Here in coastal Delaware, the summer beach season unofficially ends this week and we roll into our favorite shoulder season - Punkin Ale season!!!

Yes, we know we're a bit late to the party (heck, we began seeing pumpkin ales in stores as early as July!), but that is fine with us. In fact, we specifically ask all our wholesale partners NOT to begin shipping Punkin Ale to retailers until this week, to allow the beer to be on shelves and taps for Labor Day weekend. 'Seasonal creep,' as its been called, can be annoying. I mean, who really wants to see Back to School ads in July or holiday decorations in October? Not us! That said, we do start getting the paniced 'WHERE IS THE PUNKIN ALE?!?!?!' emails, tweets and posts in July.

We do realize there are a few wholesalers who jump the gun and release Punkin Ale earlier than they should. Yes, that frustrates us ... but in order to get the beer to all our wholesalers for a Labor Day weekend release, we have to begin shipping in mid-August. All we can do it ask them not to release it early. And we do. And most of them are happy to oblige.

Anyhoo.... the Punkin Ale is coming this week! We will begin selling the beer from our brewery Tasting Room and brewpub on Friday, August 29th (see, we weren't kidding about waiting until Labor Day weekend). We get so excited for this one, our co-workers even 'Punk Out for Punkin!' and come to work sporting their best punk looks. Some have even been known to take the razor to their hair! Feel free to come by the brewery or pub this Friday in your own punked out look!

Punkin Ale growlers in the Romanick Pottery studio.

That's not all we do to celebrate! Beginning Friday, we'll also have our annual Punkin Ale tee release, we'll have a set of 2014 seasonal coasters (both feature the fine artwork of our 2014 seasonal artist Jermaine Rogers), and those really fine hand-made Punkin Ale growlers from Romanick Pottery will be back (sorry, those are too worrisome to ship, so you've gotta come to us for the Punkin growlers, but the other stuff will be available at dogfish.com beginning Friday).

Finally - a word about this year's Punkin Ale... the recipe is the same, but the bottle has a whole new look! As with our other seasonal releases in 2014 (Aprihop, Festina Peche and Piercing Pils), the label art comes from our friend Jermaine Rogers. Check out the photo of the bottles at the top of this blog post. If the bottle your hands are on has the label on the left - it's old! Put it down and grab the guy on the right - enjoy it fresh!

So, enjoy the Punkin Ale! We're so excited it is returning (if you can't tell) and we hope you are too!

Cheers.