Chad Ober lives in New Hampshire, the land of “Live Free or Die.” And he wants one thing: Raging Bitch.

Unfortunately, the State of New Hampshire has banned wholesalers and retailers from carrying Raging Bitch. Why? Because one person (Chief of Liquor Enforcement Eddie Edwards) doesn’t like the name.

In protest, Chad started a Facebook page titled “BEER DRINKERS FOR FLYING DOG RAGING BITCH IN NH.” On the page, he requests that “anyone joining this group needs to have a desire for all beers to be available to the public, regardless of silly things like names!”

We could not agree more.

It is an outrage that one person can arbitrarily over-rule the rights of wholesalers, retailers, and beer lovers throughout an entire state. We are proud to have Chad in the People’s Republic of Flying Dog and wholeheartedly support his quest for the Bitch.

Mr. Edwards, if you’re reading this, our CEO Jim Caruso has called you a few times to discuss this with you. He would very much appreciate a call back.

(Translation for the Twitterverse virgins: Flying Dog Brewery is holding gatherings for its Twitter followers in cities near you.)

2010, our 20th anniversary, is the year of the Raging Bitch. So for those familiar with all things @ and #, some call them TweetUps, but we call them Bitch Sessions - Gonzo gatherings of Flying Dog Twitter followers. What do we do? Simple: Eat, drink, and tweet…with a few beer specials, schwag, and entertainment mixed in between.

Our market managers in Maryland, DC, Virginia, Philadelphia, New York City, and Denver will hold Bitch Sessions on the first Thursday of every month, starting January 7. So far, we have the following planned:

• Urbana, MD: Buffalo Wild Wings and Beer, 7 to 9 pm
• DC: The Big Hunt, 5 to 8 pm ( @flyingdogjt on Twitter)
• Arlington, VA: Rustico, 5 to 8 pm (@flyingdogva on Twitter)
• Denver: Paramount Cafe, 4 to 6 pm

Want more info? Want to stay up-to-date? Become a part of the 21st Century and follow @flyingdog on Twitter.

On Saturday, December 12, Ben and Lauren came to Flying Dog Brewery for a tour and samples. They had been on a tour before and said they decided to come back for the relaxing atmosphere (and obviously for some beer). Upon their arrival and throughout their trek through the brewery, Lauren had no idea that she was in for much more than a tour and a few beers.

After consuming what she described as, “some liquid courage called Old Scratch,” Ben proposed to Lauren in our brewery parking lot.

A featured guest at their upcoming nuptials? Flying Dog beer, of course.

Memo to the People’s Republic of Flying Dog -

I’m excited to announce that we’ve added a new position to Flying Dog Brewery’s Marketing department. Please welcome Erin Biles, Flying Dog Brewery’s new Marketing Communications Specialist. Although we don’t always introduce new hires on our blog, Erin will be helping out by writing blog entries for us, managing the @flyingdog Twitter account, and responding to consumer inquiries through our website.

I asked Erin about why she was drawn to the Craft Beer industry from her previous job as an Internet Marketing Specialist:

“I’ve always admired the imprint beer has on American culture. Almost everyone can remember cracking open their first beer. And the craft beer industry is a fascinating subculture that has a tremendous amount of passion behind it. I’m so excited to immerse myself in what I consider to be a true art form.”

We’re excited to have Erin on board as part of the Flying Dog team, and we look forward to making more conversations with you, our loyal consumers. Interested in our other employees? Head on over and take a look at our Flying Dog Mutts page, and do a little cyber-stalking, if that’s your thing.

2010 marks Flying Dog’s 20th anniversary. We’ve got lots of special things planned for such a momentous occasion, one of which is our 20th anniversary beer, Raging Bitch Belgian IPA. An American IPA augmented with Belgian yeast, our 20th anniversary beer jumps out of the glass and nips at your taste buds with its delicate hop bitterness.

We know we’re a month early, but we wanted to let you know that when you come on a Saturday tour, you can now purchase 750ml commemorative bottles of the Raging Bitch in our tasting room for only $20. These ultra-limited 750ml bottles of Raging Bitch come in a special protective tube and also are packaged with a numbered, limited-edition, celebratory poster. We are only selling 540 of these bad boys, so come on a Saturday tour and pick up our latest and greatest brew!

If you’re unable to get in on the action on the 750s, don’t worry. We’ll be selling 6pks around the world starting in early 2010.

* FYI: You can only buy 4 750s of Raging Bitch at a time, and only during our Saturday tour. Its the law.

We received more than 400 entries on our Raging Bitch T-shirt Tagline Contest, and have finally come to a decision on the winners. If you are a fan of Flying Dog Brewery on Facebook, you may already know the winners, as we announced them on Monday. For those of you who missed that…

Announcing the winners of our 20th anniversary Raging Bitch Tagline Contest:

Men’s winner: Steve Bode for “She’s mine, get your own Bitch!”
Women’s winner: Telleen Anderson-Lorzano for “If you think I’m a bitch, you should meet my beer!”

