A Stocking Full of Brew News

Sean Larkin and his merry crew at Revival Brewing have three new beers on deck. Holy Moley Coffee Stout (8.5% ABV) is a variation on the mega-popular White Electric Coffee Stout; the new brew is a collab with the folks from El Rancho Grande, made with chili peppers and spices. Elder Dweller Cocoa Stout (8.5%) is a sweet concoction, brewed with five different chocolate malts, fair-trade cocoa from Equal Exchange, marshmallows, mint and coconut. And You Thirsty? New England IPA (6.5%) is made with Citra, Galaxy, Mosaic and Azacca hops and dry-hopped three times. The Revival folks rhetorically ask: “Is this juicy? Oh yeah. Is there mouthfeel? You know it. Is this overkill? Probably, it’s Revival.” And the Cranston brewery will host two big events: the Ugliest Beer Cupcake Pairing will take place on Friday, December 16 from 5:30 – 9pm, with cupcakes from D’Licious Desserts teaming up with the the above-cited beers plus Mercy Brown Imperial Ale – and wear your ugliest sweater (there’ll be a contest). And on New Year’s Day at 5pm, greet 2017 with a taproom yoga session. Hit Revival’s Facebook page for details on alla this stuff.

• Crooked Current has some big news for the New Year: “We are looking at our second expansion in as many years, but the mill at 560 Mineral Spring Ave in Pawtucket that we currently call home is filled to capacity, so we’re exploring other avenues.” Head to CC’s present digs to get their seasonal (and fast-selling) treat, Eggnog Milk Stout.
• Dorian Rave fills us in on the doings at Ravenous Brewing: “We’ve just increased our brewing production and re-released Blackstone Pale Ale, which was MIA for a little while. Be on the lookout for a very limited amount of Coffee Milk Stout on nitro taps. Lastly, we will be releasing a batch of Dolly Cole (The Witch of Foster), an amazing black IPA that pleasantly causes sensory overload with both its roastiness and hop profile.”
• Long Live Beerworks will release its second batch of Black Cat cans, a mega-tasty IPA (6.5%) made with Galaxy and Azacca, on December 22 (5 – 9pm). Brewmaster Armando DeDona hopes to have tallboys available every couple of weeks starting in the New Year; next up: Three-Day Weekend, a double IPA. And Armando says, “We are cramming more tanks into our huge brewery, so we will no longer be open on Sundays just to pick up more production time.” (Winter hours are Wednesday and Thursday 4 – 9pm, Friday 4 – 10pm and Saturday 1 – 10pm.)
• Bucket Brewery is getting into the holiday spirit with Amity, a brown ale made with cinnamon, maple syrup and brown sugar, and the return of Fireside Harvest Ale. The brown porter is a fermented take on Indian pudding made with molasses, cinnamon, ginger and vanilla beans. Sip the seasonal suds at the Thursday movie series (7pm), which is playing Elf on December 15, Die Hard on the 22nd and Ghostbusters 2 on the 29th.
• The beermaking equipment has rolled into the Isle Brewers Guild in Pawtucket – also the new home of Narragansett Beer, which will celebrate its 126th birthday (in collaboration with WBRU) at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel on December 30 with headliner Gogol Bordello. And the next beer in the Lovecraft Series – the Unnamable Black Lager, will be released on January 19 (Edgar Allan Poe’s b-day).
• You can do some festive giving and receiving at Newport Storm; the brewery is collecting non-perishable food items to fill The Black Bear, the company truck. When you donate a can or two (or three), you’ll enjoy an extra sample with the purchase of a Tasting Card.
• And the Really Big News for 2017: Proclamation Ale Company majordomo Dave Witham announced that the operation will be moving north, from its “little rural ghetto brewery” in West Kingston to “an awesome 15,000 square-foot spot in Warwick” (off Jefferson Blvd, a loooong stone’s throw from where Track 84 usedtabe). “We are planning to move there in late spring/early summer 2017. We plan on opening the new facility with a 30-barrel brewhouse, 60-barrel fermenters, and enough cellar capacity to start producing about 6,000 barrels per year at the get-go. We should be able to get up to a theoretical 25,000 barrels per year (if we desire to take it that far). Along with the largely increased capacity, the new brewery will allow us to have a MUCH larger tasting room, a dedicated sour beer cellar, increased parking, easier access … the list goes on and on.”

For more beer news, check Lou’s blog, bottlescansclaphands.wordpress.com, or follow @BottlesCansRI.