January seemed quiet. Then I looked at the numbers.

Locally we sold the most Clown Shoes beer ever in a month.

Nationally we sent out a tremendous amount of product.

The big beers, when the weather turned cold, caught fire.

Today we brew Chocolate Sombrero, formerly known as Cocoa Powder, Cocoa Monster, Cocoloco, and Cocoa Sombrero. This Mexican Imperial Stout features Ancho Chile powder, cinnamon, and organic vanilla extract. The chocolate comes from dark and chocolate malts, as we feel we can get a more complex chocolate flavor this way.

Chocolate Sombrero will be the last in a series of stouts (all with a creature on the label) that will be made this season. Next year (or later this year) we’ll play with a few more.

High on my list to brew, but we need art and packaging, is Miracle IPA. This will be a 5% IPA, fruit forward and sessionable. A certain percentage of each batch will go to the Clown Shoes Miracle Fund. The plan is to use the money to help worthy causes over the course of time.

I think it’s funny, the idea of people walking up to bars and saying, “I need a Miracle,” then promptly receiving a cold pint of beer.

Next week I head to Philadelphia, where we are launching Clown Shoes.

Georgia will see expanded distribution in the near future.

Other markets will open later in the year, after Mercury completes construction on the new facility.

If my prose this morning seems a little numb, well…

It’s true, I’m a little numb. So if you see me wandering past you with an absent mind, do me a favor: kick me in the shins.

Gregg B.

Mike Soria just turned in these beautiful frames. We hope you enjoy!

This was fun.

I wrote this down the other day on a piece of paper my wife had already written notes on.  When she referred to her notes today she asked me what this was:

Hit you in the dick like a dominatrix whip.  Unhook your head like a hippie on an acid trip.

I laughed.

So did she.

But I have to wonder…

I am a wanna be gangster who likes to write lyrics, but seriously…

Should I be concerned about myself?

As the year comes to a close it looks like we will do between 3 and 4 thousand barrels of Clown Shoes.

Massachusetts remains our strongest market, but New York, Texas, and Illinois are all moving truck loads on a regular basis.

Texas, in particular, has been putting up insane numbers.  Two weeks ago my wife and I were in Houston.  We did events at Rudyard’s, Hans Bier Haus, The Flying Saucer, and then hung out with friends and family at the amazing  Petrol Station.  Here is a photo from our  mid day venture to Rudyards:

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Supa Hero IPA will be bottled next Thursday and will start shipping the day after.

Vampire Slayer will be made on Monday.  Discount Catholic Products sent me a container of holy water and a kit with more holy water as well as holy oil, holy soil, and holy incense.  Priest or no priest, rituals will be performed.

Other beers in the works for next year are:

Cocoa Powder- Imperial Chocolate Stout.

LMPG- Let My People Go Pale Ale- Pale Ale, hopefully made with freeze dried pineapple (depends how the test batches come out). Will have Moses wearing Clown Shoes while parting the waters on the label.

The Barista Breakfast Brown- 10% ABV brown with cold water extracted coffee from our friends at Barismo.

The Billionaire- this will be a big barleywine with some English and some American elements.

Overall, 2011 has been an amazing year.  My gratitude is hard to voice.

I just want to keep my head on my shoulders and keep pushing forward.

Thank you to everyone that has helped make Clown Shoes Beer into more than a joke.

Gregg B.

Supa Hero will be in the tanks soon.

We have moved Cocoa Powder to January.

Vampire Slayer will be our second anniversary beer: an 11% ABV Russian Imperial Stout with a little more sweetness and depth than Blaecorn Unidragon.  This beer will be made using holy water and malt smoked locally with vampire killing stakes.  It looks like I will need to purchase the holy water online.  So far, four priests have been asked to perform blessings in Ipswich. Each has said, “No.”

A couple of weeks ago I got the chance to hang with Geoff and Skippy from Three Heads Brewing. Skippy told me that his three year old son is trained to deliver a curb stomp. He has two other sons, ages twelve and six. The twelve year old pins the six year old to the ground, then the three year old child wades in to deliver ferocious kicks to the head.

This past week was spent working the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Pete Russell, Terry O’Boyle, Joshua Tussin, and Matthew Lefkowitz each did a fantastic job of pinning down bar owners and retail buyers . Most of them were excited to hear the story and to play in our Clown Shoes games. A few were skeptical. The attitude was best summed up by questions posed by Jimmy Carbone of Jimmy’s No. 43, when I made an appearance on his Beer Sessions Radio show. After introducing me with the assertion that he had brought someone on the show to tear apart, issues were broached.

