Oskar Blues and Brooklyn Brewery announce impressive new international ventures while GABF hands out the most hardware in 30 years. A comic book store thinks you should try a new type of “bloody beer” and a church in Texas believes that craft beer you’re sipping has an extra imperceptible adjunct: the devil.
Canyon, Texas.: The devil is in the craft beer
A Texas church in the town of Canyon decided to double down on their message of temperance, publishing an ad in The Canyon News calling craft beer “the Devil’s Craft,” urging sobriety and including a verse from the Bible purporting the notion that Jesus was an early prohibitionist. Though JC was known to turn water into wine, the Anchor of Hope Baptist Church asserted he drank the “fruit of the vine” aka “Grape Juice.” The message was heard loud and clear by nearby Imperial Taproom who offered patrons $1 off their tab if they brought in the screed. “We’ll give you a dollar off for each one you bring in so feel free to bring multiple,” read the Facebook post. “Come enjoy some devilishly tasty craft beer and/or wine (grape juice with booze in it) with us!” The post had 1.2K likes and 584 shares as of Thursday morning.
Elwood City, Penn.: Bloody beer has a new meaning
Fall seasonal releases rarely deviate from the pumpkin/Oktoberfest/fresh hop variety, but a comic book store in western Pennsylvania is introducing another autumnal style just in time for Halloween: blood beer. Well, blood red beer to be exact. New Dimensions Comics has teamed with nearby brewer, ShuBrew, to create Blade’s Bloody Barleywine, brewed with beet puree and Red X malt to give it a distinct hemoglobin hue. The label features the Puppet Master comic villain using his blade-hands to de-cork a bottle of the barleywine. Comic creator, Shawn Gabborin, created a “variant cover comic book” for the release. Those in the Pittsburgh area can attend the release on October 25 at ShuBrew.
Denver: GABF competition sees record number of entries
Winners of the 30th annual Great American Beer Festival competition were announced on Saturday during a packed and raucous ceremony at the Colorado Convention Center. In total, 286 medals were awarded across 96 categories selected from 7,227 beers submitted by 1,752 breweries. The number of entries represented a 9% increase from 2015. Uberbrew out of Billings, Mont. took home Small Brewing Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year after securing four medals, the most by any brewery in competition. California was the most decorated state with 68 medals followed by Colorado with 38 and Oregon with 21. IPA was the most competitive category for the 15th year running with 312 (Gold: Bodhizafa IPA, Georgetown Brewing Co., Seattle, Wash.) while the newly created Pumpkin/Squash Beer category saw only ten entries.
Brooklyn/Japan: Big in Japan
Kirin Holdings Company, LTD, owners of Kirin Brewery Co., is bringing a taste of Brooklyn to Japan, announcing the acquisition of an approximately 24.5% stake in Brooklyn Brewery. The two entities will “establish a joint venture” to distribute Brooklyn beers and “consider the development” of a new product geared toward the Japanese market and possibly a restaurant concept. The partnership will “work to make beer more appealing and further energize the craft beer market in Japan and Brazil.” Japan Lager, anyone? Brooklyn already has an international footprint having helped develop a brewpub in Norway in partnership with E.C. Dahls Brewery in 2015.
Longmont, Colo.: Can revolution goes international
After opening massive new breweries in Brevard, N.C. and Austin, Texas in the last two years, Oskar Blues announced this week that they would be expanding into nine international markets. 2016 has been a good year for the craft in a can pioneer having achieved distribution in all 50 states in May and expecting to brew 215,000 barrels by year’s end. “After launching the canned craft beer movement in the U.S. we’re ready to push boundaries around the globe,” said Chris Russell, Business Development Director of Oskar Blues, in a press release. “As American craft beer travels worldwide we want to challenge the perception of cans once again.” Residents of Puerto Rico, Spain, Chile, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil, New Zealand and Australia can expect to be sipping Dale’s Pale Ale and Old Chub by early 2017.