Craft Beer Candy?

We've seen a range of pairings that involve Halloween candy, but your blogger is just going to say NO. We might sip something from our fridge when we're giving out candy on Monday, but we'll just snack on something else. Of course, your palate might tell you something else, and that's fine with us.

Special note: We rarely interject anything other than craft beer news here in the Corner, but we do need to raise an important issue. If you are planning on shopping with us in this Halloween season, please know that masks, face paint, or anything else that obscures your identity cannot be worn into Joe Canal's. This is for everyone's safety, and we appreciate your cooperation.

Formalities aside, let's discuss what's really important-this week's fresh craft beer deliveries!

Neshaminy Creek Shape of Hops to Come. "Can I scream..." for more hops? You sure can. Two row American barley jammed packed with as much Apollo, Newport, Simcoe, Topaz, and Citra hops we could get our hands on, The Shape of Hops to Come is an 8.5% ABV American-styled imperial IPA hopped with Apollo, Newport, Simcoe, Topaz, and Citra hops that’s got a ton of bitterness, along with juicy, dank resiny pine-like, and citrus forward hop character that is worthy of its name. Dry hopped for two weeks, this hop bomb has as much hop power we can muster!

This is an allocated beer, with extremely limited availability. And while we anticipate having this for sale this week, this blog post is written in advance of the scheduled delivery.

Lagunitas Born Yesterday. Fresh Hop and UnFiltered, HIIIGHly Limited Ale! Born Yesterday is a newborn version of our re-born Pale, a Newer New Dogtown Pale with a fresh addition … We added some wet, lupulin-drenched, un-kilned, whole-cone, fresh-picked-and-rushed-straight-from-Yakima hops for your immaculate reception. This Un-Freakin-Filtered, wetter-than-wet beer has 11lbs-per-barrel of Simcoe, Citra, Mosaic and Indigenous Catawampus. Whoa.

According to Lagunitas, availability is "Ridiculously Limited," so the same caveats that we noted for Shape of Hops apply here as well.

River Horse Belgian Freeze. Another seasonal beer, but we will have a good supply of this dark Belgian Ale. This warming winter Ale is amber in color, malty and full bodied. Belgian yeast provides a variety of delicate characteristics in the nose and on the palate. 8% ABV.

Sixpoint 5BEANS. The Mad Scientists walked through an ancient bazaar, sniffing out ingredients for their next formulation. The stalls were buzzing with activity as exotic spice vendors promoted their fragrant wares. But what ingredient would make the fabled 5th bean? The enticing aroma of an oily, smoky pod – black cardamom – caught their attention. Now that would turn the Imperial to Bazaar...

If you're tired of run-of-the-mill flavors, maybe some coffee and exotic spices will perk you up. We gathered 5BEANS from the bazaar to create a cultural phenomenon; a melting pot of cacao, vanilla, coffee, and cardamom creates our original Turkish inspired porter. It's Mad Science.

Don't stop us if you've heard this before, but Limited Availability.

Cascade Noyaux. Cascade Brewing has been a pioneer in the sour beer renaissance since 2006 and is the proud innovator of the Northwest Sour Ale. We are, by nature, the definition of artisanal brewing: we’re not bound by stylistic guidelines, just our own imagination and the ingredients we can access.

The Noyaux project (pronounced noy-OH) is a blend of sour blond ales aged in white wine barrels for up to 24 months with fresh raspberries and apricot noyaux. "Apricot Noyaux" refers to the kernel inside of an apricot pit, which we pull from the fruit used in our Apricot project. These kernels provide a unique nutty characteristic reminiscent of toasted almonds and marzipan. We add to that more than 1,800 pounds of locally sourced raspberries to give the blend both a bright fruit character and a distinctive rosé hue. Offering a complex bouquet of raspberry fruit, rose petals, toasted almonds and soft perfume notes, the Noyaux is ready to drink now, but will reward cellaring in a cool, dark place for several years.

100 points at RateBeer.com. Available in limited quantities; 750ml bottles.