For the past six years, to add a little excitement to these cold New England Winter months, we’ve run a little beer series called Unafraid of the Dark. For those of you not familiar with Unafraid of the Dark, it’s a limited edition dark beer series that runs January through March. We sell cards to the series that entitle customers to not only a growler (or growlette) fill of each of these one-off, special dark beers, but the card also offers a discount as a ‘thank you’ for pre-buying the beers. In the past, we’ve offered six beers in the series, and we focused on crafting beers that utilized a unique locally grown or foraged ingredient.

This year, we decided to switch things up a bit for lucky year #7. Say ‘Hello’ to Unafraid of the Dark VII– where we are still using locally sourced malt (of course!), but we are now doubling down on the darkness (and the alcohol)!

This year’s popular series will offer three new dark and luxurious 7.5%++ ABV beers…

  • Imperial Pumpkin Porter (400+lbs of local Dickinson pumpkins contribute body and sweetness. In other words, this isn’t a ‘pumpkin spiced’ beer. It is a beer made using freshly roasted local pumpkin.). Available in January.

  • A Classic Russian Imperial Stout (named 5-Minute Fugitive. You’ll have to ask Throwback Brewery co-founder Annette what the name means :). Available In February.

  • Imperial Collaboration w/Stoneface Brewing Co. Keep your eyes on this post over the next week or so – we will update it with additional details on what this imperial collaboration beer will be.  Available in March.

  • Plus! One bottle of Fat Alberta – our popular 10% ABV Chocolate Peanut Butter Russian Imperial Stout. Fat Alberta will be available mid-December.  If you purchase an Unafraid of the Dark card after mid-December, you can choose to take Fat Alberta home with you then, or you (or your giftee) can pick it up at the same time as the first Imperial beer fill. 

Unafraid of the Dark cards will be available for purchase this coming Friday, November 24th (right after Thanksgiving). We’ll sell the cards through the end of the year (or until we sell out). You can choose between two card options:

  • A Taste of Darkness: one growlette fill of each of the three new, limited edition Imperial beers, plus a bottle of Fat Alberta: $50 (a 7.5% discount)
  • A Feast of Darkness: two growlette fills of each of the three new, limited edition Imperial beers, plus a bottle of Fat Alberta: $86 (a 10.5% discount)

So why get an Unafraid of the Dark card? There are many reasons, but here are just a few:

  • This is the ONLY way you can bring home these limited edition beers. We won’t be filling growlers other than for Unafraid of the Dark cardholders!
  • Discounts! As indicated above, you get at least 7.5% off (and up to 10.5%) off retail value.
  • You get to look forward to and enjoy some very special dark beers to kick off 2018!

This beer series makes a great gift for a friend, loved one, or yourself! So, buy an Unafraid of the Dark card, and bring a bit of brightness to 2018!

For those of you thinking, “YUMMY! Sign me up!” or “Oh, I need to get this as a gift for XXX!!”, here are some answers to the most common questions:

When are the Cards Sold?: We will start selling Unafraid of the Dark VII “beer cards” starting Friday, November 24th running through December 31st (or until we sell out).

I noticed that both card types this year are for growlettes. Can I use my big growler? Since these are high alcohol, higher value beers, we will be only offering growlette fills this year. There are a few reasons for this. A full growler is 68 ounces – which is basically more than 5 and a half servings or 12-oz glasses of beer. That’s a lot of high alcohol beer, and, if you don’t finish it and end up sticking the growler in a fridge for a while, the beer loses carbonation and gets exposed to oxygen. In short, it will not be to the quality standards that we want for our beer. So, growlettes only this year!

This program sounds awesome, why do I need to sign up for a card, can’t I just stop by every month and get each of the beers? The only way you can bring these beers home is to buy an Unafraid of the Dark card, otherwise we aren’t filling growlers of the beer. Without the card, you can still enjoy the beers here – on tap.

How to buy: To order your card, stop by the brewery during our open hours . If you want us to take your credit card details over the phone and mail you the card, we can do that, but we will add 2 dollars to the price of the card to cover some of the extra fees we have to pay for manually entering in a card. If that works for you, give us a call at (603) 379-2317.

Is the cost of the growlette included in the price of the card? Since so many of our customers already have a Throwback Brewery growlette (or two!), they are not included in the price of the card. If you would like to purchase one, a glass growlette is $6. If you have a Throwback 68-ounce glass growler, you can trade it in for two Throwback growlettes.

I already know I am not going to be around / I will be out of the area for one of the beers, will you put it aside for me? If you know that you can’t pick up on of the beers during the month, please call us to let us know, and we will put it aside for you.  When you come in, give us your empty growlette(s), and we will give you the full one(s).  If you don’t have an empty growlette,  we will charge you for the glass, too.  Think of this as a deposit— if you know you don’t want to own an extra growlette glass, let us know and we will give you your money back once you give us the cleaned glass back.

Can I get more than one growlette fill of a specific Unafraid of the Dark beer?  You are welcome to purchase additional fills if you really like one of the beers.  That being said, these are small, limited release batches, which tend to run out pretty fast.  So you can purchase additional fills until we run out and / or need to save the remaining for the cardholders that haven’t filled up yet.

Do I really need to bring my card in each time I get a fill? No.  Most folks let us keep their card in a little box right here at the brewery. A few folks preferred to hang on to their own card. If you do prefer to hang on to it, you will need to bring it with you, as it helps both of us keep track of what beers you have filled, and what beers remain.

Can I buy the card as a gift for someone else? Yes! We think that is a wonderful idea!  If you want to buy an additional one for yourself, we won’t judge. 🙂

It is May 2018, and I have x punches on the card I didn’t use, can I come in and fill up on other beers? In order for this program to be manageable for us, the cards are only valid through the end of March 2018.  As noted above, if you can’t make it in, or you can’t send one of your friends / family in to get your beers filled during the allotted time period, then please give us a call and we will put the beer aside for you.

When do I get the first Unafraid Beer? We will email everyone that signed up sometime after Christmas but before New Year’s to let you know all the details about the first beer (including details on where the ingredients came from, how we brewed the beer, and other key stats (ABV, IBU, etc.) and when you can pick it up. If you don’t hear from us, then give us a call – we might have your email wrong, or the email ended up in your spam!