It's that time of year, Hoptown: we're setting the brewery clocks ahead four hours and ringing in 2021 a little early! (And, honestly, after the year we've all had, can you really blame us for wanting to speed things up?)

We'll be highlighting the BEST and WORST of 2020: write down what you've hated most about this year and burn it in our ceremonial burn pit, then jot down a happy memory from this year and preserve it in our time capsule.

It wouldn't be New Beers Eve without a new beer release and we have you covered with Winter Warmer 2021, an imperial stout chock full of cocoa, vanilla beans, cinnamon, and ancho peppers.

And, finally, don't miss downtown Hopkinsville's smallest (and only!) mirrored ball drop (8 pm HBC time) to ring in 2021.

(Fine print: masks required when moving around the taproom and social distancing will be enforced.

"Happy Festivus" is the traditional greeting of Festivus, a holiday featured in the Season 9 episode of Seinfeld named "The Strike", which first aired on December 18, 1997. Since then, many people have been inspired by this zany, offbeat Seinfeld holiday and now celebrate Festivus as any other holiday.

According to the Seinfeld model, Festivus is celebrated on December 23rd. However many people celebrate it other times in December and even at other times throughout the year.

The slogan of Festivus is "A Festivus for the rest of us!" The usual holiday tradition of a tree is manifested in an unadorned aluminum pole, which is in direct contrast to normal holiday materialism. Those attending Festivus may also participate in the "Airing of Grievances" which is an opportunity to tell others how they have disappointed you in the past year, followed by a Festivus dinner, and then completed by the "Feats of Strength" where the head of the household must be pinned. All of these traditions are based upon the events in the Seinfeld episode, Strangely enough, our Festivus traditions also have roots that pre-date Seinfeld, as it began in the household of Dan O'Keefe, a television writer who is credited for writing the Seinfeld episode.

It’s National Lager Day! Lager is a type of German beer that is bottom fermented and lightly hopped. It is usually stored for at least three weeks after brewing before it is served.

Lager is the dominant style of beer throughout the world, except in England where ale is the favorite style. The only real difference between ale and lager is that ales ferment and age quickly at warm temperatures, while lagers ferment and age slowly at cool temperatures. These different types of fermentation allow for a vast difference in flavor and aroma.

To celebrate National Lager Day, head to your favorite pub and enjoy a refreshing brew of your favorite lager or try brewing your own!

Before going into the history and description of Stouts, one must first give props to its predecessor, the Porter.

Porters, a dark ale favored among London's working classes, was first developed in the early 1700s. Street and river porters provided an eager market for this new, energizing beer. The word "stout", after the fourteenth century, had taken on as one of its meanings "strong", and was used as such to describe strong beers, such as the Porter. "Stout" as in stout porter, was the strong, dark brew London's brewers developed and the dark beer that gave us what we think of today as the typical stout style.

The first stouts were produced in the 1730s. The Russian Imperial Stout was inspired by brewers back in the 1800's to win over the Russian Czar. "Imperial porter" came before "imperial stout" and the earliest noted use of "Imperial" to describe a beer comes from the Caledonian Mercury of February 1821, when a coffeehouse in Edinburgh was advertising "Edinburgh Ales, London Double Brown Stout and Imperial Porter, well worth the attention of Families".

Guinness had been brewing porters since about 1780 and are famous for their Dry or Irish Stout. Oatmeal stout beer is one of the more sweeter and smoother of the stouts. And for proof that we live in an evolving society, there's Oyster Stout and Chocolate Stout. The first known use of oysters as part of the brewing process of stout was in 1929 in New Zealand.

Originally, stout meant "proud" or "brave", but morphed into the connotation of "strong" after the 14th century. Why on earth should this brave and strong beer style not have its own day of celebration?

National American Beer Day is observed annually by beer drinkers across the nation on October 27.

There are more than 2,100 breweries that manufacture beer in the United States. They range in size from industry giants to brewpubs and microbreweries.

• The U.S. produced 196 million barrels of beer in 2009.

• The U.S. consumes roughly 20 US gallons of beer per capita annually.

• In 2008, the United States was ranked sixteenth in the world in per capita consumption, while total consumption was second only to China.

• Prohibition in the early twentieth century caused nearly all American breweries to close.

• After prohibition was repealed the industry had consolidated into a small number of large-scale breweries.

• The majority of the new breweries in the U.S. are small breweries and brewpubs, who, as members of the Brewers Association, are termed “craft breweries” to differentiate them from the larger and older breweries.

• The most common style of beer produced by the big breweries is American lager.

• Most of the smaller breweries, which were founded in the 1980s, produce a range of styles.

• Beer styles originating in the United States include:
  American pale ale, Pennsylvania porter, American IPA, steam beer, amber ale, cream ale and Cascadian dark ale.

Today is Drink Beer Day! Raise a pint and toast to one of the oldest and most popular beverages in human history.

