New Beer Friday, Clown Shoes Edition (July 12)

By Chris Siciliano

No doubt about it—the hottest arrival on this week's New Beer Friday is Clown Shoes Beer Company out of Ipswich, MA.

Technically, this beer belongs on last week's NBF, as it came in sometime during the day last Friday. However (and here's us pulling back the curtain on the vast goings-on behind the scenes at Siciliano's), most New Beer Fridays are actually written on Thursday night. From time to time—last week for example—the latest, greatest new beers don't make the list right away. Our sincere apologies for showing you how the sausage gets made.

But I digress. Here's a little about Clown Shoes, courtesy of their own website.

Something’s happening, and it involves clown shoes and beer. Clown Shoes? Very long story, but to condense it a group of us submitted the name to the Beer Advocate contest that resulted in The Wrath of Pecant. Our submission didn’t crack the top 5. This burned me up inside. While driving one day the epiphany came: I could make my own Clown Shoes beer. In no way did I expect to create a brand, figuring it would be one batch of beer for fun and then done. But folks are digging the brews and a group of us are having a great time. Clown Shoes has come to mean a lot to me on a lot of levels. Clowns are questionable but the shoes make me laugh. They remind me about humility and to find humor in life. Our mission now is to produce beer without pretension while being free and a little crazy.

Enjoy New Beer Friday, everyone, brought to you lovingly from the not-too-distant past, a.k.a., the waning hours of Thursday night.

New (and Returning) Beer

• Clown Shoes Tramp Stamp Belgian-style IPA, $2.79/12oz - "Like a stamp on a tramp, this beer is about not so subtle seduction. Soft but complex malts, Chambly yeast, sweet orange peel, Columbus, Amarillo, and Centennial hops have merged to create a bodacious Belgian IPA" (source).
• Clown Shoes Hoppy Feet Black IPA, $2.79/12oz - "Hoppy Feet has been lovingly crafted by combining premium malt with lots of Amarillo and Columbus hops. Grapefruit and Pine are balanced on the nose and on the palate by a nutty, dark chocolate, roasted backbone" (source).
• Clown Shoes Clementine White Ale, $2.79/12oz - "Clementine is beer conceived in a dream, in the middle of a blistering beatdown of a day. We used Clementine, sweet orange peel, coriander, and summit hops to smack that mean day upside the head with a refreshing clown shoe" (source).
• Clown Shoes Crunkle Sam, $12.09/22oz - "We brewed Crunkle Sam, an American Barleywine Ale dry hopped with Citra hops, to celebrate America. America, we love you: thank you for allowing Clown Shoes to set off a few fireworks in the craft beer world" (source).
• Clown Shoes Porcine Unidragon, $15.09/22oz - "This is Blaecorn Unidragon made with Beechwood Smoked malt, which adds a natural meaty note (there is no actual meat in the brew). Aged 100% in bourbon barrels. Little piggies run, squeal to the heavens: Clown Shoes wishes you luck" (source).
• Clown Shoes Chocolate Sombrero, $10.39/22oz - "Roasted dark malts plus extra chocolate malts plus ancho chile plus cinnamon plus organic vanilla extract plus a chocolate eating, beer drinking, Clown Shoes wearing, multi limbed, gorgeous and glorious Mexican wrestler on the label. That’s the recipe for a Chocolate Sombrero!" (source)
• Clown Shoes Vampire Slayer, $10.39/22oz - "In a world full of uncertainty, hardship, and people trying to hold us back, do we need Vampires, too? Clown Shoes says "No! Die, monsters, die!" Our second anniversary ale incorporates signature dark malts, holy water, and malt smoked locally with hickory, ash, and vampire killing stakes" (source).
• Clown Shoes Muffin Top Belgian-style Triple IPA, $10.39/22oz - "Intense flavors, reminiscent of candied fruits, mixed with American hops and sweet orange peel to create a unique take on a Belgian-Style ale" (source).
• Clown Shoes Blaecorn Unidragon, $12.09/22oz - "What should we call our Russian Imperial Stout? Black Unicorn? Soul Dragon? Nohhh. Let’s combine them and create the ultimate mythical creature: Blaecorn Unidragon. Imbued with a monstrous amount of dark malt and aggressive hops, Blaecorn Unidragon is a powerful and complex brew designed to improve with age" (source).
• Rogue Honey Kolsch, $11.49/22oz - "Situated just across from 40 acres of Rogue hops, 119 colonies of bees were carefully kept and fed and the honey was uncapped, extracted, filtered, and finally infused into a refreshing Honey Kolsch ale" (source).
• Shorts Spruce Pilsner, $1.99/12oz (limit 2 bottles/person) - "Imperial Pilsner Brewed with Northern Michigan Spring Blue Spruce tips & healthy doses of high Alpha Hops, aromatic earth tonic of the resinous piece pungens and humulus lupulus" (source).
• Brooklyn Silver Anniversary Lager, $14.39/22oz - The Brooklyn Brewery is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. We are fortunate to be a part of the incredible cultural renaissance Brooklyn has enjoyed during the last quarter century. Four great Brooklyn artists whom we met along the way—Fred Tomaselli, Roxy Paine, Joe Amhrein and Elizabeth Crawford—have created special labels for our Silver Anniversary Lager beer. We are saluting our beginnings with a special doppelbock version of the Brooklyn Lager we introduced in 1988. This beer is re-fermented in the bottle and will taste great today or years from now. The original was inspired by the beers of 19th Century New York and Vienna" (source).
• Cerveza de los Muertos Dia de los Muertos Hefeweizen, $1.79/12oz - Sorry. No commercial description currently available.
• Cerveza de los Muertos Amber, $1.79/12oz - Sorry. No commercial description currently available.
• Cerveza de los Muertos DOA IPA, $1.79/12oz - Sorry. No commercial description currently available.
• Cerveza de los Muertos Blonde Ale, $1.79/12oz - Sorry. No commercial description currently available.
• Cerveza de los Muertos Porter, $1.79/12oz - Sorry. No commercial description currently available.

Pointless Beer "Fact" of the Week

"In Great Britain alone, 93,000 liters of beer
are rumored to be lost each year in facial hair" (source).

Cheers!