Snow Day

Right, that snowfall yesterday was our fault. Sorry.

I mean, not to get all “colors of the wind” on you, but it’s not exactly like the universe could let us launch a beer named The Snow without it actually snowing, right?

The Snow hits Mister Goodbar

Our Imperial Stout debuted at Mister Goodbar‘s monthly Good Beer Club last night and was received well. Very well, I’d say: it didn’t kick last night, but Bobby will be putting what’s left on tap soon and I don’t expect it will last long. If you want some, go get it!

There are only two other kegs of this that will ever see the light of day, and regrettably none of them will be tapped for our retail hours. One of the other two has been delivered to Blue Monk and will be tapped shortly. The other is Pizza Plant bound, and I’m sure we or they will let you know when it will be going on.

Cask O Whale

As if all this Snow business (there’s no business like Snow business, you know) wasn’t enough, how about the return of the Cask of Whale? Tomorrow (3/15) it will be tapped, also at Mister Goodbar. This is the regular Whale, not the espresso version that debuted during the Cask Festival in December, but don’t look a gift cask in the mouth!

Since St Patrick’s Day is Sunday, this is actually great timing. Everyone and their cousin will be drinking Guinness, and the reason Guinness has those widgets in bottles and cans, and the “beer gas” mixture of nitrogen in with the co2 on draft? It’s to replicate the soft carbonation and creamy mouthfeel of cask ale. The Whale is a brown ale and not a dry Irish stout, sure, but I bet it will whet your whistles in much the same way.

On The IPA

When last we left The IPA, it was in round four of the Brewing News’ National IPA Championship. The NIPAC had been whittled down from 128 IPAs to 16, and we were facing off against Karl Strauss (San Diego)’s Tower 10 IPA. The results are in, and…

Image placed for dramatic effect

WE’RE GOING TO THE FINALS.

Yes, we’re just in the top eight — the top eight out of 128 beers, you understand — but the final three rounds of judging will all take place this Saturday.

Our quarterfinal opponent is the most difficult we’ve faced: Bear Republic’s Racer 5. I think this will be even tougher than when we defeated Founder’s Centennial IPA (Have I mentioned that recently? That we beat Founder’s? Because we did.): while the Centennial IPA is a wonderful beer Racer 5 is closer in flavor and body to The IPA, so it’s more of an apples to apples comparison.

Will we move on? Only time (and the judges) will tell. Watch Twitter and Facebook for updates as soon as we know.

Obviously we’re very, very humbled by the results. Even if we’re eliminated now, The IPA has performed better than our wildest dreams and we hope it’s a beer that people outside of Buffalo seek out: cultural tourism and all that.

Here’s the thing about The IPA, though: it takes hops to make (oh, really?). Some of them — simcoe and galaxy — are nigh-impossible to find. We still have a supply for the coming months, but unless we can get blood from the hop stone things are going to get a little tricky sooner or later. We’ve found a source for galaxy (it’s in Orion’s belt), but if you or a close friend have 200 pounds of simcoe laying around, we’d love to hear from you.

Consumers!

Don’t forget that this Saturday, 3/16 is our big launch party at Consumer’s. Frank and the Whale will be heading to the Orchard Park, Transit and Sheridan locations, and Orchard Park will feature a tasting from 1-4 featuring our shining faces. Come on down and get a growler!

The Countdown to April 20

It’s only a little more than a month away: our one year anniversary!

Kickstarter sign: mounted!

We’ll be heading back to where it all began, with a party at Coles and Mister Goodbar. We’ll be featuring three beers made specifically for the event (funny, considering we only brought two last year!), and we think it would be fun to reveal one per week.

Beer the first: a Belgian Tripel. It’s been brewed and is currently fermenting away: down from 1.083 to 1.030 in 48 hours, if specific gravities mean anything to you, with Rudy hoping it will get down to 1.012 or so by the end. The samples he’s had are tasting good, so it looks like this one will be a go!

The beers keep coming

The Snow, cask Whale, a tripel, we can’t possibly have more beer coming up, can we? Oh yes. Oh yes indeed.

We’ve mentioned the all-belma hopped IPA made in conjunction with Spider Bite Brewing in Long Island, of course. It’s done: it will be tapped for retail today, with it heading to a limited number of bars next week.

Then there’s the AWOG beer we made with the homebrew clubs for the Amber Waves of Grain homebrewing competition. AWOG is next weekend, and so its beer will be available next week at retail.

And, finally, there’s the successor to The Soft Bulletin, our winter seasonal. We’re skipping spring this year and hope to have our summer beer ready for the first weekend in May.

What is it? Well, we’ve revealed enough for one week, I think…