Courides founded the Intercourse Brewing Company (intercoursebrewingco.com), which she named after the rural Pennsylvania Amish community of Intercourse, ironically a dry town. The name always prompted giggles whenever a younger Courides, who grew up about an hour away in Collegeville, visited with her parents.

It was also hard to ignore the suggestive names of surrounding towns: Blue Ball, Mount Joy and Bareville.

“I couldn’t believe no one had done it yet,” said Courides, at 23 one of the youngest independent brewers in the United States. “The town names are just so funny, and it’s real.”

Beer names like Blue Ball Porter, Bareville Pilsner, and Mount Joy Light, along with a suggestive logo and slogan (May your spirit be light and may you always enjoy Intercourse) are sure to get beer drinkers’ attention.

Hopefully, the beer is as good as the branding.

End of History beer in squirrel and stoat encased bottles

We’ve written before about Brew Dog Brewery, the Scottish brewery that likes to push the envelope of brewing. Their latest extreme beer really takes the cake, though. It’s not enough to create a 55% ABV beer called “End of History”, they decided to stuff the bottles into dead animals (WTF?) and sell it for £500 (about $750US).

This 55% beer should be drank in small servings whilst exuding an endearing pseudo vigilance and reverence for Mr Stoat. This is to be enjoyed with a weather eye on the horizon for inflatable alcohol industry Nazis, judgemental washed up neo-prohibitionists or any grandiloquent, ostentatious foxes.

The End of History: The name derives from the famous work of philosopher Francis Fukuyama, this is to beer what democracy is to history. Fukuyama defined history as the evolution of the political system and traced this through the ages until we got the Western Democratic paradigm. For Fukuyama this was the end point of man’s political evolution and consequently the end of history. The beer is the last high abv beer we are going to brew, the end point of our research into how far the can push the boundaries of extreme brewing, the end of beer.

This blond Belgian ale is infused with nettles from the Scottish Highlands and Fresh juniper berries. Only 12 bottles have been made and each comes with its own certificate and is presented in a stuffed stoat or grey squirrel. The striking packaging was created by a very talented taxidermist and all the animals used were road kill. This release is a limited run of 11 bottles, 7 stoats and 4 grey squirrels. Each ones comes with its own certificate of authenticity.

Sorry, all 12 bottles have been sold.

Hoping to build on the craft-brewing and local food movements, N.C. State University researchers in Raleigh and a handful of farmers in the mountains are growing experimental plots of hops, the cone-shaped flower clusters that brewers add to beer for bitterness and aroma and as a natural preservative.

Jensen, who is growing on land once used for tobacco, said it’s a huge amount of work but one of the few crops that, on paper at least, could bring in decent income for farmers, which is what led her to try it. Hops can sell for more than $10 a pound in small quantities, and it’s not unusual for an acre to yield more than 2,000 pounds. (Read full article)

I will be trying to grow some Hops here in Arkansas and will keep you up to date with my success or failure. But at $10 a pound it’s worth a try.

House Resolution 1297, sponsored by Rep. Betsy Markey, supports “the goals and ideals of American Craft Beer Week.”

“We’ve got quite a number of microbreweries and entrepreneurs that are creating jobs, and we wanted to celebrate that this is a craft,” Markey told POLITICO.

“I think beer has been a tradition since this country was founded,” said Markey. “We wanted to celebrate entrepreneurship — and good beer!”

From the Brewers Association:

Beer lovers, craft brewers, homebrewers, beer distributors, retailers, and even U.S. Congress are all making special plans for the annual American Craft Beer Week taking place across the country May 17-23. The “Mother of All Beer Weeks, ” organized by the Brewers Association, celebrates small and independent craft brewers and highlights all that America loves about craft beer. In 2006, the week became the largest national effort focusing on American craft brewers and remains so today.

…

A House of Representatives resolution, H.R. 1297 (PDF file), was introduced on April 22 to recognize and support the goals and ideals of American Craft Beer Week. This Congressional effort highlights the valuable role that small and independent craft brewers play through community citizenry, economic contributions—including the estimated 100,000 jobs in the industry–and the resurgence in a rich brewing culture not seen since before Prohibition.

Also, in the works for the 2010 American Craft Beer Week are special brewery tours, beer and food pairing events, special release craft beers and festivals all across the country. Participating breweries are encouraging beer enthusiasts to sign the Declaration of Beer Independence, an official document to support America’s small and independent craft brewers, which is available on the American Craft Beer Week website and Facebook page. And, both breweries and homebrewers alike will brew a special recipe called American Craft Beer Wheat to celebrate.

“May your glass be ever full. May the roof over your head be always strong. And may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead.”
-Old Irish Toast

This post was submitted by gservo.

The 33-year-old computer programmer is neither a monk nor Catholic, but as he surveys this emerald-green oasis in the midst of the city, he talks excitedly about his “American abbey project”: an attempt to bring the monastic brewing tradition to Washington.

In bygone centuries, beer was safer to drink than water, and monks brewed it for their own consumption as well as to supply thirsty wayfarers. As early as the ninth century, the Abbey of St. Gall in Switzerland had three breweries in full operation. Today, there are perhaps 18 monastery breweries throughout Europe that earn their keep by selling beer, most famously the Belgian Trappist breweries such as Chimay and Orval.(full article via The Washington Post)

I have tried to tell every one a good craft beer is heavenly. Maybe I should talk to our local monks at Subiaco Abby and see it they have any beer brewing tips?

via http://twitter.com/HomeBrewTalk/status/8384230785

This is IPA amplified, the most evocative style of the craft beer resistance with the volume cranked off the scale. Kettle hopped, dry hopped then freeze hopped for a deep fruit, resinous and spicy aroma. A full out attack on your taste-buds ensues as the incredibly smooth liquid delivers  a crescendo of malt, sweet honey, hop oils and a torpedo of hop bitterness which lasts and lasts.

O.M.G! Excuse me while I wipe the drool from my beard. I have no idea how they got 41% ABV out of the yeast. That amount of alcohol would kill normal beer yeast; I don’t think even champagne yeast could handle it. Does freezing somehow raise the ABV? If you know, please illuminate me in the comments.

As you might imagine, a beer this big is not cheap. This freak of nature is available for sale online for £40 for a 330ml bottle. That’s about $61 for 11ozs but I imagine it is well worth it. I started to buy a bottle expecting it to block me me when I put in a US address but it did not. The total cost, however, jumped to £80. Unfortunately, $120 is too much for a bottle of beer that might get broken or lost in shipment.

This looks like a really fun brewery, kind of a cross between Flying Dog‘s irreverence and branding and Dogfish Head‘s innovative beers. They have some sort of story to go along with this IPA but it’s lost on this dumb American. There is an amusing video though.

Sink the Bismarck! from BrewDog on Vimeo.