(Alpine, CA) – The latest from Alpine Beer Company, courtesy of the company’s email newsletter…

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The good people from “City Beer Store” in San Francisco are celebrating their 7th anniversary this weekend. For the occasion, we made a Double IPA called “Magnificent Seven” which uses seven different malts, seven different hops with seven different additions and is 7.7% abv. Most of the beer was shipped to San Francisco but we managed to hang onto 3 kegs. We will be selling it at the Pub in samples, pints and pitchers only.

There will be a special beer released in the pub as soon as “Magnificent Seven” is gone. “Keene Idea” is making its way to our Pub when the anniversary beer is exhausted. This beer was first made for Toronado San Francisco’s 25th Anniversary and appears to have made a distinct impression. It may be our most requested beer we have made to date. Remember, no growler fills, only available in the Pub and only after “Magnificent Seven” is depleted.

New Sunday hours in the Pub started last week. Yes, we will open earlier to accommodate the tired mountain bikers and thirsty travelers enjoying their weekends as much as they can. We will open at 11AM Sundays and may readdress the time again once football season is upon us.

Another release we have to announce is the most celebrated beer in the world. “Hoppy Birthday” will be released on Thursday May 30th for growler fills and on draught in the pub. This wonderfully popular beer is really a Pale Ale at 5.25% abv, but we make it like an IPA. One of the three beers we will be ramping up production late this year.

More info on the increased production of Nelson, Duet and Hoppy Birthday, it appears on track for when the hop crops are harvested, plucked, pulverized and pelletized and ready to ship. Nelson uses hops from the southern hemisphere and should be available after mid-year sometime. The North American hop crop is ready to use very late in the year, look for Duet and “Hoppy Birthday” early next year, most likely. A recent development has made it possible for us to make the extra keg beer locally and the bottle and can beer made in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes. Bottles will be our current 22 oz. amber beer bottles and cans will be the Alumi-Tek 16 oz. can with a large screw cap.
“ELEVEN PLUS TWO” can be rearranged to “TWELVE PLUS ONE” (and it’s still unlucky)

Now I’d like to say a few things about contract brewing. There has been much ado made about contract brewing and not in a positive way. Most consider contract brewing to be inferior, cheating or unethical. I would like to point out that our collaboration with New Belgium Brewing, where we made nearly our annual production at one time, turned out to be a fantastic beer that really resembled an Alpine IPA, for sure. That is very much what contracting for us would be like, hands on utilizing our unique techniques and ingredients. Yes, I will be in Minnesota directing the brewing and packaging of our precious beer. Much like we will be doing when we can jump through enough hoops to get our own production brewery built. Another major consideration with Minnesota is the fact they have an incredible abundance of phenomenal water. Their “glacial melt” water leaps from a spring at the brewery and has an almost identical composition as our brewery water, which is awesome. So, fear not that we are contracting to have more beer made for you, our thirsty friends, embrace it and I promise you will not be disappointed.

Some of the negative publicity surrounding contract brewing was warranted. Some breweries tried to hide the fact they were contracting out of the area yet advertising things like they were “the first local brewery” or something equally deceptive. Plus, they weren’t putting in their own techniques and quality control, something we won’t have a problem with. For us, it will be like borrowing your favorite Uncle’s awesome, modern brewery of size and racing it down the craft beer highway.