Stone Winter Storm

The stone winter storm is the stone fest of stone fests. It's their annual celebration of themselves featuring fans. They're committed to helping their fans get all of their great beers in one place. I was lucky enough to find this when I was thinking about a trip. I knew it needed to happen. The event is broken into two parts. A gourmet breakfast with samplers of beer and the rest of the week where anyone can wander in for amazing beers.

(Please read my summary and thoughts after the break.)

Beercation Three: California's Final Ride

Best Friends

The Bruery reserve society is beginning to feel a bit like the hotel California, "You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave". At least for now I am making my third trip to California in three years to pick up beer. This will be my last vacation to this location to pick up beer. They're going to begin shipping within California and it's my hope eventually they'll ship nationally. So goodbye Southern California, it's a lovely place.

(Please read more about my trip after the break.)

The Final Chapter: California

This will be my last ride to California for beer. Not only after this trip am I going to declare California conquered, but I am hoping to see other places. I'd like to take a vacation in the summer to the pacific north west. I'd love to see the giant redwoods of inland California. I'd love to go to Vermont, Maine, Atlantic Georgia, and even French Belgium. I'd love to vacation with my long time Girlfriend. I can't be doing that when my vacations are tethered to the pickup window of the Bruery.

I haven't brewed much this month because I quite honestly haven't had the time. Visiting My Girl, work, and preparing for this vacation have all been more important. That will change after I return and report on my vacation.

A primer for the vacation. (3.5 Days LA/SD): Look Forward to reports on:

1. The Bruery
2. Beachwood BBQ
3. In N Out Burger
4. Stone's Calm Before The Storm
5. Port Brewing
6. Iron-fist Brewing
7. Ballast Point Taproom
8. Ale-smith Brewery
9. Alpine Brewing
10. Coronado Brewing
11. Urge Gastro Pub

And much, much, more.... We fly out of midway tomorrow at 6:30 am local time...

Hopcat: 5th Anniversary & Oil Rigger Release

Saturday was Hopcat's fifth anniversary. Hopcat for those of you who don't live in Grand Rapids Michigan is the city and perhaps the state's preeminent beer bar. It's a place that has helped cultivate my love and understanding of different beers. Finding a place like this really helped me grow in my appreciation for styles by having many examples of a style on draft side by side. You can't really appreciate the nuances of something without a point of reference. Two Russian Imperial Stouts side by side is an experience in decadence; it also allows you to appreciate their differences as you sample one and then another. The fifth anniversary party taught me a few things that I didn't know before and gave me a great opportunity to try a great beer.

(please read more about my day out after the break.)

A Year of Blogging

Things are looking up!

Thank you for reading my blog! This is around the one year anniversary of when I first started working on my blog. I can't say that my blog has always been easy, but it has been fun.

The main thing I've learned: It's the Yeast Stupid.
Quality ingredients matter; Grains have flavors; yadda yadda yadda. The flavor of signature beers has as much to do with the yeast as with anything else. You can't make a Belgian beer without Belgian yeast. You can't make a sour without acids and micro-flora.

If anyone is reading this please post a comment of what you've learned from brewing in your years of experiences.

Pliny the Younger Release - Beercation 2

In year 2 of the beer-cation Derek and I went after Pliny the Younger. We flew into San Fransisco and drove north arriving just after one PST. We were in line within view of Russian River but the line moved slowly. They were allowing one person in for every one person who left, and the people inside were in no hurry to leave. After 3-4 hours in line we got in, there was plenty of Pliny. We each enjoyed 2 glasses and a sampler of the 21 beers Russian River had on tap. We sampled the food as well; who knew pizza and beer worked so well together? We were seated with two gentlemen from San Fransisco who were also enthusiasts. We talked about what sours were the best, which IPAs we should try, what local breweries were worth a look, and what we should do in San Fransisco . The whole experience was memorable, not just the beer.

Beer flights are a great way to get a feel for a brewery. Anyone can make a single good beer; many can make a single great beer; very few can make an entire flight of unique drinkable beers. When I attack a flight like the one from Russian River I try to go after them by style with the most nuetral ones first. In the case of Russian River this meant their non IPA ales first followed by their legendary sours. All of the sours are amazing on tap but consecration stands out among them and sanctification is a wonderful showcase of 100% Brett fermentation. Finally I finished up with the IPAs: Blind Pig, Pliny the Elder, and Pliny the Younger. All are world class beers in their own right


The show was Pliny the Younger because it's rated as the number one beer on Beer Advocate. It is a triple IPA that is 4 times dry hopped for a unique flavor and resiny feeling. I've reviewed it on beer advocate and I agree with other reviewers that it is world class. It was certainly an experience and I think the tasting of more versions of the style will help my development of my own recipes. My general thoughts of the beer were bitter, resinous, and thick. The triple nature of this IPA prevented it from drying out too much and the thick bitterness was carried in each sip.

