coming early July:



yum

awesome re-cap kyle...i'm taking notes. i know we are for sure going to Hair of the Dog. my buddy really wants to take me to Gigantic Brewing and New Old Lompoc too. we are going to try to hit Fort George up in Astoria on our way to or from the coast as well.

Belmont Station was the first bottle shop that really just blew my mind. last time i was there (8+ years ago?) it was an separately run bar next door -- sweet place too, but the name escapes me. sounds like things have changed and i may have to insist on a return visit.

i'll be on the lookout for Logsdon, but my buddy just refuses to pay more than $10 for a 22. maybe we can work a day trip up to Hood River. Pfriem Family Brewers is out there as well and supposed to be amazing.



i had a chance to try their brews at the Oskar Blues Burning Can Festival a few weeks back: Wolf Among Weeds DIPA, Point The Way IPA, Hefeweizen and the Cabrillo Kolsch. i thought each of these was above average and i'd love to have these available to me all the time.

You saw my post about this brewery about 10 posts above right?

Is the pic I posted broken?

ha - i just cracked my 2012 bottle last weekend! it aged incredibly well. in fact i'm off to get a 2013 to replace it in the cellar this afternoon!

Ooooh yeah they are the same brewery. I see it now. One I labeled in my brain as Benno and the other as Engelszell. D'oh.

Make sure you find a Logsdon Seizon Bretta somewhere. Rules were made to be broken. Glad you got to try the Golden Road beers. I really need to make it to their brewery sometime soon. Shamefully it's only a few miles from my house but I've never made the effort so I've mostly only had what they can which are the ones you listed plus Get Up Offa That Brown. They just brewed a mild ale with Coffee from Handsome Coffee Roasters though and it's available only at the brewery so that will probably be enough to get me there.

Recents:



Haandbryggeriet Haandbakk - Apparently this is a tiny Norwegian experimental brewery staffed mostly by volunteers. They claim that this is the first ever wild ale brewed in Norway in over 100 years and it's a pretty respectable effort. Dark brownish red in color with very little carbonation. Some tart fruit with a healthy dose of balsamic vinegar notes on the palate. I have another one by these guys with crowberries added. I don't like it as much as Russian River's sours but its still very good.



Charbay R5 Hopped Whiskey

I finally got around to opening this bottle about a week ago. Obviously, it's not a beer but I figured it fits here since its whiskey distilled using the malt from Bear Republic's Racer 5 IPA. Not bad but more of an interesting experiment than a great whiskey. You can definitely taste the hops. I wouldn't buy it again though as you can get a much better whiskey for the price.

i searched for "Benno" and didn't see anything other than cd towers?

I have consumed a few HaandBryggeriet products, but not since Shelton Brothers pulled out of our market. I generally preferred the Nogne O products from Norway, but they had a few that were really good from my recollection.
A couple of my friends are currently attending a Shelton Brothers festival in Maine or New Hampshire and then they are cycling some 450 miles over the next four days to judge beer at the NHC in Philly.
Meanwhile, I was left here in Nebraska to handle a tapping party for Lucky Bucket Sahti, and I sort of wandered into an O'Dell event at another bar beforehand that hadn't been publicized.
The highlight of my early evening was Lagunitas Lucky 13 on tap. It was phenomenal. Here is the brewery description:

COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTION
Mondo Large Red Ale
From the first day of the first mash of the first recipe in the first space to this oasis 13 years on the road; We have worked hard to walk in the footsteps of our hero brewers. The Esteemed brewer of California’s best Pale Ale, the Noble Brewer of the planet’s only legal Steam Beer, and Oregon’s Rebel Brewer from Newport. Thirteen years down the road, we have found our own voice as brewers but our admiration for the Great Ones has not dimmed one bit. If we walked well down the hero’s path ourselves, perhaps we too have been an inspiration for others. Beer is a Bronze Age business and we feel honored to have left our footprints on its path into history, at the same time leaving our flavors on your buds. Thanks for your trust over the years and we hope you enjoy this specially brewed Hi-Gravity Auburn offering. Beer Speaks. People Mumble! O.G. 1.085 76.92 IBU

Lucky 13 is indeed delicious.

Looks like this is their Saison?

The one I posted is their Strong Dark ale. Sounds amazing. How was it?

Literally just had a Lucky 13 a week ago. Shit was great.

I just threw my 2012 in the fridge to drink this week sometime and picked up a 2013 bottle, which I might not age and match it up against the 2012.

