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Adios, Auf Wiedershen, I’m moving on…,

Hello all,

I’m stepping down from my role as President/Brewmaster of the Parched Eagle. I’ve accepted a full time job with a locally-owned company which is a very good opportunity for me. I’m leaving the industry as far as any official capacity is concerned.  I need to do so for physical and mental well-being as running the Parched Eagle for the past eight a half years (including the extreme circumstances caused by the pandemic) has taken quite a toll.

This is my last week bar tending so I’ll be behind the bar Wednesday through Saturday starting at 3PM each day. Please come by to say hi and have a beer or two!

Our intrepid bartender/art director Cathy is taking my weekly Wednesday-Friday bar tending shifts so we’ve got those covered starting Wednesday August 2nd.

Diann and I brewed Hop-Bearer IPA on Monday and it will be our official beer release for our big Great Taste Eve Party! Having our flagship beer since day one (and the beer that I’ve brewed by far the most) seems quite appropriate given these circumstances. We’ll also be at the Great Taste and this will be our seventh time pouring our beers at the greatest beer festival in the universe!

We’re also going to brew Pegboy Pils on Saturday August 5th and will take it from there. So, while I’m stepping down from my full time role, I’ll stay involved a bit behind the scenes, as it were.

Cheers to eight and half years!

Jim

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Events Calendar

Greetings all!

OK here are our upcoming events for the rest of June (music and beer releases):

Friday June 18th: this Friday at 3pm we release our second new beer of 2021: Avocado Toast Vienna Lager! PLEASE NOTE: no toast or avocados were harmed in the making of this beer. Avocado Toast is our take on this elegant amber lager style. Expect soft/smooth maltiness and moderate bitterness, yet finishing relatively dry. This is an easy drinking summertime kinda beer that’s clocking in at 5.1% ABV. Ein prosit!

Saturday June 19th: OPEN MIC hosted by the Brewmaster! 7-9pm.

Monday June 21st: Make Music Madison ’21! We’re open next Monday for Make Music Madison day! We’ve got acts booked from 3 to 9 on our loading dock stage:
Guardin Hoes 3-3:30
Able Baker 3:30-4
The Bunni Twins 4-5
The Cutouts 5-6
Don Schantz 6-7
Ben DeVries 7-8
The Folk Circus 8-9
Cathy will be bartending and Jim will be the emcee/sound person. Come on by!

Probably either Friday 6/25 or Saturday 6/26: annual release of Stag Royale Keller Pils!

Saturday 6/26: Punk on the Dock with The Dead Johnnys (Clash tribute) and Loose (Stooges tribute)! Show starts at 7 with Loose opening. Bring a lawn chair and prep for face melting!?!

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Lamenting no Great Taste this year

Hello all,

Yes this Saturday 8/8 the 34th annual Great Taste of the Midwest would have taken place. The Great Taste is one of the greatest beer festivals ANYWERE that happens right here in Madison, WI.

The Madison Homebrewers & Tasters Guild, the non-profit organization that does an amazing job of organizing the Great Taste, realized several weeks ago that given the ongoing health crisis that is Covid-19 there was no way it could happen this year and canceled it. Here’s a link to their statement on the 2020 Great Taste: https://greattaste.org/faq/2020-statement/

What’s incumbent on all of us is to wear a mask and practice social distancing to make sure Great Taste 2021 DOES happen!

While the Parched Eagle laments no Great Taste this year we have decided to commemorate it by releasing a beer that made its debut for the Great Taste back in 2015 (the first year we were open and participated in the Taste): Alferd Black Rye Imperial Saison! Alferd is being released tomorrow 8/7 for what would have been Great Taste Eve. So, it will be on tap when we open tomorrow at 3 for to go sales (and Alferd will be available in crowlers as well as for howler and growler fills) as well as for sipping outdoors on our charming new patio.

Named after Alferd Packer, the most famous alleged cannibal in Colorado history, this the most unusual beer brewed at the Parched Eagle yet is very much a Saison that is augmented by Chocolate malt, malted rye, and a boosted alcohol content of 8.1%! Also spiced with zest from a bag of organic Valencia oranges and ground Indian coriander.

We’ll also be offering Alfred Great Taste Eve gift packages for crowler, howler, and growler purchases including our bitchin’ new black t-shirts and gift certificates!

Hope to see you here tomorrow for what would have been the Eagle’s 6th annual Great Taste Eve party.

Stay safe everyone!

Cheers,

Jim

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Brewmaster’s birthday party next Tuesday 2/4!

Hello all,

Join us next Tuesday February 4th for celebrating me making it another year around the sun! The party starts when we open at 3.

Potluck, live music and the return of Geronimo Imperial Stout!

Geronimo (named after my late cat) is our strongest beer representing one of my favorite beer styles. Imperial Stout is the king of the stout family that is like a black barleywine with wonderful complexity in terms of aroma and flavor. Expect a beautiful mix of dark roasted malts/roasted barley, caramel malts with dark fruit esters and significant hop bitterness in the finish with warming alcohol notes!

And not only will Geronimo be returning on tap Tuesday but also Calicious California Common! This smooth/easy drinking hop-forward amber lager will be exceedingly fresh as I’m kegging it before we open at 3.

If the beer isn’t enough to lure you out, the Brewmaster’s Clash Tribute band (The Dead Johnnys) will be playing with their friends Swill!

It will also be marking one year since their first public performance.

Beer, music, food and fun…we will see you there!

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First beer brewed at E. Wash release this Friday!

Hello all,

MUCH has happened since my last Brewer’s Blog post several months ago: we closed our original Westport location at the end of October and have moved the brewery to the basement space underneath our Taproom at 1444 E. Washington Avenue on Madison’s near east side! So yes the Parched Eagle is wholly located at 1444 E. Wash: come on by!

We started brewing here in the last week of November (the day before Thanksgiving, actually) and the first beer brewed is none other than our flagship Hop-Bearer IPA! This is the version featuring Mosaic hops (DDH’d with Mosaic and Amarillo) hence Hop-Bearer w/Mosaic and it’s showing a ton of promise.

It’s being released this Friday 12/13 and will be on tap when we open at 3. Meanwhile we’ve started offering food from the excellent local Mediterranean restaurant Banzo (free delivery!) and here are my suggested food pairings to go along with the extravagantly hopped West Coast IPA Hop-Bearer:

Veggie: Batata (Sweet Potato Falafel) pita sandwich. The sweet potato should complement/contrast nicely with the pretty significant hop bitterness of Hop-Bearer as well as the significant tropical citrus hop flavor/aroma of Mosaic and Amarillo.

Meat: Chicken Shawarma pita sandwich. The savory character of the slow roasted  seasoned chicken thighs should really be complemented nicely by Hop-Bearer’s complex hop character as well as its siginficant malt backbone (English Maris Otter and Briess Crystal 40L).

More soon (including needed updates for this webite).

Hop to see you here soon!

Cheers,

Jim

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