Spartanburg’s RJ Rockers have been keeping themselves busy lately, preparing one of their seasonal staples, brewing a collaboration with our beer brethren to the north and getting ready to release a new fruit brew.

On Wednesday, the brewery announced it had started brewing this year’s batch of Gruntled Pumpkin, a 7.3% pumpkin beer. While many pumpkin beers are already on the shelves – a fact yours truly has mixed feelings about – the Upstate brewery is just now getting around to brewing their foray into the style. Look for that one to hit shelves in a few weeks.

As far as new brews go, RJ is working on two fruit-infused beers. The first, Strawbeery Wheat Ale (that’s straw-beer-y), is a lightly hopped wheat ale made with 100 pounds of strawberries from Strawberry Hill in Chesnee. The beer promises to be a perfect complement to a hot summer day and has already been on tap at the brewery, but will be distributed soon, primarily to the greater Spartanburg area.

The other fruit beer RJ is working on is in collaboration with one of my favorite North Carolina breweries, Charlotte’s NoDa Brewing Co. The two breweries collaborated on a pineapple IPA they’ve dubbed PIPA Long Hoppings. Batches of the beer were brewed at both breweries, which means both Carolinas will have the chance to enjoy it when it’s released in a few weeks.