I am incredibly curious about the way things are changing right now with swill drinkers slowly exploring The Good Side. I love hearing about this stuff.

As of now I am holed up in a sleeper car on Amtrak in upstate NY with a 22 of "monk's indiscretion" by Sound Brewery out of Poulsbo, WA. It is fantastic. Strong light colored belgian bomb with tons of late green hopping, somehow done very very well. Maybe the best of these mashups I have had.

I was on the east coast for a week and had a chance to try a few things that I can't get here, namely Founders Porter and Stillwater Lower Dens:

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-0 ... lower-dens

Pretty interesting concept. I didn't get a chance to check out the music/video tie-in as I bought the beer in a restaurant and didn't save the bottle or label. The beer itself was pretty damn great though - a nice saison with strong floral notes. I also liked the Founders. The restaurant had Bourbon County Stout and I was very tempted to order it but I was driving and decided it wasn't a great idea.

Also stopped by Birrea, a rooftop brewery/restaurant at Eataly in NYC and had a three beer tasting:

http://www.eataly.com/birreria

Pretty great place, both Eataly itself and Birrea.

Going Saison for New Years Eve; Pepe Nero, Epic Straight Up Saison, Dupont Foret Organic, and Glazen Toren Saison D'Erpe Mere. Pepe Nero is the only one of these I have tried before so hoping for a strong showing here.

EDIT: That Dupont was aces and Pepe Nero was every bit as good as I remember. I would pass up the Epic offering and stick with their Utah Sage and Sour Apple Saison offerings in the future. I didn't even get around to the Glazen Toren and it has been staring at me from the refrigerator door the past couple of days and I keep bypassing it for the Five Alive...perhaps this weekend.

I went to a tapping party for Samuel Adams Chocolate Squirrel Cream Ale tonight and the grand opening party of Zipline Brewery here in Lincoln. The Chocolate Squirrel wasn't bad, and I have nothing but good things to say about the folks who run Zipline. One of their owners is a member of our home brew club. He went from being a young environmental lawyer to a full time career brewer in about a year, and their products are pretty solid early on.
I wanted to mention that I was asked to help judge the KC Bier meisters home brew competition this year and that Nebraska Beer Blog offered me the chance to review tapping parties, beer dinners and beer festivals for them. I won't be paying a dime to attend any of these events if they actually like my writing.
I think the Cap'n needs to look for this sort of a gig. They won't be paying for my effort, but all the free swag and beer will be nice.

Shit that's not a bad idea at all.

So I assume you cajiggered these unpaid gigs by being an active patron of said online publications?

The current president of my home brew club is one of my close friends, and he is the only contributor of the blog that currently lives in Lincoln. They are looking for another guy, and he asked if I had any interest in the gig with the blog. I don’t think he knew that I used to write political columns in college, I think it had more to due with the fact that I already whore out and discuss a bunch of beer related stuff on Facebook.
As for the KC beer contest. He and other members of the home brew club have been judges of the event beforehand, and he had been promoting the event on Facebook before he personally asked me to go to KC and to be one of the stewards. I have only been a steward at one event, but by all accounts I did an excellent job of pouring beer and following all the BJCP protocols. Judges really like people who can sit quietly and pour beer without looking bored, but it also pays to be someone who can jump in and help judge a category on the fly.
They usually have a decent keynote speaker and some top notch judges there. Stan Hieronymus, the author of For the love of Hops and several other beer books has been there in the past, so it should be a good time.

Found out recently that a friend of the wife's is good buds with the owner guy of Brooklyn Brewery, so I'm going to try to arrange a conversation there. I have.. questions.

That's really cool. You should see if you can hook up something with Garrett Oliver. Then I'd be truly envious of you, even if I think he'd turn out to be an uber prick in real life, but he could turn out be one those generally cool infamous brewery people like Jim Koch of Boston Beer Company or Charlie Papazian of the Brewer's Association/Zymurgy Magazine.

