Curse Of The Demon On The Big Screen
HALLOWEEN

It has been two weeks since I have written for you a newsletter and though I'm not feeling bad about it, I am feeling like I need to get on with it. I wasn't being lazy, just had a lot going on and I am a quick one to punt when the other choice is to bloody my nose and break my back. It keeps me alive and looking pretty good (Don't you think?) Nevertheless, two weeks of no newsletter is pushing it - I've never done that before - and if I ever do three weeks, please do not stand for it. Just come right down here, pen and paper in hand and force me to write. There is much to say and I have no right, being a business for the public, keeping it from your eyes, for very long anyhow. 

By way of ending I'd like to point out that our latest acquisition, theHiDef projector and 10-foot screen in the pub, has been a very popular choice. It's been great for Pats games and was a hoot at Halloween, when we played Thriller and some scary movies. We are planning many more things for it, like movies, concerts and film clips. Maybe somebody could invent a video game for it? Now if I could only get Brian Aube over here to help me adjust the mount so that there isn't that annoying two-inch mis-alignment, it'd be perfect. Let me know what you think'd be good for the big guy (the big screen, not Brian) and I will consider it.

Year In Beer
Friday, Saturday, 
"Kick-a-Keg" Sunday
All 17 Beers 
From The Year
Fri., Sat., & Sun.,
Nov. 26th, 27th, 28th

Summer's End, Chair City, Facelift, Oma's Altbier, Naked Stout, Chocolate Porter*, XSB, Face-off, Wicked Big Stout, Old School Pilsner, Oktoberfest Lager**, Winter Lager**, Vienna Lager*, Dave's Double, The Hef, Dunkelweizen*, Rocker Red**.
*Friday Only
**Saturday Only

It's hard not to get excited about the best holiday that the Ale House has ever invented. It is the three-day holiday called Year In Beer and is an immersion course in Ale House brewing history. There is no better way to study history then to actually be there, to consume it if you will allow. How can it be winter (November is winter to me) when one is quaffing The Hef? I mean, really? What do you dream of as you slake down Old School Pilsner? It's not snow boarding. Vienna? Dunkelweizen (well that one conjures some cool). You get my direction with this. You decide the time to which you will travel. We have the substances to make the journey real. I will re-visit the Oktoberfest with the recent memory of it still oscillating. I will visit the late spring with Vienna. Dave's Double will warm me as I contemplate the inevitable lowering of the sun. Every beer you hold dear will be here, from all over the year. I can hear the beer calling, Rick, Rick, you wicked pubster, have you no shame? My name is Summer, your first beer. Eat something Rick.

Year in Beer, Three Day Party, Every Year, 
The Weekend After Thanksgiving

3/50 Campaign Starts Now
It's about buying local.

People want to do it, buy local that is. However, we do forget and it sometimes is a little bit harder than going online or hitting up a big box store. But your local shops need you. They are the life of your cities and towns. Wouldn't you miss the Ale House just a little if we weren't here anymore? But it's not just the Ale House, it's every little business around here that needs your patronage as we try to re-build our small towns. Come on back and find the deals. All of us are going to start spending a little more money in the next few weeks as we head into the holidays. Let's enliven the downtowns with our shopping, walking, coffee drinking, hanging out. There are new shops out there just waiting to be tried out.

But what is the 3/50 thing? It's a campaign hatched by some marketing gal out in the midwest who saw the need for a grassroots campaign to bring back our towns. She calls it 3/50, which means pick 3 stores you'd miss if they weren't there and spend $50 among them each month. I would add that it doesn't have to be a store you'd miss, because there are new stores out there we can all try. The 3/50 project is available to any town that wants to implement it. The project has materials and ready made publicity to get towns started. Gardner launched its campaign this past Tuesday in front of one of our newest stores, Gypsy & Wags. It was a good event and then everyone went into Gypsy & Wags to buy something! I got the best little candle thingy for the holidays. Visit the 3/50 project online at www.the350project.net if you want to learn more. Better yet, just come on into your local downtown, which might be Gardner, and spend a little. You've already done great things for the Ale House!

