Bar, nightclub and restaurant operators, managers, bartenders and other staff members have a lot to keep tabs on. From every day operations tasks to new product releases to spirit, beer, wine, cocktail and food trends, keeping on top of bar and nightlife news each week can be a project in and of itself.
That’s where we come in. To make things that much easier for you we’ve put together a detailed rundown of what happened this week that you should know. You need to know what international products are finally being distributed throughout America, what innovations are being made in glassware and bar and kitchen products, what and when music streaming services are featuring a new album, and so much more. In life, knowledge is power. In this business, knowledge is dollars.
This is how you know autumn has arrived.
Labor Day has come and gone, and it has taken summer with it (unofficially speaking, of course). That means fall is on its way, everything is going to get the pumpkin treatment, and seasonal beers are here. Dogfish Head has announced that Punkin Ale – one of the top-selling pumpkin beers in the US for more than two decades – is available now nationwide. We always know leaves are about to turn and the air is close to growing crisper when the pumpkin beers arrive.
Not content to stop there, Dogfish Head has also released a malty, chocolatey Bavarian-style Weizenbock called Carobock. Brewed with chocolate wheat, malted wheat and dark Munich malt, and fermented with weizen yeast, Carobock is intended to be a liquid riff on the classic chocolate-covered banana.
We want proprietary hops to call our own.
Very few American breweries actually operate their own farms. Rogue Ales is one of these breweries, and their eponymous Rogue Farms has begun harvesting their 10 varietals of proprietary hops. The process of picking, stripping, sorting, kilning, cooling and baling the hops will take three weeks. Two of these varietals are new hop strains: Adair and Keven. We look forward to sampling the beers that will feature these new varietals! Learn more at the Rogue Ales & Spirits website.
Lime-A-Rita Activates Sponsorship With National Football League
For the first time ever, Lime-A-Rita will be activating as an Official Sponsor of the NFL, starting this season. If you’ve been to a stadium sometime within the past 5 years, you’ve likely noticed that Lime-A-Rita available for sale and enjoyment. The ready-to-drink Margaritas are meant to add fun to the game while also celebrating the NFL’s passionate women fans. Women have been the top consumer of Lime-A-Rita since its inception 5 years ago and the NFL sponsorship hopes to take this consumer relationship to the next level.
Lime-A-Rita, Straw-Ber-Rita, Lemon-Ade-Rita, Grape-A-Rita, Mang-O-Rita, and Peach-A-Rita are the core flavors of the lineup, and Pome-Granate-Rita will join for a limited time as a fall seasonal flavor.
A rye for the wise.
Batch #1 of Kentucky Owl 11 Year Old Straight Rye Whiskey, which is a masterfully blended small batch rye, has finally arrived on the market! Fans of Kentucky Owl’s award-winning bourbons will be scrambling to get their hands on Master Blender Dixon Dedman’s highly allocated rye, and with good reason – there’s no doubt this rye is something special. Dixon intended to produce his vision of a true rye: a heavy-hitting, full-flavored sip not meant for every day drinking. Kentucky Owl 11 Year Old Straight Rye Whiskey is 110.6 proof and available now in California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
A competition where Corruption wins.
The Fifty Best rates the world’s finest spirits and wines, and they recently hosted the world’s largest gin tasting. Over 60 entrants took their shot at the 2017 Best Gin awards, one of which was Tom’s Town Distilling Co.’s Corruption Gin. The Kansas City distillery – the first legal distillery located downtown in the city since Prohibition – earned a gold medal for their McElroy's Corruption Gin, a spicy and botanical product made with 14 botanicals. Go to TheFiftyBest.com to see all of their rankings.
Traditional glass bottles are so 2016.
Car lovers, metalworkers and fans of quality American metalwork, rejoice – your wine has arrived! Tank Garage Winery’s 2015 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine blend Chrome Dreams happens to come in the world’s first chromed-glass wine bottle. The unique packaging process took one year for Tank Garage Winery – which is located in a 1930s era service station in Calistoga, CA, that has been transformed into a winery – and a packaging manufacturer to perfect. The blend (87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petite Sirah) is available only at the winery starting September 15, and just 500 cases were produced.