Whoah, it's been four months since the last post? It does not seem like that much time has passed; though if you've been as busy as we have been this summer, the days tend to blur together. A quick update: We have expanded distribution through Virginia. Talk to the fine folks at Hop and Vine if you're looking for our beer outside of the Richmond area.

We're doing great throughout Ohio, and just added Nevada to the list as well.

Local vidoegrapher Keith Wells just posted a short interview featuring our Head Brewer up on Vimeo.

We're finishing up work on the new lineup of cans, featuring updated artwork for the current beers as well as adding three new labels to our retail selection. Yes, there will be Bacon Brown in cans coming soon.

Our reach is growing with the addition of two new distribution partners. We've been licensed in Virginia since the start of the year, but only produced enough beer to ship the first few pallets out in the recent weeks. A mix of cases and kegs of Siamese Twin, Golden State, and Baltic Porter made it out to Loveland Distributing Company. If you're interested in finding Uncommon beer in the greater Richmond area, they're your source.

There should be news about Northern Virginia in the coming weeks, and we've started the paperwork for Ohio.

The news about Northern California is even bigger. We're delighted to announce that Geyser Beverage Company will be carrying our three flagship labels across a wide range of Northern California, from the coast to the Sierras, Central Valley, and greater Bay Area.

The brewery continues to be a work in progress. It's a good week when only one piece of major equipment goes haywire. Thanks to a stuck solenoid valve there'll be a limited supply of Siamese Twin Ale for the next few weeks while we resuscitate the poor cold yeast.

Regular fans of the beer may have noticed that we're running a bit light (damn near flat) on carbonation. That's thanks to a problem on the opposite end of the spectrum: beer not getting cold enough. A few modifications to the existing equipment should have our brite tanks down to proper temperatures in the next week or so. Fortunately the beer is still quite tasty. We hope that you'll bear with us as we get though the unanticipated hurdles of growing a craft brewery.

May also marks the start of the summer festival season. We'll be out on the road nearly every weekend until the end of August, bringing Uncommon beer to the thirsty public.

Some of our crew will be pouring up in Anderson Valley at their annual festival this coming Saturday. Our Head Brewer will meanwhile be exiled to Kahului for Maui Brewing's annual festival on that same Saturday the 14th of May.

There will be a more detailed post about our American Craft Beer Week events coming soon. That week will finish up on the 21st with another double header, with a tap takeover here in Santa Cruz at Burger, and a return to the West Coast Beer Festival in Sacramento.

There's a fresh batch of the Golden State Ale into the tanks, and we've loaded the van loaded for tomorrow's Bay Area Craft Beer Festival up in Martinez.

The event runs from 1-5, with a noon entry for VIP tickets.

In other news, the shipping tracker shows that the first two pallets of Uncommon beer have reached Philadelphia. Including the stack that just hit New York, that's three pallets of our cans out on the East Coast. Two more will launch for Richmond, Virginia within the next week, along with a few kegs.

We're looking forward to seeing the response out East to cans of the Twin, Golden, and Porter. There's definitely room for improvement, eyeing the 03/09/11 Golden's carbonation; but even in that challenged beer the flavor is delightful.

Speaking of delightful, we enjoyed coming across a recent review of the Siamese Twin Ale this morning in Tasting Panel Magazine.

To quote, "It takes a while to get your mind and palate around this uncommon California-brewed, Belgian-style ale, flavored with Thai spices: coriander, lemongrass, and kaffir lime. The critter from Santa Cruz stages an intense entry onto the naive, unsuspecting tongue, with edgy, bitter love-'em-or-leave-'em flavors and the downright aggressive effervescence of a soft drink. My first reaction: WTF? Ten minutes later, I'm completely sold. Heady, strange, and wonderful."

Damn straight.