Look for an amber medium to full bodied ale with plenty of sweet maltiness along with pumpkin flavors matched well with spice and just enough bittering.

As far as packaging goes, Big Boss has some of the best.  The grim reaper theme goes well with pumpkins and the month of October and Halloween.

Six packs will be available in area stores soon.  You can also get it on draft at the tasting room.

1. Sam Caliogne loves good beer and Dogfish Head brewing is a good representation of the spirit of craft beer.
2. Rhonda Kallman and Moonshot beer represents pseudo craft beer trying to make a buck in the spirit of capitalism.
3. Beer Wars was informative if you were the average beer drinker.
4. Most people who watched this movie learned nothing, yet walked away frustrated due to the focus on Rhonda Kallman to the detriment of many great craft beer entrepreneurs who care about what is in the bottle while also caring about putting food on the table for their family.
5. I am glad I didn’t go out of my way to watch this movie.

First up, everyone should check out Fullsteam’s new endeavors with brewing beer with Kudzu.  Sean Wilson is researching the first beer brewed with Kudzu–an authentic NC beer–which to my knowledge will be the only truly authentic and original NC beer.  His research has even included helping to load a 504 bails of the dried plant.  You can check out the progress at the website http://www.fullsteam.ag/

Lonerider Beer has nixed their porter as a second year round and is researching a second year round offering for the area.  I sampled their brown ale as a possible second year round beer and was given a growler.   I will give it a formal review in a future post.  From the sample, I can say that it is a solid English style brown ale with enough East Kent Goldings to pair perfectly with the Marris Otter malt and lightly sweet chocolate flavors.  They didn’t skimp out on the malt which always makes for a great English Brown.  Though it is tasty, it would seem odd to try and put that on the market against Big Boss’  Bad Penny which already has such a foothold in the area.  They have plans to take open a tasting room at their brewery in the future.

Big Boss Brewing has already released their seasonal Harvest Time Pumpkin which can be sampled at the tasting room, bought in six packs (first time for a BB seasonal), or found in bars in the area.  I would expect Raleigh Times to have it as they usually keep a tap devoted to  BBC seasonals.   According to a forum posting, Brixx Pizza in Chapel Hill will also have this on tap through the fall.

Boylan Bridge Brewpub has started offering cask conditioned version of their beers from time to time.  They also have a summer seasonal and Scottish Ale as of late.

Natty Greene’s, the Greensboro Brewpub, will be opening a Raleigh Brewpub later this year.  Mike Morris, who is currently brewing at Big Boss will be the head brewer.  I have enjoyed every beer brewed by Mike at Big Boss and look forward to this great new addition to Raleigh.   The year round offerings will be sent from the Greensboro Brewpub while Morris will brew 5 seasonal offerings.

A new brewery distributed in the area–to those beer geeks that are aware–is the Scottish based brewer Brewdog.   You can now find their bottles of Punk IPA, Dogma (an herb spiced beer), Hardcore Double IPA, and Riptide Imperial Stout in single bombers.

On a final note, the 2009 Durham World Beer Festival will be held on October 3rd in the Historic Durham Athletic Park.  I look forward to a great event, helping with a NC distributor, and getting to see the many faces of craft beer in the area.  Cheers!

“Beer is a social drink, and beer people love to talk about the beer,” he said. “You can find a local or savvy visitor who can tell you about something you’ve never heard of, and that makes it a phenomenal experience.”

Check out www.permitbeer.com for all the details on what is happening.

This Tuesday June 30th will be a Belgian Beer vs. Belgian style beer (North American brews) matchup at the Flying Saucer.  Cost is $15 and it looks to be a fun event.

Lonerider Brewing is hosting a homebrew competition they are calling “Brew It Forward.”  I think I may enter this as my first competition just for fun.  Registration has begun and information can be found on their website http://www.loneriderbeer.com  The awards ceremony and event itself will take place Saturday, Aug. 1st.

Daniel Bradford of All About Beer has summed things up in 5 points:

1. Beer and wine lovers are not “sinners,” nor we did not cause the recession, and we should not be singled out as a solution.
2. Many of the 100 North Carolina micro breweries and wineries could be put out of business with a tax increase.
3. North Carolina has 6th highest beer tax in the country and the 16th highest on wine.
4. North Carolina beer and wine taxes currently contributes close to $3 billion.
5. North Carolina already generates more beverage tax than more populous New York state!

We currently pay more taxes for beer than almost all other states in our nation.  Please join the fight and make your voice heard doing three things:

1. Post a comment to Bev Purdue on the Governor’s website at: www.governor.state.nc.us  Just click on the contact us link and enter a comment with your thoughts on why the budget should not include a tax increase on beer.

2. Go to www.ncleg.net and find your local representatives through the search engine on the right column.  If you don’t know your full 8 digit zip, then look it up on the link below the search bar.  Then, write your representatives a letter.

3.  Finally, if you are lazy you can to go www.stopthencbeertax.com, fill in your info, and an automatic email will be sent on your behalf.

The NC House and Senate meet on Monday so this is prime time to let your thoughts be known.