Firestone Walker Unveils “Mocha Merlin” Oatmeal Stout Brewed with Coffee and Cocoa Nibs

Courtesy of Firestone Walker Brewing Co

Paso Robles, CA: With an infusion of local roast coffee, a dash of cocoa nibs and touch of seasonal sorcery, Firestone Walker’s signature Velvet Merlin oatmeal stout has been transformed into Mocha Merlin for fall and early winter.

“This is an iteration of Velvet Merlin that we’ve dabbled in before, and we finally decided to scale it up,” said Brewmaster Matt Brynildson. “It takes Merlin to another level and it’s a perfect sipper for the season.”

Mocha Merlin begins rolling out this week in draft and 12-ounce cans (six pack) formats to all Firestone Walker markets. 

Mocha Merlin is brewed with the Colombia La Granadilla blend from HoneyCo Coffee Roasters. HoneyCo is owned by two local entrepreneurs, Jon and Sara Peterson, who also operate the popular Scout coffeehouse in downtown San Luis Obispo.

“We wanted to work with a local roaster who could provide coffee of excellent quality and consistency, and HoneyCo fit the bill perfectly,” Brynildson said. “Their Colombia La Granadilla blend really meshes well with the chocolaty character from the cocoa nibs.”

The cocoa nibs are sourced from Ghana. “Rather than using processed chocolate, we wanted to use a pure chocolate precursor with no sugar added,” Brynildson said. “It really integrates into the beer.”

The coffee is added straight into the fermentation tank, similar to the dry hopping process. The cocoa nibs are secured in mesh bags and steeped into the beer. The base beer of Mocha Merlin is the milk stout version of the original Velvet Merlin recipe, with lactose incorporated into the brew for a rounded mouthfeel and a suggestion of sweetness.

“The inclusion of milk sugar adds dimension to the mouthfeel and helps knit the coffee and cocoa qualities together on the palate,” Brynildson said.

Firestone Walker Brewing Company is a pioneering regional craft brewery founded in 1996 and located on the coast of California. Firestone Walker’s main brewery in Paso Robles produces a diverse portfolio ranging from iconic pale ales to vintage barrel-aged beers. The Barrelworks facility in Buellton makes eccentric wild ales, while the Propagator pilot brewhouse in Venice specializes in R&D beers and limited local offerings. For more information: FirestoneBeer.com.

HOPWORKS URBAN BREWERY’S FLAGSHIP BEER, HOPWORKS ORGANIC IPA, JOURNEYS TO NEW HOPPY TERRITORIES

Courtesy of Hopworks Urban Brewery

The Reformulated IPA Will Be Available On Draught and In New 12oz.Cans With a Fierce Look on October 01

September 26, 2017 – Ten years after it was first introduced, Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB), is proud to announce a new look and feel to its flagship beer - Hopworks Organic IPA. The updated beer is available for the first time at HUB’s three pubs on Friday, September 29 at 5pm. The updated Hopworks Organic IPA is also available in 12oz cans and draft throughout HUB’s distribution network.

The updated recipe makes greater use of more modern varieties of organic hops, with a greater on aroma and flavor. Generous additions of organic Northwest hops find their way into the kettle, hopback, and dry hop, creating a massive citrus, stone fruit and mango bouquet and flavor profile. The finest organic malts bring balance and a drier, clean finish. The beer clocks in at 6.6% alcohol by volume.

“Having fun with organic ingredients is part of our mission at HUB. As we approach our first decade we thought it was time to revisit our flagship IPA with a new perspective,” said Christian Ettinger, HUB’s Brewmaster and Founder. “We have worked hard with farmers to bring new organic hop varieties to life. Hopworks Organic IPA 2.0 retains some of the classic resinous character of the original and adds fresh and juicy hop flavors of orange-citrus and peach. It is now dryer and more fruit-forward than it's predecessor and dawns a fresh look too. We look forward to sharing a pint with you!”

Hopworks Organic IPA also comes with a significant packaging refresh. The classic IPA was well-known in it’s 16oz 4-pack format - the new beer will be available in 12oz 6-packs. The artwork is more consistent with HUB’s popular Abominable Winter Ale and Ferocious Citrus Ale. The label features a beast somewhat inspired by OR-7, the famous wolf known for traveling across Oregon in search of new adventures. Additionally, the organic ingredients in the beer receive a greater visual emphasis and call out.

In related packaging news, Hopworks Urban Brewery confirms today that the seasonal Organic Abominable Winter Ale will also be packaged in 12oz. cans. It will be on store shelves and in pubs by early October, and will be available for the first time on draft this season on Friday, September 29 at HUB’s three pubs.

