Labels: 1001 Beers You Must Taste Before You Die, Business of Beer, Humulus Ludicrous

And, if by chance you're one of those tail-gating, cell phone yapping, text sending morons, now is the time the rest of us get our sweet revenge because you can't see the crater sized opening in the earth below your soon to be replaced front axle. Victory is sweet so we raise this glass of black darkness to you!

Labels: Lo Pub, Pothole Porter

Labels: bloodshot bill, sponsorship

Vanessa snapped off this shot early in the morning. If I could figure out photoshop, I'd give Ed (black hat in the background) the caption: "beer & wood, my two favourite things!" Thankfully, Ed has a good sense of humour.

1. The lineup started at 7 am, proving the brewery motto "you snooze, you lose".


2. As some have pointed out, the doors were unfortunately opened at 8:45 am by brewery staff taking pity on cold beer lovers. This won't happen again, as we need more time in the morning to prepare for these special releases. Bring your toque next time!


3. We hadn't planned on putting a limit on the number of bottles you could purchase, but did so after we realized we'd have a lot more angry customers if we didn't.


4. The beer sold out so quickly, I didn't even have time to pull out the birthday cake that Vanessa so kindly picked up for me. D'oh! More cake for us!


5. Both CBC Radio and Global TV (click on the January 15Th newscast and ffw to the last minute of the program) came down and did interviews with us even though we didn't do a press release. I think this made the day even more successful and I thank them for keeping their ears to the ground and spreading the word for good local beer in Manitoba.


6. Our long distance award goes to Kyle from Andrew Hilton Wines in Lethbridge. He drove 13 or 14 hours from Lethbridge to check out the $ellout and trade some wonderful beers, too. Thanks Kyle for your dedication to good beer, not just Half Pints.

For those of you who didn't get any and were hoping, ask your friends and relatives, as it's possible they beat you to it and have a bottle they could trade you for something good.

Hopefully Winnipeg's beer lovers trust their favourite brewer's instincts. As we've noted on facebook and other social sites like BeerAdvocate or Ratebeer, we're proud to brew a beer like the St. James Pale Ale. It may not be every one's cup of tea, but that doesn't mean it's not a valid style in its own right and it's fans are just as valued to us as any of our beers' fans. This one beer alone brings so many new people into the Half Pints fold and they eventually try our other beers and spend time educating their palettes to good beer in general, not just ours. It's a total win-win situation, because educated customers are dangerous consumers when it comes to big brewery beer. They refuse to accept it anymore, much like I learned not to accept it years ago when my palette was expanded by beers that were considered weird or exotic.

Like I've always said, we're not here to make beer that absolutely everyone loves. In fact, we're going to make beer from time to time that certain people hate. I'm OK with that simply because: if our goal was to make beer for the masses 100% of the time, then all our beers would suck and we could sell out to a larger multi-national brewery and spend our time on a beach sipping mojito's.

For those of you who ask "What's next?" you could smell Chris' brew here on $ellout day. It's a Rye P.A. he's designed all by himself and it's fermenting away as you read this. It'll be transferred into the barrels that previously held the $ellout and will mellow for 4-6 months before we repeat this whole debacle again.

He's currently thinking about names for it and we'll gladly take suggestions from anyone willing to post them in the comments section. Keep it clean folks!

Cheers,

Brewmaster Dave

Labels: Sellout Stout, St. James Pale