Beer today, gone tomorrow: Asheville beer happenings July 18-24

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 and can releases

• Burial Beer Co. will release four packaged offerings this week. On Friday, July 21, The Prayer Belgian Blonde with Apricots and Ceremonial Session IPA will return in four-packs of 16 ounce cans. This batch of Ceremonial features simcoe hops, and both beers will see distribution. Then, on Saturday, July 22, the 2017 vintage of Terrestrial Paradise Brett Pale Ale will debut alongside Crystal There DIPA. Terrestrial Paradise 2017 (5.6 percent ABV) is a 100 percent Brettanomyces fermented pale ale, dry-hopped with Azacca and Mosaic hops. It will be available in 750 milliliter bottles that will see limited distribution. Crystal Sphere (8.3 percent ABV) is a double IPA with fresh peaches and honey, and double dry-hopped with Amarillo, Simcoe and Azacca, available in four-packs of 16 ounce cans at the taproom exclusively.

Small-batch beers

• In addition to its packaged releases, Burial tapped two new small-batch beers on Monday, July 17. The latest batch of Massacre of the Innocents India Pale Ale is currently available alongside a new release, Episodes of a Hermit Life Key Lime Gose. Hermit Life is a steel-fermented tart ale brewed with Riverbend Pilsner, honey and biscuit malt, and very lightly hopped with Mandarina. Fresh lime juice, lime zest and lime peel, along with vanilla, cinnamon, salt and flaked oats were added to this 5 percent ABV American interpretation of a German gose.
• On Thursday, July 20, Wedge Brewing Co. will release the first beer from Wedge Studios assistant brewer Eric Diehl, Penny Hammer Stout. This 5 percent ABV American stout was brewed with chocolate malt, black malt and roasted barley, then finished with the addition of freshly roasted “El Salvador” Penny Cup Coffee and vanilla beans.
• Catawba Brewing Co. taps an English Bitter (5.1 percent ABV) on Thursday, July 20, at all four of its tasting rooms. True to style, this sessionable Old World pale ale is brewed with caramel malts, hopped with Fuggle and East Kent Goldings and fermented with an English Ale yeast strain. Look for it on the nitro tap at Catawba’s South Slope location.

Special events

• Tickets to New Belgium Brewing’s Saturday, July 29, kick-off party for its new small batch sour series, Wood Cellar Reserve, are on sale now. The first release, Le Kriek Noir, will only be sold at the Fort Collins and Asheville breweries due to limited supply. Le Kriek Noir is an authentic Belgian Kriek Lambic ale from Oud Beersel, blended with a traditional, foeder-aged dark sour and aged in the original wine barrels that began New Belgium’s sour program in 1998. The $50 ticket includes one take-home 750 milliliter bottle of Le Kriek Noir with the option to buy two more, a pour of Le Kriek Noir during the party, an open bar featuring a wide range of special New Belgium beer, hors d’oeuvres, music and a special gift from New Belgium. Space is extremely limited and tickets are available here.
• **NEW** Tasty Beverage Co. taps Asheville’s first kegs from Raleigh’s Brewery Bhavana on Thursday, July 20, at 5:30 p.m. Grove Imperial IPA and Piglette Grisette — a blend of a low gravity farmhouse ale with brett and sour barrel-aged base beers — will be available.
• On Friday, July 21, Thirsty Monk will be celebrating Belgian Independence Day (Belgian National Day) in the downstairs Belgian bar at the downtown Monk with a variety of Belgian beers in bottles and on draft alongside Thirsty Monk Brewery‘s Belgian-style offerings.
• Hi-Wire Brewing celebrates its fourth anniversary on Saturday, July 22, at 5 p.m. at its Big Top location with a variety of circus-themed attractions, including a glass-house maze, ferris wheel, dual aerialist acts, tarot card reader, stilt walkers, a high striker, a face painter and much more. Pours of 16 sour and wild ales exclusive to the party will be available. The $10 admission fee includes commemorative glassware and two beer tokens.