It's not every day you stumble into a good situation but that's precisely what happened to us on day two of our trip. Dimitri told us about a anniversary party at Beer Revolution in Oakland and it did not disappoint.  On tap were Cantillion's Fou Fonne, Kriek, and Iris. Iris was unique in that it was a heavily hopped sour that carried both bitterness and extreme funk across my palate. The Fou Fonne was my favorite of the three because it held onto the fruit flavor the best among all the Cantillions I've had so far. It had substantial funk like any Cantillion lambic but the fleshly fruit flavor from the peaches remained even after the sweetness from the fruit had gone. The Kriek was what it was; Sour with hints of cherry, under even more sourness.

While at Beer Revolution we heard about a triple IPA release at Drake's Barrel House a mere 15 minutes away. Drake's Barrel house had a number of beers on tap, among them a variety of barrel aged beers. Their triple IPA was also outstanding, but the winner for me was the blended Russian Imperial stout. It had a tartness and a dryness which I found pleasant. I would compare it to the infected bottles of Abyss, or the Boulevard RIS which was tainted with Brett. Having those additional flavors in such a complex beer just continues to add to it. The dark fruit flavors of the grain mixed with the tart fruity flavors of the brettanomyces to create harmonious results. It surpassed the Blackberry RIS in both tartness and fruitiness.

We finished the trip with a trip to The Bruery in orange to pick up 51 bottles of reserve society beer. This ended a long day of driving from San Fran to Orange on HWY 1. Worn out by a hard day of driving and sitting we sat back and enjoyed a Black Tuesday while watching National Treasure 2. The Beer was much better than the movie. We flew back to reality the next morning after packing our halu to be checked under the plane.

The Festival of Barrel Aged Beers (FOBAB)

The Festival of Barrel Aged Beers is an event that happens annually in Chicago. It is both a celebration and a competition for barrel aged beers. The only qualification to be entered in this competition is that it must be aged in some sort of barrel. Wine Barrels, Sour Barrels, Oak Barrels, Bourbon barrels, Any Wood Barrel goes! The event is an open tasting with dozens perhaps 100s of jockey boxes. There are so many taps that there is barely ever a line, each group of 4 or so taps is manned by a person. You're never waiting for a sample for long, water is provided as a palet cleanser and there is food availible to purchase. This is a well run event with 2 sessions, and no beers are only availible at a single session.

(read more after the break.)

Three Floyds 15th Anniversary

Saturday 11/12/11 was 3 Floyds 15th anniversary. They brew some fantastic beers. There was a 6 hour line to get into this event. Not for me though I knew better and arrived 2 hours early, I was about 20 minuttes from getting beer in the line.

The Beer: The Anniversary Beer was a super stout called Ballerstout which was made from Darkness, Darklord, Beer Geek Brunch, and Black Albert. Other beers to buy were Brandy Barrel Aged Dark Lord, Several Sours and One Off 3 Floyds Products. We got 4 Brandy DL and 1 Conquistador De Muerta. I got to sample Ballerstout outside in the beer tent. It was really good, It was very drinkable for being a big stout. The flavors were a perfect mesh of the strengths of the various components of the beer. It had the dark fruits from Darklord without the overall viscosity, it had the hop flavor of Darkness without being as intense, It had the coffee of Mikkeller without being too astringent.

(read more after the break.)

Beer Events - CBS Release

One of the first beers I had that blew my mind was Canadian Breakfast Stout from founders, this was a chance tapping at the founders black party in 2009. I got a taster after having my first black IPA and I was in love. I returned the next weekend and had two glasses, I brought a friend and we both agreed that CBS was without a doubt the best beer we'd ever had. This was an easy statement to make because we hadn't had many great beers prior to that. I know that it might sound silly to non beer geeks but I stalked that beer. I've only missed one chance to have it since that first sip and this weekend founders released bottled of it for the first time. I wasn't going to be denied.

(read more after the break.)