Napa’s Kitchen Door has teamed up with Folsom’s Lockdown Brewing Co. for a celebration of Northern California craft beer and great food. Kitchen Door, recently honored as a Michelin Guide Recommended Restaurant as well as one of Bon Appetit’s 7 Best Restaurants on Napa Valley, will be pairing three delicious courses with three great beers from Lockdown Brewing Co. on January 23rd including their Emma’s Blonde Ale, Sutter Street Common and Stony Bar Scotch Ale.

Tickets are very limited for this intimate dinner and are $65 each, tax and gratuity included.

Mutineer will be on hand at the event and we hope to see you there.

Call or email Tim Sebeberson ASAP if interested in attending.
707-226-1560 // [email protected]

BOSTON, Jan. 13, 2012 — The brewers at Samuel Adams have crafted a brand new seasonal beer, Samuel Adams Alpine Spring. This beer has the balanced maltiness and hoppiness of a helles, the strength and smoothness of a bock, and the unfiltered haze of a kellerbier. Although it’s categorized as an unfiltered wheat lager, this one-of-a-kind beer transcends any one style, and the crisp, citrus flavor notes make it a perfect offering for spring.

To create Samuel Adams Alpine Spring, the brewers sourced a German Noble hop variety called Tettnang-Tettnanger, steadily cultivated on vines dating back 100 years in hop gardens at the foothills of the Alps. The beer is brewed using only hops from this region — approximately half a pound per barrel — which gives the beer a bright, orange-citrusy aroma.

Although it’s being released for the first time this month, Samuel Adams Alpine Spring was awarded a pre-release gold medal in the Munich-Helles category at the Beverage Testing Institute’s recent World Beer Championship with an “exceptional” score of 93.

Samuel Adams Alpine Spring will be available nationwide from January to April in six-packs, with a suggested retail price of $7.99.

Nobody likes it when craft breweries attack other craft breweries. Most of the time, a simple phone call to the other brewery would resolve whatever minor issue there was. We saw this with Russian River Brewing and Avery Brewing who both had a beer called Salvation. Instead of fighting it, they embraced it and blended the two Salvations together and Collaboration Not Litigation Ale was born. But other times, as was the case with Lost Abbey suing Moylan’s Brewery over the use of similar (and trademarked) tap handles, it goes a different route and ends up in a lawsuit.

Today, another situation came to light. This time involving Freetail Brewing from San Antonio, Texas and a redacted brewery. If you look hard enough in the blacked out text under the date, it’s a brewery from Eugene, Oregon and if I had to guess I’d say it’s probably Steelhead Brewing. The situation involved the use of a trademarked name, Hoposaurus Rex, for a beer which the redacted brewery is accusing Freetail of using.

Below, find the pure winning response of Freetail Brewing.

That is awesome.

Founders, one of my favorite midwest craft breweries, just announced that they will be releasing an IPA session ale a month from today which will remain in their year-round lineup. I’m really excited about this beer and can’t wait to try it.

Grand Rapids, Michigan, January 6, 2012— Founders Brewing Co.’s Co-Founder and Vice President of Marketing, Dave Engbers, announced today that All Day IPA would be the next addition to the brewery’s year-round lineup, with availability limited to Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, and the greater Chicago area beginning on February 6, 2012.

Founders Brewing Company opened their doors in 1997 with the vision of creating some of the most unique craft beer in the world. Today, Founders has a loyal following, with several beers lauded nationally and internationally as award winners in their respective categories. They are currently rated the second highest brewery in the world by ratebeer.com.

No one is to say for sure if these online petitions actually make an impact, but this is a law that would be nice to see changed. In many states, one can get nearly any size or type of growler or container filled with beer. It can be brewery specific or a $4.99 non-marked growler. In California, a weird law requires a brewery to only fill a growler that they sold and with their branding. That means the Russian River Brewing, Alpine Beer Co and FiftyFifty Brewing growlers that you paid $30 each for are only good at those establishments and when you’re not using them, they’re going to be taking up a lot of space sitting on the shelf.

But why? Why make people waste additional money on something they already have? Why waste more glass making someone purchase something they already have eight others of? It’s redundant and a waste of money and resources. Personally, I don’t buy growlers now that I’m in California because most breweries seem to sell expensive, branded growlers that cost $20-30 for the glass itself, not counting the $10-20+ beer you’re filling it with. Some people collect growlers, that’s awesome, but I don’t want a closet full of hundreds of dollars worth of growlers that aren’t being used but I need to keep in case I go back for a growler fills during my travels.

With the help of Governor Jerry Brown, California has been making some headway in frivolous laws pertaining to alcohol like the ban on infusing spirits and burdensome beer tasting room requirements and hopefully a change can be made here.

Currently in the State of California, if you buy a growler container it can only be filled with beer from the brewery that sold that growler. You can’t put Stone beer into a Sierra Nevada growler.

