Beer Rant:

Neither fish, nor fowl. But still great.

2011-12-05T16:13:00.001-08:00

I’ve probably sampled a half dozen black IPA’s and one thing I’ve found consistent throughout the lot: none of them has the typical characteristics of an IPA. No piney or grapefruit smell and no citrus or grapefruit taste that I recall. So I’m at a loss as to why the new raft of dark beers is being called “IPA” but never mind. I’ve liked them all. They may not smell and taste like IPAs, but they’re definitely black, or at least dark.

The latest local offering from Old World Brewery, Eclipse Black IPA, is no exception to this trend. It isn’t hoppy in the traditional IPA sense but it’s plenty good and low enough in abv to serve as a decent session beer. I got wind of this release through Old World’s Facebook page and made a commitment to drop by as soon as possible in order not to miss it, along with another short run offering called, suggestively, “The Prick.” I had my opportunity a couple weeks before Thanksgiving.

The maniacs at OWB are just as friendly and welcoming as ever and I felt as though I’d not been away any time at all, though it's been several months since my last visit. Knowing that I’d have to get on the road after a single pint, I ordered a serving of The Prick, with its lower abv, and asked for a bomber of Eclipse to travel. The Prick is a prickly pear wheat beer that has a faint hint of sweet breakfast cereal to it – not unlike one of Leinenkugel’s beer’s, the name of which escapes me at the moment. I’m not typically a fan of wheat’s but this one is a keeper.

I chatted with the fellows at OWB, enjoyed the prickly pear wheat, tossed a bomber of Eclipse in the trunk of the car and headed home. Once at Beer Rant HQ, I sprang the top off that bomber and poured the contents into a glass. The tasting notes read so:

Eclipse, Black IPA

Smells slightly chocolaty. Nearly opaque coffee brown, persistent tan head. Surprisingly thick mouthfeel. No hints of pine or grapefruit as you’d expect from an IPA which is pretty standard with the other black IPAs I’ve tried. I don’t like the notion of an IPA that doesn’t taste like an IPA but this is a good beer.

There you have it. Judging by their Facebook page, the guys at OWB aren’t letting the grass grow between their toes. Word comes that they’ve got a honey wheat out now and they’re anticipating the release of a Scotch ale, similar to the one they put out for their first anniversary. Here’s to the future.

By the way, if you’re an advocate of Facebook, why don’t you go over to the Old World Brewery Facebook page and “like” them? I hear it’s all the rage.

As a bit of a postscript, when Thanksgiving rolled around, my son-in-law came over from Camp Pendleton where he's preparing for another all-expense paid trip overseas do defend the rest of us. I stopped by OWB and grabbed another bomber of Eclipse for him to enjoy during his short stay. He's now back at Pendleton and I didn't get any definitive feedback on the Eclipse - Marines are men of few words - but I suppose it was okay, since it disappeared pretty fast.

First (Ever) Post from the Road

2011-08-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

Spending 9 days or so in Utah. Today is International Beer Day or some such and I happen to have picked up a bottle of British beer: Oxfordshire Ales' Triple B.

Tasting notes read thus: Sweet malty smell. Bronze color, weak head. (I may have chilled it a bit too much.) Malty nutty taste, sweet tea-like finish. Tastes a bit like Bass but better.

May have to find more of this for the drive back to Beer Rant HQ. (Already found 12 packs of Olympia, which I thought was long gone from the face of the earth. Will buy one for old time sake.)

Here's a web cam shot of today's taster.

That rocking horse in the background belongs to my granddaughter. Spent the morning tightening it up. Seems it's been rode hard out on the range and needed a little maintenance. Good as new now!

Out of the loop (again)

2011-07-11T18:43:00.000-07:00

I've been out of the loop for several months. I need to say that the NASCAR event was terrific and to let you all know that Turn One Racing provided me with some wonderful access to the pit lane at Phoenix International Raceway. Kudos also to Old World Brewing - without them I'd have been stuck in the stands.

Since my last post, I've entered a Master's degree program that is keeping me very busy. So, what with playing with the grandkids every weekend and working a 40 hour week as well, it's been a grind. Add to that the fact that Google blogger has dinked up the posting process so I'll have to relearn a bunch of that stuff as well. Little wonder I've shied away from posting all these months, huh?

I have been keeping the beer log though and there are some terrific vintage beers stored in the fridge that I'm dying to try. One from 2009, and a couple from 2010. Perhaps I'll keep them a bit longer. I may be seldom seen but I'm not gone completely.

By the by, this is my first post using a fancy new laptop computer we picked up a few months back. (Did I mention the 2012 Mustang that's now parked at Beer Rang HQ? Yeah, we've lost our minds here. I find I'm drinking less and driving more these days, but it's grand.)

Old World Brewery: Off To The Races!

2011-02-11T18:52:00.000-08:00

At the risk of appearing to fall into a predictable pattern, I’m going to follow up one Old World Brewing post with another, simply because last Friday my camera refused to cooperate during a visit to OWB’s new location on 25th Avenue. I dropped by again today after work, met my nephew for a pint and snapped a few admittedly mediocre photos of the new place. (I’m not a photographer. My nephew’s a photographer, check out his WEBSITE.)

Today we ambled into the taproom to find three fellow blue-collar working stiffs quaffing the foamy suds and that’s a good sign. Seems folks are finding OWB despite the move. I was happy to see brewer Matt working away at something in the back along with Patrick. In short order we had pints of Red in front of us and the conversation drifted easily between topics.

Despite what one would hope are the typical difficulties associated with such an endeavor, the crew at OWB continues to forge ahead, putting out dependable, tasty product (brewed in Flagstaff for the moment) while they fit and fashion and fine-tune all the aspects of the new brewery setup. Just writing about it is exhausting.

We got another quick tour, this time with my camera functioning properly, and I shot a nifty couple of images of the old walk-in safe that once served admirably back when this building was a United States Post Office. Now, Patrick operates an office in the safe and today he took a moment to check out the line up for the upcoming Strong Beer Festival. As always we were made to feel welcome and only the prospect of getting pulled over by an officer of the law prevented us from staying for more than one pint, but as we exchanged farewells in the parking lot my nephew and I discussed the plan to one day have a taxi cab on standby so that we could stay for some real fun!

Old World Breaking into the NASCAR Scene? Yup!

My two or three repeat customers here at Beer Rant will remember that I blogged about a craft beer sponsorship in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series a good while back. (See that post here.) At that time I was tickled witless at the prospect of the craft brewing community stepping into the NASCAR arena even if the brewer was an out of state concern. Well, I’m happy to report that Old World Brewery will be running its logo on a NASCAR truck in the upcoming race at Phoenix International Raceway this year! Here’s a link to the website for Turn One Racing. Details of the arrangement seem to be up in the air just yet, but if you’re the sort that likes to follow NASCAR, and especially the truck series, keep an eye out for truck #60 and it’s new driver Cole Whitt because reportedly, somewhere on that truck will be an Old World Brewery logo! (I plan to attend a couple of NASCAR events at Phoenix International Raceway that week, including the truck race, so perhaps I can carry some OWB product down to the track and enjoy it like I did when Lagunita’s sponsored a truck in 2009.)

Finally, if you’re in the vicinity of 25th Avenue, just north of Van Buren (behind the Pep Boys building there, just across the street from Werner’s Welding), you owe it to yourself to stop in to Old World Brewery. You won’t see a sign on the front of the building so you’ll just have to trust your instincts, friends.

See you at the race!

Be Safe!

Old World, New Digs

2011-02-05T19:44:00.000-08:00

First post of 2011; it’s been too long, I know. Enough said.

The Cool Shit You See When Your Camera Battery is Dead!

Old World Brewery has resumed operations in a new facility near 25th Avenue and Van Buren here in Phoenix and I’ve been meaning to drop by for a visit for several weeks. I drove by a couple times to check for activity late last year but didn’t find anyone around, but yesterday was a different story. After work I met a co-worker there – we’ll call him Vernon Bannister - and we ambled in to find Patrick Fields jamming at the drum set with his son.

Patrick graciously showed us around Old World’s new place, which was once a United States Post office back in the day. I asked about any special characteristics of the building, like safes and so forth and Patrick said, “speaking of safes…” and showed us to the brewery’s new office, located in an honest to God walk in safe. Cool. The brewery equipment isn’t quite up and running yet – the current Old World product is reportedly coming from Mogollon Brewing in Flagstaff for the moment (you’ve got to love the cooperative spirit of local brewing, right?).

My camera’s battery was dead, so I’ve got a built in excuse for a follow up visit this coming week. The new brewery building also includes an exhibit space for local artists to show and sell their work. Auctions of artwork are planned, as is a beer festival of some sort in the near future, perhaps in conjunction with a larger statewide beer celebration.

Patrick Fields was as gracious as ever, as focused as ever and seems more determined than ever to push Old World Brewery to the forefront of local brewing prowess. God knows they’ve got a brewing space worthy of the challenge. It should be fun to see where things go from here.

Vernon Bannister and I each departed with a growler of Irish Red and a pint glass sporting the new Old World logo. Perhaps Vernon is a convert as well, now; I think he is. (The picture here was taken later, when I got my growler home and my camera battery charged.)

As for the Irish Red – you know their porter would have been my choice had it been an option – the Red may be better than I remembered from the Lone Cactus facility and even a day later was holding up nicely in the growler. Thanks Patrick! Thanks Old World. (Patrick tells me that the porter will be one of their first batches when the 25th Avenue facility starts production. Awesome.) I tipped a glass of the Red in honor of my nephew's birthday as well. All in all, a great evening.

Look for Old World on Facebook, too.

In Praise of...Brew Masters on Discovery Channel

2010-11-27T10:22:00.000-08:00

Watch it!

This is just a quick post to get out ahead of Sunday night’s television lineup.

Mrs. BeerRant and I watched the first episode of Discovery Channel's Brew Masters this morning – TiVoed from a week ago or earlier.

I like it, A LOT. Mrs. BeerRant liked it too (and she’s way pickier than me when it comes to television watching. Picking husbands? Eh, not so much, I guess. Lucky for me.)

I’ve gone on at length here about my feelings regarding Dogfish Head’s brews. For my previous posts about DFH Brewing go HERE. I’ve tried one of their raisin concoctions, a peach disaster, an IPA, a chicory stout, an Indian brown ale and their pumpkin beer. I like the chicory, the brown ale and the pumpkin beer, which puts them at a 50% success rate in my book. (No reason to give up on someone at 50%, hell if that was the case Mrs. BeerRant would have left me years ago!) Bottom line: I like enough of their beers to continue trying them simply on their record alone, but factor in the personality behind the brewery and I’m always willing to give them a shot. So far, the series Brew Masters is at 100 percent.

I think you’ll find that the first episode of Brew Masters shows Sam Calagione to be a personable, fun-loving but hard-working guy; an image you probably picked up on in the documentary film Beer Wars, as well.

Now, the question that pops into my head is whether there’s just a bit of the Emperor’s New Clothes at work during the tasting session, in which all the folks gush over the release of Bitches Brew brewed in honor of the anniversary of the Mile’s Davis album of the same name from the 1970s. I’ve often tasted beer in front of the brewer and, though I didn’t think it was top notch, I’ve said it was good – that’s a weakness of mine and I rarely put myself in that position these days, preferring to spout off here where I can go all “beer jerk” if I don’t like a particular beer. Anyhow, I wonder if Sam got the same sort of feedback when he developed that travesty that is known as Festina Peche. Ugh.

Okay, back on track…

I really, really liked Brew Masters and we’ll set up the old TiVo to catch the next episode. Rather than read any more of my blather, here’s what the cool kids say about the show:

Brew Public
I especially like this write up because it mentions something I noticed when watching the first episode of Brew Masters: The Blue Moon commercials. As I’d suspected, the craft beer literati and the microbrew snobs have come out retching and kvetching about this. Never mind that in the first episode of Brew Masters, we were shown what a small percentage of the beer market is actually occupied by the likes of Dogfish Head Brewing. So you don’t like Coors. So you don’t like Blue Moon. Fine. Shut the fuck up, drink your $9/four pack beer and let the unwashed masses underwrite your beer-related television viewing entertainments through their purchases of the vastly cheaper beers made by the likes of Coors. (Cheaper and less inspiring, for sure.) Or, show some testicles and boycott the damned show, boycott Dogfish Head, boycott Coors and boycott the Discovery Channel. If not, at least shut the fuck up.

The Brew Lounge
One of the comments posted at this blog takes a swipe at the inaugural episodes rap-music fixation, perhaps having forgotten that the beer being brewed is to honor the re-release of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew by Sony Records. (Or something…)

Wall Street Journal
I don’t actually read the Wall Street Journal much.

Here’s what Beer Advocate posted about Brew Masters.

I’m bushed. Must be all the turkey I’ve eaten the last day or so….or the beer.

Beaver Creek and Colorado Native

2010-11-09T19:26:00.000-08:00

Been in a bit of a funk of late – thankfully not for lack of good people around me. There’s just this sort of self-starting internal glumness that settles in now and then, accompanied by a bit of writer’s block (if I may be so bold as to call myself a “writer” for hell’s sake) and no matter whom you’re around or where you go, the pervasive gloominess hangs on for some reason.

Well, in spite of all that there are a couple of neat things to relate here at BeerRant, so I’ll be about it before this shadiness, this crankiness gets worse.

FLAGSTAFF IN THE FALL (It's nice.)

I rarely venture far outside the greater Phoenix area and when I do it’s almost always work related. A jaunt up I-17 to Flagstaff the last month of October was no exception. I spoke at a conference near the NAU campus on a Thursday afternoon and made a trip out of it, attending the conference all day Thursday and half of Friday. But what to do with my spare time on Thursday night? I did a bit of research on local brewpubs and by the time I’d arrived Thursday morning I’d pretty well determined that I would walk over to Beaver Street Brewery, just up the street from the conference center and the NAU campus.

It was dark by the time I set out from the conference center to make my way the two or three blocks to find Beaver Street Brewery’s operation. (I’d stopped to chat with other conference attendees and share an overpriced bottle of Fat Tire before heading off on my own.) I negotiated some road construction in the dark and managed to find Beaver Street with little difficulty. I was seated promptly and had menus in hand immediately. I kept one eye on the world series game while I scanned the menu to make my selections. Bowl of chili and a pint of their R&R Oatmeal Stout. I didn’t have my Beer Engineer’s Field Book during this trip, but a 3x5 index card made a nice substitute. Here’s what I jotted on that card:
R&R Stout. Dark/opaque with a sturdy head. Faint hint of chocolate in the smell and noticeable in the taste. Every bit as good as [Deschutes’] Obsidian Stout. Heavy lacing.

Every bit as good as Obsidian Stout. What higher endorsement do you need, people? The chili was darned good as well and the cornbread muffin – oh yes. I apologize there isn't a picture of this sturdy stout.

During my meal I spied a sign on the back bar advertising something called Lumberyard Red in cans. Thinking I’d likely need a beer or two back at the hotel, I asked the waitress if they had any package beers cold, when she replied in the affirmative, I had her add a 12-pack of the Lumberyard to my tab, then I settled up and made my way back to the hotel where I watched a couple more innings of the world series before changing over to a Charlie Brown classic. I sampled the Lumberyard there in the hotel and am happy to report that I can recommend it as well. I’ll give a better set of tasting notes soon.

I'll go back to Flagstaff as soon as I can, and when I do, I hope to be able to visit Beaver Street Brewery again.

HOPS TO THE PEOPLE, MAN!

When I first sampled Colorado Native Lager during my visit “back home” this summer, I wasn’t aware that it was a Coors product. I liked it then and I like it now, and perhaps I like it even more (you’ll see why in a second). You’ll see in the blog posts I made regarding the Colorado trip, I didn’t make reference to Colorado Native. Well I sampled it at a Baker Street Pub and snapped a photo with my phone camera, which I can’t download. I do have notes in this here Beer Engineer Field Book and the notes indicate I sampled CNL on two consecutive days. On July 21st I noted that it was “a bit dark for a lager” with a “faintly roasted taste…” and on July 22nd I played pool with my nephew and drank Colorado Native Lager along with some Black Butte Porter and some Mirror Pond Pale Ale. Good company.

More recently, I was chatting with my brother who was in Colorado the same time I was and he raved about a local beer he discovered in Vail or Winter Park or some such place. (I never venture any farther than Clear Creek County when I get to Colorado.) Turns out he was talking about Colorado Native Lager!

I like Colorado Native Lager just fine, I liked it before I knew it was basically a Coors product and I might actually like it more now that I do know it’s a Coors product. It kind of tickles me to get in another gulp of local product at the exclusion of those folks at Golden City Brewing.

Here’s the grading for Colorado Native at Beer Advocate. I wonder if all these folks know it’s a macro brew concoction.

Here's a cool blog post about Colorado Native’s label. Mentioned here is the fact that the ingredients for Colorado Native are 99.8% Colorado grown and that their back label includes something called a SnapTag. (Hmmm. I wonder what ingredients aren’t from Colorado and whether they might be able to do without them for the sake of a perfect 100% score.)