I forgot to mention some of the great beers I had tonight at our annual homebrew club holiday party.
I will only mention the two that I have never consumed before in my life.

The Bruery Black Tuesday Imperial Stout: While not unseeding any of the best versions of Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti or Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, I would still put on par with those and Kentucky Breakfast Stout. It will never be worth the $200 that it or Goose Island King Henry fetch on the Black Market, but it was damn good.
Petrus Winter #9 Belgian Strong Dark Ale: Near perfection for a Holiday Ale. Plenty of spice, a good malt backbone, little to no hops. It was everything I could hope for in a spiced ale, and it came from a company that is known for making funky Belgian beers.

Obviously if/when I get to talk to the guy I'll report back.

As for beer, it's been slow and mostly homebrew, but a friend did bring me 3 of these guys from Michigan:

Great Lakes - Christmas Ale


He said people were lined up for it and going nuts. I love the brewery but this is far from the best christmas ale I had this year. 21st Amendment's was way better, for sure. I was super greatful and I sure as hell didn't say anything - it was a good beer - but yeah, not worth hoarding. Just not as balanced, dynamic, exciting, I donno. Great british malty character but the spices weren't as ... festive.

I'm not the biggest fan of Stone's beers but this is pretty cool (even if it doesn't make a lot of business sense to me):

...jesus. I love this, even though it sounds like it was hatched entirely while intoxicated. Thank god I'm not paying for it.

My Denver beer list:

Odell Cutthroat (Porter) - good stuff
TRVE Stout O))) - tasty)))
TRVE Diotima (smoked tea Saison / Lapsan Souchong tea smoked over pinewood) - YUM
Odell 90 Shilling (Scottish Ale) - solid brew. Tasted more like a stronger Amber ale
Big Sky Moose Drool (Brown Ale) - meh. Bland
Sierra Sierrandipity (ESB) - meh. tasted like a slightly maltier Pale
Great Divide Yeti (Imperial Stout) - solid/maybe a tad strong on hops for my palate
Great Divide Hoss (Rye Lager) - yummers
Bruery Autumn Maple (Sweet Potato beer) - Bruery has yet to let me down

finally had a Founders Imperial Stout last night, it was amazing. I think it fought with the Sixpoint IPA I had after work though, as I woke up at 4am and have already put new pedals on my bike and gotten a crockpot of chicken and rice going.

also, I really have no idea what I bought for tonight:

You're gonna like that Wookey Jack. I haven't had a bad beer by FW yet but that's probably my favorite that I've had so far.

Boozing on the potbelly crazy daze. Not bad for a local.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/potbelly-crazy-daze/72115/

I drank some 2009 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barley wine on tap last night while at the Modern Monk's Monday Night pint night.
The head brewer put it on a secret tap for people like myself to consume. It was great, but I'm guessing it would have been stellar a year ago. I think it is slowly starting to go downhill.
The beer the brewery actually tapped last night was a Dark Wheat with Habiscus, chamomile and sweet orange peel. It was pretty tasty, despite sharing some of the same elements as herbal tea.

Band practice last night, one of the guys brought a 12'er of Sierra's Ruthless Rye. I've had it before and I know I loved it, but damn was it good all over again. That is a quietly excellent beer.

I've tried that beer before and most definitely did not like it. But I don't think I've ever really liked a rye beer. Maybe the Founders one a little bit.

Three Floyds Rye'da Tiger is the ultimate. Drinking one now as a matter of fact.

Harpoon has a rye beer that is suprisingly good.

I've been all about the Green Flash Imperial Ale lately.

I think I'm going up to VT next month and gonna try and go to The Alchemist and Hill Farmstead.

I love that .gif in your sig, shiv.

Hill Farmstead... so dreamy.

I finally got to try some Heady Topper the other week, and it totally lives up to the hype. Luckily had some friends driving through VT last week, and they were able to grab me some (through the kindness of a liquor store owner up there). Gonna have to make them last for awhile, as if that's possible.