New Sub Gets New Beer

The USS New Hampshire Commissioning Committee is ramping up operations in preparations for the planned October commissioning of PCU New Hampshire (SSN 778). They've got a web site set up, they're planning to entertain the 100,000 or so people expected in Portsmouth for the ceremony, and now they've made arrangements with a local brewery to produce a special beer for the occasion:

Smuttynose Brewing Co. will release Granite Ghost Ale in early September for a limited run of approximately 18,000 22-ounce bottles that will be available until late October...
...A portion of the proceeds from the beer will go toward the committee's fund-raising efforts, according to Egelston. He also hopes the beer will bring the event to the attention of other parts of New Hampshire.
The name of the beer was chosen by the crew of the submarine. "Granite Ghost" is the public radio handle for the submarine.
"Naming a beer is not an easy thing to do ... and we didn't think it was appropriate for any single person or group to come up with, so it just made logical sense to put it in front of the commander and the crew," said the brewery owner. "And I guess they had a great time doing it."

When I was on USS Connecticut (SSN 22), we had a winemaker make a special run of wine for our christening that was pretty popular; it was even sold in the Mini-Marts. Unfortunately, the wine ended up being part of a controversy when it turned out the maker of the wine was using imported grapes and neglecting to mention that on the label. Hopefully the same thing won't happen to the New Hampshire beer.

Blog Admin note: Expect somewhat light posting for the next couple of weeks, as I'll be busy watching the Olympics. (I did not boycott watching the Opening Ceremony, and thought it was quite good -- especially the Chinese Movable Type performance.) In the meantime, have you checked out Eric's new general interest blog, Decks Awash? Since Eric is the owner/operator of The Sub Report, I'm sure you'll be interested in what he has to say.

Update 1729 09 Sep: Looks like the beer idea won't happen, that's to annoying federal bureaucrats.