End of Prohibition!

Well, sorry for not giving a heads-up but I hope you all had a pint today to celebrate the end of prohibition! Although prohibition was not officially repealed until December 5,1933, on April 7th of 1933 the Cullen-Harrison bill allowed breweries to produce beer with 3.2% ABV. 75 years later, we can all enjoy the 4.8% ABV Rapscallion Honey Ale. Cheers!

Bottling line SOLD!!

Well, I don't know what it is about us and late night moves, but around 9:30 last night, we officially sold and shipped our bottling line to a new brewery up in Canada. What does this mean for Rapscallion? We are now 100% committed to draft only so if there were any questions as to whether we are going to be bottling anytime soon, let this be your answer.

The next step for being a draft only brewery is to actually have kegs to put the beer in. This has recently become an issue prompting the need to spend all of our money for new kegs. Any interested investors? In actuality, this move has been planned for several months now. We would like to be as eco-friendly as possible, and since that costs money, we figured using only kegs is a form of recycling and our way cost effective way of being green.

Responses from our request for input.

Many of you have responded directly to our request for input about our Honey Ale. I have received several emails stating your opinions about our Honey Ale. I would like to thank everyone who has contacted me about our flagship beer and would like to assure everyone that your inputs have been acknowledged and you will find our next batch (batch number 4), which will be ready towards the beginning of April, will reflect many of your requests.

What we drink...

I would like to take this opportunity to state the beers that I find enjoyable and look forward to having after a hard day of work. All of us at Rapscallion have our own favorite breweries and favorite beer styles. We are not the type to sit here and say that our beer is the best and that everyone should only be drinking our beer. We appreciate other beer and enjoy drinking other beer besides our honey (the best beer in the world!). I know that Mike Platz, one of the brewers, enjoys dogfish and will someday brew a Fat Tire homebrew clone. The brothers who own the company love Allagash and anyone who brews a Belgium Wit (White), or Blonde as they call it in Canada. Marc, enjoys PBR (just kidding), he is a Creation fan. I am personally on a Rouge beer kick right now. I can't get enough of their Dead Guy Ale. Anyone who wants a medium level of alcohol (around 6%), but wants a full level of malt balanced with hops, should check it out. I am trying to appreciate Flying Dog, but am having a hard time finding something other than their porter.

I don't want you readers to take this blog as a marketing ploy, thinking that we are promoting other people's beer in order for us to look as though we are almighty and willing to promote other people's beer in order to capture a sale. The manner in which I write this blog is uncensored and is 99% of the time off the top of my head. I would like readers to take this blog as a message from us to you, that it is ok to appreciate other beers; as long as we are all supporting the craft industry as a whole.

If you allow me, I would like to put in a plug for the Pennichuck Brewing Company (www.pennichuckbrewing.com). As one of their assistants, I routinely help them out on a day-to-day basis and let me tell you, they are doing a fantastic job with their quality and their unique marketing plan. Currently they're focused on brewing specialty beers such as: barleywines, black lagers, Scottish ales, and imperial stouts. Primarily these products are packaged in 1 Liter bottles, which is pretty unique in the market right now.

Festival Season is Approaching

As many of you are probably aware, we are approaching upon festival season. We have blocked out the weekends for festivals from April-October. Our first major event is the Boston Beer Summit on April 18 & 19. We have several appearances prior to the summit, so for an up to date listing of where you can come meet us and try our beer, please see the happenings page on our website, www.drinkrapscallion.com.

The Next Honey Batch...

I wanted to open this blog up to those of you who have tried the Honey recently and wish to give your input into the beer and ways we can continue to make it better. We realize that everyone has their own tastes and interprets the beer differently: some like the bitterness found in IPA's, whereas others enjoy the sweetness from the malt and honey. We want to know what your thoughts are so we can make the Honey something that satisfies the taste of all beer drinkers.

Please be as descriptive as you can about what you want from the Honey Ale, and we will do our best to meet your expectations. Don't worry about finding the right lingo. We are not beer connoisseurs by any stretch of the imagination. Just be blunt and honest.

Tastings

For those of you who wish to join us for tastings this week, we will be at the Ground Round in Needham, MA on Thursday, February,21 from 6:30pm onwards and at the Boston University Pub on Friday, February, 22 from 5-7pm. Hope to see you guys there.