Good morning and happy Friday!
This weekend we’ll be getting married 🤘 And what wedding would be complete without craft beer and a good story? But more on that later.
In this week's issue:
A pumpkin-filled alternative to Oktoberfests
Southern comfort in a beer
A beer to celebrate love, and the story behind it
[ 01 // THE FLIGHT ]
Our faves from this week
🎃 Giant pumpkins, pumpkin pie eating contests, and Great Pumpkin Ales. Elysian's Great Pumpkin Beer Festival was a welcome switch up from the traditional Oktoberfest.
🍠 Atlantucky Brewing goes full southern comfort for Two Whole Pies, their new sweet potato pie ale made from pies baked in-house.
🦮 Finally a brewery your dog will actually like! Dingo Dog sends it's proceeds to no-kill rescues, and even has a special pup cup on tap for your fido. Barkin' amazing.
🔎 28 States Brewing is turning cardamom, tamarind, and lemongrass into unique India-inspired beers, and half the fun is trying to find them.
🚐 Unique keg moment of the week: Picture this, a brewery on wheels. That's exactly what Small Batch Brewing is. Founder Dan Jablow is based in Virginia, and he can drive the taps right to your doorstep.
[ 02 // THE PINT ]
Behind the beer: A&M's Hitching Post Red Ale
Today’s Pint is all about A&M’s Hitchin’ Post, a Red Ale hand-brewed with love by Greg Hinshaw (Andrew’s dad) for our wedding.
Now, there are so many reasons why this brew is so special to us, so buckle up. We’ll start at the beginning.
Where it all began
Back in 2023, Andrew flew up from San Diego to visit his dad in Sacramento with his brother Zach for the coveted Pliny the Younger release at Russian River in Santa Rosa. For the uninitiated, this limited time triple IPA release happens once a year, and people come from all over the world to wait 6+ hours in line for it. Crazy beer people, like us.
The three Hinshaw guys make it home to Sacramento, and the next day they decide to go out to watch some NCAA Basketball in the little downtown of Fair Oaks. Meanwhile, Michaela is visiting her friend Katie who happens to be on a travel OT assignment in, you guessed it, Fair Oaks. They are riding the high of their escapades of their 90’s beer festival at Movement Brewing.
By some strange twist of fate, Michaela and Katie stumble into Stockman Club in Fair Oaks, the dingiest, diviest of bars. They make their way over to the pool tables, and sure enough Greg, Zach, and Andrew walk into the room to shoot some pool.
Michaela, seeing that they had 3 of them, and Katie is nowhere to be found, asks if they need a fourth. Greg so kindly answers and says, “yeah Andrew, you can be her partner.”
And the rest is truly history.
Our special-day beer
So, as you may have noticed by now, beer is a pretty foundational staple in our relationship. We love craft beer, we love the story behind craft beer, and even more importantly beer has helped make so many memories for us over the years.
Over the past 6 weeks, Greg has been brewing up this special Red Ale as a gift for us at our wedding. This isn’t his first rodeo with homebrewing, but in our opinions, it might be his best batch yet. We love a good, full bodied amber to get us ready to cozy up heading into the holiday season.
And the Grand Canyon themed label? That is extra special to us because Greg, Andrew, Zach, Michaela, and Kim (Michaela’s mom) all hiked Rim to Rim at the Grand Canyon this past May. 35+ miles over 3 days. And they couldn’t have done it without their incredible ground support Rue (Zach’s wife) & Mary (Greg’s sister) who picked us up on the South Rim, 4 hours drive time away from where they dropped us off on the North Rim.
So we want to extend the biggest thank you to Greg, for dedicating months of his life to brew this beer by hand, designing these amazing labels, and for being the wingman of the century who helped start this whole love story in the first place.
This is more than just an amazing Red Ale to us. It’s a full circle moment to be celebrating in Santa Rosa, surrounded by all of our favorite people, drinking a cozy brew that was made special by the father of the groom.
Cheers to Greg, the man behind the beer.