Beer today, gone tomorrow: Asheville beer happenings July 5-11

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

•  On Saturday, July 9, Fonta Flora Brewery will release Funk and Flora, a foraged botanical ‪Appalachian wild ale‬ brewed in collaboration with Wicked Weed Brewing. This funky sour blonde ale was aged in white wine barrels for eight months and has been conditioned in the bottle for another four months. A new strategy has been implemented for this release based on suggestions from Mountain Xpress writer Scott Douglas. Doors open at 3:00 p.m., and numbered wristbands will be handed out earlier in the morning as the line starts to form. IDs will be checked at this time, and each numbered wristband will be associated with the names of individual customers, after which customers are free to leave the line. All customers must return to the line and find his or her place before the sale starts at 3:00 p.m., and each customer’s name and ID must match the associated wristband number, no proxies will be allowed.  Bottles allocated to those not in line when their number comes up will be sold to customers at the end of the line. Bottle count is 540, with purchase limits based on turnout. Funk and Flora will also be available on draught, alongside the following beers from Wicked Weed:
  Myrtille, Recurrant, Permio, Garcon de Ferme, Fille de Ferme and Bombidile.
• Hi­-Wire Brewing will release Batch #5 of its Single Barrel Series on Saturday, July 9 at noon at their South Slope location, 197 Hilliard Ave. Batch #5  is a single malt, single hop (Citra) 9.5 percent ABV Imperial IPA brewed and aged in a white wine barrel with Brettanomyces for 8 months. Bottles will be $14, and production of these beers is limited to 120 bottles each. Bottles will not see distribution.
• On Monday, July 11, Burial Beer Co. will release the latest cans of Ceremonial Session IPA. Each batch of Ceremonial is brewed with a different hop focus, with this iteration featuring Australian Summer hops. A 4 percent ABV session IPA, Ceremonial is brewed with pilsner, flaked barley, wheat and oat malts and fermented with a special house yeast.

Small-batch beers

• Burial Beer Co. will be pouring the tenth iteration of The Forge: Staff Series on Wednesday, July 6. This batch, brewed by Travis Floan, is a 7.5 percent ABV Double Red Ale brewed with Pale, Munich, and Crystal malts, and then hopped intensely with Citra and Cashmere, and conditioned on one pound per gallon of Papaya and Passion fruit.
•  Asheville Brewing Co. will release Captain Laser Pants Pilsner, a hoppy pilsner-style beer brewed with Galaxy hops, on July 8 at 5 p.m at both brewpubs on Merrimon and Coxe Aves. This special summer brew will be draft only.
•  On Friday, July 8, Burial Beer Co. will tap the latest batch of Massacre of the Innocents IPA, a 6 percent ABV wild-fermented IPA brewed with  oats and wheat and dry-hopped with Amarillo, Galaxy, and Citra. Sunday, July 10 will see the return of the brewery’s popular Bolo Coconut Brown, a 5.6 percent ABV American Brown Ale brewed with a minimum of 7 pounds of toasted coconut.
• Catawba Brewing Co. releases two new beers on Saturday, July 9 at both of its Asheville taprooms. Bee Charmer Honey Mai Bock (8.15 percent ABV) was made in collaboration with Asheville Bee Charmer and brewed with local Basswood honey from the Blue Ridge Honey Company. Tangerine Wheat Ale (5.2 percent ABV) was made at the Banks Ave. brewery with a small group of women business partners from Catawba Brewing.
• Hi-Wire Brewing is pouring Dry Hop Blood Orange Gose (4 percent ABV) – described as a “refreshing and sour tropical fruit bomb” – at its South Slope location.

Special events

• Thirsty Monk will host July’s Monk Beer Academy on Tuesday, July 5 at 7 p.m. at the downtown Monk. July’s class will focus on session ales and will be taught by draft quality manager and Certified Cicerone® Jeremiah Tracy. Reservations may be made here.
• On Thursday, July 7, Thirsty Monk downtown will host an event featuring New Belgium Brewing’s Fat Tire & Friends, a series of interpretations of New Belgium’s flagship Fat Tire amber ale brewed in honor of the brewery’s 25th anniversary by Allagash Brewing Company, Hopworks Urban Brewery, Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Avery Brewing Company and Rhinegeist. All five versions will be on tap, inanition to original Fat Tire.
• Tasty Beverage Co. highlights selections from Birdsong Brewing Co. on Thursday, July 7 from 5:30-7 p.m. Free Will Pale Ale and Fake Plastic Trees hoppy American Wheat will be on draft and tastes will be poured of Higher Ground IPA.