We’ve pulled out our fleece-lined coats.  The pellet stoves are blasting away.  It gets dark at 4…. all signs point to Winter coming right around the corner.  When many folks think of Winter, they think skiing, cold, and snow tires.  When we think of Winter, we think beer.  More specifically, our favorite kind of beer— dark, smooth, flavorful, & soul-satisfying stouts and porters. Frankly, we have been looking forward to Winter all year so that we can get to work on Unafraid of the Dark II – our Farmers’ Stout and Porter Series.

Well it is finally time!  Starting today, we will be selling Unafraid of the Dark cards.  For those of you not familiar with this program, here’s how it works… Starting the first week in January, we will begin releasing a unique batch of dark beer every two weeks, until just about the end of March. Each beer will feature an ingredient grown at a local farm, lovingly raised in a local garden, or made by a local business. We’ll have six in total, which we hope is enough to get you (and us) through the coldest months of the year.

Here are four of the six beers we plan to make:

• Coffee Milk Stout
• Pumpkin Chai Porter
• Chocolate Mint Stout
• Chipotle Porter

We will be announcing the remaining two beers once we finish some testing. Also, before we release each beer, we will give you full details on where the ingredients came from, how we brewed the beer, and other key stats (ABV, IBU, etc.)  What we can tell you now is that all the beers will be made with the freshest of local ingredients we can find, and will have just the right balance of flavor and drinkability.

For those of you thinking, “YUMMY! Sign me up!”, here is what you need to know. Starting today, we will start selling Unafraid of the Dark II “beer cards”. We’ll sell two sizes – full subscription and half subscription. A full subscription is equivalent to a full growler (or two growlettes). The half subscription is one growlette. The benefit to getting a card is that you get a guaranteed fill of each of the six beers during the two weeks that the beer will be on tap.  Just stop by the brewery with your growler(s) during growler hours or during the new special Unafraid of the Dark growler fill hours (Wednesdays 4 to 6 and Saturday 12 to 1) and we’ll fill it up for you. Not only do you guarantee yourself some delicious dark beer, but you get a nice discount by getting the card in advance!

To order your card, stop by the brewery during growler hours. If you want us to take your credit card details over the phone and mail you the card, we can do that, but we will add 3 dollars to the price of the card to cover some of the extra fee we have to pay for manually entering in a card + postage. If that works for you, give us a call at (603) 379-2317. Have questions about the Unafraid of the Dark II card? Hopefully the following FAQs will help…

How much do the cards cost and where can I buy one? We will start selling the cards at the brewery on November 24th. A full subscription card is $86 and the half subscription is $45. The full subscription is over a 10% discount compared to buying each beer individually. The half subscription is over a 6% discount. Please note that the cards do not include the cost of the growler or growlettes.

What is a growler and how big are they? A growler is a large glass bottle used to transport draft beer. Our full size growlers are 2 liters, which is about 68 ounces, or just slightly over 4 pints of beer. A half growler (growlette) is about about 2 pints (32 oz.). Since our growlers have flip top closures, unopened they will keep carbonated and tasty for at least a month. Once opened, the carbonation level will depend on how much of the beer you leave in the bottle. If you slowly drink a growler over a week or two, you might find the fourth and final pint to be not so carbonated, but we find the beer usually doesn’t stick around that long!

I want a full size growler, but you don’t have any left!!  What do I do?  The good news is that we finally received a date and have plenty of growlers coming in.  The bad news is that we won’t receive the growlers til January.  If you want a full size growler, please let us know.  You can pay for the growler now, and we will loan you two growlettes.  When the growlers come in, give us back the growlettes, and we will give you the growler.

Is the cost of the growler included in the price of the card? Since so many of our customers already have a Throwback Brewery growler (or two!), we decided not to include them in the price of the card. If you would like to purchase one, a growler is $13 (when they come in) and a half growler is $6.

What if I don’t think I will like one of the six beers, could I swap it for another one? If for some reason you don’t like a beer, you could swap out one of the beers for another beer we have on tap (that is the same price or less), as an even exchange.

I already know I am not going to be around / I will be out of the area for one of the beers, will you put it aside for me? If you know that you can’t pick up on of the beers during the 2 week period, please call us to let us know, and we will put it aside for you.  When you come in, give us your empty growler / growlette, and we will give you the full one.  If you don’t have an empty growler,  we will charge you for the glass, too.  Think of this as a deposit— if you know you don’t want to own an extra growler / growlette glass, let us know and we will give you your money back once you give us the cleaned glass back.

Can I get more than one growler fill of a specific Unafraid of the Dark beer?  You are welcome to purchase additional fills if you really like one of the beers.  That being said, these are small, limited release batches, which tend to run out pretty fast.  So you can purchase additional fills until we run out and / or need to save the remaining for the cardholders that haven’t filled up yet. Growlers fills are $16 and half growlers are $8.

Do I really need to bring my card in each time I get a fill? Yes and No.  Based on feedback from last year, if you want to leave your card with us, we will keep it in a little box and it will be here when you fill up.  If you prefer to hang on to it, please do bring it with you, as it helps both of us keep track of what beers you have filled, and what beers remain.

Can I buy the card as a gift for someone else? Yes! We think that is a wonderful idea!  If you want to buy more than one for yourself, we won’t judge

It is April 2013, and I have x punches on the card I didn’t use, can I come in and fill up on other beers? In order for this program to be manageable for us, the cards are only valid through the end of March 2013.  As noted above, if you can’t make it in, or you can’t send one of your friends / family in to get your beers filled during the allotted time period, then please give us a call and we will put the beer aside for you.