Altared Amber Released on Wednesday

Altared Amber, the second beer in Saint Arnold's "Moveable Yeast" series, is set to be released on Wednesday, December 1st. The Moveable Yeast series involves fermenting some of their existing beers with an alternate style of yeast. Weedwacker was the first in the series which was the result of using a Bavarian Hefeweizen yeast to ferment their Lawnmower beer recipe.  The Altared Amber is their regular Amber Ale that has been fermented with a Belgian Trappist yeast.  It should be available starting tomorrow at the same places that served the Weedwacker.

How to Purchase Beer in Pennsylvania

Thanks to my non beer related day job, I found myself 30 minutes South of Pittsburgh, PA last week in a small town called Canonsburg.  As I usually do when travelling, I ventured out to look for places to buy craft beer that I can't get back in Texas, but this time I got some first-hand experience with the peculiar beer laws in Pennsylvania.  Basically, there are limitations on your purchase depending on the type of beer store you're in.  Shop at a beer store that's a beer distributor (which looks like a regular beer store) and you're only able to purchase beer by the case.  No sixpacks and no mix and match. You have to buy a case of 24 of whatever you're interested in. That might be okay if you're stocking up for the holidays or for the big game on Sunday, but not convenient when looking for individual craft beers to bring home.  Fortunately, after driving past several more beer distributors, I stumbled across a bottle shop where you can purchase sixpacks and single bottles of different beers.  However, the limitation here is that the total volume purchased has to be less then 192 ounces which equals sixteen 12oz bottles.  You can make multiple trips in and out of the store with 16 bottles each time, but each transaction is limited to 192 ounces.  You definitely need to plan your beer purchases in that state.

The bottle shop that I eventually found is called Guntown Beer which apparently has the largest beer selection in the area and all available as singles.  The owner was very helpful at pointing out the locally brewed craft beers that I probably hadn't heard of or tried.  I enjoyed about half of the singles that I purchased over the next couple of days and packed the rest in my suitcase.  Here's a few shots of the beer selection in Guntown Beer and the beer that I purchased:

Its good to see that there are still a few states out there that have even more bizarre liquor laws then Texas.

Tickets for Camp Beer V on Sale Friday

The fifth edition of Camp Beer from Live it Big is taking place on December 12th and will be featuring holiday themed beers.  Tickets are $52 each and only 60 will be up for grabs starting at 8:00am on Friday, November 5th.  Ronnie Crocker at Beer, TX posted the scheduled lineup of beers that will be sampled at the event:

AleSmith Grand Cru
Avery Old Jubilation 2007
Goose Island Matilda
Goose Island Night Stalker
Great Lakes Holy Moses White
Great Lakes Lake Erie Monster
Hoppin Frog Frosty Frog Christmas Ale 2009
Lost Abbey Avant Garde
Lost Abbey Inferno
Lost Abbey Witch's Wit
Mikkeller Santa's Little Helper 2009
Port Anniversary Ale
Port Older Viscosity
Port Santa's Little Helper 2009
Real Ale Coffee Porter 2009
Saint Arnold Christmas Ale 2009
Saint Arnold Divine Reserve #9
Southern Tier Choklat 2008
Stone Sawyer's Triple
Three Floyds Arctic Panzer Wolf

That's a pretty substantial and impressive list of beers to be sampling in one afternoon.  I highly recommend attending a Camp Beer if you haven't before.  Its a great opportunity to try rare and hard to find beers that are typically not available in Texas.  Also, the money raised from ticket sales go to the charities supported by Live It Big, so not only are you drinking great beer, but you're contributing to a worthy cause.

Six Month Pre-Party for the Texas Beer Festival

The organizers of the upcoming Texas Beer Festival are holding a six month pre-party at the Petrol Station on Friday, November 5th to raise awareness about the festival that's scheduled to take place on May 7th, 2011 in Humble.  I've been told its a camo party, so wear something that will help you blend in to the surroundings.  If you'll be standing next to Ben or Troy during the event, try to look more like a hippie (just kidding guys).  Special local craft beers will be on tap and the guys from No Label Brewing will be there giving away samples of some of their beers.  State Representative Jessica Farrar, who is one of the few Representatives in favour of changing some of the antiquated beer laws in Texas, may also stop by to talk about what you can do to help.  Come out and help celebrate the craft beer revolution in Texas!

November Glass Nights and Rescue Rally at the Ginger Man

The Ginger Man has released their list of Glass Nights for the month of November:

3rd - Unibroue
10th - Duvel
17th - Samuel Smith
24th - Gulden Draak

The glasses are available starting at 5:30pm and only one glass per person with purchase of the beer of the day. As always, the glasses are subject to change and only available while supplies last.

The Ginger Man will also be hosting their annual Rescue Rally on Saturday, November 6th from 1pm ~ 5pm.  The event benefits local animal rescue groups and will include a silent auction, raffle and special beers on tap.

A Divine Quest

The 10th release in the Divine Reserve series from Saint Arnold Brewing will be released tomorrow, sparking off what I've often referred to as a modern day real life It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.  Twitter will be brought to its knees as sightings are tweeted and updated.  Beer department managers at stores around the city and across the state are bracing themselves for the onslaught of phone calls and customers running into the stores searching for this elusive release.

Divine Reserve 10 is an English Barleywine that was inspired by the winning entry submitted by Chris Landis from the 2010 Big Batch Brew Bash homebrew competition.  This beer comes with an ABV of 11% and a few people I've talked to from the brewery definitely recommend giving this one a lot of cellar time before drinking it.  Of course, that's assuming you actually manage to get some to put into your cellar.  Although they managed an increase in production of about 20% over the last DR release, they had planned on a 50% increase but encountering some issues in the brewhouse due to this one's high alcohol content.  Good luck to those venturing out on their Divine quest tomorrow.

*** Update - Bars that will be featuring Divine Reserve 10 ***
Brian O'Neils already tapped a keg of DR 10 at lunch time on Tuesday.
Anvil has announced they will have DR 10 on tap Tuesday starting at 5pm when they open.
Petrol Station will be serving DR 10 Tuesday night starting at 7pm.
Mucky Duck will tap DR 10 on Wednesday at 5pm.
Flying Saucer will be pouring DR 10 as their Tap Nite on Thursday starting at 6pm.

*** Update 2 - 11-02-10 ***
Reports that the Spec's downtown, which already had people lined up at 6am, sold out of DR 10 in11 minutes.  Follow Twitter tag #DR10 for ongoing updates regarding availability and locations.