November GOOD BEER News: Reverse Keg Ride/Snow Melt Release, adventures in labeling, holiday hours, Fat Gary at Beer School, Gratitude update, and more!

[Scott at East End Brewing]

Happy November GOOD BEER Fans!

Welcome to the latest, and rather late edition of the GOOD BEER News.
This month, we're coming to you live from our newly constructed
Completely Ridiculous Artwork Production facilities (aka C.R.A.P.) at
East End Brewing, where our crack squad of label writers are busy
working night and day, churning out a continuous stream of possible
new keg labels for our Coffee Porter. Dealing with C.R.A.P. like this
has all but taken over my days here, leaving little focus for beer
making. But it's important work. Because we still hope that one day,
the Federal Authorities will smile down on us, and tell us that we've
got just the right name for our Coffee Porter, so that you consumers
out there will be protected from the likes of me. ...And we can leave
all this C.R.A.P. behind and get back to brewing some GOOD BEER.

We'll get to the dazzling conclusion of our ongoing action-adventure/
comedy-drama/farce entitled, "Adventures in Labeling", and the rest of
the GOOD BEER News in just a bit. But first, we have a very special
keg return to tell you about - and it's coming up soon!


THE END OF PEDAL PALE ALE 2009:
By now, you've probably heard about the way we like to roll out (ahem)
our Summer Seasonal, Pedal Pale Ale each Spring. Namely - by bicycle,
and this past summer 500 of you managed to play a part in our delivery
ride, pulling 3 half barrels from the Brewery over to the S. Side's
Over The Bar Bicycle Cafe (OTB). Well, now that Summer is clearly
gone (I think?) and the last stores of Pedal Pale Ale are starting to
dwindle, I've decided that we're going to send it off in style this
year - with another bike ride of course!

REVERSE KEG RIDE - SATURDAY NOV 21st:
"This ride is so much fun - You really need to do this more than once
a year!" If I had a beer for every time I heard that after the last
keg ride...well I'd have a lot of beer. And you know what? I
actually do have a lot of beer, so you know I'm not lying.

Since we've already delivered the beer, we've got something slightly
different in mind for this ride: We'll start right where we left off
last time, at OTB on E. Carson St. and follow the EMPTY kegs back home
to East End Brewing, officially closing out Pedal Pale Ale season for
the year. At the same time, we'll reluctantly welcome winter's chill
with the official debut of this year's first batch of Snow Melt Winter
Ale! (Yea, I know Fall usually replaces Summer, but we all know that
Harvest is still in the mix, and that we run our seasonal beers for 2
seasons around here. So don't start getting picky with me now, or so
help me, I'll turn this tandem around RIGHT NOW and you can just walk
the rest of the.... a-hem.)

So, like the "Regular Keg Ride", the "Reverse Keg Ride" will be a
slow, meandering tour of the greater East End, partly on trails,
partly on city streets, and hopefully not too much cooler than the
Spring ride. When WE get to the brewery (no riding ahead folks!),
we'll put the empties up on keg washer, and tap a fresh FULL keg of
Snow Melt Winter Ale. And the first round is on me! Actually, it's
the ONLY round since we still can't sell pints. But you can always get
a Growler of it to go.


WHAT'S DIFFERENT THIS TIME?
Aside from the directional changes, and cooler weather, and the
release of a different beer, there's one more BIG difference. We're
not just doing it for the beer this time. We're doing it for
charity. We're asking for a donation of $5-10 per rider, and all the
proceeds will be split evenly between our two charities: Bike-Pgh -
working to make our streets more bike friendly every day, and the
Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank - working to put food on the
tables of people who need it the most!

And the best part is that since this is an all-volunteer run event,
there's ZERO overhead and administrative costs to deduct, so
everything we raise flows straight through to these worthwhile
organizations.

So I hope you'll join us. It's a great way to help the city we live
in be a better place, a great excuse to get out on your bike with some
friends, and have a bit of fun at the same time. All of the details
for the ride, and our list of Celebrity Keg Pullers can be found here,
so spread the word, and be sure to bring a couple hundred GOOD FRIENDs
along: http://www.eastendbrewing.com/node/733

And if you can't join us, but would like to donate to these
organizations directly, you can do that on their websites.
Bike-Pgh: http://bike-pgh.org/get_involved/become-a-member/
Pgh Food Bank: http://www.pittsburghfoodbank.org/donate/


