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Sierra Dog Nevada Fish

from Beer Advocate…
This fall independent craft brewers Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head, will release two collaborative beers. Limb & Life-a draft-only beer-will debut in October; with Life & Limb 24oz bottles and limited draft to follow in November.

Life & Limb is a 10% ABV strong beer that defies style characteristics-brewed with pure maple syrup from the Calagione family farm in Massachusetts and estate barley grown on the Grossman “farm” at the brewery in Chico. The beer is alive with yeast-a blend of both breweries’ house strains-bottle conditioned for added complexity and shelf life, and naturally carbonated with birch syrup fresh from Alaska; it is the first beer we know of ever to use birch syrup in the brew. If stored under good conditions, this rich, full-bodied beer should age well for years. Life & Limb will be available in 24-oz. bottles and limited draft starting this November.

Limb & Life is a companion to the big beer-an acorn off the larger tree. It is a 5% ABV small beer-a low-gravity beer made using the residual sugar as “second runnings” from the first larger brew, fortified with American hops. This is a session beer. Its big brother is a sipper. Limb & Life will be a limited draft-only product, a prelude to the bigger beer, available in select bars and restaurants this October.

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Don't count calories with beer

from the Washington City Paper

Not to be outdone by a fellow conglomerate, Anheuser-Busch InBev raised (lowered?) the stakes against MillerCoors’ MGD Light 64 with its launch this week of Bud Select 55. The new light beer, which I promise is not a joke, boasts a slender and eponymous 55 calories. But A-B InBev not only bests MillerCoors in cutting calories — they pretty much give you less across the board. Let’s see how they stack up. (All servings 12 oz.)

* Bud Select 55 – 55 calories, 1.9 g carbs, 2.4% abv
* MGD Light 64 – 64 calories, 2.4 g carbs, 2.8% abv
* Bud Select – 99 calories, 3.1 g carbs, 4.3% abv
* skim milk – 129 calories, 17.9 g carbs
* orange juice – 168 calories, 28.2 g carbs

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Lip Stinger

MacTarnahan’s Lip Stinger Farmhouse Ale with peppercorn is now on shelves for the late summer and fall season. It’s the first in a series of specialty 22-ounce-only offerings form MacTarnahan’s, which plans to bottle just 3000 cases. Lip Stinger is an effervescent and rustic farmhouse ale that brewers add a cracked peppercorn blend during fermentation to introduce a spicy nose and warming mouth feel.
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(2) Exciting bits of Blog news

I know that blogs are the home of the wacky ideas and chronicles of weird adventures. Well, I am hopping into the pool as well. Inspired in part by the Julie and Julia movie that recently opened, I will be pulling my own beer stunts.

First, the day after Thanksgiving while everyone is out shopping, I will be drinking one holiday ale (or lager) a day. Up to and including Christmas, the regular posts will cease and in their place a thorough review of a holiday beer. Anchor’s Our Special Ale, Ebeneezer from Bridgeport and any other holiday themed brews on the market.
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Then in 2010 (supplies willing), I will embark on a beer from all 50 states tour. Being in California, I will have to special order and ship in beers so the end date of this project is uncertain. But what I aim to do is show that we are truly blessed in America to have a wide range of great beers.
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Collaborative Evil

from Draft Magazine

On a stormy night in 2008, three brewmasters devised an evil plan to take over the world. Okay, not really, but they named the inspired beer of their collaboration, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, Collaborative Evil.

They each brewed the base beer at their own breweries, and the rule was that each brewer had to add a unique ingredient to distinguish it from the other two. The founders, Zac Triemert of Lucky Bucket Brewing Co., Matt Van Wyk formerly of Flossmor Station Brewing Co. and now at Oakshire Brewing Co., and Todd Ashman of Fifty Fifty Brewing, hoped to enter the beers in the Great American Beer Festival. Two of the three made it.

So this year, the Collaborative Evil effort has expanded to nine breweries and the new base beer style is a Belgian Strong Pale Ale. This has presented some interesting challenges for the brewers, since they have to find nine unique ingredients instead of just three.

We wish them the best of luck in their quest for the GABF.

The new participants are: Valley Brewing Co., Sacramento Brewing Co., Fat Head’s Brewery and Saloon, Oakshire Brewing Co., Silver Peak Brewery, and Speakeasy Ales & Lagers.

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Downtown Portland gets McMenamin's Hotel

from the Oregonian & The Portland Business Journal

The new McMenamins Crystal Hotel will occupy prime land near the Brewery Blocks

“An eagerly anticipated hotel project in downtown Portland is taking shape after the spiraling economy temporarily shelved it.

“McMenamins Hotels, Pubs & Breweries secured a permit from the city of Portland on July 20 to proceed with its Crystal Hotel project at 303 S.W. 12th Ave., a former bath house, hotel and reputed gangster hangout that has been empty for about two years.”

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more Alabama brew info

Today’s first post concerned a new beer column in Alabama and the first column written was about Good People Brewing.

Snake Handler Double IPA is one of their offerings and lagers are proposed for the future. But what I like most is that they have the typical story of how they brewed for the passion of it and fell into brewing as a business (or as they put it, “the business found us”).