We asked Steve and Telleen for their favorite Hunter S. Thompson quotes, too:
Telleen: “Fear is just another word for ignorance”
Steve: “Res ipsa loquitur - Let the good times roll”

Steve and Telleen each win ten Raging Bitch shirts to give out to their friends. Now that we painstakingly picked a winner (it was tough to decide on!), we’ve sent the art to press and these shirts will be available in our online store before Christmas, so save a few bucks to pick some of these up for those lucky folks you’re shopping for!

Over the last 500 years, the English have done their fair share of invading the United States. Whereas we appreciate lots of the infrastructure they provided in the early years of the New World, we felt it was only fair to return the favor. Effective this week, we’re excited to announce that two Flying Dog beers have invaded about 300 Tesco stores in the UK (Tesco is the largest retail chain in the UK).

UK members of the People’s Republic of Flying Dog, you can now find our Classic Pale Ale and Gonzo Imperial Porter there!

We talked a little with Rick from Bierenco, our awesome EU distributor, about our award-winning beer being selected by Tesco.

“In short: Tesco runs their Drink Awards. The aim is to allow small drinks producers, who would normally not end up at the buyer’s table, to gain a listing there. Besides a number of regional awards (where a Welsh brewery may win listing in Welsh stores), there are only four national listings. This means the large Tesco stores will all list these beers; smaller shops and specialized ‘to go’ stores won’t.

The four national categories are lager, ale & bitter, porter & stout, and special (like wheat or fruit beer).

Flying Dog Brewery scooped up two of these spots, beating the English on their own turf. (read more about our Victory here)

There were 400 entries to the Tesco Drinks Awards, 240 of which were for beer. Beers were judged from: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, England, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Mexico, Scotland, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, the United States, and Wales.

The beers are evaluated according the the following criteria

• Appearance, out of 5
• Aroma, out of 5
• Taste, out of 10
• After-taste, out of 5
• Overall, out of 15

We’re as pleased as a dog drinking out of a punch bowl to be available in Tesco stores. If you live in the UK, swing by and pick up some Flying Dog beer, your favorite imported American Craft Beer. If you have friends in the UK, you need to be telling them to go pick up some.

Even the United States Military is starting to catch on to this whole Flying Dog thing.  We’re proud to announce that our Doggie-style Classic Pale Ale will be available on tap at some select locations on Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia.

If you’re one of the fine men or women serving our country at Quantico, you will now be able to do it Doggie-style.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, or don’t like good beer, you’ve probably heard about the movie, Beer Wars that is playing this coming Thursday as a one-night release.  Beer Wars is a documentary about the beer industry and how craft brewers (like Flying Dog) are fighting the good fight against the giant brewers with giant marketing budgets.

Again, this is a ONE-NIGHT release, so no procrastination allowed.  You gotta get out and see it on THURSDAY, APRIL 16.  Click here for a list of theaters that are screening Beer Wars.

We will also be hosting a couple special events along with the movie screening in Denver, CO and Charlotte, NC.

In Denver, stop by the Blake Street Tavern after the movie for a complimentary Flying Dog (with proof of movie ticket).

In Charlotte, meet us at the Flying Saucer for a pre and post party.  Prior to the screening, representatives from various breweries, including Foothills Brewing, Rock Bottom Brewery and of course, Flying Dog will be on hand to tell their brewery’s story and answer questions.

Make plans now to support craft beer and get out and see Beer Wars on April 16th!!

Flying Dog announced today the release of a new and unique series of beers to be added to the brewery’s already extensive portfolio. The new “Canis Minor Series” will feature three new low-alcohol craft beers.

The four new styles include:

• Hot Dog Habanero Ginger Ale - 0.9% ABV, 2 IBU
• Unicorn Dog Sparkling Barley Wine-style Ale - 1.9% ABV, 4 IBU
• Herberos Belgian-style Root Beer Lager- 1.59% ABV, 7 IBU

“Our new Canis Minor series allows us to open some new distribution channels like the State of Utah and the Food (grocery) channel in Colorado that we previously didn’t have access to since we only brewed ales and lagers over 4% ABV,” said Neal Stewart, Flying Dog’s prime minister of marketing. “We also conducted a lot of research and found that consumers all over the country are looking for unique and great tasting craft beers that are lower in alcohol than mainstream craft beers.”

Flying Dog’s VP of Brewing Operations, Matt Brophy said that the pilot and brewing process was a challenge due to the the peculiar nature of the brews. “When the Marketing Department originally presented this idea to the production team, we thought they were nuts. But the more we piloted the product and test marketed it, the more we became convinced that low gravity might be the next big thing in craft beer,” said Brophy.

All four styles will roll out nationally in June. To celebrate their release, Flying Dog will be hosting a variety of Canis Minor Beer Dinners in major markets around the country.

OK, if you’ve gotten this far and didn’t know it yet, this is an April Fool’s joke. But based on comments, we might be brewing a Habanero Ginger Beer in the near future. Maybe.