But that’s not the last word. Here's why I REALLY like Colorado Native Lager: I stumbled on a blog post at Mile High Beer. Seems the folks at CNL are going to distribute hop rhizomes to anyone who makes a request. I sent in my request and got a nice email reply. That’s cool. I hope to have that hop rhizome early next year. In the meantime, I’ll post a picture of a hop bud that I retrieved from a local hop plant up stream from the Coors plant, in Clear Creek County. (I’ll give you a hint; it’s not from a hop plant in Idaho Springs or Georgetown.)

Let’s hear if for all the Colorado Natives. (Now excuse me, I'm off to buy a Colorado Native Lager t-shirt.)

Stinker Alert! Buffalo Bill's Bad Batch! (Sorry)

2010-10-19T19:38:00.000-07:00

The Jury’s In.

This year’s batch of Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale is a stinker. At least the Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale that was shipped to the Phoenix, Arizona market is a stinker.

I picked up a single of BBPA at the local Total Wine store on Saturday (not wanting to blow the dough for a full six pack in case my suspicions were confirmed) and on Sunday, I popped the top, and poured the contents to find a sour smelling, floater infested glass of tangy pumpkin ale, not at all in a league with their previous year’s efforts.

So for the 2010 historical record: A six pack of Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale purchased at Cost Plus was found to be sour smelling and tasting with intermittent flaky, paper-like floaters. A random single of Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale purchased at Total Wine was found to be sour smelling and tasting with small speck-like floaters.

Sorry Buffalo Bill. See you next year.

On a Positive Note.

In my quest for a single bottle of BBPA, I snagged a single of Lakefront Brewing’s Pumpkin Lager, remembering how enjoyed their pumpkin offering last year in Denver and a single of Abita Brewing’s Pecan Harvest (and some others) remembering with fondness a bunch of Shiner Holiday Cheer’s that I’ve enjoyed. (You remember that one from Texas that’s brewed with pecans and peaches…ah, delicious.)

I first enjoyed Lake Front’s Pumpkin Lager at a little Mexican restaurant on the west side of Denver almost a year ago exactly. The upside then was that they were having a special on this one and I originally recalled that it was on draft, but the more I think about it, the more I begin to recall that it was served in bottles. My brother-in-law was even coaxed into trying one and enjoyed it, I believe. I enjoyed it so much that when I returned from the Denver trip (last year’s Denver trip, not to be confused with this year’s Denver trip), I eagerly hunted the shelves of the local booze outlets hoping to find more, but to no avail.

Imagine my thrill at finding Lake Front Pumpkin Lager at Total Wine this past weekend. I don’t know if it was simply setting and circumstance, but my notes this time don’t measure up to that initial sampling. Here are the two separate entries.
October 7, 2009
More spice than pumpkin. Very good spiced pumpkin taste. Enjoyed as a prelude to getting my ass kicked at pool
(Did I mention that my brother-in-law is an accomplished pool player?)
October 17, 2010
Cloudy bronze. Weak head. Slightly sour smelling but with noticeable pumpkin smell. Vaguely sour, not especially spicy. Not as good as I recall it from Denver a year ago.

Indeed. I believe the October 2009 sample was all the more tasty because of the pleasant company of my brother-in-law. Setting and circumstance, people.

The notes for Pecan Harvest are certainly more hopeful than for BBPA this year and even as compared to the Lakefront Pumpkin Lager:
Copper colored with a thin head. Good – not like anything I can think of. Nutty roasted tasting – a bit rich and probably not something you’d want to drink a bunch of.

No, not a bunch, but just right if two or three is your goal for an afternoon under a tree in the back yard.

That’s it. I’ve got a busy rest of the week and a busy weekend coming up, then, this time next week I’ll be preparing for a two-day jaunt up to Flagstaff on work-related business and I’m hoping to visit Mogollon Brewing during my free time on Friday. (See them at http://www.mogbrew.com/)

The Bad, Better and Best of Fall Seasonals (So Far)

2010-10-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

Did Buffalo Bill lay an egg this year?
I’m beginning to wonder. The six pack my daughter picked up for me at the local Cost Plus store tastes a bit sour and at least one of the bottles had some unusual floaters in it. In the interest of fairness, I’ll procure a single or two at the local Total Wine and do a comparison. Is it possible that Cost Plus got the remains of last year’s batch?

On a brighter note.
Sierra Nevada’s Tumbler seasonal is at least a bit better than sour pumpkin ale. My notebook for this offering reads thus:
Definitely brown. Weak head. Has kind of a corny lager smell. A bit sour and pretty weak.

I've come to expect more from the scientists at SN Brewing and this one just doesn't measure up, I'm afraid. I'll continue to look for their Torpedo (for example) instead.

Best of the batch.
I recall first sampling New Belgium’s Hoptober on tap at the Baker Street Pub near my sister’s place outside Denver last year. It was good, though I recall being surprised because I’d expected a somewhat darker, marzen or Oktoberfest style beer, when in fact this one was just a nice, straight up hoppy, light-colored ale.
Well, this years offering (in bottles this time) is no surprise and certainly no disappointment. The notes on this one:
Pours like a pilsener – straw yellow with a white head. Strong hop notes in the smell at first. Citrus/orange taste up front. Dry. Active beading. Medium-heavy lacing. Good – better than Tumbler.

"Better than Tumbler," indeed. (Sometimes this blog damned near writes itself.) Hoptober will be one I'll stock up on and enjoy for Thanksgiving - it's never too early to consider the holiday's, is it. (At right is a shot of the Hoptober from Denver 2009)

We’re heading into the best part of the year for beer lovers, people. Brace yourself. Pace yourself!

Tilt Shifting with Deschutes Hop Henge Experimental IPA

2010-09-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

I don’t profess to be a photographer of any merit, but once in awhile I snap a picture that’s actually almost as good as the beer that’s represented. My experience with Deschutes’ Hop Henge Experimental IPA is a case in point.

Here’s a picture I took of the pour, in an admittedly contrived set up. I accentuated the pose by running it through a process called tilt shift. (You can monkey around with your own photos by visiting a cool website HERE. Enjoy. And if you use the process to doctor photos for your beer blog, please drop me a note so I can see your work, too.)

As for the beer, here’s what my notes, word for word, from back on May 6th:

Lovely pale ale color with off white head. Perfumy fragrant candy sweet faintly citrus mostly sweet. Quickly dry piney tasting and sweet. Surprisingly thick mouth feel and amply bitter. A couple weeks past its expire date of 4/16/10 but not a problem.

I’ll confess that I don’t even know if this is still available (I hope it is.). Here are some Hop Henge related posts on the web:

Why do the fatheads over at Beer Advocate feel the need to post their pictures with a caption that reads, “Displayed for educational use only; do not reuse”?

High praise over at Rate Beer, where they’ve managed to post a shot of Hop Henge in modified livery…without the worrisome disclaimer about “educational use…” but still just a bottle/label shot without a pour to actually prove they’ve ever come in contact with the a real bottle of the stuff. (It must suck to be that busy.)

Deeper into the beer sampling trenches, you’ll find this nicely done bit at The Brew Site. I especially like the comparisons from year to year.

Here are a couple more beer pictures I doctored using the tilt shift trick:

(Sigh) The Great American Beer Festival is about to kick off in Denver…I’ll be on the porch here at Beer Rant HQ…just like every other year.

Grimm Realities and Some Photos

2010-08-30T16:34:00.000-07:00

I see that I’ve only posted about two new posts a month for the past few months. Here’s to consistency, I guess. Guess I’ll ramble on and post some pictures that I’ve had in the hopper for some time.

I’ve sampled plenty of new beers and probably some duplicates (I need to set up a spreadsheet to track what I’m trying) but nothing really jumps out at the moment. Perhaps the big news isn’t what’s in the glass so much as where it’s coming from.

Recall that I got word, third or fourth-hand, that Old World Brewery was out of their location on Lone Cactus and moving into new quarters (much) further south. Well, perhaps it’s karma or just dumb luck, but as events would have it, the new location is within a mile or two of where I ply my trade as a low-level government functionary.

I’ve never sampled beer in Mogadishu or Kabul but I’ve had a few in a now-famous hell hole called Juarez and I was served beer by a one-eyed gal at the Pine Knot Saloon near Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico, so I’ll venture that by outward appearances, the “new” Old World venue is not far off the mark, friends. The concertina wire on top of the fences in the neighborhood ought to be enough of an indicator but add a sign on the fence across the street that informs potential trespassers (and lost drunks) that the guard dog is trained to attack and, well, I rest my case. (Thank God I’m too old to be out late partying these days.) Still not convinced? Okay, how’s this: The place has bars on the friggin’ windows, people!

Still, I wish them the best in their move and I’ll drop by again (in the daylight) to see if any of the old gang is around for a tour of the new digs.

While I was in Colorado recently, my nephew raved about a new brewery opening up in Loveland, Colorado. I’ve not sampled any of their offerings but I’ve visited their website
HERE and find it’s very nice! Besides, my nephew knows his beer, so if you’re within the distribution region of Grimm Brother’s Brewery, give them a try and post me a comment here so I’ll know I haven’t been led astray.

Enjoy some pictures…..

Bell's Two Hearted Ale has got to be one of the best beer's I've tried in the last year. I frequently balk at paying $10 or more for a sixpack of beer, but not when I'm buying Two Hearted. I know it's not a "western beer" but I don't mind jumping the fence now and then when the beer his so damned good!

I first tried Blue Moon in cans during a rare visit to a local golf course. Since then, I've purchased a few of them for home consumption and I figured the first one out of the chute ought to be special so I opened the can with an old school opener and set up an ensemble pour. I'm not one for gimmicky packaging tricks but I really do think they need to develop a can opening that better replicates a bottle pour if they plan to stick with this whole can fad.

This time of year I really begin to start thinking about fall and its promise of cooler weather and shorter days. This line of though invariably leads to thoughts of Oktoberfest and Winter seasonal's and then, especially to what I think might be one of the better beer labels out there: New Belgium's Two Below. That's cold! Now, don't get me started on New Belgium's newer line of labels as exemplified by their Ranger IPA - "cheap and uninspired" are words that come to mind and if people pass up the beer because the label is lame, it won't matter how great the beer is. For the record, I've tried the Ranger (may even have done a write up here, I forget) and it's darn fine stuff, the label's just lame.

My birthday was last week and a sweet, dear friend gave me three bottles of Baltika beers from her native Russia, along with a sweet Baltika glass. Naturally I had the Porter first, but now they're all history. Here's a head shop of one of the Baltika's she gave me in year's past. I'll post a picture of the cool glass some time soon.

Catching Up: Eddies: The Documentary and Other Business

2010-08-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry I Took So Long Ed (and Michael)
I watched Eddies: The Documentary about a week ago with my son-in-law. We lounged around his place leisurely swigging some Session Black Lager. It’s really a terrific piece of work and I hope to do a more detailed write up at a later date but except for the fact that filmmaker Michael Peterson doesn’t delve much into the history of Big Rock Brewery, I can’t find anything not to like about the work. Beer drinkers and fans of the filmmaking craft – especially amateur filmmakers – will find a lot to like here!

One noteworthy aspect of the film is the fact that it covers contestants who manage to deliver entries of varying quality and even some who completely fail to come through, so at the end there is no suspicious feeling that Peterson has tweaked the content to provide a better filmic outcome. (Winning entries are evidently not actually aired on television and I thought the sequence near the end where Eddie himself considers running one of the entries in a television spot is especially humorous and a revealing look into the mindset of corporate folks at all levels.)

You need to go to the website Eddies Documentary and have a look at the synopsis and what other folks have had to say. One commentator states that by the end of the film you’ll want to make a film and you’ll want a beer. I’d echo that sentiment and will admit that I’ve already given thought to how I might acquire bottles of Big Rock product in order to conduct a film shoot here in Arizona, USA…but how, I don’t know. I’m pretty good at laying my hands on beer, but not a filmmaker.

Last of the Colorado Notes…For Now
I covered my nice visit to Breckenridge Brewery in Denver and in that post briefly mentioned a nice visit to Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs (where I grew up in the late 1960s and early 1970s). Well I stopped there on July 20th on the way back to Denver after a day in Clear Creek County. I ate a plate of their outstanding onion rings and had a pint of their Hop Strike Black Rye IPA (Cascadia Ale to some, perhaps. See my previous musings on this style here and here.) Tommyknocker’s version of this emerging style tips the scales at 7% abv, presents an opaque brown and smells vaguely (and rightly) of grapefruit. The taste is strangely nutty and hoppy at the same time and it’s one of the better examples of this new style that I’ve tried. The waitress told me it’s only been out a month or so.

To round out the meal I enjoyed a Pick Axe Pale Ale (which I’ve had in the past and which I would enjoy again later in the Colorado trip during a lunch with my nephew and his son in Georgetown - that's when the picture was taken). Finally, to put an exclamation point on the visit, I bought a six pack of their TundraBeary to carry back down the hill to Denver. (I enjoyed that immensely, bottle by bottle over the next few days.)

Old World. New Digs?
So I’m sitting here at BeerRant HQ, checking activity on my new Facebook page (which I’ve only had a week or so) and I see a note from one of my nephew’s who says something about Old World Brewery closing down and moving. WTF?

I go to the Old World Brewery website and it’s about as nondescript as ever, so (heh, heh, heh, I’m an insider now) I click on their Facebook link and find a string of comments intimating that they’ve closed down their operation on Lone Cactus and are relocating (much) further south to the area around 25th Avenue and Van Buren.

I’m bothered by this for reasons I can’t explain. Perhaps it’s simply that I no longer have a “local” brewpub in close proximity to my house. It’s sad.

Evidently the “New” Old World will open some time in October. Eh. End of an era.

Last of the 2009 Jubelale and Goodbye to a Great Man

Drank my last bottle of the 2009 Jubelale this evening and will have done so in honor of my Uncle Buff Rutherford who passed away yesterday - gone to be with my mom (his little sister) who went on ahead just this past May 29th. Buff was a man's man, a working man and by the work, you'd know the worker: rock solid and trustworthy. The world's a little less well off today for his loss.

Breckenridge Brewery - Off On a High Note.

2010-08-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

I’m sorry to have begun the Colorado recap on a down note, posting a “Beer Jerk” entry about Golden City Brewery. I’ve had a positive bit of feedback from a patron of theirs and that’s heartwarming. Nevertheless, my sentiment remains the same: real beer folk offer a smile and a kind word to all who enter their establishment. (That’s the operative word here, folks. The door was open. An open door signifies something in this world. I’ll let you all do the math.) What part of "Publick House" is unclear?

Now, on a more positive note, I’m at that stage where I’m mentally summarizing the things, places and people I saw in a week of Rocky Mountain memories, returning to the high mountain town where my mom was born and raised in order to allow her brothers and citizens of the town she loved so much an opportunity to say goodbye one last time in a church from 1876.

1. Everything seems smaller each time I return.
2. The summer weather, no matter how hot, entices me to stay forever, but I always know what comes around in late October.
3. A minister with a southern drawl and three missing fingers on his right hand is a fellow I want to have as the leader of my church, any day.
4. There is never enough time to see all the family.
5. Sadly, I feel more and more like a tourist each time I go back there.

I hopped off a plane about 10:30 on a Monday morning, picked up a rental car and headed toward my sister’s place on the west side of town. I’d done a bit of preliminary reconnaissance to determine that the Breckenridge Brew Pub was along the same alignment of 6th Avenue as my sister’s place, so knowing that everyone else would be at work, I made a detour to a little place on Klamath Street just south of the 6th Street alignment.

I pulled into a small side parking lot and snapped a few pictures of the outside of the building - wondering if perhaps I was too early to find them open. (Given later events in the trip, the colossal irony of this now nearly knocks me out of my chair.) The door was indeed open and I entered to find the place empty save a barman and a fellow working in the kitchen (Initially I didn’t see the back of the plant where the bottling line was chugging away mightily.) I hopped onto a stool at the bar and over the usual pleasantries the barman supplied me with a beer list and a menu. I pondered the options, perhaps too long, and settled on a pint of their Ball Park Brown and I ordered bowl of a meat soup that really turned out to be more of a stew that might easily have crossed the table in your mom’s kitchen. The Ball Park Brown presented a dark brown with a thin beige head and a thin mouth feel. It tasted a tad sour, not unlike some manifestations of Old World’s Dark Knight Porter (ah, I love the unpredictability of microbrews, don’t you?)

My host, the barman, was Stuart and, perhaps seeing my interest in the operation, he offered to walk me into the back of the building to see the tanks and the bottling line. Sweet! I gazed upon the tanks and had a peek at the bottling line, where they were just then in the process of bottling up their Vanilla Porter. Stuart stepped around to the line and, plucking a fresh bottle off the line, presented it to me as a memento of the visit. That was nice.

