First, they brought us Panic Attacks, then they gave us all Night Terrors, and now they are throwing a Dog Birthday Party. Only in the craft beer world, right? The collaborative juices between Pressure Drop Brewing and Thin Man Brewery continue to flow with Dog Birthday Party, their third collaboration with Thin Man Brewery. Dog Birthday Party is a Graham Cracker Stout with Cinnamon, Vanilla and Brown Sugar. Some vanilla extract and cinnamon were added in the whirlpool, chocolate and biscuit malt with some honey.

Cans will go on sale at both breweries at 5pm on September 20 and will run $13.99 per 4-pack. While you may remember Pressure Drop Head Brewer Karl Kolbe’s dog Joe Strummer from the Strummer Belgian Blonde Ale cans, the cans for Dog Birthday Party feature Pressure Drop COO Lexi Craine’s beloved pooch Dexter.

Thin Man’s Rudy Watkins says that the idea for a graham cracker stout came from a collective burnout from hazy IPAs between he and Kolbe and just wanting to do something different altogether. Not to mention it’s now September (news flash people), which is about the right time for the beer in your glass to take a darker turn.

Watkins’ K-9 companion Scarlett dressed for the occasion

“The beer is wonderfully called Dog Birthday Party,” Watkins says. “This is the third beer we have brewed together and it’s the result of [Pressure Drop Head Brewer] Karl [Kolbe] and I trying to come up with something different and fun. We figured that it was a reasonable thing for two very hop-forward people to make a cinnamon vanilla stout. We’re a bit burned out on IPAs at the moment, so we were poking around and looking at doing something really different. Plus this is coming out for Buffalo Beer Week at the end of September, so we’re looking for something to sip on at the beginning of fall. We bandied around a whole bunch of different ideas and flavors we wanted to brew with and settled on the graham cracker aspect. I am very excited for this beer.”

Kolbe largely agrees, saying that, as a brewer, he has been waiting for the weather to turn a bit colder. He also says that he’s been looking to brew a stout with a graham cracker note because he has a bunch of recipes kicking around, and, it’s not another IPA.

“Our vision with Dog Birthday Party is, it’s going to be winter soon,” Kolbe says, “even if no one is willing to admit it. Winter is on its way and we, as brewers, are done with all of this heat and humidity, and are looking forward to colder weather. I’m always a sucker for a stout, period. We’ve done two stouts and a porter here at Pressure Drop, Rudy makes boss stouts over at his place, and I just so happen to have a handful of stouts recipes to pic from, and we really didn’t want to make another IPA. Once Rudy suggested using graham cracker I said, ‘I like eating graham crackers.’”

Kolbe adds that Dog Birthday Party should lend itself more to Pressure Drop’s Bruxelles Stout, just minus the all of the Belgian characteristics, for those of you that remember that beer. Kolbe said that one of his goals with DBP was to create an everyday-drinker of a stout.

Kolbe and his trusty sidekick Joe Strummer

“It’s a bit more sessionable of a stout,” Kolbe adds. “It’s just gonna be a sexy, flavorful, all-around good beer.” Kolbe says that they wanted to do something along the lines of their Bruxelles Stout, which was 5.8%. “That was such a good beer that we are trying to do something similar with Dog Birthday Party.”

Kolbe admits that it was his wife who came up with the name Dog Birthday Party. “It literally went down like this,” he says, “my wife said the words Dog Birthday Party, Rudy said ‘there’s a good beer name’ and then I said ‘I want to make that beer with you. And that all happened in about six seconds.’ We were sitting around drinking a bunch of good sour beer and the next thing you know, Dog Birthday Party was born.”

Who knows what the future holds, but if recent history has taught us anything, it probably will not be too long before we see another Pressure Drop x Thin Man beer. Hell, Karl and Rudy are probably already talking about what they plan to do next, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that we wouldn’t want it any other way.

Head over to https://www.facebook.com/events/298034014121245/ for more information on the Dog Birthday Party release.

Brian Campbell is a co-founder/Brand Manager of the BNBA’s enthusiast arm, Buffalo Beer League, and writes the weekly Buffalo Beer Buzz column. If you have beer news that should be included in the Beer Buzz, Brian can be reached at buffalobeerleague@aol.com, on Twitter (@buffbeerleague), Instagram (@buffalobeerleague), Facebook (@thebuffalobeerleague) and www.buffalobeerleague.com.