Thanks for the tip. I planned on getting a couple six packs. I went to a Victory Brewing tasting last night and talked to the owner of my spot and he said if I came by at lunch I should be good but after that all bets are off on availability.


Got this for the upcoming weekend (and now):

St. Feuillien - Tripel
Dogfish Head - Raison d'Etre
Dogfish Head- 90 Minute IPA
Great Divide- Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout
Duck Rabbit - Porter


Drinking the Raison d'Etre right now since we just got back from dinner and I'd heard it was quite sweet. This is my first foray into Dogfish. First half was pretty good and am getting towards the bottom and the alcohol is starting to show up. Not sure I'd buy a 6er of this. Not bad as an post-dinner drink. Almost Barleywine-esque it's so sweet. ZERO head. Full judgement TBD.

It's still really good too but the coffee has faded considerably (it's also been gone from the shelves for almost a year). They're re-releasing this in November with a new, Peruvian blend instead of Intelligensia. It's absolutely magnificent.



They come in 4-packs and will probably be in the $16-$20 range as this is one release stores always markup. Also, don't be surprised if they sell by the bottle and put a small limit on it. Most stores in Chicago institute a 1-2 bottle limit at $6-$9/bottle. :thumbswaydown:

Today marks the second annual Charlotte Craft Brew Week, with events at various bars and restaurants over the next week or so. As long as there isn't a crazy wait, I plan on going to this event at Taco Mac tonight:

This is awesome. It's like the coolest party among the successful kids. LOTS of great American brewers.

two guns, if you didn't do this I GUESS I'll understand.

WTF am I supposed to do with this?

I know what I'd do with it.

Drink and enjoy it?

I had a few glasses of it last year, it's very good. My favorite Stout is the Stone Russian Imperial, but the Founders KBS is way better than Founders regular stout. Grab what you can and age a few for a few months to a year and see how they mellow..

I just grabbed a case of this, and dam is it strong..Good and mellow for the alch%, but it does pack a punch.

Fucking fuckall. KBS was tapped at 9 and dry as a bone by 9:09. Goddammit.


On the subway home, much less drunkenated than after the Belgian fest.

I bought a mix and match six pack today, and have consumed:
Great Divide Claymore Scotch Ale
Odell's Levity Amber Ale

Next Up:
Lakefront Wheat Monkey Ale

I hope to consume the Great Divide Hoss tonight as well, and then drink my last bottle of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot.

400+ people showed up in Grand Rapids for KBS release day this morning and the 275 cases were sold out within two hours.

Guess I should follow up here. I posted that Friday after WAY too many high gravity beers and a final dinner order of a Macallan 12. Came home and decided to drink it while surfing the net a bit.

Definitely didn't give it it's just due but from what I remember it did taste like an IPA on steroids. IPA's, as I'm learning, are probably my least favorite style of beer. That's not to say that I don't enjoy one but there are plenty other things I'd reach for before one.

Strangely, I actually have liked things like Bell's Hopslam or Heavy Seas Loose Cannon. The kind of incredibly over the top green hopped to the max type of thing.

I dunno. I will try it again but from my hazy, booze soaked memory, it just reminded me of so many other IPA's that I just would rather avoid.

This, on the other hand, was fucking delicious.

First thing I had when I got home Friday. I actually split it with FemDerris and once I finished mine I remember being mad about the fact that she deprived me of another glass.

It's not quite St. Bernardus Tripel but it's as close as anything else I've tried.

Never had St. Feuillien. I'll have to look out for it.

I don't like overly hoppy beers but I sort of like the Dogfish 90.

I've got a couple of Belgiums in the fridge that I need to take out.

Yesterday, I had an engagement party at a camp. Drunk about 20 miller lites and they were all delicious. Perfectly paired with the fried catfish, jambalaya, and white beans.

Good man. Keep an eye out for their Noel- a little less ABV, very slightly sweeter (not much, though), and more herbs, as one would expect from an Xmas seasonal. The Brune is also tasty, less fizz, and less alcohol, IIRC, but definitely from the same family tree. Their Blonde was what got me hooked when I stayed in Mons a few years ago- the brewery was about 35-40 kilometers up the road, and like a dumb ass, I was too sorry to ever drive up there. I haven't seen ANY Blonde anywhere I've been in the US so far, though.

I posted this before when I got it, but this is the right size bottle of St. Feuillien Triple to have:

Between people there to watch the ACC tournament and this event, it was fairly crowded at Taco Mac on Friday but we stuck around and waited for about 45-50 minutes for a booth. I tried Happy Ending (9% ABV imperial stout, good but couldn't drink more than 2) and Dank Tank Mean Joe Bean (8.5% coffee-infused imperial porter served in a snifter). It was good to try some different beers, but it really just ended up being a "went to a restaurant and tried some new beers and watched basketball" versus "went to a craft beer event."

