Weekly Update September 23, 2026
Hello! My name is Bob, and I’m wearing shorts today. Shorts season was too quick for me, so I choose to extend it no matter what the weather is! In order to keep myself from thinking about my cold legs, I’m writing this week’s Amory’s Tomb Newsletter!
First off, here’s a quick heads-up on the Sudbury Valley Trustees’ annual Beer in the Barn event, this Friday, September 25th, from 6:30pm to 9:00pm at Wolbach Farm in Sudbury. The “Beer” in “Beer in the Barn” is being provided by Amory’s Tomb.
A ticket entitles you to one Amory’s Tomb beer or one flight trio (!) as well as 2 hotdogs from Ye’ Olde Farm Stand! There will be music and a stein holding competition, too. A portion of every Beer in the Barn ticket helps support Sudbury Valley Trustees’ mission to protect natural areas and farmland in the 36 communities that surround the Sudbury, Asset and Concord Rivers.
You can learn more and purchase a ticket here:
https://events.humanitix.com/beer-in-the-barn
Don’t want to drive all the way to Sudbury on Friday Night? Then come to the Beer Garden for the Metrowest’s Only Open Air Dance Party! MATTY B will be hosting, this time with returning AT favorites Acid Basket as his guest!
As for the rest of the news, things are relatively quiet this week. Allen is foraging in the wild and writing songs. The foraging is for ingredients that will appear in a beer to be released in conjunction with Mass Beer Week. The songs, who knows? Maybe he’ll perform them during Mass Beer Week, too!
While there are no other special events this week, there is a lot more to discuss about that Black IPA:
FEATURED EVENT
What’s Behind the Name, Royal Cavalcade?
Last week I wrote at length about whether or not Royal Cavalcade should be referred to as a Black IPA or a Dark Cascadian Ale. Allen’s very strong position is that it should be called a Black IPA.
So the name of the style is settled. But I didn’t get into why this Amory’s Tomb’s Black IPA is named Royal Cavalcade.
A Royal Cavalcade is a procession of horses that pulls the carriage containing the casket of a deceased king or queen. But to answer the question of why Allen and Rick chose Royal Cavalcade, I need to take you back to the early years of Amory’s Tomb.
If you visited the old taproom or the Beer Garden in the early years, you no doubt ran into Red Holmes. Red was instrumental in helping Allen and Rick get things going back then. I had always assumed that he was related to Allen or Rick, but it turns out this wasn’t really true.
While not related, Allen describes Red as “everyone’s adopted uncle”. He was totally a fixture of the place, and Allen told me he’s not sure Amory’s Tomb would have ever started without Red’s help.
I became particularly aware of Red during the pandemic era. One of the few things you could go out and do during the summer of 2020 was hangout in the Amory’s Tomb Beer Garden, which I did frequently.
It seemed like Red was always there, in the shed (which he literally helped Allen build) dispensing draughts from the tap. He was such a presence in that shed that I half-assumed he had a cot in the back and just slept there! He was a fun guy to talk to!
Red also had very strong opinions about beer. Among them was the question, “What kind of a nitwit would brew a Black IPA?” I think that’s a fair question!
Naturally, in response Allen and Rick brewed a Black IPA in 2019 and again in 2020 and called it…Nitwit!
Red had a stroke in 2021 and passed away in 2022. Since then, Amory’s Tomb hadn’t brewed another Black IPA. It just didn’t feel right.
This year, Allen and Rick felt it was time, and brewed the new Black IPA with a slightly different recipe, and they decided to name it Royal Cavalcade. The name is intended to be a nod to the past and a nod to Red’s role in the early days of AT, as well as a look to what Amory’s Tomb is now and will be in the future.
Royal Cavalcade is an excellent beer. I enjoyed a few last weekend, and will enjoy a few more coming up. Royal Cavalcade is so good that I have to admit that you wouldn’t really be a nitwit if you brewed one.
FEATURED DRAUGHT pt 2
Royal Cavalcade on Cask Now! Get It Before It’s Gone!
A few months ago, Allen and Rick started offering draughts hand-pumped from a cask. At the time, Allen called it an “experimental program” because he wasn’t sure how it would be received.
Well, the cask offerings have been a raging success! Pretty much everything that they have put on cask flies out of the Taproom faster than they anticipated.
I think the reason for the cask program’s success is that Allen and Rick have developed a real knack for selecting beers for their cask program that will taste really good when hand-pumped out of their janky-looking tap. It’s not like any of the cask beers taste radically different from their CO2 versions, but you could indeed taste a small and interesting differences in each one that they’ve offered.
Royal Cavalcade is the latest cask offering. The first cask of it was tapped one week ago. It was a special version of Royal Cavalcade with fresh Estate Grown Maynardian and Boltonian (What do you mean those aren’t real words??) hops added to the keg. That keg was drained by Sunday!
A second Royal Cavalcade - this one in original form without the extra hops - is slated to be tapped today. Maybe if we’re lucky, this one will last 2 whole weeks. Consider yourself warned!
In summary, Amory’s Tomb’s Black IPA, Royal Cavalcade, is available in the Taproom now on regular CO2 draught and cask.
It’s also available in cans. See if you can find the typo on the label. I won’t reproduce the typo here because, as everyone knows, we never have typos in this newsletter!
COMING ATTRACTIONS
Here’s what’s coming soon at Amory’s Tomb
Sept 25 Sudbury Valley Trustees Beer in the Barn (Sudbury)
Sept 25 Friday Night Dance Party Hosted by MATTY B with Acid Basket
Oct 2 Concord Music Conservatory Beer & Music Pairing (Concord)
Oct 2 Friday Night Garden Party Hosted by MATTY B
Oct 3 Maynard Fest
Oct 3 Friday Night Dance Party Hosted by MATTY B
See you at the Tomb!