We returned to the bar where I had my lunch and a pint of their Oatmeal Stout. As a lead up to the pint, Stuart explained that they’ve got their stout in a nitrogen “fortified” version and a non-nitrogen version. He poured me a side-by-side sampling and the fortified version is altogether more appealing to the eye for sure and frankly the taste difference is amazing as well. The nitrogen infused stout is a good deal smoother than its non-nitrogen cousin. Stuart told me that they no longer offer growlers of the nitroginated stout because it just doesn’t pour the same once people get it home and they get a lot of wastage trying to pour it from the tap into a growler. To which I offered my theory that a growler beer requires an aggressive pour if a cash and carry customer hopes to come close to replicating a pub pour at home. Stuart seemed to agree.

As Stuart diligently went about the tasks of the typical barman (counting bottles, jotting notes, interacting with the bottling crew and trying to field the inane questions of a visitor) I finished my lunch and beers.

It was altogether a terrific first stop on the Colorado trip and a personal exchange for which I’m grateful. I mentioned the purpose of my visit and we commiserated briefly on the vagaries of life and Stuart offered condolences; all the things one would expect from any public house worth its salt. Made me wish I lived just up the street.

I just wish I’d gotten a chance to go back before catching the flight home a week later. Next time.

Golden City Brew-Ha Ha. Gimme a Coors.

2010-07-30T19:23:00.000-07:00

Wherein a native Coloradoan gets a lesson in just how much has changed in 33 years.

I’ve returned from a trip to Colorado and, by and large, it was a nice, if somewhat poignant visit for me. Nevertheless, from the standpoint of new beers sampled and new places visited, there was one significant negative experience that I’ll relate now to get the ugliness out of the way.

Last Friday I went out of my way to find their establishment and, arriving to find an adjacent beer garden full of laughing patrons, I entered through the open front door and approached the counter where I enjoyed the pleasure of being ignored by two or three folks for a couple of minutes, while a line formed behind me – a line occupied by at least one individual who was obviously past the point of intoxication.

Eventually, a woman washing dishes in a back room leaned around the doorframe to ask, “Have you been helped?”

“No,” says I, finally hopeful that I’d gotten in with the right person in the joint. I quickly stated that I’d like a glass of stout.

“We’re closed,” came the reply from the dishwasher. The stunned look on my face must have provoked her into adding that they were only filling containers or some such. (Remember, the beer garden outside is FULL of people.)

I was still attempting to register this nugget of knowledge – and I’m sure the dumb expression on my face told the story – when a second woman, similarly clad in a red t-shirt, sauntered into view. She cast a look toward me and based on her expression I felt the impulse to further explain myself (I frankly don’t recall if she bothered to ask my business). I restated my request for a beer and then trailed off saying, “….but I understand you’re closed.”

The snotty tone of her monosyllabic reply echoes in my head even today, a full week later: “Yeah,” she said, with a sort of rising inflection at the end that implied, “what are you, a moron?”

I stammered something about the price of a t-shirt and said maybe I’d buy one, though in my mind I knew immediately that I’d never, ever purchase another Golden City Brewery product again in my life. I took the brief walk of shame toward the door and out into the fading light of a Colorado evening. My hopes of sampling a local stout dashed.

Golden City Brewery touts itself as the second largest brewery in Golden, Colorado. For now, my money will go to support the biggest brewery in Golden, Colorado because, for all their big business, stomp-the-little-guy swagger, Coors still makes decent beer and their staff aren’t wankers – at least not in my experience.

In closing, let me state that before heading over to Golden to be ill used by the staff at Golden City Brewery, I sampled a bomber of their Mad Molly’s Brown Ale. Here are my notes, verbatim (remember, I jotted these before heading out to find Golden City Brewery):

Smells of chocolate in the bottle. Pours whiskey brown with a thin but respectable head. It’s either too carbonated or I’m using the wrong glass or both. Slightly nutty, vaguely chemical. Thin mouth feel means it works on a hot day. Not great. 4 or 5

So the one GCB beer that I did manage to purchase (at a liquor store) was okay – let’s say mediocre. But get this straight: It’s okay to make mediocre beer, perhaps it’s even okay to make bad beer if you behave like a decent human being, but if you make mediocre beer and you and your staff are jackhole’s to boot, we’re going to have problems.

Check back soon; I’ve got nice things to say about Breckenridge Brewery and Tommyknockers Brewery!

Beer Moment: Cold Beers on a Hot Patio

2010-07-06T17:36:00.000-07:00

I’ve subtitled this as a “beer diary” from the start and with that title comes the fact that from time to time there will be some heavy baggage to carry here – or I can stop posting and cash in my chips, I guess.

I’ve been out of the loop for a month or so.

I’m growing my beard out some these days, which isn’t too unusual for me given that I try on the beard now and then just to see how gray I’m getting. (I think John Steinbeck wrote that growing a beard is the only thing a man can do better than a woman.)

Difference this time ‘round is that I’m keeping the beard for now because it’s the way I would have last appeared to my mom as she lay sick and dying in a hospital bed.

Mom passed away very suddenly on May 29th. Just about 2 months after a wonderful 80th birthday party, at which we were all blessedly oblivious to the cancer that was even then taking her away from us.

I haven’t been drinking heavily as a form of painkiller as I thought I might under the circumstances; though I have had some beers for sure. I’ve had occasion to stop off at mom’s place a time or two in the last few weeks and I always take a moment to have a cold beer out on her patio – just one, maybe two – never too much to count me out for the hour long drive back to my place. (I had coffee and donuts one morning, too by the way.) It’s good therapy, there in the shade, with the incessant heat licking at the edges of the patio cover and at the edges of my soul; watching the wildlife.

Mom was a lot of things in her life but never a quitter. She lived in France shortly after the war, she worked in the then traditionally all-male banking industry, she nursed more than one dying husband and she wrote a book. She was awesome and largely under appreciated. She’d probably be a bit disappointed that her youngest son chose to first eulogize her on a beer blog. “You learned to drink in the army,” she once admonished me.

At times like this, I think the tendency is to make wild promises about how one will lead ones life going forward. “I’ll go to church every Sunday.” “I’ll give more to charity.” “I’ll stop swearing.” “I’ll never drink again.” “I’ll only cheat at cards if I plan to give the profits to charity, while not drinking or swearing.” You get the picture.

For now, I’ll just keep the beard. Beyond that, I am what my mom made me and I’m sure that at some point she’ll tell me what needs changing. I'll get myself straightened out and post some more here soon.

American Craft Beer Week

2010-05-17T18:17:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-03T18:57:00.000-07:00

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.

Old World Beers Out in the Big World!

2010-04-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

I neglected to mention that during our recent foray to the Scottsdale Whole Foods Market a few weeks back, I espied bottles of Old World Brewing product on the shelf.

Hmmm. What do I see on that shelf, cozied up next to the likes of Pabst Blue Ribbon, Rogue's Dead Guy, and Sonoran Victory IPA, Corona and Bud Light Lime? Why it's Old World's Irish Red Ale, Nitro Blonde Ale, Old World Wit and Dark Knight Porter. Literally a style to suit any taste.

I guess that little brewery just off the airstrip at Deer Valley is really coming into its own. Reminds me, it's been a month or more since I stopped in for a glass of something cold. That's too long. But if I continue to see their beers on more store shelves around town, will I drop into the tap room as frequently if I can just buy bombers at the store? No worry there. Seems like the best of both worlds.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BREWER!

"Cascadia Dark Ale," people! Let's hear it!

2010-04-12T17:35:00.000-07:00

I wonder if Germans in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries were aware of new and emerging beer styles. Given that in those days people were often born, lived and died without having traveled more than a few miles from their homes, I suspect that folks just drank what they were given and they liked it or hated it without much regard for what was “emerging” elsewhere in the country or on the continent. (I use this period and location as a general illustration; certainly the same could be asked about folks living in England, Ireland, Scotland – anywhere.)

We’re a lot more plugged in now – for better or worse; I have to remind myself to shut off the 24-hour news when I’m around Beer Rant HQ. A phrase or expression dropped in friendly conversation can find its way ‘round the earth in no time and don’t get me started on the whole viral video thing. It makes an old-timer’s head spin. I sometimes wish I could have been born, live and die within a few miles of where I was born.

In any event, a phrase from the Deschutes Brewing Brand Ambassador a couple of weeks ago, has stuck in my mind and, I’ve stumbled onto it again in my Internet travels. I’m a little late to the party, but dare I say that I smell an emerging beer style on the horizon.

First, a related Quick Riff:

Widmer Brothers
W ’10 Pitch Black IPA
Dark coffee color but not opaque with a robust beige head. Smells faintly of grapefruit but not like an IPA. There is a balanced maltiness and hoppiness. Looks like a stout, labeled like an IPA but really neither.

I’ll admit this isn’t much of a review but bear in mind that this sampling was done on March 14th, 2010, before my conversation with Erik Frank, the Deschutes Brand Ambassador. In that brief discussion, Mr. Frank made mention of a new style akin to a dark IPA and he used the term “cascadia.” Hmmm.

Go back to my comment that Widmer’s Pitch Black IPA is neither a stout (though it looks every bit the part) nor an IPA (though it did have hints of hoppiness and a grapefruit smell).

Now, jump over to a post that Lisa Morrison recently made at Hop Press. Ms. Morrison – in very few words – sums up the emerging “Black IPA” or “Cascadia” style and she makes an excellent argument for enshrining this as a distinct style. I don’t cotton to the label “Black IPA” since the name IPA already comes with a shipload of baggage (not the least of which is the dubious history behind the origin of the style). Is the Cascadia style ready to be set apart as a separate style for beer judging – I don’t think so, yet – but if it’s dark but not a stout, and it’s hoppy but not an IPA, then what the hell is it?

I vote “Cascadian Dark Ale” or any name that includes “Cascadian” or “Cascadia.” If the danged thing originated and “emerged” in the Pacific Northwestern United States, then for heaven’s sake, call this new beer “Cascadia” something or other.

And, to bring this little commentary full circle, I’ll just say I feel like some simple blacksmith somewhere in Germany just tasting a rauchbier for the first time, or a dimwitted carpenter in Ireland who’s just taken a quaff of his first pilsner. Where do I go from here? Lord only knows, but I’m ready.

Beer Moment: Carbon Footprint. Winter Beer in Summer Climes

2010-04-08T18:05:00.000-07:00

That stash of Norwegian Nogne O Winter Ale that I picked up for a song is living out its last days in a cabinet in the garage, but alas, the temperature here at Beer Rant HQ is consistently hitting the mid 80s and it won’t be long before the remaining Winter Ale migrates inside the house to be hidden in the back of a dark, relatively cool, closet.

On the drive home this afternoon I figured I’d better pop the top off one of those Winter Ales and once home I promptly placed one into the freezer for a prompt cool down while I proceeded to work in the yard, waiting.

I’m dry setting some pavers in a shady corner of the yard. The Japanese boxwoods that once were there are gone – failure to thrive. I figure this little niche is a nice nook for the grandkids to play and cavort and a few pavers will make a nifty little flat spot for them to do whatever 4- and 2-year olds do when they’re visiting Papaw. (Turns out I'm better at cultivating grandkids than I am at cultivating Japanese boxwoods.)

It’s pushing 86 degrees in the backyard and I’d imagine that’s as far from Norwegian climes as I’m likely to be ever in my life this time of year – dry setting pavers in the desert southwest, waiting eagerly for that dark, licorice Norwegian goodness. I didn’t finish my work – the prospect of cold beer was too enticing.

Gee, we’ve got it good in this country. Fresh bananas in northern Washington in the winter and dark, robust Norwegian Winter Ale in Arizona in April with the thermometer pushing 90 degrees!

Please spare a prayer for the folks in West Virginia – you know which ones I’m talking about – then thank God every day if you don’t make your living underground.

Deschutes' Woody Beer Wagon

2010-04-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

Spring training baseball in sunny Arizona one week, the ski slopes of Breckenridge, Colorado the next. Tough gig, right?

Better than a beer festival....

A week ago this past Saturday I actually managed to make a beer plan come together; I managed to make time to see Woody, the Deschutes Beer Wagon at a local Whole Foods Market. I’d stumbled on a link to Woody's Twitter Feed while cruising the Deschutes website. The itinerary indicated Woody would be heading south to participate in Spring Training activities in the Phoenix area and for the next week, I feverishly schemed to figure out the best place to see the beer wagon. Spring training is the notorious hangout for snowbirds and locals who skip work to take in a few innings and some beer. There was a time when I could take a day and play hooky from work on short notice, but that luxury seems to have evaporated. Bottom line: Spring Training was out.

The nice part about the whole planning process was that I communicated frequently by email with Erik Frank, Deschutes’ Brand Ambassador and the guy who tows Woody all around this great country extolling the virtues of the various Deschutes products.

Based on the Woody Beer Wagon itinerary, I settled on a Saturday afternoon visit during a stop at the Whole Foods Market in Scottsdale. My son-in-law and I arrived early so I plated a serving of curried rice and chicken and enjoyed that with a bottle of Deschutes Inversion IPA. Ahhh. We enjoyed or lunch and stayed out of the way while Mr. Frank set up his traveling beer show. I think the Marine had some wings and an Obsidian Stout – he’s a Deschutes fanatic, too.

Now, if I go on at length about what a terrific person Deschutes has running the beer wagon, I’ll probably just come across as gushy or patronizing. Let me just put it like this: Deschutes has chosen the right man for the job as Brand Ambassador/Beer Wagon Concierge. Mr. Frank strikes me as having a balanced skill set that allows him to pour delicious samples of beer while waxing eloquent and philosophical about the Deschutes product line, then quickly packing up the show and hopping into a truck and trailer rig for a 500 mile jaunt to the next gig.

In our brief discussion with Mr. Frank, my son-in-law and I learned of some emerging trends in how hops are used in the brew and we heard tell of a new beer that Deschutes is preparing for larger release. (You lucky folks in Bend, Oregon may already be sampling it in various versions and manifestations, I don’t know.) Just as noteworthy, I sampled some Deschutes beers that I’ve yet to try: Green Lakes Organic, Hop Henge, and….The Abyss, which is ranked in the top 5 beers in the universe and rightly so I can say based just on a couple of samples last week. As a result of those samples, I bought a six-pack of the Green Lakes Organic and a bottle of The Abyss. Let’s talk about the Abyss – or rather, let’s see what some others have had to say; my sampling was not conducive to a decent review but you know I bought a bottle so that should be endorsement enough.

….lest the abyss gaze into thee.
The Abyss ranks a formidable A+ on Beer Advocate based on ratings from the masses. (The fact that “the brothers” have yet to review this beer just floors me. Are they that broke that they have to wait to be sent free beer to sample – even when others rate the beer so high? Geez. I’ll probably go all Beer Jerk one of these days and spell out my thoughts on the current trend in beer mooching, but not here, not today.)

Hedonist Beer Jive had nice things to say about The Abyss – and the commentary regarding packaging gimmicks hits close to my heart. When it comes to beer labels, I’m a sucker for foil-wrapped, glitter-encrusted gewgaws!

There’s very recent commentary regarding The Abyss over at The Next Bar Stool and a three-year old post at Beervana. I’m curious to know if the reviewer at Beervana got around to trying The Abyss a year or two later. I can attest that the 2009 version we sampled is completely ready for prime time, despite the fact that the label indicates it’s actually best AFTER November 1, 2010. I’m thinking I’ll try this bottle soon and pick up another one for storing.

My only regret is that I failed to sample the Mirror Mirror – admittedly because I have a prejudice against barleywine style beers. I’ll wear my shame like a carbuncle until the day I can overcome this sad bias, but rest assured I will because some of you will recall that there once was a day when I disliked IPAs.

Brand Ambassador. I can’t define it, but I know one when I see one and Deschutes has one pulling that Woody Beer Wagon. Happy trails Erik Frank. And thank you Deschutes for more great beer.

(I’ll post something on Hop Henge and the Green Lakes Organic in the future. I’m off to see those grandkids now!)

Racer 5 IPA: Tipped in Honor of Alan Kulwicki

2010-04-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

I still owe you a write up on my visit to the Deschutes Woody Beer Wagon appearance at Whole Foods in Scottsdale but in the meantime, today is a special day to remember a champion.

UNDERDOG

On this date in 1995, Alan Kulwicki, the reigning Winston Cup stock car racing champion was killed in a plane crash en route to a race in Bristol, Tennessee. (Talk about a hideous April Fool's joke.)

Kulwicki will arguably be the last owner/driver in NASCAR’s top series to have meaningful success. (My apologies to fans of Ricky Rudd - of which I am one for sure - who made a decent go of it. My apologies to fans of Robbie Gordon but your deluding yourselves since Robbie is more interested in racing off-road. My apologies to fans of Tony Stewart who, although he is an owner/driver who could still conceivably win a championship, he won’t be held in the same esteem as the likes of Kulwicki who won the 1994 championship with a colossally under funded team. Indeed, Kulwicki was such an underdog, he scratched off the letter “T” in the word Thunderbird on the front of his racecar so that it read “Underbird.” Adding a flourish, he had an image of Mighty Mouse affixed to the front of the car as well. One more somewhat chilling bit of history: when one of Kulwicki’s cars was undergoing restoration several years after his death and after it had been run by another race team, workers found a Saint Christopher medal tucked inside the lining of the driver’s seat. The medal was later confirmed to have been placed there when Kulwicki owned the car.)