 

About Hopworks Urban Brewery

Hopworks Urban Brewery strives to revolutionize and inspire the brewing industry with practices that drive quality, protect the environment and improve the community we live in. Utilizing organic malts and a combination of locally-sourced, organic and Salmon Safe hops, the company’s 20-barrel brewery in Portland produces 13,500 barrels of beer and cider a year for HUB’s brewpubs and for distribution throughout the West. Hopworks is a family-owned and operated business, the first Certified B Corporation brewery in the Pacific Northwest, a gold-level bike friendly business, and Long Root Ale received Brewbound’s “Marketing Initiative Award of the Year” in 2016. More info at: hopworksbeer.com

Cascade Brewing Barrel House presents special beer lineup for its 7th anniversary

Courtesy of Cascade Brewing Co

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Cascade Brewing Barrel House is celebrating its seventh anniversary with a long weekend of special and vintage Cascade beers on draught. The event will take place at the House of Sour, located at 939 SE Belmont St., Friday, Sept. 29 through Sunday, Oct. 1. The Barrel House opens at Noon daily, closing at 12am on Friday and Saturday, and 11pm on Sunday through Thursday.

Cascade has teamed up with Stumptown Coffee Roasters for Stumptown Bourbonic, a variation of the brewery’s award-winning Bourbonic Plague. Stumptown Bourbonic features imperial spiced porters aged for up to 22 months in bourbon barrels with vanilla beans, then blended with coffee from Stumptown’s Cold Brew division just before packaging. This extremely limited anniversary project offers intense flavors of coffee, chocolate, bourbon and vanilla, with a mild acidity and warming finish. 

The brewery will also be tapping Watermill, a bourbon barrel aged imperial porter collaboration project between Cascade Brewing and Browerij de Molen, inspired by de Molen’s acclaimed Tsarina Esra Imperial Porter. The flavorful creation offers sublime layers of chocolate, licorice and vanilla are blanketed with a citrusy bourbon finish. 

Joining the specialty lineup will be Cascade’s popular Diesel, an Imperial Stout aged for up to seven months in Heaven Hill bourbon and Pinot barrels with vanilla beans, resulting in a decadent cornucopia of flavors and aromas – including dark chocolate, vanillin and licorice – with bourbon soaked dark fruit and tobacco undertones.

There will be a special live barrel tapping on Friday, Sept. 29 at 6pm. The event will also offer food pairing specials and vintage bottle sales throughout the weekend. View the complete tap list in real time at http://www.cascadebrewingbarrelhouse.com.

About Cascade Brewing

Cascade Brewing has been a pioneer in the sour beer renaissance since 2006 and the proud innovator of the Northwest Sour Ale. Its distinctive sour beer blends feature fruit forward, barrel-aged ales with an emphasis on project year-to-year variation. These beers offer a complex array of flavors derived from the acid, the fruit and the residual flavors present in the barrels in which they age. The resulting beers offer a complex array of flavors and aromas derived from with each project year release capturing the unique subtleties of that year’s growing season. Cascade Brewing’s sour ales are brewed and blended in Portland, Oregon. For more information, visit CascadeBrewing.com and join the brewery on social media @CascadeBrewing. Cheers to the sours; enjoy in a profoundly wise manner.

Pelican Brewing Releases Latest In Its Lone Pelican Series: Bronze God, Märzen-style Lager

Courtesy of Pelican Brewing

Pacific City, Oregon (September 26, 2017)—'Roll out the barrel—we’ll have a barrel of fun!' Pelican Brewing Company rolls out the latest in its Lone Pelican Series: Bronze God, Märzen-style Lager or German-style Oktoberfest beer. The deliciously malty lager is available this week in 22 oz. bottles in addition to kegs, 1/6 barrels and on tap at Pelican brewpubs.

Bronze God features an abundance of rich, toasty, rounded malt flavors. A vibrant copper-bronze color attracts the eye, while the floral aroma, deep smooth character and moderate strength keeps you coming back for another taste.  A combination of Munich malt, GoldenPils malt, Mt. Hood hops, pure local water and pure lager yeast combine to showcase a classic Pelican beer with a clean, snappy finish. Bronze God is affectionately named in honor of Pelican’s head brewer, Jason Schlebach, who created the autumn treat.