Do my beers suck?

Am I an amateur?

Do I even like beer or am I just trying to prove something?

Why do I think Clown Shoes has a market and will survive?

Here’s the thing: Jimmy Carbone is the man.  He is one of the original New York City bar owners to embrace craft beer, working tirelessly to promote the product and to strengthen the local community.

I believe Jimmy had not yet judged me. But he had heard and read things, was skeptical, and wanted to know the answers to the tough questions that are out there about Gregg Berman and Clown Shoes Beer.

I am grateful that Jimmy gave me a platform to respond, and hope I did ok, as public speech is not my thing.

The truth of matter is that if I am going to run around like a three year old child delivering curb stomps to the craft beer community, trying to build the Clown Shoes Brand, I had better belong in the family.

http://www.heritageradionetwork.com/episodes/1930-Beer-Sessions-Radio-Episode-86-Massachusetts-Beer

Sales continue to be strong.

Sean Geary and the Arborway sales staff keep ripping it up locally.

Nationally, most markets are ordering on a monthly basis.

Our goal is to release two new beers before the end of the year.

Supa Hero will be an IPA in the 8%ABV neighborhood. We are playing with test batches right now, but the tricky part is determining hops, as the hop shortage is effecting us. I may choose to make this beer with different hop blends for a while for convenience, fun, and to learn.

Cocoa Powder will be another big stout that will be built on the malt base of Blaecorn Unidragon. The hops will be lowered and no dry hopping will occur. We will add premium cocoa powder and brew at a higher temperature to achieve more body and sweetness than we were going for in Blaecorn.

The thought, two years ago, was that we would make all of our beers on a seasonal schedule. Expansion and demand has not allowed us to do so with any of the brews except for Pecan Pie Porter. Now that we have ten beers and more on the way Clown Shoes will be forced, in 2012, to relegate a handful of products to seasonal status. At this point the beers I am certain we will make year round are Clementine, Tramp Stamp, and Hoppy Feet.

We want to go from 10 beers to 20 or so by the end of 2012. The idea is to keep making new and interesting beer… for as long as we are around.

Ok, here is a random human element I should keep to myself: I’m tired. But continuously jump on stages like I know what I’m doing (New York City October 17th, kids!). In reality, I remind myself of Petey from American Pie:

Teenage Doosh, eyes closed, getting ready to make a move. The relationship, like each one before, is over before he realizes.

These days my energy waxes and wanes like an ocean with a schizophrenic tide.

The hustle continues, but I am acting out a plan most of the time, not writing the script.

Shortly, I am going to have to accelerate into overdrive.

October and November will see Arborway Imports, my wholesale wine and beer company, begin to distribute Three Heads and Slum Brew in Massachusetts. Arborway employs seven wine salespeople who have been learning about selling beer by selling Clown Shoes, as well as a beer manager/Clown Shoes Brand Manager in the person of Sean Geary.

Another extremely exciting development is that, if all goes according to plan, this December or January Shaun Hill will send us product. It will be draft only and Shaun will be the final word on where the beer will land.

Texas, opened up last Month, is shipping a third truck load of Clown Shoes this week.

New York City is receiving a thousand cases of volume of Clown Shoes just before I spend a week in the city launching the brand, starting October 17^th.

These markets will require consistent energy in 2012.  To this effect help has been enlisted, including my wife and Texas Brand Manager, Sakina Berman, my Massachusetts brand Manager, Sean Geary, and Mark Metzger, the president of my brokerage firm wine division.

Clown Shoes feet on the street in 2012 increase from 2 to 8.

Ok, on to… basketball.

Warehousing used to be spread over three locations and was a logistical nightmare.  Recently we moved to a 10,000 square foot facility in Burlington, MA.   In this facility we have a basketball net.

Each morning and some afternoons I shoot and challenge my employees, salespeople and warehouse workers alike, to play HORSE.

Why did basketball not present itself to me before?

Is it because I am a 5 foot 8 inch white guy who is thick and slow?   Well, I don’t care.

Basketball is therapy.

So far I have developed a bank shot with spin that works from long or short distance.  I can also hit a twenty foot shot from the corners with decent regularity.   What I can’t do very well is dribble with my left hand and move to my left.  The last few days I have been dribbling more and more with my left and have tried a few lay ups from the left side.  A couple went in…  awkwardly.

Yeah, I need some moves to the left.