So today, I tip a mug of Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA in honor of Alan Kulwicki, a NASCAR champion taken out at the height of his success. In many ways, Alan is like so many craft brewers out there taking a big swing at the pinata for the little guy. God bless all of you.

It might have been more appropriate to tip back some Big Boss Porter in honor of Alan’s Polish heritage, but alas, there was no Big Boss available. We work with what were given here at Beer Rant HQ – just like Alan Kulwicki did.

Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA
Has a distinct piney/citrus smell. It’s bottle conditioned and you can see the sediment in the bottle, though my sample was from a ceramic mug, so I don’t have any information regarding color or clarity. Taste is sweet and candy-like. A decent representation of the IPA style but not sure I’d rush out to find more unless I was doing an IPA-tribute sampling because it only seems to be available in bombers.

Promise: A post on the Deschutes Woody Beer Wagon is in the works but in the meantime, Beer Rant’s mom turns 80 this weekend so you know where I’ll be!

One Last Time: Cinder Cone Red, People!

2010-03-22T16:54:00.000-07:00

I’ll confess: if I was ever seriously inclined to switch this blog to a fan site devoted solely to one brewer, I think that brewer would be Deschutes Brewing in Oregon. (Sorry local guys – I love you too though.) But with that said, I swear, this will be the last time I go on at length about Cinder Cone Red.

Since no side-by-side comparison is possible, I’ve gone back and compared notes for both the Cinder Cone Red and the Red Chair.

The first entry I have for the old Cinder Cone Red is dated June 28, 2008 and it reads simply:
“Deschutes Cinder Cone Red. 5.4 abv. Seasonal ale. Vegetable smell in the bottle. Dark red, active beading. Nice cream colored head. Sweet taste with hints of caramel or maybe licorice? I like everything I’ve tried from this brewer!”

The next entry for CCR appeared on August 2nd, 2008 under the heading “Beer Pairing.” I evidently thought it would be a good idea to try CCR with chocolate. My notes read: “Cinder Cone Red and Norwegian chocolate. Tastes a bit like chocolate pie! Very good.”

My first sampling of Red Chair is noted in an entry dated November 22, 2009, wherein I wrote:
“Deschutes Brewing Red Chair IPA* (Bomber 1 pt 6 oz). Beautiful orange amber color with a foamy beige/orange head (aggressively poured). Correct pine-citrus smell. Dry from the start and definitely hop driven but (as the label claims) not overly bitter. Despite a relatively low 6.4% abv there is a warming characteristic here. I didn’t originally like IPA’s when I began paying attention to beer. Now I find I like IPA’s if the abv is within a reasonable range and even if a particular IPA isn’t something I like, I can now at least tell if it’s a faithful representation of the style. Red Chair IPA is both: it’s a great beer and it represents the IPA style. Another hit for Deschutes!”

(*You’ll note that the first entry was for a sampling of the Red Chair IPA, not the Red Chair NWPA. The IPA was part of Deschutes’ Bond Street Series.)

The next entry for Red Chair (this time the Northwest Pale Ale) is on March 15, 2010 wherein I wrote:
“Light bronze with ample off-white head. Smells fruity but not of citrus. More like a faintly sweet apricot or peach. Quite malty. Mouth feel a bit thicker than you might expect. A faint hop bitterness emerges at the finish.”

I should point out that this entry was made after I learned that Red Chair was replacing Cinder Cone as Deschutes’ spring seasonal.

I’ll miss Cinder Cone and I’d be less than honest if I said I was going to be as diligent in my efforts to track down next year’s Red Chair as I have been in tracking down past year’s Cinder Cones – eh, that’s just me. Perhaps as time and distance insinuate themselves into what was once a great friendship between me and Cinder Cone, then perhaps you’ll see me doggedly pursuing six-packs of Red Chair…next year.

Up next: Perhaps a search for Woody, the Deschutes traveling beer wagon, rumored to be in the Phoenix area in honor of Spring Training baseball!! Yeah.

For those of you who are really into beer blogs (you’re here so you must be), Deschutes has a nifty BLOG of their own. You can noodle around here and find out what’s going on at the brewery and with their beers.

Free Stuff! In my previous post I noted that the first two followers to post a comment with their mailing address would receive a complimentary copy of the documentary film Eddies: The Documentary. I won't post addresses, but I'll pass them along to the filmmaker who will mail you copies directly from Canada.

Coming Attractions...Eddies: The Documentary

2010-03-18T18:49:00.000-07:00

The Padded Envelope, Please

A few weeks ago a gentleman (Mike Peterson) posted a comment here regarding a documentary film he’d made entitled Eddies: A Documentary asking if I’d be willing to view a copy and post comments here on Beer Rant.
“Free stuff?” asked I.

Well a padded envelope arrived from Calgary, Alberta, Canada today and, I opened it over a glass of Guinness (left over from St. Patrick’s Day and in the process of doing a head-to-head tasting between Guinness Stout and Obsidian Stout. The research never stops here at Beer Rant HQ, folks.)

In the brief cover letter, Director/Producer Mike Peterson indicates that Fresh Dog Productions will have a website “up and running soon,” but in the meantime, here’s some of the dope on Fresh Dog and their film Eddies: The Documentary:

Big Rock Brewery is the sponsor of the Eddies competition. I’m putting out feelers to see if their beer is available in the States. If not, I feel a beer trade coming on!

There’s a nice (and very recent) review of Eddies: The Documentary at the wonderfully named Bad Lit. Read it and be jealous that I have a review copy.

IMDB has a listing for Fresh Dog Productions but Eddies: The Documentary is not listed there.

The Event

I’m thinking I really need to stage some sort of slick screening, maybe invite some other drunks and a couple movie buffs that I know, have them fill out comment cards, swig Canadian beers and then I’ll post the results here along with embarrassing photos. Hmmm. Let me think that over. (I haven’t had to do a drywall patch since my kids moved out of the house. Hope I still know how. Well, with grandkids coming up through the ranks, I need to practice, right?)

The Deal

In the letter Mike Peterson also indicates that he’ll send “one or two copies” of Eddies: The Documentary to readers of Beer Rant. I think that’s pretty cool. So, here’s what I’ll do: the first two Beer Rant Followers who post a comment with their mailing information will have their mailing information forwarded to Mr. Peterson and he’ll mail you a copy of the documentary. Your address information won’t be published in the comments section, I promise. (That’s a hint for all you non followers looking for free swag: if you want a copy of the documentary and you’re not one of my roughly 2 dozen followers, you need to sign on as a follower before you chum for the free copy of the documentary.) I’m throwing this deal out before having actually seen the documentary myself; that way you’ll go in with an open mind just as I am going in with an open mind. If nobody steps forward to claim the generously offered copies of the documentary, I’ll try to secure a couple copies for the folks attending the screening.

Stay tuned…..
(Spoiler alert: I liked the Deschutes Obsidian Stout a great deal more than the Guinness.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day (tomorrow)!

2010-03-16T20:14:00.001-07:00

Since one never knows what may happen on the ‘morrow, I’ll wish you a Happy Saint Patrick’s Day today!

I’m a descendant of the John Moriarity and Catherine O’Hoolihan of County Curry and County Cork so I understand. You’ll forgive me if I get a bit pissed tomorrow. (I should also point out that tomorrow is my grandson's first birthday! Oh blessed day!)

I sampled a bit of Rogue Kells Irish Lager and (of course) some Guinness (brewed in Canada for cripe’s sake) today.

It occurs to me that I’ve not done a sampling for Guinness Extra Stout. I’ll do one later. Meantime, here’s one for the Rogue Irish Lager.

Pours apricot yellow and a bit cloudy. Lager thin head with a faintly sour smell. Slightly thicker mouth feel than I expected. Absolutely no distinct taste up front at all. The label says “…apple crisp finish,” but I’m not feeling it. Only a bit later did I detect a faint hint of apple in the finish.

Not something I’ll rush out to buy again, lads and lasses.

Farewell Cinder Cone Red....

2010-03-08T09:24:00.000-08:00

...we hardly knew ye!

Just as I was preparing to post my last set of Quick Riffs, I learned that Deschutes Brewing has discontinued production of their stellar Cinder Cone Red seasonal ale. To me this is big news because my discovery of Cinder Cone coincides roughly with my new found appreciation of beer and I believe I waxed effusively about it in one or two posts and I snapped dozens of pictures, of which, only two or three survive. My scant photographic record does note that I spent one Fourth of July grilling with Cinder Cone.

As I’ve already pointed out, my first instinct was to get pissed off. Then, very quickly came the impulse to fan out and scoop up as much Cinder Cone Red (let’s call it CCR) as I could and hoard it. (Ironically, that was my first impulse when I first discovered CCR and learned it was a seasonal. I kept 12 of them stashed in the back of the closet for more than a month!) Now, in my zeal, I immediately sought out the local distributor, the local Total Wine outlet and Deschutes themselves. I neglected to bother with much detailed research on line at places like Beer Advocate; an oversight that would eventually prove significant.

Cutting to the chase:
Last Monday I visited no less than three Walgreen’s outlets, a Fry’s grocery store, a Trader Joe’s and a BevMo in search of some Deschutes CCR. I was helped in my quest by kind assistance from the customer service folks at Republic National Distributing Company, the go-getters at Total Wine and ultimately the gurus at Deschutes Brewery and the brothers at Beer Advocate.

The Outcome:
I returned from my sortie, bereft of any CCR. I logged on to the Beer Advocate site and found that the 2010 batch was only released in Oregon, parts of Washington State and Hawaii. Sigh. That’s that.

An email from the very kind people at Deschutes allowed as the entire stock of CCR was gone and none is even available in their hometown! Never mind that some lucky squirrels managed to get sample sets of both the CCR and the Red Chair to try out. One nice fellow even videotaped his experience and put it on YouTube for the rest of us poor saps to watch. Cruel bugger.

The scribe at The Brew Site also got one of these mystical, mixed six-packs of Cinder Cone and Red Chair – and on Christmas Eve no less? Christ, I’m not living right.

Then you’ve got some underachiever at The Beer Guzzlers who evidently took the time to track down or stumble upon what will be some of the last CCR ever made and all he can manage is a four-sentence complaint. I realize that I’m long-winded, but talk about understated. God, I worked harder to find Cinder Cone Red than he worked on reviewing it.

One of the reasons Deschutes has given for halting production of Cinder Cone is that it’s one of their least popular seasonals. So I found it a bit ironic that Drink Hacker rated Cinder Cone higher than its replacement Red Chair NWPA.

Finally, I found a post at Seattle Beer News interesting not simply because they evidently send beer samples to this guy too, along with some smoked salmon (Good lord what do I have to do to get beer samples mailed to me?) but because one of the folks leaving a comment indicated that Lagunita’s makes a beer that resembles Cinder Cone.

Which puts me in a great spot to close this out. While at BevMo last Monday looking for bottles of Cinder Cone that do not exist, I settled for a six pack of Rogue's seasonal Santa’s Private Reserve and you know what? It reminded me somewhat of my beloved Cinder Cone Red. Wishful thinking? Hallucination? Perhaps, but I sure didn’t imagine all those nice people who responded to my frantic emails seeking out Cinder Cone in Arizona. My quixotic search came to nothing, but the search was half the fun. I’m going to miss Cinder Cone a lot but I’ve gained a new appreciation for seasonals. Enjoy ‘em while they last and know that you may not see them next year!

Now, I’m off to chat with Mrs. Beer Rant about putting in a beer cellar.

Next time: Perhaps a review of both the old Cinder Cone Red and the Red Chair NWPA and the Santa’s Private Reserve, which I seem to think resembles Cinder Cone. We’ll see.

Quick Riffs: Three Western Beers and Some British Dude

2010-02-25T17:25:00.000-08:00

How’s ‘bout some Quick Riffs to keep my hand in the game, eh?

Sonoran Brewing
Victorian India Pale Ale
Sampled at the Mellow Mushroom on Happy Valley Road and I-17
(Bar sampling – sorry no photo.)

Even before making the ridiculous commitment to concentrate on only western beers, I’ve been eager to try local beers but I don’t believe I’ve sampled any of their products before. Here’s the dope straight from the notebook:

A bit dark for an IPA – I like the look of it. Steady beading with small bubbles. Sturdy looking off white head, heavy, heavy lacing. No smell of pineapple or citrus or sawdust. There’s definitely a nutty roasted component but if I were to do a blind tasting on this I would not peg it as an IPA. This is good but to me it misses the mark stylistically – more like an amber ale I think.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t probably going to have at least one more glass of this, since it may be part of the Mellow Mushroom’s Beer Club 75 required beers. Yeah, I’ll get around to joining that at some point.

Sierra Nevada
Glissade Golden Bock

I know “bock” is somehow related to the German word for “goat” and I’ve often associated “bock” beers with the prospect of getting head-butted in the nads by a goat (is it “nads” or “knads” or maybe “nards”?). But my perceptions are frequently wrong. This one weighs in at a simple 6.4% abv so there’s no nad-, knad- or nard head butting to speak of. Here’s the scoop on this goat:
Clear, light gold color with a thin white head. Smells nice; sweet vaguely grainy. Thicker mouth feel than I expected. Grainy but robust taste. Somewhat dry at the finish. Puts me in mind of what our dad’s beers probably tasted like back in the good old days.

I’d heard some negative comments about this one and for sure it’s not what you’d expect from Sierra Nevada in terms of taste and style, however in the area of quality and taste, it’s the typical top notch product most of us have come to expect from the Sierra Nevada crew. I’ll try it again.

Darwin Brewery (Durham, England)
Original Flag Porter

Sure, not a “Western Beer” but a unique thing to sample. Picked up a single at Total Wine back in early January and sampled it on January 9th. The notes for that date read: Brown like coffee, not opaque. Fair head, quickly gone. No beading visible. Malty smelling, thin mouth feel. Definitely comes across as a porter but the actual taste is weak – faintly roasted but not much else. I can quickly name 5 or six that are better. (Deschutes, Alaskan, Flying Dog, Stone…that’s four right off the top of my noggin.)

This beer’s claim to fame is some old yeast that was apparently dredged up from a sunken ship in the English Channel or Thames River. I love a cool story and that’s a cool story, so this one passes in my book, but I’m wondering why the porter isn’t listed on Darwin’s website.

What the heck was I drinking a year ago?

Alaskan Smoked Porter 2008
From the beer notebook entry for February 25, 2009:
Alaskan Smoked Porter 2008. Pours dark with a tan head. Smells like cigarette smoke, maybe fish. Smokiness is immediately obvious. Medium thick mouth feel. Roasted, sooty finish. Woody and rich.

As an endorsement of this terrific beer, I’ll simply say that I’ve already had some of the 2009 vintage. Plan to get some more, too.

My first instinct is to be pissed off….

Just got wind of the fact that Deschutes has chosen to discontinue their Cinder Cone Red and replace it with the Red Chair NWPA. I’ll be in therapy if you need me.

Wait, before I hit the therapist’s couch, I’m off to anyplace that stocks six-packs of this terrific endangered species! Know a place that stocks it in the greater Phoenix area, let me know…PLEASE.

Meanwhile. A picture from happier times…..ahhh.

Housekeeping: Post #140

2010-02-22T19:23:00.000-08:00

Sidebar Stuff

Those of you reading this with one eye open may not have noticed that I’ve broken the blog roll into two parts. “Regular” beer blogs will continue to be shown where they’ve always been shown, but now I’ve also got a list of “Western Beer Blogs.”

Currently I’ve placed the blogs that I know originate west of the western Kansas border in the Western Beer Blogs list and there’s still a bit of clean up and adjustment to be made there, but it’s a start. Those of you who maintain a beer blog that’s based in the Western U.S. please let me know and I’ll put you on that list, for sure. Likewise if you know of a Western beer blog that I’ve missed, please say the word.

You’ll also note that I’ve posted a dozen or more new photos in the Beer Rant’s Beer Photos section (at left). I’ve gotten behind on my housekeeping here lately and didn’t realize there were a number of nice (I think) beer photos stacked up on the hard drive.

I’ve also dropkicked the 2009 Gimmick Poll Results to clear up space on the sidebar. The top vote getters were “drink only beers from western states” (which I’m trying to do), and “post guest columns by other beer bloggers” (which I’m also working to address).

I got a coupon!
Evidently the Beer Fates were watching over me when I complained about the dearth of beer coupons in the Total Wine flyers lately. What did I find in the very next Total Wine flyer? Well an honest-to-goodness $1 off coupon, good for any 4-pack or 6-pack of beer priced at $6.99 or more (excluding products whose prices end in “7”…whatever).

