On Monday we provided the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation with a limited edition label to celebrate their 100th anniversary of the discovery of one of the countries greatest scientific treasures - the discovery of British Columbia’s 500 million-year-old Burgess Shale fossil site.

This beer, Shale Ale, was unveiled at a geology conference in Calgary where some 4,000 Canadian rock and fossil experts had a chance to taste the beer and celebrate this historic moment.

We think the work being done by the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation is fantastic and we were very proud to support them – although we were NOT prepared for the madness that quickly came our way once Shale Ale hit the streets. Woah.

Our receptionist was inundated with calls bright and early Monday morning.

I also received numerous calls from people (around the world) who want to buy the beer or at least get a case to keep in their beer collection. There were also countless media calls from television, radio and print reporters; I have seen newspaper articles in small town publications as well as large Canadian city dailies. I was also surprised to read about it in a variety of international media from Korea, New York and Ireland. And the most interesting of all the stories was a letter I received from the Smithsonian Institute requesting some beer for them to display. I have seen this beer mentioned in blogs and on twitter - who knows what other social media has it ringing through their halls.

Geologists, paleontologists and other rock hounds are crazy for this beer and I am having a riot watching the news spread like wildfire through their community and into mainstream media.