East End Brewing Releases Illustration Ale

It’s February 15th 2012, so I’m a little late in announcing this, as we usually like to talk about the beers BEFORE we release them, but this one got away from me. The good news is that we’ve still got plenty of Illustration Ale in stock.

If you’re not familiar with it, Illustration Ale is a beer we’ve brewed in conjunction with Pittsburgh’s one and only Toonseum. The Toonseum hooks us up with 6 amazing local artists, who each illustrate a one of a kind label for this beer, completely of their own design – aside from the mandatory stuff the Feds make sure we include. Our label-handy pal Wayno "Curates" all of this for us, and he always picks a wonderfully diverse bunch of talented artists – so thanks Wayno! Once the labels and the beer are ready, we throw an opening party at the Toonseum where you can meet the artists, taste the beer, and even take some home with you. And 2 bucks from every bottle sold goes to support the Toonseum Gallery and it’s programs. Pretty cool, eh?

The Release Day/Opening was on Feb 4, 2012, and I’m sorry of you missed it. Check out the coverage of how it all went down here.

The beer itself is a "Belgian Dark Strong Ale" of about 8.5% abv, brewed with dark malts and our favorite Belgian Farmhouse Ale yeast, which brings lots of spice, depth, and unique character to the beer.

Like all our BIG BOTTLES, this is a bottle conditioned beer, that also has a relatively high alcohol content. So this means that you can put it away for a year or more, and it will continue to mature in the bottle, while you save it for a special occasion. Or you can open it now and make today special.

From our six illustrators come the six Illustration Ale labels, shown here. You can click on a label to visit the website each artist:

Like I say, if you missed the Release Day festivities, you can still find Illustration Ale in bottles at the brewery. And starting this weekend, we are now able to offer them at The Growler Shop in the Strip District, thanks to an easing in PLCB restrictions on container sizes. (Woo-hoo!)

But if you want to track down the work of these fine local artists, I’d suggest hitting them up through their websites. Or, you may be able to land some of their published works by visiting your friendly neighborhood Toonseum. I highly recommend it!

Cheers – Scott