There are hundreds of different varieties of beer, but they all fall into one of two categories—ale or lager. Historians believe that humans have been producing beer, or some form it, since the Neolithic Era. The oldest continuously operating brewery in the world is in the Bavaria region of Germany. The Weihenstephan brewery began producing beer in the year 1040. Today, the company exports fourteen different brews all over the world.

There’s really only one way to celebrate Drink Beer Day! Gather a group of friends for a beer tasting at home or at your favorite bar. Be sure to check for promotions and giveaways that might be going on in your area. Cheers!

A Celebration of Sour Beer. Second Saturday in September. sourbeerday@gmail.com

Not a contest, not a debate, just an excuse to celebrate.
Twitter #SourBeerDay

International Beer Day is a global celebration of beer, taking place in pubs, breweries, and backyards all over the world. It’s a day for beer lovers everywhere to raise a toast to our brewers and bartenders and rejoice in the greatness of beer!

There are several variations on this beertail, which is based on beer and lime juice. The version here is also known as a Michelada Cubana south of the border. With a flavor that’s sort of a mix between A.1. steak sauce and a Bloody Mary, our beer cocktail is an acquired taste—but one we think worth acquiring.

What to buy: Maggi is a dark liquid seasoning that’s reminiscent of soy sauce but doesn’t contain soy. It can be found at Asian and Latin markets. If you can’t find it, substitute soy sauce.

Game plan: For a slacker solution, go to the store and buy yourself a pack of one of the various cerveza preparadas that are marketed by the big beer companies.

From daysoftheyear.com. According to them, they say…

"The bartender is everyone’s favourite person on a night out. They will keep you well supplied in beverages – probably of an alcoholic variety – at any bar or pub you happen to visit, as long as you have enough money and aren’t too drunk to be served!

World Bartender Day is the day to appreciate the staff in your local bar. They work hard to keep their customers happy and often don’t get paid very well!
Remember to always be friendly to the bartender, especially by being patient if you have to wait to be served.

Give the bartender a smile and say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ – the bartender will appreciate it and you are more likely to get better service next time you buy a drink.
Most importantly, if you’re in a country where tipping is expected, make sure you tip appropriately!"

On 25 January every year, Scots and Scots-at-heart come together to celebrate the life and works of our national poet, Robert Burns.

Porter got its start as an answer to the higher hopped pale ales gaining popularity in Britain among the town gentry in the early 18th century. Brewers took their signature sweet brown beer as a template, tweaked and adjusted it until they had something brand new. Something that could possibly hold its own against the invasion. They had a strong, well-aged, and higher-hopped dark beer.

The beer became especially favored by the dock and street workers that loaded and unloaded ships and carried goods into the city. Because of this popularity, the beer was named porter. But, the popularity of porter beer was not confined to this single group, or for that matter, to its country of origin.

Scientist Louis Pasteur came up with the food preparing process known as pasteurization; he also developed a vaccination for anthrax and rabies.

Synopsis

Born on December 27, 1822, in Dole, France, Louis Pasteur discovered that microbes were responsible for souring alcohol and came up with the process of pasteurization, where bacteria is destroyed by heating beverages and then allowing them to cool. His work in germ theory also led him and his team to create vaccinations for anthrax and rabies.

Early Life

French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822, in Dole, located in the Jura region of France. He grew up in the town of Arbois, and his father, Jean-Joseph Pasteur, was a tanner and a sergeant major decorated with the Legion of Honor during the Napoleonic Wars. An average student, Pasteur was skilled at drawing and painting. He earned his bachelor of arts degree (1840) and bachelor of science degree (1842) at the Royal College of Besançon and a doctorate (1847) from the École Normale in Paris.

Pasteur then spent several years researching and teaching at Dijon Lycée. In 1848, he became a professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, where he met Marie Laurent, the daughter of the university's rector. They wed on May 29, 1849, and had five children, though only two survived childhood.

The turn of the twentieth century was a dark time in America. The Women's Christian Temperance Union, which had been promoting Prohibition for many years, believed alcohol was the cause of many, if not all, social ills. Mistruths like this were spread. Lines were drawn. Bars and taverns were vandalized. People were killed. On January 16th, 1919, Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment, outlawing alcohol and ostensibly putting an end to drunkenness, crime, mental illness, and poverty.

Ironically, America's thirst for alcohol increased during Prohibition, and organized crime rose up to replace formerly legal methods of production and distribution. While proponents of Prohibition argued that the amendment would be more effective if enforcement were increased, respect for the law diminished and drunkenness, crime and resentment towards the federal government ran rampant.

Over the course of the next thirteen years, support for Prohibition waned as the nation awoke to the widespread problems Prohibition had caused. The number of repeal organizations — many of which were comprised of former Prohibitionists — increased, and in 1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran for President on a platform that included the repeal of Prohibition.

On December 5th, 1933, Utah, the final state needed for a three quarters majority, ratified the 21st Amendment, repealing Prohibition and restoring the American right to a celebratory drink. While the amendment still allowed for state and local levels of Prohibition, by 1966 there were no state laws banning alcohol.