News

In case you were still on the fence about donning your best Halloween costume and coming out to Short’s for our annual Halloween bash, here are three more reasons to attend (other than our Ween cover band Code Brown or the chance that you could win a Mug Club membership): Funkin Punkin, Bloody Beer, and Evil Urges will all be on tap. Evil Urges is a brand new Short’s Brew that Tony describes as a strong, dark, Belgian beer. It can also be described as super tasty. We’ll see you on Saturday night!

-SBC Staff

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Have you picked out your costume yet? Our annual Halloween party is set for Saturday October 29th at 8 p.m. We’ll have a costume contest (best costume wins a mug club membership for a year), Funkin Punkin on tap, and live music by Code Brown, the Ween cover band. View the full sized poster here.

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We had a great time at GABF and, as many of you found out, we shipped a truckload of beer to Colorado for you to enjoy. If you are still trying to find some, here is a list of the places that got some of our beer. Feel free to update our Facebook posting to let others know if you were able to find it. We had a great time in Colorado and appreciated the chance to meet so many awesome people who appreciate good beer.

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Don’t forget that the auction for our old pub furniture closes on Sunday, October 16th at noon. This is your last chance to bid on the Cadillac Couch, a dining table and chairs, or even an old sofa. We just found a few more pictures of the high-top tables, including high top #6, that are up for auction and put pictures of them in a Flickr gallery here. Note: in these photos the high tops are not shown with the same set of stools included in the auction. Good luck to all of the bidders!

Start bidding now!

-SBC Staff

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The sold out Great American Beer Festival opened last night in Denver. Hours before opening, beer enthusiasts from around the country began gathering outside of the Colorado Convention Center. As soon as the doors opened, a flood of people poured in and headed for the new Short’s booth — a crowd that never went away all night long.

We mounted a GoPro Hero camera above our booth to capture the scene, which looked like this:

It is rewarding to serve 20 of our beers to the enthusiasts here, some of whom are very familiar with Short’s, and others who have never heard of our Michigan-only brewery. We are pouring: Anniversary Ale, Another Caucasian Gary, Autumn Ale, Bloody Beer, Bludgeon Yer Eye, Bourbon Wizard, Captain Fantasy, Carrot Cake, Cornholio, Freedom of ’78, Gambler, Huma Lupa Licious, Joyous Almondo, Key Lime Pie, Kolsch 45, Nicie Spicie, Prolonged Enjoyment, Spruce Pilsner, Whiskey Sour, and Woodmaster.

As one might expect, a good deal of buzz surrounds experimental beers like Carrot Cake, Key Lime Pie (2010 GABF Gold Medal winner), and its Whiskey Sour cousin. Some of our awesome non-experimental beers like Autumn Ale (a previous GABF medal winning ESB), Bludgeon Yer Eye (our black IPA), and Kolsch 45 have yet to be fully discovered by those new to Short’s, so it is exciting when people come back to try the various styles we are offering this year.

Much buzz also surrounds our booth this year. Beer Advocate tweeted: “Wow. @shortsbrewing #GABF booth is 100% win!” Getting praise like that is very rewarding, particularly after all of the time that Joe Short and Alan from Pro Image Design put into the design and building process.

We put together some photo galleries showing first night at GABF here and, if you are curious to see how it all came together, the setup. Hilariously, the night ended with our entire exhausted crew piling into a van (long story!) in order to get back to our hotel. This became an interesting study in how many people can fit into a van. See the video here.

We are planning to live-stream the GABF awards ceremony at our Pub at 3 p.m. on Saturday, so if you happen to be in the Bellaire area and want to see how everything unfolds, please stop by! Of course we are hoping for another medal this year, but regardless of what happens we know that we have put our entire heart and soul into the beer that we make. The reception that we’ve received in Colorado tells us that what we are doing is working: we are getting lots of people excited and curious about craft beer and getting people who already enjoy craft beer to appreciate it in a whole new way. In Joe’s words, we are showing people that beer can be outrageous, dignified, and delicious all at the same time. Thank you to all of our talented Short’s staff, patrons, fans, and to our GABF sponsors who helped make all of this possible.

– SBC

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Even though the pre-sale tickets are sold out for tomorrow (Saturday), you can still get into the Bluegrass, Blues, Bourbon, and Beer Fest at the door. Just come on over to Pearl’s and we’ll see you there! We have a wide variety of rare Short’s Brews on tap that you won’t want to miss!

-SBC Festival Staff

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We have continued to receive great feedback both from performers and audience members regarding our upgraded audio system. Pub goers can expect world-class, family friendly music at a comfortable volume.

Sunday, September 25th – The Potter’s Field – 7:00 p.m.

