(Atlanta, GA) – The latest from SweetWater Brewing Co., as excerpted from its January email newsletter…

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17th Anniversary Ale

We’re doin’ things a little different for our 17th Anniversary Ale this year by unleashing a big-ass 9% ABV Saison. If you’re not familiar with the style, Saisons are known as farmhouse ales because they were originally brewed in barns for farm hands. The nature of brewin’ outdoors means some funky yeast can fall in, so prepare for this one to be a little more complex than you’re used to. Of course we put our own SweetWater twist on the style and hopped the manure out of it. Look for more details on this sucker as we get a little closer to our birthday party.

New States

First order of business is Virginia. [We tapped] into Virginia and the DC area the last week of January. Launch events and more details can be found on our Virginia Facebook page. We don’t have specifics ready just yet, but we’re eye-balling Mississippi, Ohio, Maryland, and Texas (in no particular order) after that. If all goes according to plan (and I think we all know the likelihood of that happening) we could be in a total of 13 states by 2015.

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No TTB label approval for the beer yet. The 17th anniversary bash takes place on February 23rd so it is coming up quickly.

Maryland is a new state mentioned in the newsletter. The other states were listed as part of the 2013 SweetWater recap.