Hi all,

Some exciting news from DCB, we'll be hosting our first tasting May 30th at Bauer Wine and Spirits. Nick, the beer manager has been kind enough to allow us to use his store to let us share some great beers with you.

DCB's May Tasting will feature a Spring theme and include the following beers for your enjoyment:

Southampton Double White 7%abv

Appearance:Pours with about 1 1/2" of pillowy head, translucent hazy light straw
Smell: Smells like spring and that's why we like it; hints of fresh hay and orange zest (that's a good thing to us).

Taste: Very light and effervescent on the tongue with a mild but not overwhelming sweetness and hints of banana. This is slightly sweeter than your average Belgian Wit, but given that it’s a Double Wit that’s to be expected.

Special Note: Drink this cold, it doesn’t taste nearly as good if it warms up.

Why We Like It:

1. Very refreshing on a warm day

2. At $10 a 6 pack this is actually a bargain given its 7% alcohol

3. It’s a double wit in a 6 pack…enough said.

Dupont Organic Foret Saison 7.5%abv

Appearance: Pours with about 2” of bone white fluffy head, Opaque orange
Smell: Smells pleasantly earthy…with a hint of spice

Taste: Tastes crisp and a little spicy with a slightly funky aftertaste found in most of our favorite saisons.

For those not familiar with Saisons, they were historically brewed in Belgium during the spring for farm workers to quench their thirst. Because they were brewed before refrigeration this meant they were fermented at higher temperatures, causing a slight funk in the beer. Hell, if it was good enough to quench farm workers' thirst back in the day, it’s good enough to quench ours!

Why We Like It:

1. A very accessible classic saison

2. Crisp and refreshing; those farmers knew what they were talking about

3. A great beer if you want to impress or just share with some friends

Oskar Blue’s Dale’s Pale Ale 6.5%abv

Appearance: Pours a clear dark amber.
Smell: Lots of hops...mmmm hops

Taste: Make no mistake this is a hoppy pale ale. In fact if we’re being honest its really closer to an IPA. The hops are balanced by a nice bready malt undertone which makes this beer crisp and delicious.

Spring for us just isn’t right without a great pale ale, and what’s better than a great pale ale that’s also in a can. This beer just screams bbq and beach days.

1. It’s a great crisp pale ale the walks the fine line between pale ale and IPA. Oh, and it comes in a can.

2. This beer actually still tastes good if it warms up a little so bring this one to the beach. Cans are great on the beach too.

3. Did we mention it comes in a can?

New England Brewing Company Atlantic Amber 5%abv

Appearance: Pours dark amber with a reddish hue and an inch of off-white head.
Smell: Very mild, very slight hint of hops, light malt

Taste: Slightly sweet malt. Very easy drinking. Barely there hops to balance the sweet. This is just a very smooth, easy drinking beer. Grab a sixer for yourself, and then another to share with friends.

Why We Like It:

1. Simple easy drinking beer.

2. A nice departure from hoppier beers, but not bland like light beer.

3. Did we mention we like beer in cans?

Click here to check for more info and updates. 

When: Wed May 30th 5-7pm

Where:
Bauer Wine & Spirits
330 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02115

We hope to see you there!

Cheers!  

Lyons, Colorado (November 2007) -- This month Oskar Blues Brewery is wrapping up the fifth year of its pioneering microcanning effort. The scrappy little brewery sold its first can of Dale’s Pale Ale in November of 2002.

The move made Oskar Blues the first US craft brewer to brew and can its own beer. It has also fueled some of the heftiest growth in the US craft beer trade. Oskar Blues’ beer production has grown by 2000% over the past five years.

Prior to filling its first can of Dale’s Pale Ale on a table-top, two-cans-at-once filler, the brewery produced 700 barrels of beer. This year Oskar Blues will craft 14,000 barrels of beer. (Up from 8,100 barrels in 2006.)

“It’s been an incredible run for us,” says founder Dale Katechis. “We launched our Canned Beer Apocalypse as something of a joke, and a way to draw attention to our brewpub. Some of our peers thought we were nuts at the time. But we heard from many retailers and consumers back then who loved the irreverence and practicality of the idea.”

“It’s still a gut buster for us,” Katechis adds, “but it’s turned into a much bigger adventure than we imagined five years ago. We've changed the reputation of the aluminum can, and enabled serious beer lovers to buy canned beer without shame. And we’ve had a load of fun and success along the way.”

To celebrate its fifth year of microcanning, Oskar Blues has now put the first cans of its winter seasonal beer, Ten FIDY Imperial Stout, on shelves of select stores in Colorado.

Fourpacks of the viscous, ultra-rich and roasted beer retail for $12.99. A small amount of canned Ten FIDY will reach other states in the Oskar Blues roster next month.

On December 1, from noon - 4 PM, the brewery will have a party to celebrate its first five years of microcanning. The affair will feature a Cajun buffet and crawfish boil, live music, and specials on all Oskar Blues beers.

The event will also serve as the official roll out of a limited-release batch of 5-liter/1.3 gallon mini kegs of Dale’s Pale Ale. The keg cans (with built-in taps) will reach select stores along the Front Range starting December 3. They will retail for around $24.

Visitors to the Oskar Blues pub in Lyons can buy these cans filled with Dale’s Pale Ale, as well as Old Chub Scottish Style Ale, Gordon, Ten FIDY and the brewpub’s other-in-house beers. These cans have replaced the traditional glass growler at Oskar Blues.

This summer Oskar Blues announced details on its building of a second, 35,000-square-feet brewery in Longmont, Colorado. The new brewery will produce all of the company’s canned beers and have an initial annual capacity of 30,000 barrels. The new brewery is expected to serve its first beers in March.

Oskar Blues Brewery’s beers are now in Colorado and 16 other states (AZ, NM, ID, WA, WI, VA, GA, NC, FL, NJ, NY, PA, MA, MD, CT and RI). Oskar Blues Brewery is located in Lyons, Colorado (pop.1500), a small mountain town 18 miles northwest of Boulder, Colorado. The brewpub and music venue was opened in 1997 by Katechis and his wife, Christi Katechis. Oskar Blues Brewery’s beers are canned five cans at a time on equipment from Cask Brewing Systems in Alberta, Canada. Get details at www.cask.com.

For more information visit www.oskarblues.com.

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This is the until-now-draft-only imperial stout from Oskar Blues. As you know, we have quite an affinity for anything OB here at DrinkCraftBeer.com. I’m pretty psyched to see an imperial stout in a can… time to see how beer ages in cans I guess! Plus it’s going to be a sweet looking can! Label says:

Half Baked. Fully Roasted. Cross-eyed. Cyclopean. Cancupiscent.

10.5% abv
12 oz. can

UPDATE FROM OSKAR BLUES:

On Oct. 10 at 10:50 AM at our pub in Lyons, Oskar Blues will release the first cans of our highly acclaimed Ten FIDY Imperial Stout.

First brewed last year as our winter seasonal, it's a gentle-giant rendition of the style. Immensely malty and viscous, its hefty alcohol (10.5% ) and IBUs are buried under thick, comforting blankets of roasted flavor.

Like our other canned goods, Ten FIDY expands the definition of "canned beer."

We're canning up just 100 cases of Ten FIDY, and it will only be available for purchase at the brewpub. It'll be in fourpacks, a la our Gordon. For $10.50. Get here fast if you'd like some for your OBB stash, we expect these cans to go in a very short time.