I have to say, one style I wouldn’t have expected the big breweries to delve into (even as part of their smaller “craft” branches) is the relatively-new Wheat or Belgian IPA… but that’s exactly what Anheuser-Busch has done with their latest Shock Top release: Shock Top Wheat IPA, which I received a six-pack of this week.
This is slated to hit the shelves nationally on the 6th (Monday), and at first blush—it’s rather interesting and actually not bad at all. I’ll be drinking more and writing up review notes for it this weekend sometime.
(And no, I don’t automatically turn my nose up at macro-brewed brands remember—I’m a beer geek, not a beer snob, and I’m always interested in trying new beers—whether from A-B or the newest nanobrewery down the street.)
Some details from the press release:
The newest full-time addition to the Shock Top family, Shock Top Wheat IPA is a unique hybrid style that brings the refreshment and smoothness of a wheat beer and marries it with the crisp, hoppy bitterness of an India Pale Ale (IPA).
To create the new beer, brewmasters started with Shock Top’s signature recipe, adding citrusy Cascade and Magnum hops and dry hopping the beer for several days to give Wheat IPA the rich, hoppy aroma that is the signature of IPAs. Containing 5.8% alcohol by volume (ABV), Shock Top Wheat IPA will be sold nationwide in six- and 24-packs of 12-ounce bottles and on draught.
Which interestingly puts it at about the same level as Deschutes‘ Chainbreaker White IPA (just recently announced as the newest year-round addition to their bottled line-up).
More soon.
Today is 
Happy Friday! Here’s the beer news from around Oregon for Friday, February 3rd (and going into the weekend). I will be periodically updating this post throughout the day with news bits, so if you have something to share please 
Just what is an “apocalypse” anyway?
You might remember earlier this month I wrote about how 
Word hit this week than a new brewery is looking to get started in Mississippi, in the Jackson metro area, which would have the distinction of being only the second production brewery in the state: 
The 
I popped open and enjoyed a bottle of 
When Jeff of Beervana 
Yesterday my wife clued me in to a local beer event that I had almost missed: the 
Back in October we made one of our semi-regular trips to Hood River to pick apples and other fruit and while there, stopped for lunch at the Big Horse Brew Pub (aka Horse Feathers). Big Horse is the third brewery within the Hood River city limits (along with Full Sail and Double Mountain), which tallies up one brewery for every 2400 people or so for the town, an amazing per-capita number (compare Bend at one every 8900 people—and we have a lot in Bend!).
I forgot to mention the beer I’d received from 
When it comes to a regular whiskey—or, as it happens in my case, a bourbon—my “go to” is usually 
There are changes in store for 
Today is the final day of the Beer Advent Calendar, and for this Christmas Eve I’ve picked something that every “Santa” might well need this very evening: 
Today is my birthday! And as is traditional with the Brew Site Beer Advent Calendar, today’s beer is entirely a vanity pick: it may not be a Christmas beer per se (or at all), but it’s one I pick “for myself” and it’s always something special. For this year, since I have a soft spot for barleywines, and for Oregon breweries (who would have guessed?), I’ve picked 
Today’s beer pick comes from New York’s venerable 
Today’s beer comes from the 
Today to commemorate the first day of Hanukkah (which begins at sunset) I have picked not one but two Hanukkah beers (the only two that I’m aware of, in fact): Shmaltz Brewing’s 
Today’s beer pick comes from the oldest brewery in the American southeast: 
Today’s beer selection comes from the 
Today’s beer pick comes from the base of the Teton Mountains in eastern Idaho: Grand Teton Brewing’s 
Today’s beer pick is a Belgian Christmas classic: 
Today’s beer is another Christmas ale from France: 
Today’s selection is the annual Yuletide ale from the 
Today’s beer pick comes to us from Texas’ oldest craft brewery, 
Today’s pick comes from Germany, but don’t let the long name in the title intimidate you: 
Today’s beer pick has appeared on the Beer Advent Calendar every year since I started: 
Today’s beer pick comes from 
Today’s beer pick comes from the great beer state of Pennsylvania: 
As the cold weather descends and the prospect of snow looms with the winter, it only seems fitting to turn to a beer named Old Man Winter, from 
Today’s beer is the venerable 
Today’s beer comes from Florida’s most talked-about brewery, 
Today’s beer comes from the venerable Brasserie Duyck in France: 
In the spirit of goodwill and trying new things for Christmas, today’s beer pick is 
The Christmas season is the traditional time (and setting) for the popular ballet The Nutcracker, and so today’s pick is, accordingly, 
Welcome to the first day of the Beer Advent Calendar for 2011! This year’s Christmas season starts out with a bang as today’s selection is only the strongest lager in the world: Austria’s 
I’m a big fan of collaboration brews, and here in Bend Tonya Cornett of 
Back in July 
Of the four beers that 
Via my Google News alerts, I found 
It’s an odd thing: of the four beers that 
In one week, on the 15th, 
Starting tomorrow, November 4th, 
Back when I posed the question, “
Today being Halloween, featuring a pumpkin beer review makes perfect sense—especially one called 
I like the 12-ounce bottles of 
On Sunday I had the good fortune to meet Paul Arney, former brewer for Deschutes Brewery who is now heading up his own brewing project, 
One of the goals I’d had for quite awhile was to visit the 
I like Pearl Jam and I like Dogfish Head, so I suppose at some point (given Dogfish’s recent musical tribute beers) this was inevitable: 
One thing I noticed while I was 
I couldn’t resist looking at the Deschutes Brewing 
There’s an article on OPB News today (that’s Oregon Public Broadcasting for those of you out-of-state) titled “
Herewith some additional details on this Saturday’s 
This is rather short-minute notice, but both 
This Saturday, September 24th, the first of Oregon’s 
I hadn’t blogged this link at the time because it was behind our local newspaper’s paywall, but last month (just after the 
Back in July 
A relatively new Oregon beer festival popped up on my radar recently: the 
I had made a brief mention of 
When I received the 
Back on 
This 
Last weekend my friend 
I attended Bend’s 
Here is the list of beers that will be pouring at this weekend’s 
Falconer’s IPA from 
We have friends who had decided this summer to embark on a 
The hop harvest seems to be ready early this year: both 
Their Pale Ale is brewed in the English style, with plenty of East Kent Goldings hops and is 5.5% alcohol by volume.
The IPA is in the American Style, with plenty of Cascade hops, though I personally would think with 5.8% alcohol by volume it’s more of an American-English hybrid.
Starting today marks the 8th annual 
It was bound to happen: 
It’s an amber brown color and very clear, with a tan head that falls to a steady beading of tiny bubbles at the edges of the glass. It’s fragrant, full of sour cherry and I’m thinking bubblegum and some funk; the tart nose is refreshing and inviting.