HAVE YOUR HOLIDAY PARTY HERE!
Catering, Parties, Food, Food, Food
We Have Too Much Fun Here

We are putting the finishing touches on our holiday party offerings. The Ale House invites you to have your holiday luncheon or dinner here. We have lunch, dinner and cocktail menus all planned out and nearly ready to go (give me a few days). The selections are all priced to sell, but if you don't see something you like, just call and tell us what you want. We will do anything and we have everything.

People are already making holiday reservations. It seems that after Halloween everyone starts thinking about this stuff - not like the old days when Thanksgiving was the starting pistol.

Email stacey@gardnerale.com for info on available dates and times for parties, and of course, for menus.

Mark McCurn with photo subject

Official Ale House photographer Mark McCurn uses a website located at www.marcusnine.zenfolio.com where he uploads tons of pics including Ale House photos. Visit here for all the recent photos you've been missing and can't find on my website because I'm a loser. Notice to Muggers, the Mug Club Party 2010 pics are not up there yet. 
Give Mark a hard time about this.

On Tap Now:
Summer's End, 
Chair City, 
Oma's Altbier, 
Chocolate Porter, 
Face-off.

For Friday:
Facelift is BACK!!



Tonight,
Thursday Night, 11/11
Audio Wasabi
"Sublime" 
with Joey Explosive & Boomhowa

Friday Night, 11/12, 8:30 PM
The Grin Whistle

Saturday Night,11/13, 8:30 PM
Mary Beth Maes
 

Thanksgiving Harvest Festival
At Red Apple Farm
Ale House Beer Tent!!
Friday, Saturday, Nov. 20 & 21
10 AM - 4 PM

New this year!
Field, Forest & Orchard 5K Run/Walk
Saturday, Nov. 20th, 11 AM

Many local rural types have gotten together for the past 7 years and put together a country harvest festival with good food, good music, thanksgiving goodies for your table, the ever more popular X-games and in the last two years we have added a beer and wine tent! That is where the Ale House comes in. Under a big tent we have at least one wine vendor and the Ale House selling our wares (wine & beer) and a little Ale House food too, probably Ale House chili. The Ale House is on the planning committee because we think this is such a happenin' event. The beneficiaries of this event are everyone. People are encouraged to bring canned food product donations for the local food pantries; this allows you free admission - otherwise you pay a whopping $2 to get in.

The hub of activity is inside the big solar barn where a fire blazes. You can walk around with your beer or wine and find things for Thanksgiving like fresh turkeys, cranberry sauce, bottles of wine and growlers of beer, fresh veggies, nearly everything you need for the holidays. It's at Red Apple Farm so you know there's going to be hot apple cider, cider donuts, apple dumplings, home made fudge and a barbecue pit. It's a nice way to begin the holiday season and accept the fact that winter is on its way. 

This year, the X-games (archery, wood stacking, turkey shoot, etc.) have added yet another friendly competition, the 5K Field, Forest & Orchard Run/Walk. And do you know where this 5K run ends? Right at the beer & wine tent. You probably think I have connections - I do!

Have I got a treat for all of you. It won't be soon in coming, but it will be before never and maybe sooner than that. Of what I speak is so momentous that I shake a little in trying to express it. It's toilets people. Urinals, stalls, drop ceilings, black and white tiles, odors, garish lights, coldness, one sink-edness, blasted crummy vanities. Peekaboo into the men's. It's all gonna change. We're doin' 'em over, the restrooms. They've been bothering me and you forever. The Ale House is ever changing and soon, - we don't promise when - you'll be able to sit, groom and wash in comfort, courtesy of your fine patronage in good old downtown Gardner.

We have too much fun here.

Thanks for being there,

Rick Walton
Always Here