Craft Brewing and Distilling News for August 4, 2014
August 4, 2014•Athens, Georgia-based Terrapin Beer Company has re-released Pumpkinfest, a fall seasonal session offering. The German-style brew features real pumpkins and spices with a strong malt backbone and low hop bitterness, the company says. The 6.1%-abv light-bodied beer is available in four-packs of 12-ounce bottles and 1/6 BBL kegs throughout Terrapin’s distribution network.
•Madison, Wisconsin’s Ale Asylum this week will release its first Belgian-style beer in five years, Kink. The Belgian-style Abbey was previously named Happy Ending, however, SweetWater Brewing Company in Atlanta packages a beer of the same name. Kink joins Tripel Nova and Mercy in the brewery’s limited bottled Belgian portfolio. The small-batch beers are sold for about two to three months, several months shorter than other seasonals. The 7.7%-abv Kink will be available throughout Wisconsin on draft from August 8 and in 12-ounce bottles from August 15.
•Bloomington, Indiana-based Oliver Winery is relaunching its BeanBlossom Hard Cider this week in 750-ml. bottles, retailing at $10. Previously the company’s cider, named for a small artists’ colony near Bloomington, was available only in four-packs of 200-ml. cans, which have been discontinued. Oliver, which advertises itself as the largest winery east of the Mississippi River, last year producing 325,000 cases of wine under 40 different labels, sources its apples from orchards in northern Indiana and Michigan and also offers a peach-flavored cider. BeanBlossom’s abv, at 9%, is relatively high for a cider. Distribution is slated for 15 states, compared to six states for the company’s wines. “Markets like Minnesota, for example, are interested in our cider, but we’ve chosen not to take our wine there,” says president and CEO Bill Oliver.
•German cider brand Possmann is undergoing a national launch in the U.S. this month with a new U.S. importer, Niche Import Co. of Cedar Knoll, New Jersey. Produced in the Hessen region of Germany by Kelterei Possmann KG since1881, and still family-owned, the cider is listed at 5% abv and retails at $8.99 a four-pack of 11.9-ounce bottles. “We’re planning to get the cider in kegs and sell it on draft here in the U.S., hopefully by fall for Oktoberfest season,” says Marlana Persson, marketing coordinator at Niche, which has imported Possmann’s apple wines for about a decade. The company also plans to add new cider flavors, including a rosé cider with black currant flavoring, she noted.
Subscribe to Shanken News Daily’s Email Newsletter, delivered to your inbox each morning.Tagged : Ale Asylum, BeanBlossom Hard Cider, Kelterei Possmann KG, Niche Import Co., Oliver Winery, Possmann, SweetWater Brewing Co., Terrapin Beer Co.
