Here are a few bits of news that I didn’t feel were worthy of full posts by themselves, but are noteworthy none the less.

Green Flash Brewing Co.’s Palate Wrecker a 9.2% ABV double IPA that uses a unique brewing process (see below) recently won the Michael Jackson American Cask Ale award at the Great British Beer Festival out of more than 100 entries. Today Green Flash announced on their Facebook page that Palate Wrecker will be their first seasonal release of 2012 which will be released on draft and in both 12 and 22oz bottles. Here’s how Green Flash describes the brew process for Palate Wrecker:

Chuck [Silva] came up with a new method to make a Double IPA by performing a double brew to make a single beer. First there is a single infusion mash and subsequent boil at 65 IBU with Columbus and Centennial hops. Then a second duplicate mash using the 65 IBU wort instead of water and a second 65 IBU boil using the same hop schedule. The result is a higher gravity beer with kettle caramelizing in place of crystal malts and an elevated hop flavor and bitterness that might not be achieved with the same amount of ingredients in a single brew. Hop Heads, this beer is for you!

New English Brewing Company recently received a brewing license for a new location in Sorrento Valley. According to New English owner Simon Lacey they will have a 3.5 barrel brewhouse at the new facility which will focus on specialty beer development and cask beer production as well as house a tasting room. New English currently brews at the Old Mission Brewery building in Middletown which is where their standard beer production will remain when the new facility opens up. No word on when the new facility located at 11545 Sorrento Valley Rd, Suites 305 & 306 will open.

Speaking of the Old Mission Brewery building, Coronado Brewing Company which has supplemented their brewing capacity at their brewpub in Coronado by contract brewing with 5 Points Brewing Co. at the Old Mission Brewery building today announced they will be opening a new facility with a 30 barrel brewhouse and 60 barrel fermenters, tasting room and retail shop at 1205 Knoxville St in the Tecolote Canyon area. Coronado expects to have the new facility open by Spring of 2012. I was talking with some folks from Coronado Brewing Company a few weeks ago and they expect that they will cease production at 5 Points Brewing Co. once their new facility comes online. According to CBC President Rick Chapman the Coronado brewpub will focus on specialty beers and one-offs once the new facility opens. In a news release sent out today Chapman noted that CBC sales were up 64% in San Diego alone last year.

Tin Can Alehouse, which while they do have an impressive amount of beer available in cans is more of a live music venue than a beer focused bar has applied for a transfer of their liquor license from their current location in Banker’s Hill to a new spot in downtown’s East Village neighborhood. An email sent to Tin Can Alehouse was not returned, but the license for the new spot at 701 16th Street is currently pending review with the ABC. One thing I noticed was that the new license lists the business as “Tin Can Live Music,” so maybe they will be dropping the “Alehouse” moniker all together. Update: Here is Tin Can’s new liquor license application. Update 2: While the status on the application still shows as “Pending”, I’ve heard that Tin Can withdrew the application and will not be moving to 701 16th St.

In other East Village news I hear that Monkey Paw, the new brewpub from Scot Blair is coming along nicely and should be opening real soon. No word on an exact date but I’ve been told the bar and restaurant portion could be open before the end of the month if things go smoothly. I’m also told the brewhouse is shaping up as well, but is a bit farther out. Expect updates on both the bar opening and brewing beginning as soon as I know more.

Last, but certainly not least, Stone Brewing Co. today released their Stone 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA. I haven’t tried it yet, but was certainly impressed with the Stone SoCal Hop Salute Double Black IPA given to NHC attendees in June. While not the same recipe, the two beers are of the same style, it will be interesting to see how they differ.