More Kate Day Information

Over the last few weeks we've been following with interest the online chatter regarding our upcoming Kate Day, such as this one on Beer Advocate. We've resisted the temptation to weigh in, until now. There are a couple of items I wish to address here: one is a misconception that I need to correct before it grows into an Urban Legend worthy of Snopes; the other is in response to a concern that a growing number of people have written to us about.

First, the misconception. The Portsmouth Brewery does not have a two-drink limit on Kate Day, or any other day for that matter. The number of beers we serve is dictated by our longstanding practice of responsible alcohol service. In other words, we will not serve a single drink to an individual if in the opinion of our staff that person has been drinking elsewhere and has already had enough. On the other hand, we may serve a customer more than two if he or she is drinking responsibly and is not approaching a state of intoxication. That said, it would be nice if those who participate in Kate Day are respectful of the people waiting in line behind them and voluntarily place limits on themselves so that everyone has a chance to come in and enjoy some beer.

On a related note, a number of people have written asking us how we plan to deal with individuals who intend to cut in line or hold places for other people who are not in line. While it is not up to us to police people's bad behavior or rude manners outside of our own premises, we do want to make sure Kate Day is a fun event for everyone who attends. (We are in the hospitality business, after all.) The only way I can see addressing this is to change the time when we start handing out the calendar pages that people use to hold their places in line. We have let people know that we'll start handing out pages at seven in the morning. That is no longer the case.

We will start handing out calendar pages much earlier in the morning, possibly as soon as people begin to assemble outside. We will only give out one page per person, and if someone is not present when we pass out a page, they will not get one until they are. We will also stamp people's hands when they get a page in order to prevent people from going to the back of the line to collect an additional page. I will not say here what time we'll begin to pass out pages. We'll make that determination on the spot. There will always be those individuals who try to game the system, and frankly, we can't put too much energy into obsessing about them. It's good enough to know that life has a way of sorting that stuff out in the end.

We believe that the best thing about Kate Day isn't the beer; it is a friendly, sociable event that draws people from all over who share a common interest and discover new ones. When it ceases to be that, we will not host it anymore. Let's all do our part to keep Kate Day is fun, safe and sociable.

Cheers,

Peter Egelston, Proprietor

The Portsmouth Brewery

Tod Talks about the Portsmouth Brewery's Upcoming Kate Day

Happy Birthday G. Washington!

Hey all,

apparently great people were born on February 15th, myself included!

This weekend has been a busy one here at the P-brew, today not excluded. Which you might know if you came in looking to get some good food and beers at any point. So with all the people here there had to be a few changes to the beer line up. The Milk Stout is on replacing the Black Cat Stout. The Milk Stout is a sweet stout. The addition of the unfermentable milk sugar, lactose, gives the beer a nice creamy sweetness. It tastes slightly like a carbonated iced coffee. A tasty beer.

The Belgian Triple needed a little longer to condition so we brought in some Big foot to back up the Celebration. The Serria Nevada Big Foot is their Barleywine. It has a nice malt sweetness up front and finishes with the traditional Serria hop profile. We only got a couple of kegs here so enjoy it while you can.

The Cask changed as well to the Imperial Porter Dry hopped with palisade. We went through the first Porter cask yesterday before I could even blog that it was on! The Impy Porer on cask is so nice. So if you havn't had one yet, you should!

Cheers,

Tyler

Sweet n' Sour

Hey all,

No I'm not talking about the new soup that is on. I'm talking about the Flanders Red that went on this morning. Good bye to the Imp. India Brown Ale, i know that is a big sad face to a lot of you out there. But, a happy face on my end now that my fiancee wont ask me, "Is the Flanders on yet?" every time i get home.

This years Flanders had enough time to mellow slightly, so it is not as in your face sour as when it first went on last year. No bugs in the full batch. Perhaps a keg blend later on? Time will tell :)

Cheers,
Tyler

Imp Porter

Hey all,

I was congratulated a few days back by a friend for making a Scotch Ale since she wasn't able to get it from Smuttynose this year. I took the complement but made sure to let her know that the Scotch Ale was getting close to kicking and she should run in to the brewery to get some. Hopefully you listened Martha!

So it is true, the Scotch is gone. We replaced it with the Imperial Porter. This style is also know as a Baltic Porter. This beer almost a month old and just starting to come into itself. It has a nice chocolate front that fades to a sweet coffee, then finishes clean with just a hint of alcohol flavor. Though at 9% you might expect/want a little of that alcohol flavor just so you know what you are getting yourself into.

Go Saints!!

Cheers,
Tyler