BOULDER, CO—This Sunday, Sept. 22^nd, the Avery Brewing Company will host The Great Rumpkin Raffle benefitting the Foothills Flood Relief Fund to help those in Boulder and Broomfield Counties who suffered losses from the recent floods. Raffle tickets will be sold for $10 during the Rumpkin Release Party at the Avery Tap Room. Each ticket will include a free pint. The raffle’s Grand Prize will be an entire case of Rumpkin ($288 value) and other prizes include 6-packs of Rumpkin, two pairs of IPA Fest tickets, and some Avery gear. Raffle tickets will be on sale from 2-5:45pm. Prizes will be announced at 6pm and you must be present to win.

BOULDER, CO—As fervent devotees of hops, years ago the brewers of the Avery Brewing Company embarked on a quest to create a transcendental IPA capable of quenching the most voracious lupulin desires. Since the first batch in 2009 the mantra remains “unity of bitterness, hop flavor and aroma.” Enlightened, duganA IPA has flourished as brutally bitter, dank, piney and resinous ale designed for those seeking a divine hop experience.

duganA IPA (pronounced like llama) is released once a year and was designed to showcase the dank, piney and resinous notes of Chinook hops. This double IPA is dry and remarkably sessionable, especially for an 8.5% ABV and 93 IBU beer.

“Chinooks are my desert island hop,” said Avery Director of Operations Steve Breezley.  “I have worked with Chinooks throughout my career, but years ago I attended a hop symposium that featured many single hop beers, one featured Chinook hops. It really opened my eyes. That’s where I absolutely fell in love with Chinooks. When we came up with the idea for duganA I was excited to concentrate on this classic, piney hop.”

The duganA release party starts at 5pm today, Wednesday August 21^st, at the Avery  Tap Room. duganA will hit the shelves and taps in select markets starting this week.

BOULDER, CO—Batch No. 11 of Avery Brewing Company’s The Beast is loose and coming to seduce your soul and dominate your senses.

Released each August, this Belgian-style Grand Cru features 6 malts, 6 hops, and 6 brewing sugars. The Beast is unfiltered, adding to its powerful, dark and complicated flavor profile. First released in 2004, it was the first of the Demons of Ale Series and marks one of the brewery’s first forays into making super high gravity beers.

“This is a beautiful beer, even if it is a bit perilous. It was my intent to create something more than “beer.” I wanted something that bordered on liqueur, something rummy or maybe like Cognac,” said Adam Avery.

This was the first year since 2004 that The Beast broke the 18% ABV mark, making it one of the biggest beers the brewery has ever made.

“This year we made it the monster it is supposed to be. Most people think we are idiots for making a beer this huge, but our fans are up to the challenge and love it,” said Avery’s Director of Operations Steve Breezley.

The Beast will be released to select markets starting in the second week of August and will be available in single 12oz. bottles.  For more information, beer connoisseurs can check www.averybrewing.com or emailinfo@averybrewing.com.

Established in 1993, Avery Brewing Company has developed a reputation as being one of the most daring and visionary breweries in the nation.  They are the brewers of Avery IPA, The Maharaja Imperial IPA, White Rascal Belgian Wheat Ale, Mephistopheles’ Stout and eighteen other year-round and seasonal beers.  Please go to www.averybrewing.com for more information on Avery beers.

BOULDER, CO–When it rains, it pours! Another barrel-aged beauty is ready to be poured! Ross’s’s Melange, No. 16 in the Barrel-Aged Series, is an 11.04% ABV wild ale brewed with Chardonnay grape must and aged in first use Chardonnay barrels for 6 months. Brewed with both Brettanomyces and Champagne yeast, the beer is as wild and funky as the man who inspired it.

“This beer has a huge white wine influence and aromas of fresh pear juice.  It has some nice tannic notes from the oak and is very dry, definitely Champagne-esque. This is an incredible beer to pair with food,” said Avery Chief Barrel-Herder Andy Parker.

Bottle sales will start at 4pm on Sunday June 16th, Fathers Day, at the Avery Tap Room, 5757 Arapahoe Ave. in Boulder, Colo. CASH ONLY, $10 per 12oz bottle, and limit of 12 bottles per person. Only 147 cases exist, so hop in line early to make sure you get your shot at this awesome beer!

• Watch the tasting with Abita Brewing Co.
• Watch the tasting with Tröegs Brewing Co. (we apologize audio problems)
• Watch the tasting with The Bruery
• Watch the tasting with Boulevard Brewing Co.
• Watch the tasting with Avery Brewing Co.

The beer is the seventh in their Barrel-Aged Series. It is a sour ale aged for eighteen months in Cabernet Sauvignon wine barrels with brettanomyces, lactobacillus and pediococcus.

We remember the bad old days—before the revolution—when beer variety was non-existent, when bars and stores offered us the choice between Mainstream Lager A and Mainstream Lager B (and C and D, in more adventurous places).

Then came the thrill of discovery as the beer selection opened up, thanks to enterprising brewers and unconventional importers. Beer didn’t have to mean standard lager; there were rich European brewing traditions that offered us scores of alternative flavors.

Nor did beer have to be produced by huge, factory-like installations. It could be made by scrappy entrepreneurs, brewing on their own with cobbled-together equipment, distributing by pick-up truck and promoting their brews one convert at a time.

It was, indeed, a revolution: an upheaval that overturned the conventional way of thinking in the beer world. And beer writers loved the imagery of rebellion and revolt.

But (Fidel aside) revolutions come to an end. A new view of reality replaces the old. What we think of as “the American Beer Revolution” probably concluded in the nineties.

For beer aficionados, the new reality means sixty or seventy distinct styles of beer in American markets. But outside specialist circles, the new reality actually means that instead of ten mainstream lagers on the shelves, it’s probably nine mainstream lagers and one pale ale.

Despite playing a minor role, pale ales, amber ales and specialty lagers are now members of the beer industry establishment. For a small but significant group of beer drinkers, these are the beers they reach for when they “feel like a beer.”

These beers don’t raise eyebrows at the corner bar, they have a place in the convenience store cooler, and their drinkers aren’t making political statements. The beers are delicious and commercially successful.

Why brew anything else?