Oh I also tried Lazy Magnolia's Southern Pecan nut brown ale on draft at dinner the other night. It was good, well made (between this and Timber Beast, I can only surmise that these guys know what they are doing in terms of quality control), but a bit heavy on the sweetness for me. Was expecting more pecan flavor as well.

That timber beast hit the Spot. Also, there's 0.0% chance I brew anything other than a biggish IPA next. I am jonesing for hops now.

I was stoked they had it at Hop City when I went by there last week. The first four pack I got was in the Seasonals section at Total Wine and they were out on my next visit.

Also, I'm pretty sure this is the week KBS comes out, right?

Hop City tweeted 4pm tomorrow.

I'm sure it'll be madness. No word on limits yet.

Oh dear

Yeah I heard this was the week.

I don't even wanna try anymore.

Oh and holy fuck, this email was waiting for me this morning from a co-worker / fellow beer nut:

"I have a can of heady topper for you. Canned yesterday. "

Walked in the door at 4:05pm (KBS was to be selling at 4pm).

The guy said they had enough people in there at 3pm to do a lottery. They only got 30 4packs and were gone well before 4pm.

Fucking bullshit.

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I'll never try again.

I was gonna get up there at 3:00 but got too busy with work to get away. I'll roll the dice at my local place on Thursday but I'm not gonna make a special trip anywhere--this shit is ridic!

So, it looks like they are giving the Final Four results one beer at a time but with a comment from each brewer. Pretty cool.

Here are the Southwest and Southeast representatives:

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2 ... ign=130402

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2 ... ar-ci.html

I wouldn't be surprised if they were lining up outside hours before as well. It's just not worth it as many of us normal folk have other things to fill our day like a job... all that time and energy for 2 overpriced bottles.

I stopped chasing last year and am very happy just buying what I can find on the shelf. The backroom secret handshake stuff wears awfully thin after a while. We still have delivery truck chasers in Chicago... thought that would have stopped by now but it's a stronger practice than ever.

Damn, derris. This just reinforces my plan to stop fighting for the good stuff and start trying to brew it.

Also all that Firestone Walker talk got to me... Found a 4 pack of Double Jack DIPA yesterday, so I have that and a can of Topper in the fridge to annihilate my hop jones.

Local fave Ozzy ( http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-0 ... ewer-s-art ) finally available in cans. Huzzah! Also, Rock/Pop themed.

I was able to procure three bottles of KBS with fairly minimal effort: I called the Total Wine by my office and they said they would be selling one bottle per customer beginning at noon: I walked in at exactly noon, got my number (25--my first thought was "I bet they only have one case, but they had two), got my bottle and walked out with that and a sixer of Lagunitas Undercover Shutdown.

The other two I got at my local place where they were VERY apologetic that they could only sell me two bottles (they are very nice Korean people and I'm a pretty regular customer); I said that was fine, totally understand, gotta be fair, yadda yadda, bought my two bottles and moved on.

So I guess I'll be having a KBS tomorrow night after dinner. Or hell, maybe tonight. Or maybe now, poured into my UGA Tervis Tumbler with an inch of cold coffee still in it from this morning...

The 3rd spot in the Final Four:

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2 ... ign=130404

Shit bloor that's awesome. Gonna make some fine additions to the beer stash.

And of course Bell's made it to the final 4, but I'm really nervous about them topping Jai Ali and Firestone...

i had a firestone last weekend and it was good (i tried a double jack as well, which i liked more) but i think the bell's easily beats it.
no idea about the jai alai.

i also had a dogfish head 61



it was good and kind of interesting but a bit too sweet. i'd try it again but i couldn't imagine having more than 2 in one sitting.

Interesting. Seems like the guys with 1) an above-solid product and 2) big distribution are gonna make some bucks in the next decade. And on that note, witness the MASSIVE Lagunitas expansion in Chicago (and Sierra in NC). Those two are well prepared.

I listened to a really interesting podcast a couple of months ago which was essentially a long interview with the founder of Lagunitas. The podcast itself was probably a year or so old and the expansion I think was still in the planning stages but he talked a bit about it and also about the history of the brewery. This will probably blow your mind but he started Lagunitas less than a year after brewing his first batch of home brew. Someone had given him a kit for a christmas present. He suffered through a couple of years of losses and then some sort of disaster struck. My memory is foggy about the details but I think it might have been a fire destroyed all their equipment. He essentially had to decide whether to double down with all their savings without any real success yet to hang his hat on or whether to hang it up. Pretty courageous move to double down. I think the brewery took off soon afterward.

If I can find a link to it, I'll post it. I listened to a bunch of beer podcasts earlier in the year-- most of them were pretty terrible but that one episode was pretty damn cool.

Its weird to me that that, despite being brewed in Cali, the Sierra in grocery stores is usually fresher than the Sweetwater that's brewed right up the street.

Also, attn. Sweetwater, start brewing Torpedo in 12oz cans and selling 12 packs of it kthxby.

That's crazy. I wonder how much was luck, and how much was him just being an innately good brewer.

Sweetwater should brew Torpedo? You mean 420?

I meant Sierra. Sierra should brew Torpedo in 12oz cans and then sell those cans in a 12 pack (Like they do with the Pale Ale)

Because for me, a 12 of Torpedo is a great bang for the buck IPA, but I'd love to have it slightly more portable.

420 is barely drinkable. To wit, I still have a few in my beer fridge from that post-memorial party at my house a while back. Just havent been able to get through them. (also havent been drinking as much beer lately so go figure)

Just rocked one of these in my slow but steady investigation of Trappist brews.


Dug it.
Not as complex as something like a St. Bernardus, but not as strong either (at 7% versus 12%). Lots of roasty, sweet malt, which I do like as opposed to the super-hoppy brews. And a very thick, long-lasting head that looks IRL just as it does in the photo that I posted here.
Not a favorite, per se. But certainly in the top 10% or so of beers that I've had, if I were ranking them today.

Excellent stuff.