I attended the very first Lincoln Brewer's Festival yesterday afternoon. The feature event was a showing of The Beer Hunter, the Michael Jackson documentary, but there was also a two hour tasting with souvenir glasses after the film featuring all five of the local craft breweries located here.
There were some really good sours to be sampled at the festival, and a nice variety of beers to be had by all. Most of the breweries tried to have at least one big/extreme beer for those attending to try, but there were still a few traditional beer like and ESB on a beer engine for those people who don't want to drink hop bombs or big boozy beers all afternoon.

A couple of new ones for me:



Divine Brewing - Engelelen Tarwe

Divine Brewing is a very small batch, bottle only operation and side project of Kevin Robinson, one of the brewers at Russian River. Engelen Tarwe, his second beer, is a Belgian style Tripel brewed with oats and wheat instead of pilsner malt and with coriander, orange peel and the african spice "grains of paradise" added. He apparently uses three different strains of yeast including a wine yeast not traditionally used in beer. I bought this last year and just got around to drinking it. It's really phenomenal. Must find more which probably is going to be a challenge.

Victory - Swing Session Saison

Just a really nice summer session six pack beer perfect for the heat wave we've been having. I don't think any of their beers would make a best of list for me, but there probably isn't a brewery that makes more consistently good 6 pack beers than they do.

I've long held that their mixed 12 pack is the best deal out there, in that category.

Don't think I've ever noticed it sold that way out here but agree that would be a good deal and also save some brain damage on selecting stuff by the bottle.

Some good news for S. CA beer drinkers:

http://beerpulse.com/2013/07/bells-eyei ... -new-york/

Picked up one of these:



last night. It's a belgian golden called Aberrant and is the first release in a new line of speciality beers from Logsdon's Chuck Porter. Wish I could have bought more but the bottle shop had a one per customer limit on it. Fem G was waiting in the car and I had a case of the dumbs and didn't think to call her in to buy a second for me. Also picked up a farmhouse ale from Stillwater that I've never seen before.

This was on the way back from dinner at Golden Road Brewing's pub, my first time there. Not sure why I waited so long to make it there. Pretty cool spot. I had a mild ale with coffee added which was pretty delicious and an American Dark Ale which wasn't quite as good but still pretty nice.

I missed the Yeti Oatmeal stout tapping due to my vacation over the 4th of July holiday and visiting my hometown. I spent part of that trip doing reconnaissance work for some local craft breweries and trying to whore out some of their products. I also shared some home brew with a home brewer from my hometown.

I attended an O’Dell’s tapping party tonight and met with a rep that I have been working with to promote events. I wasn’t terribly impressed with the the Celestrina Saison, but the Town Pump Pale Ale was pretty delicious, despite the fact that it is merely the Levity Amber copiously dry hopped with Centennial Hops.

I also get to announce that Stone Brewing Company products will finally be available in this state by the third week of August.

I'm going to a small event tomorrow night with Neuro in Hvd Square for a local brewery. They're tapping some one-off stuff, most of it high grav. Pics and impressions to follow.

say what now?

I thought you were already gone, Mr. I Don't Communicate So Good. Yeah there's a Pintley event at Tommy Doyle's tonight in Hvd Square, starts at either 7 or 8, depending on who you believe. I can't show up til after 8, nor can he, but we're going. Want me to send you a link? Could you make it?

Nope, not gone yet. Maybe not til the middle of September Mr. I Don't Pay Attention So Good.
Actually not going to be able to make it tonight. Sorry for the buzzkill.

You did not miss anything.

Last night = A tapping party for Element Brewing at an irish pub in Harvard Square. These guys, if you've ever run across them:



What they had on tap:



The big to-do was the top item, the Absolute Zero (because their name is Element, so they have to sound sciencey... get it?) Lavender (waitwhat) Extra Special Oak on cask. When I walked in, Neuro already had one waiting for me, because they said it was about to kick when he ordered his. I took a sip, looked at him, and both of us sorta shrugged and put the glasses down, feeling more than a little regret. It was flat as hell, warm (room temp was probably 80+, and the beer was probably 70), thin, the alcohol was too noticeable, and on top of all this it tasted flowery. This was a product that no beer company should've let paying customers try. This was a reputation-ruiner.

I then had sips of the Black and a full Red, which were fine but nothing amazing, just high alcohol content. Didn't get to try the big pilsner, because it had sold out.



So, if nothing else it served as a great reminder that some of these things are really a crap shoot.

New Atlanta (Decatur) brewery, Three Taverns, launching this week, will allegedly be the Southeast's only traditional Belgian-style brewery. Super curious to check it out. Story here: http://clatl.com/omnivore/archives/2013 ... hes-friday