Rochelle Clark from Chelsea, Michigan and John Natiw from Canton, Michigan are The Potter’s Field, a Midwest based Folk/Americana/Roots duo. Known for poetic, gritty lyrics, driving instrumental style (including acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin, harmonica, typical and non-typical percussion elements and the occasional kazoo), close and powerful vocal harmonies and easy stage presence, The Potter’s Field surprises with new songs and ideas that sound familiar yet nostalgic. The Potter’s Field’s original compositions cover a variety of topics and styles while holding fast to their Midwest roots. Audiences leave shows entertained and uplifted, thoughtful and hopeful. The Potter’s Field

Thursday, September 29th – Adler and Hearne – 7:00 p.m.

Hailing from the Spring Hollow Organic Song Farm in the piney woods outside Winnsboro, Texas, performing songwriters Lynn Adler and Lindy Hearne serve up a bountiful harvest of folk-jazz and blues-grass music. The two met in Nashville while on solo musical journeys. Years later, their paths merged in Texas, where they formed the duo Adler & Hearne. Adler & Hearne’s songs reflect glimmers of their life stories, and their home – considered hallowed ground by the stream of friends and family who gather there for the reverie of music making. Adler and Hearne

Joshua Davis Album Release Party: Friday, September 30th 8:00 p.m.
Opening band: Younce Guitar Duo at 6:00 p.m.

Joshua Davis is a seamless union of both city and country. The music is steeped in ragtime blues, sweet jazz, real country and cajun. Davis blends these traditions with his love for gritty rock n’ roll and old soul. The result is what Performing Songwriter Magazine calls, “Some of the liveliest and most rocking roots music around”.

Davis travels across the country playing at concert halls, old theatres, festivals, clubs, dives, classrooms and parks. He’s released a number of albums, including his 2005 solo effort, “Fool Rooster”, which earned the album of the year slot from “Progressive Torch and Twang”, a cult favorite Americana show on WDBM. He’s released four albums with roots-rocking quartet Steppin’ In It, one album of jazz standards with Shout Sister Shout, and has appeared on too many albums to count.

Joshua Davis

Saturday October 1, Nervous but Excited 7:30 p.m.

The Michigan-based folk duo Nervous but Excited is an incredibly unique harmony built upon songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Kate Peterson and Sarah Cleaver. Road warriors to the core, their endless passion has landed them on stages with folks like Ani Difranco, Iron and Wine, Utah Phillips, Catie Curtis, Toshi Reagon, Ferron, Girlyman and Cheryl Wheeler, to name a few. Backed up by an arrangement of guitars, banjo, mandolin and bass, their live show will take you on a journey through a variety of emotions and genres, always keeping you guessing which is next. You might cry, you’ll definitely laugh, and they hope you’ll leave feeling that your heart has grown just a little larger.

Nervous but Excited

-SBC Pub Staff

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Throughout the summer, we renovated our pub seating with new tables built from 100 year old barn wood. In response to demand from longtime patrons of our pub, we have decided to place our old pub furniture up for auction. There are several gems in the collection, including the Cadillac Couch and front seats and the old high top tables that were custom built by the Woodmaster (each comes with a set of the four bar stools as used in our Pub). Need a new kitchen or dining room table? There are several in the auction! Check it out, here.

Here is the fine print: You must register on our auction site in order to participate. The auction closes at 12 a.m. on October 16th. We will not ship items, so you must be willing to travel to our Elk Rapids production facility to pick them up. We are requiring payment at the time the auction closes, and pick-up during regular 8-5 Monday-Friday business hours by November 11, 2011. You must arrange delivery by giving us notice at least two business days in advance that you are coming to retrieve your item(s). All items are in “as is” condition, which may be “well used,” pizza-stained, or “smells like beer.” We are not able to provide additional details regarding the condition of items, as they are currently tucked away into a storage locker. Please take all of these factors into account in placing your bids.

Auction Site

-SBC Staff

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Although we ship exclusively within Michigan, we have made an exception and shipped Short’s Brew to Colorado in advance of this year’s Great American Beer Festival (Sept 29 – Oct 1). A truckload of Short’s arrived in Denver today, so even though the event is already sold out, our Colorado fans should be able to get their hands on some of our beer. If you find it, be sure to post the location on Facebook and let others know where to go. Here is the bottled beer you should be on the lookout for: Nicie Spicie Wheat, Huma Lupa Licious IPA, Bellaire Brown, Pandemonium Pale Ale, Autumn Ale, and Bludgeon Yer Eye Black IPA.

You should also look for our beer on tap at some point between now and GABF at the Falling Rock Taphouse in Denver and possibly at 1-2 other locations (stay tuned for updates).

If you are lucky enough to have tickets to the 2011 GABF, our twenty floor (on tap) beers this year are going to be: Anniversary Ale, Another Caucasian Gary, Autumn Ale, Bloody Beer, Bludgeon Yer Eye, Bourbon Wizard, Captain Fantasy, Carrot Cake, Cornholio, Freedom of ’78, Gambler, Huma Lupa Licious, Joyous Almondo, Key Lime Pie, Kolsch 45, Nicie Spicie, Prolonged Enjoyment, Spruce Pilsner, Whiskey Sour, and Woodmaster.