If you would like to travel from Truckee to Temecula and try great craft beer, then please sign my petition.

Click here to sign the petition.

From all of us at Mutineer, a HUGE congrats to Nicole Erny. She is both the first female Master Cicerone as well as the youngest Master Cicerone. Currently she is one of four Master Cicerones.

Chicago – January 5 – The Cicerone® Certification Program today announced that Nicole Erny of Oakland, CA earned the title of Master Cicerone® during testing in November. Erny earned the certification through a series of exams culminating with two days of intense taste testing plus written and oral questioning about beer styles, draft systems, beer evaluation, brewing technology and beer and food pairing given November 9 & 10.

Photo by Jon Weber

While thousands have passed the first level Cicerone exam known as Certified Beer Server, Erny is only the fourth person to earn the Master Cicerone title—the third and top level of the program. She also becomes the first woman and is the youngest of the four who have earned the title. Founded in 2007, the Cicerone Certification Program tests and certifies beer expertise similar to the wine world’s Master Sommelier program. The Master Cicerone exam includes 8 hours of written questions, 2 hours of oral questions and 2 hours of beer tasting and evaluation. Candidates needed an overall score of 85% to pass.

“During the Master Cicerone exam, Erny distinguished herself with her knowledge of all aspects of beer and her skill in tasting beer and creating interesting beer and food pairings,” said Ray Daniels, Director of the Cicerone Certification Program.

Since earning her Bachelor’s Degree in 2007, Erny has worked a specialty beer bartender, consultant and beer educator, putting on classes and beer and food pairings. She has sharpened her palate and beer analysis skills as a homebrewed beer judge and already holds the title of National Judge in the Beer Judge Certification Program.

Since it began offering certifications in January 2008, the Cicerone Certification Program has awarded more than 8800 first level certifications, called Certified Beer Server and 335 certifications at the second level of the program, called Certified Cicerone®. Through 2011, there have been 24 attempts to pass the third-level Master Cicerone exam resulting in the current roster of four Master Cicerones. Erny joins the three other Master Cicerones®: Andrew Van Til of Michigan, David Kahle of Chicago, and Rich Higgins of San Francisco.

The knowledge required for the Master Cicerone certification is outlined in the program’s 19-page Master Syllabus which can be viewed at www.cicerone.org. The website also includes a free 10-question sample exam that allows anyone to assess their Cicerone aptitude.

The Cicerone Certification Program is a service of the Craft Beer Institute, the Chicago-based beer and brewing education organization. The program is directed by brewer, author and beer educator Ray Daniels. A wide range of breweries, beer distributors and retailers participate in the program.

State lawmakers in Ohio have recently approved a measure that will allow production breweries to offer tastings and sell beers by the glass in their tasting room, much like is done at wineries. The new law will take effect in March.

If breweries wish to hold tastings before then, they are required to get a second permit which costs an additional $3,906 above their manufacturing license. In contrast, wineries pay $76 per year for their annual license and they aren’t required to pay for a second permit for a tasting room.

The tasting room issue was an amendment to a bill focused on micro-distilleries. Under the new law, the state will allow the opening of more micro-distilleries, of which there are currently only three, as long as they produce under 10,000 gallons per year.

What would you do or trade for a year’s supply of beer? Would you tattoo a giant red bronco on your back or fork over your precious taxidermy water buffalo? Prove it at The Black Star Barter on February 4th, 2012 in Whitefish, Montana!

If you can’t afford to make it out to Whitefish, you also have the chance to win a trip to The Black Star Barter for a chance to compete head to head for a year’s supply of Black Star beer. Heck yes.

To enter is easy. Enter a photo or video of what you’d do or trade- any beer-worthy object or talent- for a year’s supply of Black Star, get a lot of votes and win a trip to compete in the official Black Star Barter! Hosted at the Great Northern Brewery, home of Black Star Beer in Whitefish, MT on February 4th, 2012, you’ll compete head to head for a year’s supply of beer.

If the judges choose you as the ultimate barterer you’ll be walking away with 365 days of pure liquid gold; the greatest prize ever conceived by man, beer.

For last year’s Black Star Barter, we predicted “…buffalos, live or stuffed, preferably stuffed for safety’s sake, the world’s largest burrito, and people claiming to be able to sneeze with their eyes open, but don’t take our word for it, go and see for yourself. Mutineer Editor in Chief Alan Kropf has already started the bartering with tots. Tater tots. Good luck beating that.”

Unfortunately, Alan’s tots didn’t cut the mustard but we hear the rest of our predictions came true as sacrificial offerings for a year’s worth of free beer. Speaking of sacrificial offerings, this year, Mutineer Alan is offering up “one kitten.” The rest of Team Mutineer isn’t quite sure what that means, but it’s sure to be interesting.

To enter, visit facebook.com/blackstarbeer.