Beer today, gone tomorrow: Asheville beer happenings April 12-18

Beer Today, Gone Tomorrow is the one-stop home for Asheville-area beer news. Check back throughout the week for updates and send your own to wncbeertoday@gmail.com.

Bottle/can releases

• Green Man Brewery’s The Rainmaker Double IPA returns this month. The 9.3 percent ABV brew is heavily dry-hopped with Columbus, Simcoe, Citra, and Chinook. Rainmaker will be available in four-packs of 12-ounce bottles as opposed to the 22-ounce bombers of years past.
• Highland Brewing Co. releases its second seasonal of 2016, Early’s Hoppy Wheat, on Friday April 15. This light-bodied wheat beer, hopped with Mosaic and Amarillo hops will begin pouring at 4 p.m. This will be the first release party of the year held outside on The Meadow, featuring food trucks and live music. Representatives from the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy will be on-site with information about Early’s Mountain and the For Love of Beer and Mountains partnership. Music starts at 7 p.m.
• On Friday, April 15, Wicked Weed Brewing releases Myrtille (French for blueberry, pronounced “mare-tee”), a barrel-aged American Sour fermented with blueberries from Cedar Grove Blueberry Farm. Bottles are available at the Funkatorium and Brewpub with limited distribution starting next week.

Small-batch beers

• Burial Beer Co. releases three new beers on draft at the brewery this week. Aussie Vice Session Pale Ale, tapped on Monday, April 11, is a 4.2 percent ABV pale ale dry-hopped with three Australian hops: Vic Secret, Summer and Ella. Machete, a 6 percent ABV rustic farmhouse-style ale brewed with pilsner malt and flaked barley and dry-hopped with Mount Hood and Nugget, will be available Tuesday, April 12. On Friday, April 15, The Temple Golden Strong Ale will begin pouring. This Belgian-style golden strong is brewed with pilsner malt, oats and local honey before being oak-aged for 10 months.
• As of Tuesday, April 12, Green Man Brewery is pouring Otis Ray IPA (notes of pineapple and apricot) at the Greenmansion and Dirty Jack’s. As of Friday, April 15, Wheatseeker Hefeweizen is also back on tap.
• OysterHouse Brewing Co. cask offerings this week are Kahlua Supermoon Imperial Oyster Stout and Naked Bob’s ESB.
• As of Friday, April 15, Hi-Wire Brewing is pouring a Toasted Coconut Porter at its Big Top location.

In stores now

• Olde Hickory Brewery has released a new beer in the Asheville market, with three others returning. Carols Magnus, a 14 percent ABV armagnac barrel-aged Belgian-style quad was brewed with figs, raisins and rose hips. The returning beers include Weizenbock, Wilson Creek ESB and Redeemer Double IPA. Carols Magnus, previously a brewery-only release, is available exclusively at Bruisin’ Ales.
• Wicked Weed Brewing’s 12 percent ABV Dark Age Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout is currently available at specialty retailers in 12.7-ounce bottles.
• Cans of Burial Beer Co. Shadowclock Pilsner and Bolo Coconut Brown are on specialty retail shelves now.

Special events

• Thirsty Monk’s Woodfin location will host a NC Mystery Tap event (not to be confused with Hillsborough-based Mystery Brewing) on Thursday, April 14. The event will offer drinkers the chance to test their tasting skills by matching tasting notes with the beers they describe.
• Tasty Beverage Co. taps Nantahala Brewing Co.‘s and Mother Earth Brewing‘s collaborative beers on Thursday, April 14 at 5:30 p.m. Downstairs Mix-up West is a hoppy Belgian ale and Downstairs Mix-up East is an IPA brewed with dried nectarines and Azacca, Idaho 7 and Mosaic hops.
• Burial Beer Co. will hold a small-batch bottle release to benefit label artist David Paul Seymour’s full-length feature film effort, Planet of DOOM, On Saturday April 16. Planet of DOOM Dark Belgian Abbey Ale is brewed with dates, local ancho chiles, local cocoa nibs, vanilla bean, nutmeg and Counter Culture coffee. A purchase limit of two bottles per customer will be in effect.
• Pisgah Brewing Co. celebrates its 11th anniversary on Sunday, April 17, at the brewery. The festivities will include four food trucks and live music from Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, TAUK and The Marcus King Band. One dollar from each ticket purchase will be donated to flood repair efforts at ArtSpace Charter School. Doors open at 4 p.m. with music starting at 5 p.m.

In the news

• Burial Beer Co. co-owner Jess Reiser has been featured by Beer Street Journal in the site’s “Badass Women of Beer” series of profiles. Burial’s new marketing director, Erin Jones, was featured in the same column during her time at Wicked Weed.
• Thirsty Monk, Highland Brewing Co., Wedge Brewing Co., New Belgium Brewing Co. and Riverbend Malt House are among the nearly 40 – and growing – North Carolina brewing industry-related businesses that have agreed to donate ingredients, time or effort to make Don’t Be Mean to People: a golden rule saison. The bright farmhouse ale brewed with 100 percent N.C. grown and malted grain and N.C. sorghum molasses is being made as a social statement against House Bill 2 (HB2). The project’s additional costs are being funded through an Indiegogo Generosity campaign with donor rewards ranging from a 4-pack of the beer to brewing a recipe of one’s own creation with one of the project founders: Erik Lars Myers, founder/head brewer of Mystery Brewing Co. and Keil Jansen, owner/brewmaster of Ponysaurus Brewing Co. All of the profits will be donated to Equality NC and QORDS.