I’m in that strange time of year here at Beer Rant HQ, folks. The weather is cooperating and the ambient daytime temperature is in the 50’s so I can stock up on beer. I’m also heading in to that time of year when the in-laws visit and that’s the time of year when there’s no beer drinking while the folks are around. (Granted, I can make all the stops at Old World Brewery that I want to.) The dilemma: Balancing the amount of beers in the ready room (the fridge) versus the number of days I have until the folks actually arrive. I’m told wheels down this trip will be Monday or Tuesday of next week so I’m carefully balancing out what’s in the garage cabinet against what’s chilling in the batter’s box. And in keeping with this bit of a bind, I only picked up two six-packs today at Total Wine (both qualified for the $1 off, of course). What’d I get? Well, a six pack of Kalamazoo Stout from Bells Brewing and a six-pack of Odell Red Ale. One I know (Kalamazoo Stout) and one’s new to me (Red Ale). I figure, even if I’m wrong, I’ll only be half wrong! (Yes, the Bells is not a Western Beer. I didn't say I'd give up "other" beers completely.)

I’d planned to toss in some Quick Riffs but this is already long enough. Check back for some Quick Riffs next time around.

"Good People Drink....Grolsch?" Really, Dr. Thompson?

2010-02-17T16:23:00.000-08:00

February 20th marks five years since the death of Hunter S. Thompson.

Each year, as the Super Bowl approaches, occurs, then recedes into faded memory, I find myself giving a thought or two to the train wreck that was Hunter S. Thompson. This year, I’ve just finished reading the book Gonzo by Jann Wenner and some other dude whose name escapes me at the moment. Evidently, Thompson’s widow was not too happy with the book but I have to think it must be a pretty honest appraisal of the nutty Doctor since it includes dozens of recollections from his son Juan. Bottom line: Old HST was a lot of fun when he wanted to be, but damn he was a turd a fair share of the time, too. (Gosh, what middle-aged man hasn't said that about his own father a time or two.)

For those of you wanting to see last year’s screed on Doctor Thompson and a special beer dedicated to his good name and questionable legacy, click HERE!

In addition to knocking Hunter Thompson down a peg or two in my estimation, the book Gonzo also revealed what were, supposedly, Thompson’s favorite beers. Oddly enough, Heineken, Molson and Grolsch appear in the text as being on the good Doctor’s short list of yummy, fermented adult beverages. (Never mind that he was evidently a walking medicine chest of assorted illegal and legal drugs.)

So, while I’d planned to have another bottle of Gonzo Imperial Porter this year in honor of Hunter S. Thompson, I think it more appropriate that I knock back a sample of something he might have appreciated a bit more in his day. (Despite the quote attributed to Thompson: "Good people drink good beer.")

Grolsch Premium Lager

Let me just start by saying that no good beer that’s ever passed my lips had the words “premium lager” printed on the label. And let me add that no beer that I’ve ever seen sporting the handle “premium lager” has been without some sort of slick packaging whiz bang – usually a foil wrapped top. Grolsch is no different. Doc Thompson reportedly fancied Grolsch because of the nifty flip top bottles in which the beer is packaged. The fact that Thompson wasn’t a paragon of moderation leads me to ask, why he would care to reseal a bottle of beer, but I suppose when your hands are occupied with running an IBM Selectric typewriter, fending off inquisitive editors, firing up the odd doobie and popping the occasional hit of acid, it pays to have beer bottles that can be re-sealed.

The stuff pours a clear golden color with a thin white head. It smells sour and tastes of sour grain – perhaps corn. It’s thirst quenching and at just 5% abv a decent session beer if you’re not too hung up on taste or style. Currently, the swing top bottle is about all this one has going for it. Perhaps the marketing crew at Grolsch could capitalize on the fact that Hunter S. Thompson drank their beer. If nothing else, I plan to drop the folks at Flying Dog a note and strongly urge them to introduce a line of their Imperial Porter in flip top bottles. How cool would that be?

Postscript: The Very Crap He Would Have Despised.

Perhaps it’s a quirk of my nature that I’d rather read about famous writers than read what they’ve written. It’s true for Hemingway and Abbey and it’s definitely true for this nut job Thompson. It’s often difficult to divine meaning from their written word, but it’s a damned straightforward proposition to gather meaning (and sometimes inspiration) from their lives. As a result, my radar is far more acute in picking up references to the author and his persona than references to his works. Example: ambling the bright aisles of a local Target store I espied a strange little plastic skateboard (action?) figure with the handle “Hunter.” Given that this squat little plastic figure sported a slouch hat, Hawaiian shirt and a briefcase with “I (heart) L.V.” on the side, it was clear that what this was: a Hunter Thompson rip off! And all the more pathetic are the good Doctor’s words echoing from beyond the grave: “…nobody grows up wishing to be a comic strip character…” (I’m curious to know if the Hunter Thompson estate knows about this. The packaging doesn’t include any reference to Thompson or the Thompson post-mortem machine.) I bought the little dust collector because it was on sale and because it’s obviously meant to represent Hunter S. Thompson.

Maybe in the grand karmic scheme, it’s something of a punishment for the wacky Doctor Thompson, to be reborn as a plastic skateboard figurine in atonement for drinking Grolsch, Molson and Heineken. That and the drugs.

Here’s a recent Appraisal of Hunter S. Thompson’s legacy.

The revelations in Gonzo not withstanding, still hope to see you around, Doc.

For those of you with more than a passing interest, I’d strongly recommend Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson by Jann Wenner and Corey Seymour. And don’t pay $30 for the damned thing either; it can be had for about 7 bucks if you look around.

Fun (and beer) At Old World Brewery

2010-02-12T16:45:00.000-08:00

Dropped by Old World Brewery after work yesterday and managed to keep to my one beer promise and get back to Beer Rant HQ before sundown, which is nice. I didn’t try the anniversary ale, though I’d planned to originally, I just can’t keep away from that Dark Knight Porter of theirs and dang if I ain’t glad I did this time.

The current batch of porter is evidently the one they intend to submit for a major competition and I believe it’s one of the better Dark Knight Porter’s I’ve sampled there, but that’s just the tip of the tap room iceberg really.

After every visit to Old World I scratch my head and marvel at my good fortune for having a micro/craft brewery so close to the homestead. In the short hour I was there I was able to chat in the back brewing area with one of the owners about beer and bands, knock back a pleasant pint of porter chatting with the brewer and a buddy from work, peruse a recent issue of Beer Advocate magazine that I pulled from a stack of brewing related publications on the bar, sample the latest tapping of the Old World Wit (It was great but I got the stink eye from Matt when I called it an upscale Blue Moon) and share in the sampling from a bomber of Dark Knight Porter that had spent the previous week or so rolling around in the bed of the owner’s truck. To finish, I bought a bomber of Porter for myself (presumably not one that was a truck bed experiment) and a special First Anniversary Edition pint glass.

Now where the hell can you get that sort of fun along with a pint of beer, anywhere?

The Old World crew are off to the Arizona Strong Ale Festival tomorrow and I wish them all the very best. Me, I’ll be sofa shopping with Mrs. Beer Rant. Evidently, the couch we got as a wedding gift oh these many years ago is no longer up to speed. On the bright side, we’ll be in close proximity to Total Wine and Gordon Biersch...and the grandkids!

Incidentally, the issue of Beer Advocate that I was scanning had a page devoted to the top misunderstood beers or some such and you know they actually included an entry for that vile, nasty Chili Beer from Arizona (I think it's brewed in Mexico, but labeled as an Arizona beer to give me one more thing to be proud of, I guess.) If you doubt for one second that I abhor and detest this vile travesty of a beer, see my POST from May of 2008.

In the Tank: Kona Pipeline Porter (Probably the last one this year, folks.)

On the Desk: Boulder Brewing Sundance Amber Ale (eh, it's okay.)

Happy 1st Birthday Old World Brewery!

2010-02-09T17:58:00.000-08:00

I’m going to toss this out there, even though I’m not even sure this beer is still available. (Last week [or so] I dropped Matt an email and he said they still had some left, so….)

I guess I average about two visits a month to Old World Brewery, just up the road from Beer Rant HQ and that’s paltry little and a pathetically poor performance given that I could damned near walk to the place for crap’s sake!

Scotland, The Brave
In any event, the most recent offering from the crew at Old World is a delightful anniversary ale called Highlander Scotch Ale. Weighing in at an inspired 8% abv, this highlander may not arrive with half its face painted blue, but after knocking back a couple, you may find yourself waking up with bruises and face paint.

Here are my notes from the first sampling back on January 13th:
There is no alcohol bite up front. Smells like a bit like porter. Smooth taste with a definite warming effect. Definitely roasted in the taste and malty dark. Slightly amber, not opaque. Robust head when agitated with medium to light lacing.

The literature says it’s “complex” but it seems straightforward to me. There’s a definite buzz to this right off the bat. Served in a 10-ounce snifter for $5 with growler’s going for $17 and growler refills for $10.

Ten ounces may seem like a short snort, but be patient and work your way slowly to the bottom of the snifter and you’ll be rewarded.

My beer notebook shows that three days after this initial sampling, I was back to have a growler filled. What better endorsement can there be than a repeat purchase?

Postscript:
I’d imagine the Highlander Scotch Ale is just about gone and I’m not saying that to incite rancor among the beer folk – it’s just a statement of fact. In the interest of full, detailed and honest research, I’ll endeavor to make a stop at Old World later this week to see what’s flowing from the taps. Geez, the lengths to which I’ll go to fill this space with beer drivel.

Coming Up:

“The Super Bowl’s over, think I’ll shoot myself.” Or “Something on Hunter S. Thompson…. I just don’t know what.”

2010-02-03T19:30:00.000-08:00

We were hit with a late afternoon sun shower here at Beer Rant HQ today. The sun hung low in the sky and a rainbow appeared in the east. Nice.

I haven’t posted an honest to goodness beer review in quite a while so I think comments on a noteworthy western beer are in order.

Green Flash Brewing
Stout
I remember the first Green Flash product I sampled was from a little convenience store down on the pier, just outside main post at Camp Pendleton. Mrs. Beer Rant and I spent a good deal of time in California visiting our daughter and her family a couple years back and of course during those visits we needed to eat and drink. There is a terrific little pizza joint down at the pier and it’s the sort of pizza place that, despite the fact that they goof up your order nearly every time, you still love their pizza so much you don’t care if it’s wrong and you keep going back for more! Well, just around the corner from this pizza place was a little convenience store and I remember the first two six packs I bought there were from Green Flash and Ballast Point. The same fellow seemed to be running the place every time I stopped in – a strangely happy guy, a bit hip, perhaps a doper but always with an easy smile and a kind word or two for an out of town square rambling about local beers. I wish him the best wherever he is.

I didn’t get this particular bottle of Green Flash Stout from a little convenience store on the pier; I picked it up closer to Beer Rant HQ – I think at Total Wine – and I believe it’s the best of the Green Flash product I’ve tried so far.

Beer book notes read thus: Malty, roasted smell. Opaque brown with a robust, tan head. Initially sooty, smoky tasting going into a burnt/roast coffee taste. Medium to thick mouth feel.

This one tips the scale at a respectable 8.8% abv so it’s no guzzling beer but by the same token, I don’t recall that this bomber sized serving knocked me on my keester, either. I liked this one and I'll seek it out again.

Here’s what other, more sagacious beer folk have to say about Green Flash Stout:

If a “98” is a high rating, then I guess the boffins over at Rate Beer really like this one, too.

Booze Reviews also had nice things to say about Green Flash Stout, as did a bunch of folks who posted comments.

The masses over at Beer Advocate rate it a B+ (with only two reviewers checking in), and although “the brothers” haven’t bothered to sample this they’re eagerly waiting for you so send them a sample. (Ah, gotta love beer welfare.)

For you Green Flash obsessives out there, here’s the link to their WEBSITE.

I’m a little peeved at:
The local Gordon Biersch outlet for sending me an email reminder about tonight’s tapping party….at 4 PM today. Bit late folks!

The local Total Wine chain for sending yet another store catalog without a single beer coupon. Seems when they first rolled into town there was a dollar off coupon for six packs of beer in the paper every week. Lately? Nothing. Not to worry, I’ll still swing through there to get those rare and unusual things and the odd bargain now and then, too.

I’m on cloud nine because:
I stumbled on bombers of Nogne O Winter Ale at a local specialty store for the bargain basement price of $3! Three bucks, people! That’s less than half the going rate at Total Wine. I snagged 24 bottles. It’s grand!

The local Sunflower Market continues to have nifty beer sales in their weekly mail flyer. This week, two six packs of Boulder Beer for $10. Probably grab a couple of those and squirrel them into the garage locker. Twelve packs of Session Lager (regular and black) for $8.99. Fun. I always check their advertisements!

By the way, Happy Birthday Norman Rockwell!

Beer Moment: Mr. Fix-It

2010-01-26T19:32:00.000-08:00

I want to be that Papaw who can fix anything. I’m not, but luckily, I’m in the middle of that several year span in my grandchildren’s lives where they seem to think I can fix anything.

Today I returned home from my work as a low-level government functionary where I labor at tasks that rarely result in a satisfactory result and where I seldom seem to fix anything. With an eye to salvaging something of the day, I set to cleaning up the backyard, putting away the toys scattered during this past weekend’s visit. There in the lawn lay the broken end of a small scoop shovel, like the kind kids play with at the beach. I remember seeing it get broken Sunday afternoon and I remember calling Mrs. Beer Rant on her cell phone to ask if she’d please try to find another beach shovel during her shopping trip. True to form, Grandma found not just a replacement toy shovel; she found an indoor/outdoor soccer set and a toy barbecue grill. She’s a terrific grandma.
So here I stood this afternoon with the working end of a broken toy shovel. This, I can fix. I rounded up a short section of plastic irrigation hose and a tiny carriage style bolt with its appropriate little nut. I retired to what passes for a workbench in my garage with a freshly poured glass of Deschutes Obsidian Stout, one of my favorite beers.

In a minute or two the little shovel was serviceable again and with the tool boxes put away and the bench light turned off, I took the remains of my Obsidian Stout and flopped down at the kitchen table to sort the day’s mail, satisfied in a (small) job well done and satisfied in my choice of beer.

Tomorrow morning I’ll get up at 3:30 and head back in to work. I’ll spin my wheels for a ten or eleven hour shift and then head home where I can do some real good. All the while, I’ll know that in just a few days, the grandkids will return and the toy shovels will come back out and we’ll get down to the real business at hand. And I think those little rascals will be tickled pink to see the newly repaired shovel. Grandkids appreciate the little things you do for them.

Housekeeping...

2010-01-25T14:44:00.000-08:00

There’s just no getting past the 2009 Gimmick Poll. Figure I’d better man up and address the results before we progress too much further into 2010.

As you can see, there wasn’t anything in the way of a landslide. The predominant voting split between a focus on just western beers and hosting guest columns. Three brave folks cast their vote for some sort of “beer fiction” feature and I’ll probably get around to posting some of what I’d already prepared just to satisfy those nice visitors. Two people voted for a beer boycott and without some specific region or brewer, I’m left wondering what would have been their choice. Finally, one guy or gal cast their vote for more pictures here and less text.

So, let’s address the voting from least popular to most popular, and I’ll fill you in on how I hope to pursue that particular vision in the coming year.

More Pictures. Less Text. (“More Taste, Less Filling”) One Vote.
I think I’ve adhered pretty well to my 2009 resolution to use only images that I myself have produced for posting here at Beer Rant. In the past year or so, all of the beer images used here are images that I myself have taken – I call them “ensemble shots” if they’re of an empty bottle and a full glass of beer. I know that I’m a bit verbose at times – why use three words, when five will do, right? So, while I can’t promise that there will be less text here at Beer Rant, I can tell you that I will endeavor to post more pictures and that I’ll continue to focus on homemade images rather than cut and paste stuff from other sites whenever possible.

Boycott California (or some other beer). Two Votes.
And whom would you have me boycott? Personally, were I to choose without input from others, I’d choose to boycott California beers (sorry). Naturally, this sort of attitude simply reduces a person’s beer choices and that’s never a good thing. I suppose I could choose to boycott all the macrobrewers during the coming year, but that also reduces my choice. So, I choose not to make a larger proclamation about a beer boycott here at Beer Rant; instead, I will tell you that I will boycott Four Peaks products until such time as I’ve had a chance to sample something from San Tan Brewing and, going forward, I’ll make similar declarations as I see fit. The Four Peaks/San Tan deal stems from the dust up over the use of the “sun devil” trademark. You can see the details in my most recent previous post.

Start a “Beer Fiction” segment. Three Votes.
My thanks go out to the three intrepid souls who voted for this. Did you understand that you were voting to read a fictional story that I’d written centered around beer? I’ll admit, this was one of my personal favorites, though I viewed it with a bit of trepidation, since posting a fictional story centered around a beer theme would result in more work than was probably warranted given my literary acumen and the level of avid readership here at Beer Rant. What I had in mind was a serialized story centered round beer or brewing. More specifically, I’d actually begun the opening sections of a fictional story set in a post-apocalyptic United States (a’la Mad Max) wherein our hero sets out for the “forbidden zone” to find the last bastion of American brewing. (In this setting, beer has been outlawed and society’s high brow circles revel in “water sampling” parties.) Perhaps for fun, and so that the effort doesn’t go unused, I’ll post what I’ve got in the hopper so far.