Thanks to our 2011-2012 GABF Sponsors who have helped ensure that our presence at this year’s GABF will be better than ever.

See you in Denver!

-SBC

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As previously noted, Short’s and Pearl’s are putting on a Bluegrass, Bourbon, Blues & Beer Festival on September 23rd and 24th on the premises of Pearl’s New Orleans Kitchen in Elk Rapids. Bourbon and Short’s Brew will be accompanied by great food, plus live blues and bluegrass music. We are also very excited to note that a portion of all proceeds will go to support an extension of the TART trail system from Acme to Elk Rapids. One dollar from each entry ticket sold and 25 cents from each food or beverage ticket sold will be donated to the TART Trail to help fund an extension of the TART trail network from Acme to Elk Rapids. Short’s believes that the extension of cycling trails throughout the Northwest Michigan area will greatly enhance the quality of life of those who live and vacation in this area. We are excited to partner with Pearl’s to move towards this goal.

TART is a non-profit organization that builds trails, advocates for active living and outdoor recreation. Their work includes negotiating easements, hosting annual events that promote healthy lifestyles, and defending cyclist and pedestrian interests. We hope that, at some point in the future, you may be able to ride your bike from Leelanau to Petoskey, through Traverse City and Elk Rapids. We believe that such a trail network would make our area a premier destination for cyclists because not only would we have an outstanding trail network, but it would be through a beautiful area featuring many interesting stops along the way.

– SBC Staff

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Next weekend the Short’s Brew crew is heading to Alpena County to participate in Skinny’s Dad’s Bike Race, a/k/a the 11th Annual Chippewa Hills Mountain Bike Race, which will take place on Saturday, September 17th, beginning at 1 p.m. Skinny’s dad and a bunch of his friends formed the Thunder Bay Trails Association to help build and protect trails in Northwest Michigan. Every year, they hold two fundraiser events to support this mission. This year, however, their annual ski race was cancelled due to warm weather. So, according to Skinny, his dad’s group needs an extra good turnout for this year’s bike race so that they can continue to protect the trails.

Skinny rides the Chippewa Hills trail with his dad all the time, so last year he convinced a big group of us to head to Alpena County for this race. It was awesome. The trail contains a huge variety of singletrack, with tight technical sections, fast downhills, and lots of elevation changes. We’ve ridden all over the state, and this is one of our favorite places. This year, our plan is to head out after work on Friday and set up tents near the race course. Then we’ll get up on Saturday and do the race. We’ll enjoy post-race beer and food, and then eventually make our way back to our side of Northern Michigan on Saturday night. If you’re interested in participating, here is a link to map of event location http://g.co/maps/dsbs.

The course is a nine mile loop. Everyone will start at 1 p.m. Beginners will do one lap, sport class will do 2 laps, and expert class will do 3 laps. The race will start and finish on private propery at 13018 Bartz Rd. Race day registration is only $25. Prizes and awards will be handed out at 3:30 p.m. The top 5 finishers in respective class/age divisions will get awards. For further info contact Randy Fairbanks a/k/a Skinny’d dad by e-mail at rfairban@core.com.

We’ll have lots of beginner riders joining us for the event. After all, it’s more about having fun and getting a workout than anything else. So even if you haven’t raced before, we’d welcome you to join us.

Wondering who Skinny is? His real name is Nick Fairbanks. He works at our Elk Rapids Brewery and helps install all of the fancy new equipment that we use in order to make our beer. He also keeps us thoroughly entertained with his sense of humor.

-Team Huma

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Short’s and Pearl’s are putting on a Bluegrass, Bourbon, Blues & Beer Festival on September 23rd and 24th on the premises of Pearl’s New Orleans Kitchen in Elk Rapids. Bourbon and Short’s Brew will be accompanied by great food, plus live blues and bluegrass music. One dollar from each entry ticket sold and 25 cents from each food or beverage ticket sold will be donated to the TART Trail to help fund an extension of the TART trail network from Acme to Elk Rapids.. Bourbon and Short’s Brew will be accompanied by great food, plus live blues and bluegrass music. The Friday night music lineup is Steppin’ In It from 4 – 7 p.m. and The Brad Kelsey Band from 7 – 10 p.m. The Saturday music lineup will be: Sour Mash, Noon – 3 p.m., Who Hit John, 4 – 7 p.m., and Carl Weathersby from 7 – 10 p.m. Pearl’s will continue to devote multiple taps to Short’s throughout October, so be sure to stop by.

Also on Saturday, September 24th, Short’s will be featured at the 2011 Leaves & Libations Fall Brew Fest at Timber Ridge Resort in Traverse City. This outdoor beer festival will feature craft breweries, live music From Levi Britton & Jonny Tornga, and appearances by Blake Elliott, Kim Mulholland, and The Zebra Mussels. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door, and each ticket will get you five 10 oz. pours.

Please monitor our Facebook page for updates! We hope to see you there!

-SBC Brew Staff

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