Dear Ale House Comers & Goers,
The Ale House has just emerged from somewhat of a restful summer, grateful for all the good weather and opportunities at lazing about. We are now preparing to be thrust into the thick of our busiest season (September to June - it's a long season.) and we are all going quite mad. It's a good thing.
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Appleseed Country Fair
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Saturday, September 8, 11 AM - 8 PM
Sunday, September 9, 11 AM - 4 PM
Car pooling encouraged!
 Red Apple Farm, The Johnny Appleseed Visitors Center and The Gardner Ale House are teaming up to put together a country fair on the farm at the Red Apple Farm. We will kick off the fall season with the best live, local music; the best live, local beer and the best live, local food. To that we are adding a tractor pull by the T & A guys, benefiting St. Jude Children's Research Center. And guess who's gonna ride?
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Run For A Beer
| Friday, September 28 - Walkers 5:30 PM, Runners 5:45 PM
 Run For A Beer has just joined with 3 other races in the area to form the North Country Quad Series. The other races are the Fit Con 5K (Fitness Concepts, Gardner), The Cider House 5K (Wachusett Mt.) and the Field, Forest and Orchard 5K (Red Apple Farm, Phillipston). These races have been combined into a charitable giving series of events, which will benefit area athletes seeking support to pay for school athletic program fees. It's just making everything bigger and better! Four separate races, which would be fun all by themselves, are joining to do a whole other thing! It's just fun and feels right to get together with area businesses and do all kinds of stuff, rather than to just go it alone.
But, back to the race series thing. Even though the Fit Con 5K has passed, you can still sign up for the series and get the full boatload of benefits. Visit www.ncquadseries.com for more information and to sign up. Run For A Beer is near! Or, you can just Run For A Beer! |
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Oktoberfest Party In the Street
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Saturday, September 29, 11 AM -11 PM
 As I emerged slowly, from my restful and summery daze, I came to know that there are certain among you who have been asking if there is an Oktoberfest this year. I was chilled to the bone (having been toasty for months) when I learned of this from one of my bartenders - who doesn't understand the thing about killing the messenger - poor boy. I fancy myself a pretty decent communicator and was moderately sure that even our fans in Brisbane were aware of the event that takes place Saturday, September 29. It now occurs to me - almost too late, as it so often does - that there is a segment of our fan base that gets most of its information from my newsletter (alas), and that - since I don't publish as much as I used to - those unfortunates are missing out on various titillating developments relating to the Ale House. My profusest apologies are now on their way to you for this misstep, which is totally of my own making and regrettable, beyond the pale. My good people, Oktoberfest will occur. Would you forego Thanksgiving? Would you forego the 4th of July? How about Old Orchard Beach when Fern & Rita are playing? Well, Oktoberfest is all of those things. It is Thanksgiving, July 4 and Fern & Rita all rolled up into one. (Imagine that for a minute.) In fact it now has its own Facebook page, which, if you are a Facebook subscriber, you just gotta see!
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Wild Game Beer Dinner
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Thursday, November 8, 6:30 PM, $50 per person
5 Ale House Beers, 5 Wild Game Gourmet Courses, 50 Guests
The fall beer dinner is wild game again. Isn't that wild? You guys were so completely enamored of eating rarely to be found stuff that we are going to kill ourselves again and try to pull it off again. I'm already reaching out to all my contacts in the realm of hunting and rare animals and preliminary results are good.
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Thanksgiving Homebrew Competition
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 You have almost nearly, just enough time to begin brewing your piece de resistance. Your apogee project of the year. Your finest example of fermentation prowess. The pinnacle of your basement series of singular efforts. Yes, ladies and gentleman, it has been a long and hot summer and for that we must pay. We must brew. Correction, you must brew. The Gardner Ale House, in conjunction with the Thanksgiving Harvest Festival held at the Red Apple Farm, is sponsoring the 4th Thanksgiving Homebrew Competition. Winners are announced on the second day of the festival, which is Sunday, Nov. 18. Deadline for entries is Monday, Nov. 12. We will include more information and links to forms pretty soon, but not now. I'm still figuring it all out. Thanks for your entry. It's only $5!
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| Ah Ciao! |
I won't burden you with the 800 other things we have going on. You will learn soon enough. I hope you like the new newsletter format. Maureen Horrigan of Competitive Edge does it. She's easy to work with and sometimes edits my comments, but I don't let her get too free with all of that. Thanks for being there.  Rick Walton Always Here _______________________________________________________ Note from the editor: How could I possibly edit his comments? I'm laughing too hard while I'm laying out the newsletter. Thanks for the plug, Rick. Contact me for all your print, web, email, and social media design and marketing needs.
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Calendar of Events
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Saturday & Sunday September 8, 11 AM - 8 PM September 9, 11 AM - 4 PM Appleseed Country Fair Friday, September 28 Run For A Beer Walkers - 5:30 PM Runners - 5:45 PM Saturday, September 29 11 AM - 11 PM
Oktoberfest
Saturday, Sept 29, 2 PM
Gardner Square Two's
Chair Luge Challenge |
On Tap Now
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Summer's End (4.9% ABV, German Kolsch), Chair City Pale Ale (5.1% ABV, American Pale Ale), XSB Extra Special Bitter (5.5% ABV, English Style Strong Bitter), Facelift (6.3% ABV, Inimitable English/American Hybrid India Pale Ale), Oma's Altbier (5.3% ABV, Dusseldorf Inspired German Amber Ale)
Coming Soon . . .
Oktoberfest
Saturday, September 29, 2012;
Unless you are registered for
Run for A Beer, then you get to try it on Friday, September 29! |
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Wine of the Moment
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 Have you noticed on our specials menu the Wine of the Moment? This is your chance to try out some very unique and rare wines. We always try to get something in that we haven't heard of before and that you will enjoy learning about. Here's an example of what we are running right now:
Ergo Tempranillo Rioja This red is inspired by the Ebro River, which carves its way through the terrain of Rioja, Spain. "Ergo" portrays a contemporary expression of the classic Spanish grape Tempranillo; with distinct fruit forward flavors of fresh berry and plums layered with hints of spice. Enjoy by the glass $6 or by the bottle $22
How can you resist that? And if you don't finish the bottle, you get to take it home, just like with all our bottles of wine. We have special bags, which are state approved, for transporting opened bottles of wine. Cool.
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The Deck?
|  | You might as well know. You have most likely guessed at it anyway. I was just kidding about the deck. Did you actually, really think I was going to blow 25 big ones on some outdoor sun thing just because everyone wants it? Just because everybody else is doing it? Just because it would be fun? Just because it might double traffic on warm, sunny nights? See how silly it sounds? Let's just say there were a few hitches and the summer is over. The plans are ready and we will hit the ground running in the spring. I think. You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men.
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Menu Update
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I swear I must be the biggest tease alive. I keep telling you about our new menu, but where's the beef? Well, we are working on it, but like with our deck plans, there are a few hitches. However, we are slowly removing the hitches and getting closer to a 'transitional' menu. This next menu will feature new items like a sizzling fajita, a salmon burger, a fresh pasta dish, black beans in a few places, a cheese board, grass fed beef, fish tacos, buffalo steak grinder (as in Buffalo, NY, not buffalo on the plains) and roasted corn salsa. It will also feature new veggie, vegan and gluten free symbols to make it easier for special dieters to use. Well, then, when? Soon, my friends, very soon.
We are also removing a few items, but why would I tell you which ones? That would cause such a fuss!
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