Post “guest columns” by other bloggers. Six Votes.
This option tied for most votes and, it has merit because, frankly, it means less work for me! Consequently, my plan is to solicit four to six guest columns from other bloggers during 2010. I’ll work up a series of questions or topics and send them to some bloggers whose work I particularly admire and ask them to honor me with a guest post.

Drink only beers from the Western United States. Six Votes.
This is the topic that garnered the most comments but only managed to tie for the most votes. Comments revolved around the notion of what constituted “the west” and admonitions that doing so would only limit my options (understood). So, because of the tie, and because I don’t want to limit my options in 2010, I’m going to go with that I’ll call a “western-centric” angle here at Beer Rant. Which is to say, I’ll focus on beers coming out of the western United States, but I’ll include the odd “eastern beer” now and then. Also, I plan to push the “drink local” mantra in the new year. We beer drinkers seem to have ever more options when we sidle up to the bar and we should begin to voice our opinions when we can. I’ll start with a shot across the bow of such big name operators as “Yardhouse” in a coming post.

Whew. There you have the Gimmick Poll 2009 response. Now I’ll thank you if you don’t hold me to a single thing I’ve said here. Happy New Year!

In the tank:

Green Flash Stout

On the Desk:

Kirkland German Lager

Stick a (pitch) Fork In It

2010-01-12T17:50:00.000-08:00

Devilish Hypocrisy

Well, I’d intended to make my next post about the results of the Beer Rant 2009 Gimmick Poll, however local news has come up and I think it warrants a mention, in lieu of my goofy, gimmick poll.

In the last week or so, I’ve followed (somewhat) a local story involving San Tan Brewing in the southeast valley. Seems brewpub owner Anthony Canecchia has been told by Arizona State University that he must stop using the name “Sun Devil Ale” to promote one of his fermented concoctions. (Don’t bother with my weak explanation of the back-story; you can see the East Valley Tribune article here.)

Disclaimer: I’m a graduate of ASU and a lifetime alumni member, but I’m no fan of ASU and I’ll tell you why. Everything that I ever got from ASU that was worth a darned, I earned with the dollars from a monthly GI Bill check and the sweat of my brow, wrung out over the pages of a stack of liberal arts textbooks. In return for my studies and an effort that earned the words Summa Cum Laude on my diploma, all I’ve ever gotten from ASU is a continual stream of what I call “mooch letters” asking me to upgrade my alumni status or asking me to donate to put other folks through school. In response, I say: I’m perfectly dissatisfied with the level of my alumni membership and don’t wish to “upgrade.” And as for others seeking to plumb my pockets to make their tuition payments, I say, “join the Army.” (So there’s your disclaimer. Even as an alumnus, I’m no fan of ASU.) Naturally, I rather admired the plucky determination of the small brewer in the face of the academic mafia.

Imagine my shock and dismay when I received in the mail today a tri-fold flyer touting the latest “alumni advantages” and upon opening it, I spied an article inviting me to a launch party for “Devil’s Pitchfork Pale Ale” at Four Peaks Brewery (find the link to their brewery yourself).

Okay. So it’s not alright for a brewer in the southeast valley to put out a beer called Sun Devil Ale,” but it’s okay for a brewer in Tempe to put out a beer called “Devil’s Pitchfork Pale Ale.”

Hmmm. This casts some of the gimmick poll questions in a new light. I smell boycott here folks. Granted, I’m not a big customer of Four Peaks but I have purchased their product in the last year, and I even shipped some to an out-of-state aficionado, bent on sampling some of their IPA. Will I refrain from patronizing Four Peaks now, in light of what ASU and the Alumni Association seem to be doing to Anthony Canecchia, a rival brewer? I don’t know. What I do know is that I’m not going to sign up to be one of the select few ASU alumnus who get to sample Devils’ Pitchfork Hypocrisy Ale at the launch party and I’ll be buying San Tan Brewing products before I bother with anything from Four Peaks.

We in the beer blogging world thump our chests and spout off about supporting the little guy and tell everyone to “drink local.” What do you do when one of the local brewers is using the might of an entrenched academic mafia to stomp on the efforts of another local brewer?

And what of Mr. Canecchia? Looks as though he knows hypocrisy when he sees it, too. Here’s the latest on his fight, in light of the announcement about Four Peaks Devils’ Hypocrisy Ale. Looks like news of the launch party has already reached San Tan Brewing.

I wonder if there would be trouble if I showed up at the launch party wearing a San Tan Brewing shirt.

I'll get back to you with something on the Gimmick Poll later. I'm spent.

Iron City. Oh hell yeah!

2010-01-07T16:25:00.000-08:00

Hmmm. Let’s see. Were I to suddenly stop drinking any beer produced east of the common border of Colorado and Kansas, and I had to sample one last meaningful example of a beer from the eastern United States, what beer would that be? Hmm. Probably not something as common and low as Iron City.

Uh, too late.

Blatantly bland in it’s blandness.

The label touts this stuff as the official beer of the Pittsburgh Nation. I’ve heard of the Republic of Texas (I love their sheet cakes.) but I’m completely in the dark when it comes to this Pittsburgh Nation. I’m pretty sure it’s a football thing and since I’m more a NASCAR fan most of the time, I’ll stay out of that social milieu. (I said “milieu.”)

But enough! This stuff smells grainy and plastic-like, pours with no discernible head (but with very active and lively beading) and tastes vaguely sour and plastic.

On the plus side, it’s probably an eastern/Midwest/rustbelt version of a retro beer much on the order of a Pabst Blue Ribbon or a Schlitz. Another plus: I think the label is cool.

I actually bought this beer because the label states it’s brewed in Latrobe. Now back in the day, I drank me a few gallons of another Latrobe product known as Rolling Rock (or Rolling Boulder in my circle). Sadly, Rolling Rock has evidently moved out of Latrobe, having been swallowed up by the Bud monster. But alas, all is not lost for the good union working folk of Latrobe, because according to this Wickety Whacked Wikipedia Entry, Iron City has moved in to fill the void left by the Rolling Rock. (I wonder if Iron City now springs forth from those glass-lined tanks that used to produce Rolling Rock?) While I’m happy for the folks who might otherwise have been left jobless by the departure of Rolling Rock, this Iron City ain’t no Rolling Rock; a statement that strikes me as funny, since it’s akin to saying that turd there tastes better’n this turd here. (The departure of Iron City from it’s home in a Pittsburgh suburb to Latrobe apparently wasn’t without some rancor, but I’ll let you Google all that on your own if you’re interested in the dirt.)

But in the end, and in keeping with my philosophy about good and bad beers, I would not turn up my nose at a cold bottle of Iron City proffered by an old friend or a potential new friend. I think when I have another Iron City beer, I’ll likely drink it straight from the bottle and I’ll drink it while watching a sporting event in person or on television, and I’ll plan on having lots of greasy food on hand. Setting and circumstance? You bet!

Here’s the Iron City Brewing website. Maybe I should submit a picture of me drinking this beer for their photo contest. (Maybe I should send them a dry cleaning bill as a result of having violently ejected said beer onto my Sunday church clothes.)

Tick, Tick, Tick

I’ve got about 3 more days until I’ll have to decide about acting on the results of the 2009 year end Gimmick Poll. If trends continue, I’ll likely be limiting my beer blogging to beers brewed in the western United States. Meanwhile I think there may be one or two more “eastern” beers hiding in the garage that I should try to get at before time runs out.

By the way, if I elect to honor the results of the 2009 Gimmick Poll, and should my vast readership of roughly two dozen vote that I’ll only blog beers from the United States’ western region, you can rest assured that I’ll still try beers from the eastern U.S. I just won’t be bragging about it here!

Sure the West's the best, but where the heck is it?

2010-01-04T06:11:00.000-08:00

It’s January 4, 2010, I’m stuck at Beer Rant HQ waiting for a UPS delivery and, with voting in the gimmick poll leaning somewhat toward my covering only beers from the western United States, I find myself wrestling with the notion of what constitutes the true “American West.”

For years, in my mind, the American West had as its eastern border the eastern borders of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. (For the record, I never much bought into the old “west of the Mississippi” chestnut and when queried by an Army coworker if Arizona was located north or south of the Mason Dixon Line, I replied that it was WEST of the Mason Dixon Line.) In college, the American West was more rightly defined as the region “beyond the 100th meridian,” but that notion is as much a meteorological construct as a geographical construct, and as much as I’d like to use the 100th meridian as my demarcation, the line splits 6 states roughly in half! What to do?

Well, if I stick to my childhood notion of “the West”, then I freeze out the Dakota’s, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. If I use the 100th Meridian as my demarcation, then I’ll be forced to sort out all the brewers who ply their trade east of a line that runs roughly north to south through Pierre, South Dakota southward through a point just east of San Angelo, Texas. Hell, I’ll need a detailed map every time I visit the liquor store or a bar!

Now, I don’t know of any craft brews coming out of North or South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas or Oklahoma but perhaps they might turn up in this new year. On the other hand, I do know that there are some tasty beers originating in Texas. So, since I’m a beer drinker and lazy by nature, I figure that it might be best for me if I set the definition of “Western United States” as: Anything lying west of the eastern borders of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. This definition removes the need for me to sort out brewers who work west of the 100th line of longitude.

For sentimentality’s sake, I like the notion of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, as being the eastern edge of the “American West,” but gosh that has the potential for freezing out a lot of craft brewers – I think. Already, I’ve discovered that, regardless of what definition I choose, I won’t be blogging about the likes of Boston Brewing or Shipyard or Abita, or Lakefront. Ahhh, it’s a tough choice. Well, as Jim Morrison said, “The west is the best. Get here, and we’ll do the rest.”

Any thoughts out there? What constitutes “the West” in your mind? Perhaps you think more in terms of the Rocky Mountain West, in which case I’d guess that Kansas is off your map. I’m still rasslin’ with this so input will be helpful.

Meanwhile, while we’re talking about “the West” and at the risk of turning you on to a blog that’s infinitely better and cooler than this one, I’ll point you over to my cousin’s (infinitely better and cooler) site at The Field Lab. You won’t find too many specific references to beer but I know for a fact that John has tried Shiner Smokehaus – but of course, he’s in Texas!

Arizona Beer for the New Year!

2009-12-31T20:11:00.000-08:00

I’ve always been an Arizona Booster, even when I wasn't actually in Arizona!

I read somewhere to “beware of thoughts that come in the middle of the night.” I had a flash of brilliance last night, thinking that perhaps it would be nice to pick up growlers of Arizona beer to enjoy while ringing in the New Year. Good plan, right?

So I sanitized my Old World Brewery and Brewer’s Den growlers and all day long contemplated the thrill of having the jugs filled after work. I swung by the Sun Up/Brewer’s Den location on Camelback Road and plunked down 10 bucks for a growler of what will likely be some of their last Nut Before Christmas Nut Brown Ale, then I hopped on 7th Street and tootled north to Old World Brewery where I plunked down 8 bucks for a growler of their Dark Knight Porter. But at Old World, I got something more.

First, the commentary, then the background, I guess.

Sun Up Brewing’s Nut Before Christmas Nut Brown Ale is, sadly, uninspiring. I tried their Vanilla Porter earlier this year and liked it very much, but this limited edition is best left alone. There is no discernible flavor up front and just a tiny hint of sweet nuttiness in the finish. I’ve been left wishing I’d gotten a jug of their IPA instead.

On the up side, the Sun Up brew pub/restaurant was hopping when I dropped in around 1:00 PM to get the growler topped off. There was easy, casual banter going on between the wait staff and the clientele seated at the bar and the bar tendress indicated they were nearly out of the Nut Before Christmas Nut Brown, so I can only gather that business is good. Will I be back? Hell yes, I’ll be back! Who wouldn’t buy beer from a brewer named Uwe? (I went to high school with a dude named Uwe. You think? Nah.) Listen; if I was looking for Big Mac consistency, I’d be buying the Miller/Coors/Bud products more often. You buy a seasonal beer from a craft brewer and you take your chance, right?

The Old World Dark Knight Porter is another deal altogether. Some time ago I stole a line from Edward Abbey when describing this dark devil. Dark Knight Porter “is faithful and never disappoints.” Is this to say every glass of Dark Knight has been a winner for me? Nope. (See my comment about Big Mac consistency.) But tonight, if there were to be a head to head comparison, the Old World Porter would easily trump the Sun Up Nut Brown Ale. The Dark Knight Porter poured coffee dark and opaque with a thin head. It smelled sweet and vaguely of caramel. The taste was initially a bit sour with a distinct smoky component. Certainly, the Dark Knight Porter is more flavorful than the Nut Before Christmas.

The other upside for Old World is the actual experience of visiting their shop. I rolled up to the front of the building to find what I thought were construction workers pouring over the place and for a moment I thought that perhaps they’d gone into some sort of remodeling mode (turns out they were just jazzing the place up for a party). A worker promptly pointed me to Patrick Fields who, again, recognized me. (Repeat offenders here will remember that it was Patrick Fields who greeted moviegoers as they exited the premier of the film Beer Wars at Desert Ridge, and it was Patrick Fields who handed out his business card to every swinging Richard and Regina and it was Patrick Fields who remembered yours truly as “the guy with the blog” in the midst of the dozens gathered there that night. Patrick Fields, folks, the hardest working man in Arizona craft brewing.)

Today, I wasn’t in the building more than 30 seconds before I’d been taken round back for a look at the latest operational workings and a sample of their upcoming First Anniversary ale. I got a look at the bottling machine, and the labeling machine and a sample of their new venture in root beer (more on that in a bit). Bottom line: for me it isn’t just about the beer when I visit Old World Brewery.

Flashback:

It’s been just over a year since I first visited Old World and though I didn’t say as much back then, I truly doubted their staying power. Today, nearly a year later, I have to say that my instincts were wrong (as usual). With a bottling and labeling line up and running, and an arrangement for Republic Distributing to proliferate their product, with a deal to sell bombers at places like Fry’s and A.J.’s Fine Foods and an up and coming root beer product, Old World looks to have dug in their heels for the long fight.

When I told Patrick about the recent “gimmick poll” here at Beer Rant and the proposed option of having Beer Rant focus only on beers from the western United States, he quickly quipped: “How about just beers from Arizona?” That’s a thought.

So, what have we got at Old World? The Dark Knight Porter is a staple in Old World’s repertoire of about half a dozen beers that run the gambit from a wit to a red to a porter. Not surprisingly, the lighter beers are the flagship brews for Old World, their Wit being a gateway brew in the same fashion as Blue Moon in the broader beer market. Patrick estimates that they are the first local brewer to have three beers in initial distribution. But there’s experimentation afoot at Old World, too. In a week, maybe two, they plan to have a first anniversary Scotch ale that will tip the scales at about 8% abv. Patrick says some of the Scotch Ale will be cask conditioned and that they’ll be switching from clear growlers to brown glass growlers. Also, there will be first anniversary glasses available. Old World seems to be coming into their own.

Don’t like beer? Fine.
I was surprised to learn that Old World is now producing a root beer line called Cole’s Old West Root Beer and the sample I tried in the taproom was first rate. I took home a growler of Cole’s Old West Root Beer for Mrs. Beer Rant and she gave it a definite thumbs up. According to Patrick, growlers of Cole's Old West are selling faster than growlers of their beer. Hmmm. There’s certainly a broader market for non-alcoholic beverages out there, I’d imagine.

My hope, my plan, at this point is to have at least one posting a month about Old World throughout 2010. That is my hope, that is my plan. Help keep me honest, folks.

In the tank:
Sun Up Brewing Nut Before Christmas Nut Brown Ale
Old World Brewing Dark Knight Porter
Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale 2009

On the desk:
An empty glass, formerly occupied by Nut Before Christmas Nut Brown Ale.

It's time for bed. Happy New Year, folks. God’s blessing for a 2010 full of health and the promise of happiness and prosperity. See you next year!

See you tomorrow 2010!

Nogne O Winter Ale

2009-12-28T13:25:00.000-08:00

I can’t pronounce it, but I can darned sure drink it!

I’ve already mentioned that I haven’t been tearing through the holiday beers as much as I did last year. Could be a number of reasons: (1) we’re more broke this year and I know that some of these holiday offerings will be on the sale rack in a couple weeks (2) I’ve had a houseful of women kinfolk this past week and consequently, I’ve been drinking less in an effort to keep my wits about me. (Men are generally less intelligent than wimmin and it only gets worse when the ladies congregate and a fellow gets a belly full of barley pop – I tend to say the dumbest things about six bottles into the evening!) (3) perhaps I’ve settled on a few seasonals that I know I’ll like and have wisely decided to pick only a couple of rare birds for sampling.

