to be representing Buffalo alongside Flying Bison and the Buffalo Brewpub!