American Craft Beer Week

Let me see. Last year I started off American Craft Beer Week (ACBW) with a plan to taste a new craft beer each day of the week. I promptly fell ill and didn’t finish out the effort.

This year, I’ve neglected the first day, really. I did have a Bridgeport Brewing IPA with lunch here at Beer Rant HQ but my real effort was focused on tending a couple of grandkids and helping them make a birthday present for their mommy. (Shhhh. Don't tell.)

I guess you could say I got a jump on ACBW. Friday evening I had occasion to travel to Tucson for an event at the Arizona Historical Society and luckily, Gentle Ben’s brewpub was not more than about 500 feet from the Society museum. So, after my event was over, I strolled over to Gentle Ben’s with a couple of friends and sampled their Red Cat Amber and I took a growler of their Porter home. I’ll simply say here that the Red Cat Amber was passable, but not extraordinary. The Porter on the other hand was terrific and I’ll give it a more detailed post later – perhaps later this week.

I see that Arizona’s ACBW events are primarily centered at places like Rockbottom and BJ’s around town. I’ll probably not get out to any of those venues during the work week but I do have some rare and unusual limited edition beers in the fridge, which I may crack open. (A couple of them are produced in locales that have recently proclaimed a boycott against Arizona, so they may be the last of their kind I sample here at Beer Rant for the foreseeable future – sorry, I can be just as spiteful and petty as the next fellow.)

You can look up Arizona ACBW events at the American Craft Beer Week website.

We’re looking down the barrel of our first 100-degree day here at Beer Rant HQ. The weatherman says Wednesday. I’ve got some winter seasonals hidden in the back of a closet here. Maybe I need to crack those open this week in honor of our hitting the century mark.

Of Hangovers, Work, Golf and the Common Cold

Been under the weather the last week or so. Had a marathon session of work-related (read: non-beer) presentations to give at a local conference in the midst of feeling a cold coming on. I didn’t help my cause any by overindulging at the local brew house a little over a week ago. All this to say I’ve shied away from the barley pop the last little bit. I even gave my free drink ticket to a co-worker during the after conference reception – not simply out of a self imposed sense of sacrifice, but because it’s not a good idea to drink in front of the bosses. Right?

I did join some fellows from work for 18 holes of golf this past Saturday – perhaps the last decent weather day we’ll have in the Phoenix area for a spell. I’ve played golf exactly once before – when I was in the Army, at a little par-3 course outside Gowen Field in Boise, Idaho. It sucked back then, but I must say I enjoyed the most recent outing and I sampled my first Blue Moon and Fat Tire from cans. I have to say I preferred the Fat Tire in the can over the Blue Moon in a can. That’s just me. The golf? I put two in the water, one in some guy’s backyard and still managed to keep a good humor.

Make That A Cascadian, Mac.
The detectives over at The Full Pint put the word out on Cascadian Dark Ale. There’s that emerging beer trend we were talking about. I note with interest that the bottle dating is a “best before” date, which means I’m even more inclined to find a small refrigerator to cellar all these creations.

Rare and Unusual
I’ve got three dandy looking prospects in the fridge waiting to be sampled: Avery’s Brabant Barrel-Aged Wild Ale, Deschutes 2009 Abyss and Sierra Nevada’s 30th Anniversary Stout. The Abyss may have to wait a spell but I’m eager to pop the top on the Sierra Nevada anniversary stuff. As for the Avery, well I bought it on false pretenses at Total Wine – not knowing it was 9 bucks for a 12-ounce bottle until I’d already checked out. Probably my last big beer fling if things keep going the way they have been. Look folks, the economy’s in the crapper, the whole nation is down on Arizona, I’ll likely have to resort to drinking only Arizona beers in retaliation and lately it seems I’m drinking more and enjoying it less that ever before. I need to back up and regroup a bit here.

Maybe that’s just the Alka-Seltzer night nurse talking.

Work Yet To Be Done...

Yes, I’m going to get ‘round to posting a review of Eddies: The Documentary. Oh hell yes, I will.