In any event, Mrs. Beer Rant and I stumbled upon a bottle of Nogne O in the seasonal rack at the Arrowhead outlet of Total Wine and More the week before Christmas. The bottle wasn’t pricemarked and some stooge had probably returned it to the wrong shelf but I decided to take a chance, agreeing with the Missus that we’d discard the bottle at the checkout counter if it proved to be too pricey. Well, the beeping scanner put the price at 8 bucks and change. I looked at Mrs. Beer Rant. Mrs. Beer Rant looked at me. I said something like, “I’ve never had a beer from Norway,” and that was that.

Damn. I wish I’d found a second bottle and bought that one too!

At 8.5% abv, this Nordic beauty trips the line between a hardy winter warmer and a sly seasonal session beer. It pours dark brown and opaque with a rich, robust tan head. I sampled it at slightly lower than the label recommended 53 degrees but no matter. Winter Ale smells like a porter, has a medium thick mouth feel and is literally like no beer I’ve ever tried before. It’s almost liquor like in taste but with no alcohol bite whatsoever. There is a hint of chocolate in there and I believe this beer is something like an imperial stout or porter would taste if one could get past what is often an overpowering alcohol bite. Terrific!

To top it off, I enjoyed this single bottle of Nogne O Winter Ale relaxing in the backyard while the grandkids cavorted through piles of freshly raked leaves. I may never know perfect, but I'm up to my eyeballs in good enough. Thank heaven.

Here’s what some better beer bloggers and reviewers have to say:

NY Press (I especially like this one. You think craft brewers in the U.S. have obstacles, read about what goes on in Norway for a real eye-opener!)

If you want a great laugh, if you appreciate obscure references to the band “Sexual Chocolate,” or if you just want to hear two Hawaiian dudes try to pronounce Nogne O, go to the Two Beer Queers review of Winter Ale. If you don’t save their site as a favorite, Norse raiders will pluck your nose hair while you sleep!

For an obscure reference to Bing Crosby, check out this review of Winter Ale at Spokane Food Blog.

Schadenfreude?
Frequent abusers here will know that I’m no fan of Dogfish Head and their recitative attempts at uber-quirkiness. I rarely buy a full six-pack or 4-pack of their product until I’ve assured myself that the contents will be palatable; their Festina Peche is no exception. I thought the bottle I sampled was miserable and evidently the beer drinking masses agree; at least the beer drinking masses that shop at the Sunflower Market just up the road from Beer Rant HQ. If you “hurry” you can buy a 4-pack of Festina Peche for the 75% reduced price of 3 bucks and change! I say “hurry” because this same stack of beer has been in the markdown bin for the last three or four months! (For the record, I love Dogfish Head’s Pumpkin beer and their Chicory Stout.)

Schadenfreude? Perhaps. But I’m gratified to see that my beer tastes are pretty much in line with most of the drinking public, especially when it comes to fermented orange juice concentrate. If I had to make one drunken prediction for 2010, I’d have to say that Dogfish Head will finally come out of the hallway and rejoin a classroom full of well behaved, if somewhat precocious kids. Face it; you can’t continue to fool people into buying 9, 10 and 12 dollar four packs of weird beer forever!

(Fine, I’m a Beer Jerk.)

Still looking for:
More Shiner Holiday Cheer, more Nogne O, and Pyramid Snowcap

In the tank:
Deschutes Obsidian Stout
On the desk:
Nothing but an empty Deschutes bottle.

Vote the poll, people! Vote the poll!

The garage is my fridge!

2009-12-23T17:26:00.000-08:00

In praise of….

Cooler weather! We’re a day or two into winter 2009 and I’m already reminded of something I really like about having cooler weather; I can store beer in the garage without benefit of a real refrigerator! Hey, I’m not complicated or picky. So long as the ambient temperature out there hovers between 40 and 55 degrees, I’m okay with that.

Mind you, we don’t entertain Old Man Winter here the same way they do back east, or in the high Rockies – they’re really throwing a party for that frozen bastard on the east coast! Here, it’s finally just cool enough to be pleasant, but no snow and no frostbitten fingers! And beer that's always just on the verge of being ready to decant. (Is that a beer douche word? Probably.) Nice.

I’d hoped to post something meaningful before Christmas Eve arrived, but seeing as I’m working right through tomorrow evening after which I’ll be out at the kid’s house, it just doesn’t seem likely now.

I’m not tearing through the Christmas/Holiday beers the way I did last year. I’ve settled on a couple standards and I’m still planning to pick up some favorites from last year. Perhaps I’ll try to capture the newly sampled holiday beers after the holiday blows through. In the meantime, here's a picture or two of recent holiday conquests, including Anchor's 2009 Merry Christmas and Sam Adams Winter Lager.

I have a bottle of some nice Norwegian beer that I think I'll take to the kids house for Christmas Eve. There's also some New Belgium 2 Below, some Dundee's Festive Ale and the remainder of a six-pack of Anchor 2009 Merry Christmas - all out in the garage of course.

On the wish list: More Shiner Holiday Cheer, More Gordon Biersch Winter Bock and some Deschutes Obsidian Stout, for which I've had a strange craving lately, though it isn't a holiday or winter seasonal beer! Here's hoping you find what's on your wish list too.

As it’s likely that I won’t be back on here until after Christmas Day, my very warmest Christmas wishes to you and yours.

In the tank:

Nothing. Some of us still have to get up at 3:30 tomorrow morning to go to work!

On the desk:

Nothing. Some of us still have to get up...oh, I already said that.

Be sure to vote in the “gimmick poll.”

"Douche" is such a harsh word...

2009-12-20T12:41:00.000-08:00

When you mock the macrobrews and those who drink them, remember that there once was a time when we had no choice!

First, thank you so much to the bloggers who dropped by to comment about the last post. My sentiments come from the heart, truly. Please feel like you can put your feet on the coffee table here, anytime!

Now to today’s point: Since my last post about Beer Rant's 20 followers, I’ve had a new joiner who runs the blog LOST in the beer aisle. (Great title, by the way.)

A recent post there seeks to know the traits that make a “beer douche” and I made a point of adding my comment, which I’ll try to replicate here with some detail.

I consider anyone who flatly refuses to drink a macrobrew a “beer douche.” Now, before you tune me out or try to send a pipe bomb to Beer Rant HQ, let me explain.

"Back, when I was a young trooper coming up through the ranks..."

Some of you younger folk, the sort who have had craft beers and micro brews available to you all through your drinking years, don’t know what it was like to spend your early beer drinking days drinking the likes of Miller, Coors, Budweiser, A1 and Milwaukee’s Best. I do. Simply put: macrobrews don’t have the same foul, onerous baggage for those of us who were given no other option back in the day.

I drank stolen A1 beer before I was of legal drinking age. I cut my teeth on Miller High Life. I packed my belongings in empty Ranier beer 12-pack boxes when I last moved from Colorado to Arizona in 1988 (about the time the craft beer renaissance was getting off the ground, I might add). Fact is, there wasn’t anything else to drink back then and, to coin an old phrase from the poor side of the tracks: “Oatmeal is better than no meal.”

There used to be a saying to define loyalty that went something like, “you dance with the one who brought you.” Well, for better or worse, Coors and Miller (and some brewers who no longer exist) got me where I am today. I’m more than happy to toss a few bucks their way now and then and I definitely won’t turn up my nose at them if I show up at someone else’s picnic to find them in the ice chest.

One new feature going forward:
I’m going to try to let readers know what I’m drinking or have been drinking when I post. (Not that it matters, perhaps, but maybe I can clue you in on beers I’ve tried, even if I don’t get around to actually doing a post about them.) “In the tank” means I’ve sampled that particular beer that day. “In the glass” means it’s on the desk in front of me as I write.

What I’m drinking today:
In the tank: Pickled Santa

In the Glass: Dundee’s Festive Ale

Please! A Little Recognition for the Followers Here!

2009-12-15T18:08:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, when my list of “followers” stood at about 17 or 18, I mentioned that I would one day get around to mentioning all of them individually. Well, by some miracle, my list of followers has jumped to 20 and I suspect I’d better get around to sending a shout out to each of them – especially those who also blog – before the number jumps back down to 3…or spikes to 30 (yeah, right). I hope that some of you have gotten inspiration from Beer Rant in the same way that I’ve gained inspiration from your work.

Cracker is a fellow traveler on the Internet Superhighway who I first ran into on the great site Beer Reviews Online. He’s a quick wit and we orchestrated a beer trade a year or so back. He’s a recent addition to the follower’s list here at Beer Rant and I’m honored he’s chosen to do so. You can see his frequent comments at Beer Reviews Online. I think Cracker is nearly the all-time most prodigious beer reviewer on BRO. Well he’s close.

'Chipper' Dave is a widely followed beer blogger in Colorado. His work strikes me as a good deal more professional than the junk I post here at Beer Rant so I often go to his blog for newsy posts. I seem to recall it was at his site that I first became aware of the Beer Mapping Project. Some day I hope to cross paths with him when I visit Colorado, but in the meantime, it’s a pleasure to know that he drops in here from time to time.

The Beer Babe is another beer blogger that I put in the “more professional” category. If memory serves me, I think I first happened across her blog through the Aleuminati beer social network site. In any event, she’s developed into an accomplished beer writer and, while I doubt she consults Beer Rant for good, industry-related stories, I’m happy to know she follows what goes on here and drops by to visit now and then.

Kelly calls his site The Beer Bitch, though I’d say the reviews there are very level headed and not the least bit bitchy. I particularly like the consistent rating system he uses on the blog and rather wish I had the same discipline and spine to offer more than my tepid “wouldn’t buy this one again” negative comments when I sample a stinker. Another plus is the list of reviewed beers by brewery – pretty handy and a feature I’m tempted to rip off so be forewarned and know that I told everyone I was planning to do it right here!

Aaron Walton is chief cook and bottle washer at B(eer)log and easily my favorite thing about his beer blog are the photos. (Little surprise there since he also has a blog called Aaron Walton: The Photography of Aaron Walton.) In late 2008 one of my resolutions was to try to use as many of my own beer images here at Beer Rant as I could and not pirate beer pictures off the web; my photography skills are lacking but I’ve stuck to this commitment the best that I know how for better or worse. Over at B(eer)log, it’s a similar situation with the only difference being, the pictures are really, really great! If I were going to write a beer book, I’d ask Aaron Walton to shoot the photos for it. If I were a craft brewer trying to break into the business and get my product and image out there, Aaron Walker’s pictures would be in my slick promotional brochures and flyers. Okay, I’ve gushed enough. I hope he’s not just a follower here but I hope he does drop in now and then.

Mike “Mikey” Riedel scribes over at Utah Beer and he’s on the cutting edge of what goes on beer-wise in the Beehive State. (Actually, it was through his blog that I became aware of the book Beer in the Beehive, which I later managed to track down at Red Rock Brewing in Salt Lake City.) Frankly, I don’t know how he manages to keep up with all the news up there but it’s pretty clear he has really good connections or contacts in the world of brewing, especially in the greater Salt Lake City area. If numbers in the current poll continue the way they are and I’m in need of guest columnists for Beer Rant, I’ll be barking up Mikey’s tree shortly after the New Year and when I finally follow through on forming a consortium of rocky mountain beer bloggers, I’ll be asking Mikey to sign on.

Good Burp is run by another beer blogger in the Phoenix area and here you’ll get a good notion of what makes a beer drinker and blogger tick. G.B. isn’t afraid to pull any punches when pointing out poor service at a booze retailer or sampling stinky beer. G.B. is another blogger who I'll likely be asking for a guest post if the current polling numbers continue trending the way they are at the moment.

J.K. Wise runs Highway to Ale and I’ve got to confess that, up until a month or so ago, I was unable to enter the blog – computer kept giving me some odd error message. Now that I’m able to get in, I appreciate it as a terrific site and am thankful to have J.K. as a follower.

The folks at True Brew Blog are home brewers and I suspect they’re doing a lot of brewing and not a ton of blog posting. I hope they’ll come back with some hair raising tales of seasonal winter brewing to jumpstart things but for now, I just hope they’re dropping in here at Beer Rant now and then since they were kind (and brave) enough to publicly admit they are “followers” here.

I became aware of Musings of a Smartass because Virgil G posted a request that other bloggers drink and comment on beers during Smartass’s medically ordered sabbatical from the suds. I think I drank a Kona Pipeline Porter for Smartass and have since visited his blog several times. His work is often too cerebral for a lout like me but a recent post about moving a refrigerator is classic and event a knot head like me can grasp the humor! To think that someone as smart as Smartass bothers to visit Beer Rant once in awhile boggles the brain.

A Journey Through Beer is a beer blog started up by my son-in-law, the Marine. Simply put, I’d have to say that I think his Journey Through Beer has been interrupted by children. He doesn’t post as often as he’d probably like but he was gracious enough to sign on as a follower to Beer Rant, so I’m just going to have to cut him some slack. In any event, the sorts of trouble I give him on his blog are nothing compared to the grief he gets when he shows up here at Beer Rant HQ. (It’s a father-in-laws prerogative to berate the son-in-law, isn’t it?)

Rhyan and Nick run Adventures in Making Beer and it’s possible I first crossed paths with them in connection with one of my (two) attempts to brew beer using the Mr. Beer set-up but I’m not positive. Rhyan is one of those most avid of beer converts, having only just first sampled beer in January of this year! Yet in those short few months, he’s taken to brewing the stuff himself. Check out their older posts to see a rundown of their beer brewing and beer blogging goals. Lofty? I think not. Certainly doable. Sign on as a follower so they can make their goal of having 20 followers! I did.

Virgil, the trucker hat guy, runs Vbg-log, which is the site through which I became aware of Musings of a Smartass (see above). I think Vbg-log was one of the first beer blogs I encountered on the web and likely it was one reason I decided I’d like to try my hand at beer-blogging, too. To know that Virgil’s tire tracks can be found here at Beer Rant now and then is a reassuring thing to me somehow.

Whitney blogs at Whitney Thinks and more frequently at the Mother Daughter Diet Diary. I have a suspicion Whitney happened into the Beer Rant neighborhood strictly by chance. I’ve not seen many comments from her, though she did leave a very kind offer to send Shiner on my son-in-law’s blog and for that, I’m sure she ranks as good beer folk.

Steven runs a blog called Striving for the Crown but it’s only open to members. I’d lightly tap on the door to see if I could gain entrance, but I have a terrible fear of rejection. Just know that I’m happy that Steven drops in at Beer Rant from time to time and I’m happier still to know that he’s man enough to admit it by being listed as a follower here.

Of the twenty kind souls who’ve confessed to being followers of Beer Rant, five don’t list a blog of their own on their Google profile, so to Matt and Scott, to J. Tingle and David Rife and also to Brewme_SLC, I can only send my thanks and appreciation.

Strangely enough, about two weeks ago, when my follower list stood at 18 or 19 followers, I silently said to myself that it would be nice if I could sign on 20 followers before the end of 2009. Well, it happened and probably through no great feat of endeavor on my part. I just get on here now and then to blow smoke about beer or beer drinking. But know this: followers may come and go and it’s possible that as this big dizzy orb of ours continues to spin you may one day fall away as followers of Beer Rant and likely as not it’ll be because I’ve said something really stupid, but until that time, thank you for signing on for the trip.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays to you all.

Reminder: Vote in the Gimmick Poll to see what stupid thing ought to be the driving force behind Beer Rant in 2010. I might just follow up on the majority decision...or not.

Gotta Getta Gimmick!

2009-12-04T05:57:00.000-08:00

I've touched briefly on the gimmicky stuff the big brewers are doing to remain in the public eye (color changing cans, "smooth pour" bottles, and so forth) and I'm thinking that Beer Rant might need a gimmick going into the new year.

I've posted a poll (to the left) seeking some input. Perhaps I could try to drink only beers from the western or rocky mountain states. Maybe I could boycott a particular state altogether. Perhaps you'd like to read a serialized fictional story with beer as the primary plot line. (I haven't given this one a lot of thought but I think it could be done.) Could be you're sick of my stuff and you'd like to see some real talent come in and post guest columns now and then.

Cast your vote between now and the first part of January. If you've got some other suggestion, leave a comment for this post. I'm not sure I'll have the fortitude to carry though with a gimmicky new year's resolution but we'll see.

(I think this is the 125th post at Beer Rant....just saying.)

A Good Thing

2009-12-01T18:07:00.000-08:00

This will be short.

I want to get the word out about an event called Arizona Strings, that involves buying and drinking Sierra Nevada products (in the Phoenix area) and seeing proceeds from your purchase to go benefit Operation HomeFront.

The event is only being held at certain venues in the greater Phoenix area this coming Friday but you can find a list of participating watering holes at the Arizona Strings website.
I’m proud of the folks at Sierra Nevada for doing this great thing. I’ve already sampled some of the 2009 vintage of their Celebration Ale and by golly I’ll do so again on December 4th!

Drinking great beer and helping an outstanding cause. What could be better?