FAT GARY GOES TO SCHOOL... BEER SCHOOL:
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is again showing how Trust-worthy they
really are, this time with Beer Culture. Beer School is back, and the
subject is "Session Ales", one that's near and dear to my heart. Tony
"the beer man" Knipling and beerwriter Lew Bryson are our guest
instructors, and Fat Gary Nut Brown Ale has just been added to the
curriculum. (Maybe you didn't know that Fat Gary was once a mere
Session Ale, and the only beer from our Session Ale Series to make it
to the big time and land a spot in our year-round lineup.) You can
enroll in Beer School by going to:
http://www.pgharts.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=19484


ADVENTURES IN LABELING...THE FINAL CHAPTER:
Bad news. I just got the word this morning as I write this, that
we've gotten the green light on the label for our beer, formerly known
as "Eye Opener Coffee Porter". So we'll be downsizing this entire
C.R.A.P. facility, and my thanks go out to the entire staff (the old
joke lives on!) who has been so diligently submitting labels for this
beer only to have their hopes shattered with another refusal. Just
look at this list, and some of the reasons for rejection:
- "Eye Opener Coffee Porter" (rejected: health related claim)
- "iOpener Coffee Porter" (apologies to Steve Jobs, rejected: health
related claim)
- "This Beer Will Not Effect Your Eyes... Porter" (rejected: health
related claim)
- "This is Not a Health Related Claim...Porter" (rejected: health
related claim!!!)
- "Rachel Carson Coffee Porter" (rejected: unspecified reason)
- "Big Pour Porter"
- "Rejection Coffee Porter"
- "I Hope! Ender Coffee Porter" (get it? Eye Opener...I Hope Ender?)
- "Adventures in labeling coffee porter (rejected: unspecified reason.
can't take a joke?)
- "You've got to be kidding me coffee porter"

AND THE WINNER IS...
"Literally Just a Coffee Porter" finally made the cut, so we'll leave
it at that and quietly MOVE ON. You'll probably never see the label
on the keg anyway, but around here, if you call it by this or any
other name - illegal or not, we'll probably be able to figure out what
you mean.

EXPANDED FRIDAY GROWLER HOURS COMING THIS MONTH!
Our Friday Growler Hours have steadily grown to be the second biggest
beer day of the week around here, and we should have seen it coming
all along. So in order to spread the crowd out a bit, and make those
Friday afternoon/evening beer runs a little easier to hit, we're
DOUBLING our Friday Growler Hours, every single week, starting in a
little over a week, and continuing on. So, starting on 11/20, we'll
be open every Friday from 4-8pm. That should make things easier, no?

GOOD BEER EVENTS:
11/14 Hoyt Institute 3rd Annual Brew-Fest: http://ow.ly/Bphv
11/20 Extended Friday Growler Hours begin - 4-8pm every week.
11/21 REVERSE KEG RIDE/Snow Melt Winter Ale Debut: http://ow.ly/BpjI
11/21 Venture Outdoors Brewery Hike: www.VentureOutdoors.org


HOLIDAY GROWLER HOURS:
11/25 Special Wed Night Thanksgiving Growler Hours 4-7pm
11/26 CLOSED for Thanksgiving Day
11/27 First day of Regular Extended Friday Growler Hours 4-8pm
12/23 Special Wed Night (Christmas Eve-Eve) Growler Hours 4-7pm
12/24 CLOSED for Christmas Eve
12/25 CLOSED for Christmas Day
12/26 Regular Saturday Growler Hours 12-5pm
12/31Special Extended (NYE) Thursday Growler Hours 4-7pm
1/1 CLOSED for New Year's Day (Friday)
1/2 Regular Growler Hours resume, until about this time next year...

GOOD BEER IN THE NEWS:
I've been slacking when it comes to telling you about East End Brewing
in the news lately, but it's not because I don't like the attention,
or giving attention to those that give us attention. It's just hard
to keep track sometimes. Here's a nice piece on Big Bottles from Joe
Six Pack - who managed to get a hold of some Gratitude:
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/bottles-88043-beer-brown.html


GRATITUDE UPDATE:
Speaking of Gratitude, our primary stash of Gratitude 2008 has sold
out, leaving only the 2007 model behind to hold us over. But the
holdover shouldn't be too long, as we're bottling the 2009 stuff this
weekend. With printing, labeling, waxing (blue this year), signing,
and numbering to go, there's actually a decent chance we'll see the
2009 Gratitude on the bar in 2009! Will the wonders of beer never
cease?


That's all for this time - and this should be PLENTY. Watch our
Twitter feed and www.EastEndBrewing.com for the latest on some of our
upcoming releases that are still in the works - including among other
things, a CIDER.

See you on the Reverse Keg Ride, in a little over a week!
--
Cheers,
Scott

BUY A GOOD FRIEND A GOOD BEER (tm)
www.EastEndBrewing.com
http://twitter.com/EastEndBrewing