News Updates

Resurrection Cans:  Pretty much gone already.  The Wine Source: "We didn't get in as many as we'd ordered, and what we had sold out in a day or two."  Wells: "We got 25 cases, we're down to about six [as of 3 p.m. Saturday]; we're supposed to get in another shipment July.............. 18th."  Grand Cru: "We have them, right there with the other canned beers--21st Amendment, Butternuts, Oskar Blues....."

The promised Resurrection side-by-side draft-and-can taste test, done at Alonso's during yesterday afternoon's World Cup game between Spain and Paraguay:  It's not even close.  Presented to us blind, we could spot the bright-as-a-polished-brass-bell canned version and the slightly cloudy draft version from several feet away.  The taste was that distinctly obvious as well--the draft being a fuller, richer, and more complex and developed beer.  The physical appearance is that they're filtering the beer before canning it at Sly Fox, and if that's the case they're also filtering out a dimension of the crucial Rezzie flavor profile.

Is it a bad beer?  Heck, no.  But to highlight what the critical competition for this beer will be, you're looking to have either Resurrection where you can't get the drafts (many bars or package stores, for example), looking for a quality canned beer to go where you can't take the bottles (many bars in the region, for example, or poolside or to the beach), or you're a Brewer's Art loyalist.  If you're in the first category, more power to you.  If you're in the second category, look at the competition.  There's some good stuff in cans now, even Wittekerke.  Ressurection does stand out as a reasonably good value against, say, Oskar Blues Gordon or Gubna, but might Dale's Pale Ale please more of the party crowd?  As for the third category, I need not say more--rumor (unconfirmed yet) says that Brewers Art sold through 50 cases in one day.

Wild Goose:  The news continues to be conflicting.  A Flying Dog rep at The Wine Source yesterday insisted that Wild Goose Oatmeal Stout AND Amber were both on hiatus, and that the currently distributed batches would be the last to be seen in the market "for the foreseeable future."  This leaves only Wild Goose IPA and their seasonal Snow Goose as the survivors of the Wild Goose brand.  Meanwhile, another retailer pointed to Wild Goose 12-bottle sampler cases, and said "They said they were eliminating the Nut Brown and the XPA too, but they're still showing up in these sampler packs.  And I opened up one to check--the freshness codes say new batches, not just old bottles stuck in the boxes.  So who knows?"