COFFEE PORTER RELEASE DAY 2011! - East End Brewing Company

This will be nearly identical to LAST YEAR'S release, so I'm lifting much of the same info from last year's event page... with some important updates:

As far back as I can recall, coffee has always been my SECOND favorite brewed beverage. And it can take a lot of that second favorite to keep the first favorite flowing. So, collaborating with my new favorite roastery has been a particularly enlightening experience. (I was tempted to say Eye Opening there, but resisted...)

Aside from giving me a chance to learn a lot more about coffee, for me this beer has proven to be a pretty unique teacher, start to finish. Combining two completely different beverages into one, while trying to maintain the integrity of each separately... well, I suppose that's what collaboration is all about.

The two-thread nature of this beer is also reflected in our double-labels, though for an entirely different reason. With all the recent concerns about the danger of high-alcohol energy drinks, coffee beers have taken a bit of peripheral damage, and the Feds legally forced us to keep the visual elements of this beer in two discrete, separate boxes. But the good news is, they still let us brew the blend. So although you can't pick COFFEE or PORTER in this case, you do have your choice of EYE or OPENER, or even BOTH. Just not on the same label.

So with all this mixing and blending, why do something as one-sided as a release at the Brewery? Just like last year, we're taking it on the road!

Thursday December 15th at 6pm, we're releasing this beer at a coffee shop in Squirrel Hill - slightly in advance of the other bottled FOD beers in the trio. And no, it's not just any coffee shop. It's the shop where Commonplace Coffee roasters have their Pittsburgh home, and as such, just might be the best place for coffee in this city. You can decide that, but you can bet that this day, it will be the best place for Coffee AND Porter. And since they have no license to sell beer there, we'll not be selling bottles of Coffee Porter at this event. Because that would be against the law.

Instead, we're offering tickets at the door for a nice little "Release Party". And once you buy your ticket, you'll get free tasters of East End Brewing's Coffee Porter, a chance to chat with the makers of both of these brewed beverages. Stay for a little, or stay for a lot, but either way you'll take home a Parting Gift of one bottle of our Coffee Porter, and a half-pound bag of fresh-roasted Commonplace Sumatra Coffee - the same coffee that went into the beer! And yes, you can buy more than one event ticket if you're the multiple Parting Gift type.

ALSO, we'll be making a special announcement that day about the future of GOOD BEER and Good Coffee in Pittsburgh, that you might find interesting. But we'll be able to chat more about that over a few sips of your favorite brew on the 15th.

We've got just 550 bottles to spread around this time, so any that we don't sell at the Release Party, we'll hold for our Festival of Darkness release the following Saturday.

So, this is on...

THURSDAY DECEMBER 15th

6pm until Close (usually around 10pm)

Tickets are $22 each. (saving you a couple bucks from the price of the beer + coffee if you buy them separately)

The Commonplace Coffee Company

5827 Forbes Ave. in Squirrel Hill (between Shady and Murray, same side of the street at the Library)

Or check out this MAP.

And yes, they'll be serving coffee without beer too...which I highly recommend. I'll see you there!

Cheers - Scott