We've had a few weeks to watch our massive collaboration beer develop. Naming is a difficult thing. It takes a certain type of prescience to look into the future of something and assign it a name, the right name. The consensus, weeks before this beer was brewed, was that it would be called The Belgian Tramp. We had no idea how accurate that name would become. This beer is a shameless floozy, brashly Belgian-inspired with bright phenols on the nose, deep fruit character on the body, and a surprisingly clean finish.

We'll be kegging her up on the 5th, just in time for SF Beer Week.

Two videos were shot the day of the brew.

Carlo at The Beer Channel put a mic in front of me and asked for details about The Tramp. The result is an exercise in... um... how to... uh... not speak... um... clearly. It gets better once the double shot of espresso kicked in later on during the interview.

It's possible to see a bit more of the brewers in attendance at Brewpublic, where Angelo did a nice job of catching the spirit of the day.

Look for Uncommon up at the Winter Beers Festival this Saturday up in Concord.

We have a batch of Scotty K NA in the baby brite, chilled down and waiting for lab results back on alcohol content. It's tasting lovely. If we hit our targets, it'll be the first official commercial release of that beer. Prepare yourselves for a non-alcoholic wee heavy.

It's the first day of the first month, and new things are dawning at Uncommon with the start of 2013. The typical hectic list of events starts early with the Bay Area Brewfest on January 5th at Ft. Mason. Our head brewer will be helping host a beer pairing dinner down at Point Piños Grill on the 18th of January, quickly followed by a pouring at Eco Farm Conference at Asilomar on the 24th.

The Brewing Network's 3rd annual Winter Beers Fest will be happening a few days later, on January 26th, at Todos Santos Plaza in Concord. It's been a great event in years past.

SF Beer Week starts on February 8th, kicking off with an opening gala at the Concourse Exhibition Center.

We'll have beer at the Gala, and will be hosting two events the first weekend, showing off the gypsy collaboration that we hosted, The Belgian Tramp, as well as a mix of beers from the eight breweries that came together to create that monster Belgian brew at Burger. in Aptos on the 9th, and the original Burger. in Santa Cruz on the 10th.

In true Uncommon multitasking fashion Alec will be headed out to Boston that same weekend for the Extreme Beers Festival.

Valentines Day will find us at the Parish in Santa Cruz, partnered up for another showing of The Belgian Tramp and other gypsy beers, including some special new releases from Uncommon.

We close out SF Beer Week with a pair of events on the 16th, Meet the Brewers over at Tied House in San Jose, and the Twisted Tasting in Santa Cruz. Both of those events feature great food to enjoy along with a delightful mix of craft beers from Bay Area brewers.

On the broader distribution front, we're always working to spread the gospel of Uncommon beer. That mission is taking us to Washington State starting in early January, where we've started working with Orcas Distributing. We're also delighted that our Siamese Twin Ale cans have been approved for sale in Ontario, Canada in that province's state-controlled liquor stores.

We got a lot of crap last year for not having any Winter seasonals on the list. This will be the Winter of Experimentals, the first of which will be released at our upcoming tap takeover at Burger. in Santa Cruz on the 3rd of October.

Our regular line of stellar beers will be joined by two specialty releases, Casserly Pale Ale, a fresh-hopped Belgo-pale ale brewed with locally grown hops brought straight from the farm to the brewhouse by our head brewer.

Also being tapped will be the Sinister Twin Ale, a Belgian-style quad based on our flagship Siamese Twin Ale. This run of Sinister was brewed in late 2009, cask-conditioned and cellared since then. We're freaking delighted by what it's become.

The 13th of October will see us at the Peninsula Oktoberfest in Redwood City, where the Casserly and Sinister will be tapped alongside this past week's run of Long Form Tripple, a Belgian-style tripple featuring the bite of long pepper. It's two days into fermentation and tasting far lovelier than it has any reason to be this young.

Our head brewer will be out in Chicago the week after the Great American Beer Festival. Once the events there have been sorted out, we'll post up the info here.