Cambridge Brewing Company: The Great Pumpkin Festival!
We have some great news for anyone within driving distance of Boston... Cambridge Brewing Company is having their first annual Great Pumpkin Festival on Halloween this year! For those not within driving distance, we caution you against reading further as it will most likely just make you very very jealous of those who are.
Will Myers, brewer for CBC sent us over this info yesterday and we had to share it.
The Great Pumpkin Festival! or "How we learned to stop worrying & love the pumpkin"
This Halloween, CBC goes a little nutty with our first ever Pumpkin Festival.
The preliminary details:
*4 different CBC-brewed Pumpkin Ales, including our famous Great Pumpkin Ale, a pumpkin saison, Spinal Pumpkin (11% Imperial pumpkin with 11 different heirloom pumpkin varietals), and a pumpkin ale cask-conditioned in and served from a giant pumpkin.
*4 guest pumpkin beers! Expect some unique offerings from breweries otherwise unavailable in these parts. More info to come.
*A special pumpkin-themed beer-friendly menu from Executive Chef David Drew!
*Fun stuff like a costume contest, pumpkin smash, pumpkin baseball, whatever other wierdness we can dream up.
We're super-lucky to be expecting pumpkin beers from Dick Cantwell at Elysian Brewing Company in Seattle, and Ron Jeffries with Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales in Michigan! And to keep it local,
our friend Tod Mott from Portsmouth Brewing Company in NH will be sending a little pumpkin love, PLUS John Kimmich of the Alchemist in Waterbury, VT is threatening to make his first ever pumpkin beer, just to taunt us.
Sierra Nevada Releases Chico Estate Harvest Ale
For the first time ever, Sierra Nevada's Estate Harvest Ale - a wet hop (fresh hop) ale made from hops grown on Sierra Nevada'a hop farm - has been bottled and released outside the brewery. It hits store shelves starting today in Chico, CA and should soon be in limited spots around the country. There will be 1400 cases and a few dozen kegs sent around the country, which is not much at all. To put it in perspective, the brewery got 95 cases and sold about 50 in six hours according to the brewers there. The good news? With their hop yard growing, they hope to possibly triple production next year. Personally, I'm going to be on the lookout for this beer THIS year!
The Sierra Nevada Chico Estate Harvest Ale comes in at:
- 6.7% abv
- 68 IBUs of freshness
- Contains locally grown and harvested Cascade (of course), Centennial and Chinook (my favorite!)
- Is finished with Cascade
Fresh hop ales are great! By not drying the hops, you get more of the natural oils and essence from the hops, giving you a much more complex hop profile. Plus, they can usually only be produced around late summer/early fall (Sierra Nevada did a fresh hop ale using southern hemisphere hops, so they were able to do one off season, but that's pretty much the only way that can happen). We highly recommend you check a few of these fresh hop ales out for yourself this season!
For more info from Sierra Nevada and to see a video of it's production, check out the official website here.
Syracuse Beer Week
Syracuse beer Week will kick off with a private gala hosted at the Landmark Theatre,
the Clydesdales will be present to greet guests, on Sunday, 11/2, 6-9 PM. Each day
of the week will feature 3-5 events. They have already schedule tastings and dinners,
as well as a pub crawl in one of our suburbs. Rich Doyle will do a University
series, and our local beer expert, Don Cazentre will do a night about Syracuse's
rich brewing history. Please visit the calendar at www.syracusebeerweek.com to see
our specific listings. The calendar is changing every week.
Oktoberfest Recipes Courtesy of Iron Hill
Iron Hill is planning it's Oktoberfest celebration this year and was nice enough to share their recipes! For those in the area check the event out in person, but for those who can't make it scroll down for their recipes so you can recreate this feast at home.
WILMINGTON, DE – This autumn, ever-popular beer and dining destination Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant is offering guests a hearty, two-course Oktoberfest Menu at all seven of its award-winning locations. This special meal will be available from September 15 until October 31, and costs $19.95. Each course pairs with one of Iron Hill’s handcrafted beers, available in 10 oz. draughts for $2.50 each.
“For brewers, Oktoberfest is one of the highlights of our year, an age-old tradition that began in Germany and is now one of the most exciting beer events in the world,” says Director of Brewing Operations Mark Edelson. “We love all aspects of beer culture, and this is such a natural way to celebrate by combining our two favorite things: great food and great beer.”
The first course of the Oktoberfest Menu is a Grilled Sausage Platter, with bratwurst, knockwurst, braised lentils, watercress and a stone-ground mustard drizzle. Iron Hill suggests their Vienna Red Lager, an amber Austrian lager with bread-y malt aroma and flavor and a crisp, clean finish as an ideal complement to the flavorful sausages. The entrée is a Pan Roasted Pork Tenderloin, with Yukon gold smashed potatoes, beer braised cabbage, house-made apple sauce and gingersnap gravy, paired with Oktoberfest, a seasonal, full-bodied amber lager with firm malt flavor, balanced with mild bitterness and a clean, dry finish.
Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant has seven locations, in Newark, DE; Wilmington, DE; Media, PA; West Chester, PA; North Wales, PA; Phoenixville, PA and Lancaster, PA. All seven locations are open seven days a week for lunch and dinner. For more information about Iron Hill, or to make a reservation at any of their locations, please visit their website at www.ironhillbrewery.com .
Read on for recipes
