Beer today, gone tomorrow: Asheville beer happenings March 1-7

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

• Bottles of Fonta Flora Brewery’s newest offering, Wrens Abruzzi Appalachian Grisette, are on specialty retail shelves now. This dry saison takes its name from local Wrens Abruzzi malted rye, and is fermented with mixed house cultures.
• Bruisin’ Ales has just received and extremely limited supply of Hop Cakes Imperial IPA from Noda Brewing Co. Purchase limits will apply, and available stock is not expected to last through the day (March 2).
• Catawba Brewing Co. releases a new batch of its popular Peanut Butter Jelly Time Ale on Friday, March 4. The 5.7 percent ABV brew begins life as a light brown ale that provides the bready qualities of the base beer and after fermentation is rested on whole, roasted peanuts and all-natural raspberry purée.

Small-batch beers

• As of Monday, Feb. 29, Lookout Brewing Co. has Key Lime Pie Saison on draft.
• Burial Beer Co. is currently pouring Fall of the Rebel Angels Chokeberry Saison, a light bodied saison brewed with local Riverbend Malthouse Pilsner, Red Wheat and Rye malts, Flaked Oats and Huell Melon hops then aged on 100 pounds of fresh local chokeberries.
• Bhramari Brewhouse releases its first beers brewed in-house on Thursday, March 3; Bumblestick Brown, a toasted cinnamon nut brown ale, and Johnny Brown Porter, a milk brown porter brewed with cashews.
• Asheville Brewing Co. will release Viva La Shiva — a dry-hopped version of Shiva IPA with grapefruit — in limited quantities on draft and in 22-ounce bottles Friday, March 4, at all Asheville Brewing locations.
• Hi-Wire Brewing is pouring its first ever Gose at the South Slope tasting room. The 3.8 percent ABV brew is made with pink Himalayan salt and exhibits citrus, apricot and stone fruit notes with a clean, crisp finish.

Special events

• The monthly Monk Beer Academy takes place Tuesday, March 1, at 7 p.m. at the downtown Thirsty Monk and focuses on traditional Belgian sour ales. The free class is taught by certified cicerone and draft quality manager Jeremiah Tracy, who will lead participants on a 45-minute informative guided tasting. The lone cost is a tasting flight (typically between $12 and $17) and spaces may be reserved online.
• Bruisin’ Ales‘ weekly tasting series will feature IPAs from Knee Deep Brewing Co. on Thursday, March 3 from 5-7 p.m. Citra Extra Pale Ale, Lupulin River Double IPA, Breaking Bud IPA and Simtra Double IPA will be on offer.
• Tasty Beverage Co. hosts an Anderson Valley Brewing Co. Fun Festival 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday, March 3. Kegs of Huge Arker (a Wild Turkey barrel-aged imperial stout) and Thribble Currant (a high-gravity sour beer fermented in wine barrels with black currants) will be tapped and Briney Melon Gose will also be on hand.
• Green Man Brewery will be hosting a charity art auction to benefit OpenDoors of Asheville on Saturday, March 5 at 7 p.m. The event will be held at Green Man’s new production expansion and tasting room at 27 Buxton Ave. and will be the public’s first opportunity to see the facility. Tickets are on sale now at Open Door’s website.
• Thirsty Monk‘s sixth annual Sour Fest runs Monday, March 7, through Friday, March 11, at the downtown bar, featuring sour beers from top domestic and foreign breweries.

New to distribution

• Colorado based Paradox Beer Co. has just arrived in the Asheville market. Beers currently available on specialty retail shelves include Skully Barrel No. 36 (Call Me In The Morning 2015), a golden sour ale brewed with coconut and aged in white wine barrels; Skully Barrel No. 37 (We Jam & They Jelly), a golden sour brewed with tart cherries and aged in American oak wine barrels; and  Hell for Stout, an American wild dark ale brewed vanilla beans and cacao nibs and aged in oak barrels.

New breweries and bars

• Blue Ghost Brewing Co. in Fletcher kicks off its grand opening Friday, March 4, at 2 p.m. with food, music and events throughout the weekend.

In Memoriam

• We would like to express our deepest condolences to the family of Sam Beall, proprietor of Walland, Tennessee’s Blackberry Farm. Beall, 39, died tragically in a skiing accident in Colorado on Thursday, Feb. 25. Under Beall’s guidance, Blackberry Farm initiated an ambitious brewing program in 2011, with Blackberry Farm Summer Saison winning a silver medal at last year’s Great American Beer Festival. Beall is survived by his parents, brother, wife and five children. Donations in Beall’s memory may be submitted to the Blackberry Farm Foundation in support of charity organizations that benefit foodways and children’s causes.