Beer and Bacon Fest selling out fast -- what a shocker!

Just this afternoon it hit me that I was about the only person left on the Internet who hadn't posted the Bacon Bra picture, so when I got the e-mail from Clipper City about only 40 tickets being left to their Heavy Seas Beer & Bacon Fest -- ARRRGGGHH!!! -- the synchronicity was too much to ignore.

It's for real -- the fest, not the boobs, though I guess they're real, too -- and it's September 19, noon to 4. 300 people only, $40 tickets (available here), and over fifteen kinds of bacon from around the world, used in bacon donuts, bacon salt, bacon explosions, bacon candy, bacon mac & cheese...and maybe bacon bras, who knows? Bacon rules, these days. Oh, and there will be beer, too, plenty of that big, robust Heavy Seas stuff, maybe even from the Mutiny Fleet line. Hugh Sisson is embracing his inner pyrate these days...

Pirates, Pig, and Pints. What more could you ask for?

Shiver Your Own Damned Timbers

This International Talk Like A Pirate Day thing is getting right out of hand. First it was Scoats at the Grey Lodge strapping on the eye-patch and "ARRGH"-ing around, and that was weird enough. But now -- and I suppose we should have expected this -- Clipper City has jumped on the, er, gangplank and is hosting a party, with tickets, and costumes, and live music from the "Salty Dogs Band."

September 19. International Talk Like A Pirate Day. What Hath God Wrought?

SBP: Clipper City considering a session beer

Take a gander at this entry in Hugh Sisson's Diary of a Brewer. The Clipper City Brewing founder wrote the piece, "In Praise of Session Beer," both to do just that, and to let us know that Clipper City is considering a session beer. Here's what he said.

Perhaps if more breweries made an effort to market more “session” like beers that would help, but not if the consumer base doesn’t support the concept. Perhaps a “competition” to create the best session beer would help. I don’t think trying to get more pubs to do cask ale would be successful – too many pubs do not really know how to handle cask beer and the American consumer doesn’t really understand it anyway. And many brewers (myself included) have to really think about how marketable the “session” concept really is.

Having said that, however, I still think it a very worthwhile concept to try and develop. I am planning on discussing this with my brewing team over the next few weeks to see if we can come up with a product with good flavor, high drinkability, and an ABV around 3.5%. Don’t know if we will be able to sell it, but if it works, it will become my way of paying homage to the great English tradition that started me on my career in beer.

I'm not sure that a 3.5% non-cask conditioned beer will be a success -- much of the flavor and beauty of classic session beers comes from that liveliness. Maybe there would be enough market for a two-track approach, with cask for some markets. But I do know that I'm very pleased to see someone give it a fair shot. If I see it, I'm buying it. I urge you to do likewise, and if you like it, buy more...feel free to buy a lot more.