New Beer Friday, Pertinent Dates Edition (Jan 13)

Preamble by Steve Siciliano

Each year, during the first few weeks of January, the Siciliano’s staff takes advantage of the relative calm after the holiday storm to restock depleted shelves and get some New Year’s projects completed around the store.

While the employees have been busy reorganizing, reconfiguring, cleaning and reloading, my wife Barb and I have been doing some preliminary planning on our annual trifecta of homebrew events.

The following is a list of this year’s pertinent dates. Stay tuned to The Buzz for further information and periodic updates.

• Siciliano’s Fourteenth Annual Homebrew Competition – Entries will be accepted from Monday, March 20, through Sunday, April 9, or until 200 entries are submitted. Judging will be held on Saturday, April 22, at the Guest House on Stocking Avenue. Please note that registration for judges & stewards is now open. Go here if you are interested in being a judge or steward at this year’s event.
• The Fifth Annual Siciliano’s Big Brew Day – Saturday, May 6. 
• The Fourteenth Annual Siciliano’s Homebrew Party – Saturday, May 20, at Johnson Park on Butterworth.

New and Returning Beer

• Arbor Brewing Espresso Love, $2.39/12oz - "Oatmeal and 20 pounds of fresh roasted coffee from the Ugly Mug Café contribute to a mildly chalky espresso character balanced by a rich, sweet creamy maltiness. Coffee finish dissolves into chocolate with a slight roasty bitterness" (source).
• Arbor Brewing Mr. Delicious, $2.89/12oz - "This beer leads off with a stiff round-house punch of citrusy hops, follows up with a quick kick of bready malts and warming alcohol, and finishes with a powerful and lingering bite of complex layered hops" (source).
• Founders Imperial Stout, $3.09/12oz - "Brewed with ten varieties of malted barley, this stout is smooth as silk, yet complex and rich in body. Serve this guy at cellar temperature. Put another log on the fire, sit back and enjoy the friendship of this ultimate winter warmer" (source).
• Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, $2.59/12oz - "Bigfoot is a beast of a beer, brimming with bold flavors of bittersweet malt and heaps of aggressive whole-cone Pacific Northwest hops. First introduced in the winter of 1983, Bigfoot is a cult-classic beer brewed in the barleywine style, meaning a strong, robust, bruiser of a beer with the refined intensity of a wine. Bigfoot is prized by beer collectors for its supreme cellarability. Under the proper conditions, it can age like a fine wine, developing new flavors and character as it matures in the bottle. Each new release or “expedition” is vintage dated. Collect your own and see the flavors develop and progress" (source).
• Brewery Ferment TC Black, $24.99/22oz - "At Ferment, we offer small batch bottles of our more unique concoctions. We will release a new brew every month. These exclusive libations will have a very limited quantity available" (source).
• Brewery Ferment Rhythm & Ryem, $19.99/22oz - See above.
• Brewery Ferment Noel de Miel, $19.99/22oz - See above.
• Brewery Ferment Wild Rhythm & Ryem, $19.99/22oz - See above.
• New Belgium Clutch, $15.99/22oz - "It started as chance, a sandwich shop encounter between a band and a fan. It ended as the Clutch Collaboration. This pleasing, two-part potion was brewed with chocolate and black malts for a rich and roasty overtone, then fused with a dry, substratum of sour for a bold and audacious flavor. Black as night, this beer is blended at 70% stout, 30% dark sour wood beer for a collaboration that begins with a sour edge and finishes with a big, dark malt character, lingering, sweet on your palate" (source).
• Short's Wishful Sinful, $11.79/22oz (1 per) - "Wishful Sinful is an American Sour Ale brewed with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and flaked rye. Ruby red with a bubbly white head, at first glance Wishful Sinful looks like the Soft Parade we know and love, but a sinful secret awaits. A fruity aroma of fresh berries and just a hint of sourdough bread meets the nose. Sweet berry and spicy rye flavors reminiscent of Soft Parade are accompanied by a bright, sour acidity" (source).
• Greenbush Indispensable, $2.19/12oz - "Using German Madarina hops, this beer balances powerful citrus flavor with strong caramel backbone, making it a brew you can't do without" (source).
• Southern Tier Raspberry White, $1.69/12oz - "Over the years, we’ve fine-tuned our house brew into a beautifully crisp & slightly sweet wheat beer brewed with malted barley, unmalted wheat & raspberry puree. Perfectly balanced, light bodied & raspberry tart, Raspberry White is ready to take on the world one bottle at a time" (source).
• Odd Side King of Tarts, $9.69/500ml - "Soured wheat ale, barrel-aged with apricots" (source).
• Bell's Hopslam, $3.09/12oz - "Starting with six different hop varietals added to the brew kettle & culminating with a massive dry-hop addition of Simcoe hops, Bell's Hopslam Ale possesses the most complex hopping schedule in the Bell's repertoire" (source).

Video of the Week | What is Hopslam?

Get yours while supplies last!

Cheers!