Beertown.org announced this week that the great Green Mountain State ranks #1 when it comes to breweries per capita. According to their research, we have one brewery for every 32,698 people, and they’re all craft breweries!  Although Vermont doesn’t have the whopping population of many cities in the United States, we apparently know how to take care of our own when it comes to beer. To put these numbers in perspective, New York City, with an estimated population of 8,274,527 in 2007, would have to have 253 breweries to match Vermont’s ratio. Can you imagine?

If you’re like the majority of the Magic Hat family, you’ve been sitting on your traditional Roman garb for a couple years now, waiting for the right event to come about. Our staff closet it full of togas, tiaras, sandals and yes, democracy, and since our last Night of the Living Dead celebration, we simply haven’t been able to pull them out. It’s a travesty, really. But this weekend, in a town known more for its formerly witchy ways, togas shall be donned again!

At the Old Town Hall, in Salem, Massachusetts, the Romans shall party once more. On Saturday, March 21, join the Spring Fling Bacchanalia celebration and awaken from your cold, winterly wanderings. More than a dozen local restaurants will be showcasing their delectable delights, and over 50 fine wines and craft brews (including our very own!) will be available for your imbibing bliss. There will be oodles of art showcased, courtesy of North Shore Artists, some locally grown live music and enough togas* to satisfy Caesar himself. Welcome spring and celebrate!

*Togas are optional, but highly encouraged!

Unless you live in Hoboken, New Jersey , St. Patrick's Day comes but once every year. Fellow beer drinkers, the time for beer and green scenery (see: Chicago River) is upon us! From Tipp Hill to Baltimore to Chicago and Texas, enjoy this day of feasting with one part Magic Hat and one part hearty, party-starting stout, and raise a pint to friends and family and drink to the day! Celebrate with a nice Black Magic at your local libationary station and join millions of people worldwide in a toast to St. Patrick and his fine, fine holiday. 

Lots, it turns out. Or a little, depending upon your taste(fulness). While perusing a recent issue of the music magazine Blender (March 2009), we found an intriguing article listing what are thought to be “the worst band names ever,” spanning the 80s, 90s and the last decade. And it’s in a bracket format, just in time for March Madness! While we weren’t able to find a link to this exact article on the Blender  site, we did find a very similar spread on the Maxim website  (via a search on Blender.com. Did somebody say, “cahoots?”). Click away and discover what are undoubtedly some of the strangest band names ever, including: Skankin’ Pickle, Hoobastank and Kajagoogoo. While we refuse to publicly comment on any of the bands listed, we encourage you voice your opinions, and we’d LOVE to hear some of the band names you think are whacked. Come on, Magic Hat drinkers, whatchoo got for us?

If there’s one thing brewers across the country can agree upon, it’s that having a nine-day celebration of all things beer in March is an outstanding idea. From March 6th through the 15th, the city of Brotherly Love will host Philly Beer Week, an all-out love fest of the greatest libationary creation that has drowned our hearts. Magic Hat plans to roll into Philly with a Bru-Tang Clan entourage, a Conductor and some very special daredevilish friends…

Magic Hat is proud to be among more than 50 craft brewers attending Philly Beer Week . In fact, we’re so giddy that we're throwing a pub crawl! We plan on spreading beer love with some classic mainstays in the Magic Hat family of beers, as well as with some never-before-imbibed beers that have seen nary a taste bud outside the walls of the Magic Hat Brewery.

The craft-brewed culmination of craziness will go down when Magic Hat’s Conductor of Cosmic Symphonies, Alan Newman, and the Lucky Daredevil Thrillshow show beer lovers the time of their lives on the Fairmount Area Pub Crawl! The crawl begins at Brigid’s at 7pm. From there, it moves to London Grill at 8:15, Rembrandt’s at 9:30, and Urban Saloon at 10:45, where the Lucky Daredevil Thrillshow will knock your socks off with sword-swallowing, snake-wallowing daredevilish demonstrations.

Thanks to the bars participating and to all beer lovers the world over!

The smallest and most splendiferous Mardi Gras parade in the world is set to roam the streets of downtown Syracuse this Saturday, February 21st   at exactly 3pm! Come join your faithful beer- and bead-loving brethren as they line the streets around Armory Square for a day of revelry and community aid.

With help from sponsors 95X, the Armory Square Association, the UPS Store and AIDS Community Resources, a dazzling half-dozen floats will roll out with their sights set on raising money for AIDS Community Resources. Specialty beads will be on sale for $5 the day of the parade, with all proceeds going to AIDS Community Resources. Alan Newman, Magic Hat’s own Conductor of Cosmic Symphonies, will serve as Grand Marshall of the parade and will be joining the raucousness afterwards at the bars of Armory Square until they close at 2am.

Come on out and brave the Syracuse cold for a great cause. Magic Hat
beer specials will be rockin’ at Empire Brewing Company, Blue Tusk,
Syracuse Suds, PJ’s, Limerick and Mully’s, and Kitty Hoynes, where Los
Blancos will be jamming from 4 to 7pm. To see the parade route, check
out the 95X website . Have fun and laissez les bons temps rouler!





 

Ladies and Gentlemen, the final additions to Magic Hat’s magnificent Mardi Gras Parade have been chosen! Please send them your congratulatory salutations as they slide by on the final float of 2009! Join these felicitous and fortunate folk on the streets of downtown Burlington for a defrostingly fun and fanciful time, and be sure to catch what they're tossing, for candies from their hands will surely taste tremendous!

Festivities begin at Noon on Saturday, February 28th, and are set continue on into the wee hours of the night, and into Sunday  as businesses and bands rock the Church Street Marketplace! Be sure to check out our friends at the Ben & Jerry's scoop shop on upper Church Street, as they'll be handing out FREE ICE CREAM from Noon to 3pm, and showcasing the musical stylings of Groundhog Jamboree from 2 to 4pm!

Check the Mardi Gras music schedule  for a Mardi Gras after-parti at your favorite watering hole, and get ready to unleash les bons temps!

An anonymous individual within the company recently leaked an email to the warriors of Magic Hat’s marketing department. This email contains classified information on Magic Hat’s 2009 distribution plan, including our introduction into new territories and expansions within existing territories. As many of our devoted drinkers have been asking when we’ll be getting to their states, we’ve decided to make an excerpt of this document available to the public. Here it is: 

And yes, we are now available in Texas! After 14 glorious years of making the best tasting beer on the planet, we’re now among the steers and beers of the Lonestar State. Much like the Lewis and Clark expedition, we’re moving west, albeit at a much slower pace than the two hired hikers, and our starting point wasn’t St. Louis. For those of you with thoughts fermenting about our Texas infiltration, we’ve commenced pouring in San Antonio and Houston. In San Antonio, the not quite pale ale is flowing from the taps at Flying Saucer and Tycoon Flats. In Houston, you’ll find #9 on tap in Onion Creek, Flying Saucer, Ginger Man, Stags Head and Rudyard’s Pub.

If you're in Texas, you're psyched. As for the rest of you, we're coming for your taste buds soon. Cheers!