ABV: 5.7%  |  IBU: 25   |  PLATO: 13º

“Maybe it’s my Mexican-German heritage, but I’m a big fan of malty fest-style beers, those that give a full flavor but don’t fill you up so easily. I wanted to play around with that style and incorporate brewmaster Darron Welch’s unique hopping techniques,” says Schlebach, who has risen to the role of head brewer at Pelican’s Tillamook brewing facility. “I took a page from the Kiwanda playbook with a single hop addition in the whirlpool of Mt. Hood hops for a softer and more floral aroma. A healthy use of Munich and Vienna malts provide a full maltier character that’s perfect for our transition to fall.”

According to an article in All About Beer ‘it is the venerable Märzen/Oktoberfest genre that has served autumnal revelers for centuries. Märzen, the historical designation, was made in the waning cool of spring; Oktoberfest, the more recent appellation, was brewed to savor during the changing season. They have come to be the essentially interchangeable names for the evocative burnished-gold to coppery, malty lagerbiers that favor brisk weather and festive ambience. They represent a lineage of adaptation, innovation and cooperation. Rooted in Germany, Austria, and even England, this stylistic transformation coincided with the explosion of brewing technology and regional style development during the mid-19th century.’

So celebrate the change in seasons, grab a 6-pack of Bronze God and let the Beer Barrel Polka play on….

With consistent growth and demand for its products, Pelican recently increased brewing and bottling capacity at its Tillamook facility to over 38,000 barrels and opened a new brewpub in Cannon Beach which offers additional capacity for such experimentation.

Like all Pelican beers, Bronze God is born at the beach by a team of award-winning craft beer makers known for brewing styles of beer that they themselves love to drink. Cheers! 

Courtesy of Pelican Brewing Co

About Pelican Brewing Company

Pelican Brewing Company was founded in 1996 by Jeff Schons and Mary Jones in Pacific City with Oregon's only oceanfront brewpub. Celebrating its 21st year, the brewing company has created masterpieces like Kiwanda Cream Ale, India Pelican Ale, MacPelican’s Scottish Ale, Tsunami Stout and Doryman’s Dark. With the vision, creativity and brewing expertise of founding brewmaster Darron Welch, Pelican Brewing has won over 450 awards including a Silver Medal at the 2016 Great American Beer Festival, 2014 World Beer Cup© Champion Small Brewing Company and Brewmaster of the Year. Pelican Brewing currently distributes 22oz bottles, 12oz bottles in 6-packs, a new mixed 12-pack, and 50 liter and 20 liter kegs via a network of distributors in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Hawaii and Vermont. The company operates brewing and brewpub facilities in Pacific City, Tillamook and Cannon Beach.

For more information, visit Pelican Brewing Company.

Full Sail Brewing Announces The Release of Session EZ IPA

Courtesy of Full Sail Brewing Co

Hood River, Oregon – September 26, 2017 – Full Sail Brewing Co. today announced the release of Session EZ IPA, the newest member of the Session family of beers. It’s everything you always wanted in an IPA, only less. Wait. Less? You got that right. It’s an unfiltered IPA with all the aromatic hops, fruit notes and citrus vibe that you and your taste buds desire – minus the mouth-puckering bitterness or the high-octane ABV. After all, it’s not called EZ for nothing.

“Our IPAs are always well received, but we’re not ones to rest on our laurels, or on our hops for that matter,” says Full Sail Brewmaster Jim Kelter. “New Session EZ IPA is a well-balanced, easy-drinking beer that’s not bitter, while fully packed with tropical and citrus aromas.” 

When Full Sail launched the Session brand 12 years ago, it quickly became the hottest new craft-beer brand on the market, which has since brought home over 100 medals, including 58 golds. Session’s not a micro, a macro, or an import, but in a way it’s a little bit of each. You see, virtually everyone who likes beer likes Session. It’s a brand that’s accessible without being ordinary. Totally drinkable, but never at the expense of character. Drinking shouldn’t be hard. We’ve made it EZ. Session EZ IPA is available year-round on draft and in 6-packs and 12-packs. 4.8% ABV, 35 IBUs.

About Full Sail Brewing Company

Perched on a bluff in Hood River, Oregon, overlooking the mighty Columbia River’s epic wind and kite surfing and the snow-capped volcanic peak of Mt. Hood, Full Sail is a true craft-brewing pioneer. Since 1987, Full Sail has been pouring pure Mt. Hood water, local ingredients and responsible processes into each and every pint. Full Sail’s brews and sustainable practices have garnered more than 300 national and international awards, including more than 200 gold medals and Beverage World’s “Craft Brewer of the Year” distinction. From Full Sail Amber and IPA to Session Lager and bourbon barrel-aged beers, Full Sail consistently strives to brew complex, balanced and ridiculously tasty beers. Learn more at www.fullsailbrewing.com.