I have to admit, this combines two things that I really enjoy. Dirty Jobs is an awesome show, and obviously I love the hops... Recently, Mike Rowe and the crew from Dirty Jobs spent two days filming up in Yakima, Washington at the Hopunion processing plant and in the hop fields the Yakima Herald reports. No word on when the show will air, yet. But I'll be keeping my eye out for it.

Sounds like a pretty sweet deal. I guess the crew was all into the beer and were pretty stoked to be in the hop Mecca of the U.S. Glad to hear that those guys like their beer. Now, if only we can somehow convince them that running a beer website is a dirty job... Oh well, check out the Yakima Herald website for the whole article!

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"

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.

From the Stone Newsletter:

"We have two great testaments to the fun and creative spirit of being the craft beer movement to introduce to you this weekend, the Stone Cali-Belgique IPA and a collaboration called AleSmith/Mikkeller/Stone Belgian Style Triple Ale. Both of these beers will be available at the Stone Company Store starting today and will begin going to stores on Tuesday.

Availability:
The Stone Cali-Belgique IPA (aka Stone Cali-Belgie IPA) will be available year round, but in limited amounts (we'll brew it when we have time, but it won't always be on the shelves like our other year-round releases). The AleSmith/Mikkeller/Stone Belgian Style Triple Ale will be available once, and when it is gone - it's gone. Look forward to seeing more collaboration beers from us (and others) in the future!

These beers will have a permanent home on our website soon, but in the meantime you can click here to view the bottles and read the stories on the backs. "

With both these offererings coming from Stone, I'll have to check out my local store to make sure I get some. The Stone Vertical Epic 08.08.08 was delicious, and that was a similar style as the Cali-Belgique. Can't wait for these bad boys! Also, I'm stoked for future collaborations. If AleSmith and Mikkeller were among the first, I'm sure future releases will bring in some pretty great names as well.

And following today's theme of "Beer in the News," the New York Times wrote a great article about lower alcohol beers. We here at DrinkCraftBeer.com have been digging this idea a lot recently. Double IPAs, Imperial Stouts and Barleywines are great, but when you're out with friends you need something easier. This is DrinkCraftBeer.com... not PassOutAfterDrinkingCraftBeer.com. Our whole ethos is that beer should be social and fun. The "social" aspect is a big part.

Because of this, we're really happy to see some lower octane brews getting attention. While we're in the waning days of summer, I suggest everyone go out and drink some session beers this week! There's going to be plenty of time to have an 11% Imperial Stout warm you by the fire this winter. Have a barbecue, have some friends over, be outside and enjoy something under 6% abv. I know I'm going to.

Read the whole article on the New York Times website.

In their Food & Wine section, the top story on the Today Show's website is about canned beer and how it's getting more popular. An interesting article that proves that craft beer is getting ever more pervasive in our culture. It's a fairly good selection being that they featured 5 beers and are a mainstream show.

They also pair each brew with an entree and a snack, which is pretty neat. I think the Today Show should have Devon and I come on to do one of our tasting events. You know that'd be a fun show!

We here at DrinkCraftBeer.com are definitely glad to see beer, especially canned beer getting more attention. So happy in fact, that I'll totally ignore that they talk about the only-recently-canned Fat Tire as "a cult canned ale among mountain bikers in Colorado in the early 1990's." While it's been around a while, it was only canned this year. But, if that's the biggest error, then this article is pretty good.

Read the whole artilce on the Today Show Website.

So between starting a new brewery, self distributing, winner an award for cask beer at the Great British Beer Fest (Silver for their porter), the guys over at Mayflower Brewing Co. have been pretty busy. So what better to do in that situation than brew your first seasonal?!

On September 2nd Director of Brewing Operations Matt Steinberg and Assistant Brewer Ryan Gwozdz will mash in on their first seasonal beer. It's going to be a super-appropriately named Mayflower Thanksgiving Ale. What's so special about it? Well let's see... It's going to have oats, rye, flaked barley and much more... 40 IBUs of East Kent Golding, yum... a secret yeast (damn you and your secrets, Matt!)... and it will all be aged on American Oak Spirals with a light toast. Oh, and it clocks in at 6.5% abv.

Way to put together what sounds like it will be a delicious beer without going hop or alcohol crazy! This should be something you can drink during Thanksgiving Dinner that won't put you to sleep faster than the meal itself. They're looking for a style similar to American Old Ale/Strong Ale, "malty and earthy with subtle spiciness." Sounds like it'll go with turkey and mashed potatoes pretty well. We'll have a full report when we taste it.