As for the rest of Craft Beer Week, I'm hoping to make it to another event or two. There's a Duck Rabbit (eastern NC brewery) event tonight just up the street from where I live, but its a smallish bar so we will see how crowded it will get.

Tried a six of McSorley' Black lager this weekend. Really liked it quite a lot. It's got a taste somewhere between a stout and a porter but it's more of a thin easy drinking beer.



Smooth, easy to drink and malty. I can see myself downing quite a lot of these over time.

I dig McSorley's quite a bit. Been to the bar in NYC a couple of times, and its always a fun time. This is their "dark" beer, as opposed the their "light" beer - there are only two options to order at the bar. The whole wikipedia article is interesting and a short read, but the notable patrons of the bar since it opened always fascinated me, especially Lincoln:


An irish bar here serves it in two-8 oz mugs, which is inspired by the way the original bar has served their beer for something like 150 years, in two-6 oz. mugs.

Ok, Extreme Beer Fest 2011.

I got there right before doors opened, and the line was (as always) around 3 sides of the block. But once the doors open, the whole line gets in within 25 minutes. Went solo because Shiv and Neuro didn't pull the trigger fast enough on tickets and this thing sells out quick. So I didn't drink as much as I normally would've because I was walking around in silence, taking little notes in a journal, instead of joking and talking about the beers, laughing with the fellas and shit. I was more aware of my BAC, I guess you could say, so it didn't sneak up on me. I got around to 20 beers exactly, and scribbled a tiny bit on each as I swished it around. Other people were taking notes too so I wasn't a complete wierdo. Anywho, I'll post the pics and thoughts first, then specific beer reviews that I wrote at the time, un-molested by Monday's sobriety.

_________

The Line.

Girl behind me to her dad and her boyfriend: "I don't think I'm mentally ready for this."
Boyfriend: "Don't worry babe I'll drink your share."
Dude in front of me: "Did you know the Pixies' Doolittle was recorded in this room?"
Me: "No shit?"
(I need to look that up.)

Dogfish Head's Table

The line for this table was fucking 75 people long all night. Never got shorter. What made it worse (besides generally high interest in them) was that they were offering like 8 beers (lots of repeat trips needed) and 1 guy was serving. Not ideal. I only had 1. 20 minutes / beer standing alone in silence was just a shitty deal.

Founders Table

Excellent stuff to be had here. 3 static beers on tap all night, one rotating tap by the hour. Kentucky Breakfast Stout scheduled for 9pm, 30 mins before the doors close.

Weyerbacher Table


Rogue


Notebook

Learning to scribble quickly and discreetly, in order to look less creepy/ loner.

Center row with Lost Abbey


Water

And I took advantage of it.

The Big Cheese...?

I was walking through first, quickly checking out who was there and what I wanted to try, and I saw this booth and was like "that's a shitty name for a brewery, and all their beers are named after cheese? God what a stupid idea NO THANKS." ...only to realize 2 hours later that it was a grilled cheese booth. Dumbass.

Jambalaya for $7? DONE.


Exhibit A

Note scribbled at about 7:30:


Line for Kentucky Breakfast Stout, 9pm

Doesn't look like a line, but it is. About 8:58 I was across the room on the other side, and I heard a chant go up, sounded like "BREAK IT OUT... BREAK IT OUT ... BREAK IT OUT..." So then after about 30 seconds of that chant, there's this a gigantic cheer - you would think the head of Dogfish or like Shaq or someone famous just walked out, it was a roar. Then I looked at my watch, yelled "FUCK - Kentucky Breakfast" and ran over to get in the line. 9 minutes later I was about 15 people back from the table, and I heard a girl say "Fuck, it's kicked!" Mild panic ensues through the line. "Shut up!" and a guy walking back with some blonde beer in his cup says back "don't tell ME - I was standing there when they kicked it. This is (some other flavor beer). Shit's dry." So I left. I can only assume the afternoon session hit it HARD and left almost none for us.


Beer reviews next.

Did you get anything from Short's Brewery? I've had a few of theirs lately.

The beer reviews as scribbled in my journal at the time. They're a little hard to read... I forgot a pen, but I found a pencil stub on Clarendon Street and sharpened it as I walked to the event from the subway. No editing here, for better or worse.

__________













































[and clearly you can follow the trail of my drunken thoughts from the above to the below...]



[...to then this]



[I am a simple animal, really.]













Waiting in vain for KBS:

I didn't. Seems like they're available around here, so i avoided them. Mostly I had stuff I thought I couldn't find at the store.

I think they have around 5 beers that are available in stores (I've had the Hangin' Frank and Mystery Stout) but there were a shit-ton on tap at The Sunset in Allston yesterday for that Beer Advocate Brunch. Some real weird ones too. Pineapple, one with tomatoes, key lime, an oatmeal stout with peanuts. I mostly stuck to the Dogfish offerings but the flight of Dogfish with the World Wide Stout and Barleywine was a bad idea.