The Harpoon Brewery here in Boston issued a consumer warning today regarding the release of its most recent ‘100 Barrel Series’ offering. The advisory reads a little like the welcome speech given to new bomb squad employees.

Since offering the Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Pêche, a limited edition product, in May, Harpoon has been notified by a few loyal customers that a small number of the 22 ounce Pêche bottles have broken under pressure, creating a potential hazard to handlers and consumers. The risk is not from the beer, but from the added pressure in the bottle caused by the secondary fermentation. To protect the safety of our loyal customers and beer lovers everywhere, we have decided to issue this warning along with safe-handling instructions for all 22 ounce Pêche bottles. In addition, we have removed existing inventory from wholesalers who carry the Pêche, our brewery stores in Windsor and Boston, and have instructed our wholesalers to pick up any remaining bottles at retail outlets throughout New England and New York.

If you have any 22 ounce Pêche bottles, please carefully un-cap the bottles – if possible without moving them. We would recommend wearing protective eyewear and/or shrouding the bottle with a hand towel while un-capping. The beer itself is fine. Once you safely remove the cap and release the pressure, feel free to enjoy it. If you choose not to consume it and would like us to refund your purchase price, simply send us an e-mail at pecherefund@harpoonbrewery.com with your name, mailing address, the location and the approximate date of your purchase and number of bottles purchased; and we will promptly send you a refund.

If you have any additional questions, please call Jaime Schier, Quality Control Manager, at 888-427-7666 x-538 or email at jschier@harpoonbrewery.com.

We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your loyalty to Harpoon.

Al Marzi, VP of Brewing Operations

Harpoon’s Quality Control Manager, Jaime Schier, elaborated about the problem on BeerAdvocate:

Some details about what happened: the issue involves a secondary fermentation in the bottle that was conducted by our own house yeast: unfortunately the bottles we use for the 100 Barrel Series aren’t designed for such a product, and there is a very small number of them that have cracked under the added carbonation pressure. If you like the beer, we want you to know that it’s character hasn’t changed from the time we bottled it, it just has a higher carbonation level than we intended, so if you want you can just remove the crown to release the pressure inside, chill it and enjoy. In the vast majority of the bottles there’s no problem whatsoever, the beer tastes just as it did the day we packaged it with the exception that it’s more highly carbonated.

Harpoon’s had a bit of a rough go with its specialty beers recently. Some may recall that the Pre-Prohibition Lager, offered as ‘The Official Beer of the 2007 American Beer Fest,’ had to be dumped prior to sampling at the festival due to autolysis. So if you’re interested in the light-flavored Peche, check with your local beer bars.

I received a press release today for something I would never have thought possible: a blueberry beer dinner. The good folks at the Cambridge Common restaurant here in Cambridge, Mass host a lot of solid beer events and focus on promoting good beer here in the Boston area. I can’t decide if this event is just another example of the restaurant’s dedication to good beer or some frightening omen. In any event, here are the details:

When: Thursday, August 9th, 6:30pm
Where: Cambridge Common Restaurant
Contact: Suzanne Schalow, 617.547.1228

The Dinner begins at 6:30 with a taste of Atlantic Brewing’s Bar Harbor Blueberry.

The first course of the evening is Cold Blueberry Soup with Fresh Mint; paired with Newport Brewing’s Rhode Island Blueberry Ale.

Next in line is a Mixed Green Salad with Lime Vinaigrette and Fresh Blueberries; paired with Sea Dog Blue Paw Wheat Ale.

The third course of the evening is a Slow-Roasted Half Chicken with Homemade Blueberry BBQ Sauce, Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, and Haricot Vert; paired with Sebago Bass Ackwards Berryblue Ale.

Finally, the dessert course offers Cheesecake with Blueberry Sauce & Fresh Whipped Cream; paired with Wachusett Blueberry Ale.

Tickets for the event are $35 (excluding tax & gratuity). Reservations a must, by calling Cambridge Common Restaurant, 617.547.1228.

Cambridge Common is honored to be your favorite neighborhood restaurant and local beer & burger bar ~ we have 24 beers on tap, 12 of which rotate like nobody’s business, plenty of kick-ass bottles, and a sizzlin’ burger for only $4.95. We dedicate a tremendous amount of time researching the latest & greatest brews and how to make them available to YOU! You can find us on Mass Ave, halfway between Harvard & Porter Squares, on the red line.

I had the chance to speak about The Good Beer Guide To New England and the local beer scene at a recent meeting of the North Shore Brewers at The Tap Brewpub in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It was an enjoyable event and notable for two bits of information. Brewer Steve Bernard is leaving The Tap (where he recently brewed an excellent Berliner Weisse) to run a bottling line at a well-known craft brewery in the Greater Chicagoland area. The big news is his replacement: Mike Labbe. Labbe was the long-time brewer and one time owner of the Concord Brewery of Concord and other Massachusetts locations. More recently, Labbe helped open the Pennichuck Brewing Company in Milford, NH. The move is a bit surprising as Pennichuck is still in its infancy, and to my knowledge, Labbe has never worked as a pub brewer. The Tap has been the home to three very talented brewers (Todd Mott, Dann Paquette, and Bernard) in quick succession. I look forward to seeing what happens under Labbe’s stewardship, whether he carries on The Tap’s tradition of pushing the brewing envelope or chooses to go more traditional as has been his history.