Many people found out about our upstart nanobrewery at last year’s Buffalo Brewfest.

It was great to tell people about our plans, and to see how excited people were. Of course, there were also some people who were understandably disappointed that we didn’t have any actual beer for them at the beer festival.

This year, of course, that’s being rectified.

We hope to see all of you tomorrow at the First Niagara Center. We’ll have three beers for you. Yes, three! Frank will be there, of course, as he’s an affable gentleman, and The Whale will show up as the night goes on, but we suspect many of you will be most interested in De Maas.

De Maas was also home to the Mosasaurs, a species of aquatic reptile closely related to modern snakes. I think it’s saying “Drink De Maasssssss, or elssssse.” But I’m not fluent in ancient Parseltongue.

De Maas is a Belgian amber, named after a river in Belgium. We didn’t just pull out an atlas, though (Does anybody pull out an atlas anymore? Dang kids with their GPS and their Wikipedias!): no, both Ethan and Chris have had memorable experiences on the river, and so when the naming came up it was the obvious choice.

Not going to the Brewfest? Don’t fret: you’ll notice there’s no “The Jam” at the start of its name…

Speaking of Jams, The Answer is well and truly gone. We hope you enjoyed it. When will there be another Jam? Soon, soon. And yet another Jam after that, at the Elmwood Festival of the Arts! The Jam #4: Elmwood Festiv-Ale (as voted by you), a cream ale brewed with saison yeast, will be available at the Festival on 8/25-26.

As it happens, 8/25 is a busy day: McCollum Orchards in Lockport is doing its part to revitalize New York State’s former status as a hop producing region, and they need your help. They’ve already harvested their Centennial hops, but the rest need to come down, and that’s where you come in: they’re asking for volunteers, and in exchange you’ll be rewarded with a batch of Frank that’s been wet hopped with the aforementioned Centennials. More information to come, but it sounds like a great time all around.