It's nearly time... time to fully embrace your seasonal depression and turn to the only thing that truly understands you: BEER.  (Sheez, talk about depressing!  Turn some lights on in here and brighten up the place or something, okay?)

...and we've got quite a bit of beer here that will need your gentle embrace.  Some are in kegs as DRAFT-ONLY offerings, some are in BIG BOTTLES (with limited draft for the Growler Shop and select Tap Spots around town), and one (Illustration Ale) that is still in the tank taking it's own sweet time to finish up.  Since our cries of "FASTER FASTER" have fallen of deaf ears, we'll have to do a separate release for that one in a few weeks, at the Toonseum.  And yes, I know yeast don't really have ears.  It's not THAT dark in here.

In BIG BOTTLES, we'll have these 3 beers... prices do NOT include $3 bottle/Growler deposits:

This is the beer we aren't allowed to call EYE OPENER COFFEE PORTER, which actually has two different labels for the same beer. This is the 3rd time we've released this beer, but only the second time in bottles with Commonplace Coffee (we need to book another event at their Sq Hill shop for this beer!) and with labels from Wayno.  Batch size: 250 bottles of Eye, 250 bottles of Opener. $13.

SMOKESTACK HERITAGE PORTER: This is our Smoked Porter that we've been brewing for a few years now, using a combination of Rauch Malt, a wee bit of Peated Malt, and a bunch of other more common malts you'd find in a well-made Porter.  With all of these bottled beers, we tweak the labels slightly each time around, and this one sports a "bottled on" date as part of the image that Wayno created for us.  You probably knew he did this one, but I bet you didn't know that Mrs. Wayno gets the credit for naming this beer!  She even has a name of her own, and it's Kim. (Hi Kim!)  Batch size: 1,000 bottles. $12

HOMEWOOD RESERVE starts out as our Black Strap Stout, and is transformed into HOMEWOOD RESERVE by long term aging in Bourbon Barrels.  This time around, we kept it in oak there for  about 9 months, and I think it's our best version yet!  Batch size: 650 bottles. $14

This bottle release is during normal Growler Hours at the brewery on December 17th from 12-5pm.  Usual rules apply - no reservations, no over the phone/email purchases, and no frontsies.  And I'd say there's also no real chance that we'll sell through all of these beers on this Release Day.  But just in case, we're doing a 1 case limit on each beer for this day only... I suppose it could happen, and we'd certainly appreciate it (!!!), but I'd also be very surprised.

For our GBIP Investors: We're doing an informal Pre-Release of these bottles for you at the brewery starting December 10th at Growler Hours, and every day at Growler Hours until the regular release.  The only way to buy these bottled beers during this time is with your "BEER MONEY" Vouchers - and yes, you can give them to someone else to purchase beer on your behalf, like any other day.  No limits.

Also of note for our Pgh Public Market Customers: We'll be running a small amount of each of these bottled FOD beers in draft form over the next few weeks at our Growler Shop in the Strip.  They will show up suddenly, and probably run out even more suddenly, but if you keep an eye on our Twitter feed, you should get some notice.  Look for a different one each weekend...or just show up at the shop every weekend.  That works too!

In DRAFT-ONLY form, we'll have these 6 beers:

• Fat Gary Nut Brown Ale (always on tap) $10
• Black Strap Stout (always on tap) $12
• Snow Melt Winter Ale (on tap now) $13
• Milk Stout (It's back - yes, we saved some!) $11
• The Bitter End (yes, it's DARK this year. Crafty, eh?) $12
• Steelcut Oatmeal Stout (Stout + Oats + a bunch of American hops) $12
• ...possibly a 7th, in a few weeks.

Another Belgian Dark Session Ale may follow Illustration, but that won't be for quite a while, so let's not even count it, okay?  See you on Saturday!

Cheers - Scott

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