Random Ramblin' and Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-24T17:14:00.000-08:00

Tip Up To Pour (Dummy).
Geez. You try to give the big brewers a break, maybe cut them a little slack now and then and how do they repay the kindness? They come out with cans that magically change color so you’ll know they’re cold. Fine. Gimmicky. Slick trick to sell beer. Whatever.

Well, thumbing through one of those upscale magazines to which my sister subscribes, I stumbled on an advertisement for Michelob Ultra, touting, get this, their bottle. More precisely, the shape of their bottle. Seems it’s more, um, bottle-like in its wonderful bottle-ness to such an extent that it’s bottle-iferous! (Madison Avenue? I’m here, waiting. Sigh.) Here’s the ad:

Hmmm. Lemme see iff’in I git this right. I simply tip up the bottom of the bottle and the juicy beer goodness flows out that little hole on the top of the bottle? That’s amazing! (Oooops. Dang it all tuh hell, I poured it on my shoes! Sum’bitch!)

Since seeing it in a magazine on my sister’s kitchen table in Denver, I’ve spied it on a billboard in Phoenix. Creeping crud.
Holiday Cheer! It's Here!
Um, on the bright side: Shiner Holiday Cheer is back on the shelves! Here’s a tacky picture I took over at the kids house this weekend.

I love this stuff! If you’re a fan of Shiner beers, you owe it to yourself to add this one to your beer life list. If you're not a fan of Shiner beers, try it anyway. If you don't like it, mail me the rest of the six pack!
Happy Thanksgiving, GI.
Finally, spare a thought for our men and women in uniform this Thanksgiving. Some may be eating MRE’s instead of the traditional turkey dinner and for every one of those fighting men and women you see in a mess hall on the television news, there’s a few more out in some dark, cold place grabbing a meal when they can and thinking how much more thankful they’d be if they could just be home this Thanksgiving. Think you’ve got it rough? At least you won’t be chowing down in Iraq or Afghanistan this week.

A long time ago, in a peacetime army seemingly long forgotten.

Craftbrewing Breaks into NASCAR!

2009-11-16T10:51:00.000-08:00

Lagunitas Brewing #37 Truck
If you’ve browsed through Beer Rant at all, you may have come across the Inaugural Post I made back in January 2008 (gosh have I been frittering my time away with this blog that long?). One look at the picture and you’ll judge I’m something of a hillbilly. As such, I like me some NASCAR now and then. (I won’t turn this into a commentary on how NASCAR is like the Mafia, or how the series caters way too much to the RV and camper crowd, or how all the drivers are becoming way too young. I won’t.)

NASCAR blows into town a couple times a year and once upon a time, I’d attend all 3 or 4 days of racing over at Phoenix International Raceway. Now, for various reasons (some enumerated in paragraph one) I’ve pared down my attendance and usually go to the minor series races, eschewing the main events on Saturday and Sunday.

So this past week, my buddy Jon flew into town from his retirement compound in Oregon and we took in the Thursday and Friday racing events at PIR. On Thursday, drinking the usual Budweiser and Coors products mandated by the sanctioning body (See my Mafia comment in paragraph one.) I was intrigued by the letters “IPA” on the side of one of the trucks speeding around the track in preparation for the next day’s Camping World Truck Series race. (See my RV and camper comment in paragraph one.)

I used to be really up on all the team numbers in all the series, but since the advent of grandchildren at Beer Rant HQ, I don’t follow the individual teams as closely. The truck was number 37 and the more I thought about it, the more I began to look for that “IPA” truck and before long, I spied the word “Lagunitas” above the rear wheel well. Cool!
Alcohol and cigarettes used to be mainstay sponsors in every NASCAR series, but nowadays, only Budweiser, Coors and Miller seem to be interested in dumping money into stockcar racing. Consequently, the only beer product you’re likely to be able to purchase at PIR is a beer from one of the main beer sponsors. Imagine seeing the Lagunitas name on the side of a truck in NASCAR’s third-tier series! Pretty cool for someone who at least knows a little bit about NASCAR and a little bit about craft brewing.

All that evening and most of the next morning, I feverishly hatched up an idea to enjoy me some Lagunitas IPA at the track on Friday. My reliable neighborhood Sunflower Market regularly stocks Lagunitas IPA and I grabbed a six-pack of it as Jon and I headed to the track Friday afternoon. I eagerly enjoyed a bottle or two of the IPA while we tailgated in our meager fashion, chatting with a fellow from British Columbia who’d driver over from his winter quarters near Yuma (Hello to you Mr. Miller. Hope you got home safely.) Knowing that I’d be searched before entering the track, I simply carried a couple of bottles of the Lagunitas with me as we browsed through the souvenir stands outside the gates. Nobody was selling hats and t-shirts with the #37 Lagunitas truck emblazoned on them. There were no Lagunitas can coolers or stickers or bandanas or thong undies. I’d hazard a guess that I was the only race fan drinking a Lagunitas product outside the track. Had I been brazen enough to smuggle a bottle of Lagunitas IPA into the track, I suspect I’d have been the only person in the stands drinking Lagunitas, too. (I’d imagine the #37 truck team had some Lagunitas in their hauler. I hope they did.)

So what of the #37 Lagunitas IPA Ford truck and its driver? Robbie Brand seems like my kind of driver – he’s older than the current crop of barely pubescent drivers in NASCAR’s upper series. Born in 1958, Mr. Brand’s older than dirt by current NASCAR standards and for that reason, just the sort of driver an old timer should root for in the series. (See my comment about drivers being way too young in paragraph one.)

Friday’s truck race was Mr. Brand’s debut in the truck series and in the end, he did alright for himself in his first Camping World Truck Series race, finishing 27th out of 36 trucks and still running at the finish. Sadly, because the truck series is a fairly low tier series, he only garnered about $8,000 for his effort; hopefully, the Lagunitas folks also supplied the team with a hefty stock of their delicious product.

For my part, I took the remaining two bottles of Lagunitas IPA home and enjoyed them the next day, comfortably ensconced at Beer Rant HQ and not fighting traffic at PIR. The 2009 NASCAR season is just about wrapped up, but I’m going to keep an eye out for the Lagunitas sponsorship next year. (They haven’t responded to an email I sent them, but I’m hoping they will eventually.) I think it would be terrific if the craft brewing industry could step into the world of racing sponsorship and make their existence known to more of us hillbillies.

You can Google Robbie Brand, but don’t expect to find a ton of information. Information about Lagunitas is far easier to locate, though there isn’t much regarding their NASCAR involvement. (I'll let you know if I receive an email from the Lagunitas folks.)

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale: Credit Where Credit Is Due

2009-11-03T18:30:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I've been tough on Dogfish Head in the past but I'm the first to point out a keeper when I see one, too.

The field of pumpkin beers seems to be full of beers that come equipped with jazzy names and slick labels, but most just aren’t all that noteworthy. I think it’s important to point out the really good ones (though I’ve never had a pumpkin beer that was just a total stinker).

I first tried Dogfish Head Brewing’s Punk Punkin Ale during my trip to Colorado in 2008; I bought it as a single and liked it a lot. My notes for September 22, 2008 read:

Smells vaguely of spice/cinnamon. [Smells] Grassy with a slight alcohol bite in the glass. Amber gold, nice head. There’s an alcohol bite that isn’t off-putting. May be the best pumpkin beer I’ve tried based strictly on style. Finally a Dogfish beer that isn’t a dog. (Emphasis added.)
Based on that positive experience, I asked Mrs. Beer Rant to pick up a 4-pack of this stuff last week and was not disappointed. When they’re too quirky for me, I’m quick to call the Dogfish Head folks out (Festina peche? Really? What the hell is that?), and likewise, I’m thrilled to post positive feedback on their beers and this one remains, easily, one of the top two or three beers on my pumpkin beer list. I need to track down some more of that Lakefront Pumpkin Lager for another try.

Last year, I was a bit out of my element so the Punkin Ale ensemble shots were a bit spotty. I’ll post the few that were even remotely useful here…

This year, armed with a complete 4-pack and a stack of decommissioned jack o’ lanterns, I set up the ideal ensemble shot of bottle and glass. I’ll post all the best ones here because I love Halloween and pumpkin carving and pumpkin beer.

Now, on to November.

Beer Moment & Closing The Book

2009-10-31T09:46:00.000-07:00

Weather has taken a turn for the cool around Beer Rant HQ, Halloween is here and before we know it Thanksgiving will be here. Beer-wise, this is probably my favorite time of year.

Beer Moment: A Beer On The Rim
From recent posts you might gather that I’m something of a traveler but that’s not so; I usually manage one or two decent trips a year either for family fun or work related stuff. This year has been a bit different in that I’ve gotten to Oregon (for the first time) and to Utah and to Colorado but that’s probably going to be it for 2009. Quick on the heels of the Colorado jaunt was a one-day quick trip up to Grand Canyon to meet family members intent on celebrating a birthday by taking a helicopter ride

We did our visiting while strolling around Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim and my nephew, who is something of a beer geek in his own right bought me a glass of beer from Grand Canyon Brewing at the bar in the El Tovar Lodge. He’d gone on at some length about a Grand Canyon Porter or Stout he’d tried the night before at a bar near their hotel in Tusayan. One would have thought that we’d have spent that brief, quiet time comparing notes on all things beer related but we didn’t. We quietly downed our pints with an offhand comment about the bar décor and a brief comparison of the pilsner at hand to the stout my nephew had tried the evening before. It was as if we were meeting for a routine pint after work. I don’t see my nephew or the rest of my extended Colorado family nearly often enough but the ease with which we simply slide into a familiar routine is comforting to me in a way.

Incidently, the beer we tried at El Tovar was a pilsner from Grand Canyon Brewing. It wasn’t all that noteworthy, but the setting and circumstance more than made up for what the beer might have been lacking!

Closing The Book
I filled up my first beer notebook a week or so back. The first entry is dated May 9, 2008 and was written during a visit to the Yardhouse where I noted my first sample of Old Speckled Hen. The final note is dated October 18, 2009 and indicates I was rounding out the notes with a Deschutes 2009 Jubelale. (Excellent beer, as always.)

I’ve debated whether or not to even start a new beer notebook. Frankly it’s a bit of an obstruction to actually enjoying the beer: the sniffing, the sipping, and the rabid jotting of notes. The Brits seem to have a term for folk who do this; they’re called “tickers,” and I’d liken them to those really ate up bird watchers who let their lives go to hell while they’re out looking for yet another bird to add to their life list. I don’t want to become a ticker, but I think I have.

On the other hand, without a notebook, I won’t have any way to document what I’ve done beer-wise and thus, no way to post comments on this blog. To lose the notebook would be to lose the Beer Rant blog, which in life’s large scheme wouldn’t amount to muck (another British term, I think). But I need to write, even if I don’t write all that well, and for now, blogging is writing for me.

So, I have purchased another book for beer notes. It’s the same style Sokkia Engineer’s Field Book that I just finished up with; they’re sturdy, somewhat waterproof, brightly colored so they’re not easily misplaced and they’ve got plenty of room for notes. My dilemma now is to decide what form my notes will take this time around. I don’t believe I’m going to be going into as much detail regarding color, head, smell and taste because doing so seems to slow down my process and usually that information isn’t even used here at Beer Rant anyway. I subtitled Beer Rant as a “beer diary” so, moving forward, I’m going to try to document more of the Beer Moments in this second beer notebook. We’ll have to see how that translates to what appears here at Beer Rant.

Finally, my thanks to those silly few of you who’ve chosen to “follow” Beer Rant. I’m planning to put together a post that acknowledges as many of you as I can, with links to your blogs or websites, but in the meantime, I appreciate your stopping in from time to time and I enjoy seeing your comments posted.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Colorado Trip

2009-10-22T18:24:00.000-07:00

Dad Gum! This Is A Long Post!

My work as a low-level government functionary provides a single perk for which I have been constantly grateful ‘lo this past decade or more: ample vacation time. I accrue damned near 8 hours of vacation time every pay period! Mrs. Beer Rant, eh, not so much. Consequently, I found myself in Colorado by myself a couple of weeks ago. My primary purpose was to attend the annual reunion of the Civilian Conservation Corps Legacy, but with kinfolk scattered across the state, I enjoyed family company as well. Oh, and beer, too.

Normally, a visit to Colorado is a mixed blessing for me in that I’m always thrilled to be there and sad to leave. This time around, with temperatures dipping into the teens and the roads iced up, I wasn’t so sorry to hop that plane once my nine-day visit was over. (Naturally, the weather cleared up the following week and Denver once again basked under 70 degree sun, but that’s Colorado for you.)

Of course, if you’re one of the few folks likely to even read this post, you’re not likely to care much for stories of my having scrolled through old newspapers on microfilm in the library across the street from the Tommyknocker brewery in Idaho Springs. You’re likely to scroll through any account I might post about shooting pool with my brother-in-law, even if I make mention of the pitchers of Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale that we enjoyed while he systematically dismantled my sensitive billiard ego.

So, here’s the straight beer dope from Colorado:

I didn’t set foot in any breweries, though I did snap a picture of the sign painter touching up the Tommyknocker sign. The weather was so dicey during my stay; I preferred to drink at my sister’s house or in the warming environs of the local pool hall, with a few quick samplings made in a hotel room during the CCC reunion to round out the tasting notes.

By my rough count I sampled 13 new beers, mostly Colorado product and mostly singles, which doesn’t make for decent commentary. (Someone has posted a set of “rules” for beer sampling and one of them cautions against forming an opinion about a beer after only a single sample. Which is why I don’t really “rate” beers here, right.)

Haunting Baker Street
My sister and her husband weren’t home when I arrived at their place, so I ambled around the corner to the Baker Street Pub for lunch and some beer. The waitress drew my attention to a sale on Guinness 250 on draft, which was being offered for the bargain basement price of 2 bucks a pint. “Fill ‘er up says I.” I have to admit that Guinness 250 tastes better on draft, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. Perhaps it was the cut-rate price, too. At any rate, I liked it enough to have another one a few days later during a follow on visit.

With the first glass of Guinness 250 gone and still facing half a plate of bangers and mash, I ordered a glass of New Belgium’s Hoptoberfest, which must be some sort of locally protected secret because when I took my seat at the pub I made a point of asking the waitress what seasonals were currently available and all she offered was Sam Adams Octoberfest. (I shouldn’t beef too much; at least my waitress clued me in to the Guinness 250 sale, right?) Lucky for me I overheard another waitress telling other patrons about the Hoptoberfest. Well, sort of lucky. I was expecting something on the order of a marzen but this one arrived lager thin and only slightly darker than a Bud or a Coors. The hop smell is right up front with this one and the taste is hoppy and sweet, reminding me of another beer that I’m still unable to recall. Hoptoberfest is decidedly unlike any other New Belgium offering I’ve had in the past.

I paid a second visit to Baker Street Pub with my brother-in-law later in my stay and as we watched the Denver/Dallas football game I enjoyed a glass of the Baker Street Nut Brown ale, which smells a bit of maple or molasses and tastes great. This one would be too sweet to pound as a session beer. During the same stop I had a glass of Paulaner Hefeweizen, which arrived a cloudy light yellow color with no citrus attached per my instructions to the bartend-ress (who very kindly asked me if I wanted an orange or lemon). This hefe tastes vaguely of Hoegaarden but not as bad.

Drinking On The Kinfolk’s Couch
For light drinking around the house, I picked up a six pack of Great Divide Brewing's Samurai Rice Ale and a six pack of Grand Lake Brewing's Stumpjumper IPA. I found myself turning to these during my short stops by the family place, usually in the evenings between 8 and 10 pm after travels up Clear Creek Canyon or to top off a day with the CCC boys at the reunion.

As for the Samurai Rice Ale, in addition to really cool label graphics, the beer had a pleasant sweet grain smell and taste with a surprisingly light mouthfeel for an unfiltered beer. I will definitely seek this one out again – especially when the weather turns hot again. The Stumpjumper IPA was also a pleasant surprise. I’d not ever heard of Grand Lake Brewing before and I considered a jaunt over Berthoud Pass to pay them a visit but glitchy weather and a full schedule dictated otherwise. (I did drive to the summit of Berthoud Pass during my visit, but only because I worked on that road back in 1988.) The Stumpjumper poured with a sweet, piney smell that seemed right for an IPA. The taste was sweet, grainy, sour and piney if a beer can be all those things at once. The taste was almost too sweet for an IPA, seeming more like a hopped up pale ale instead. Still, a great effort by an evidently small, remote brewer. It’s just unfortunate they haven’t broken into the Arizona market yet, but judging from their website, it would seem they’ve had some growing pains recently. If you’re in an area where you can buy Grand Lakes beer – BUY IT.

To round things out around the homestead, I picked up a bomber of Breckenridge Brewing's Small Batch Imperial Porter Porter, which I purposely purchased one evening as I headed home in the face of an impending storm. Knowing the weather was about to turn decidedly winter-like, I figured a nice porter or stout was definitely in order. (I ended up scraping ice off the windshield of my rental car with a Gordon Biersh card the next morning.) The Porter Porter has an alcohol bite up front and is rather acidic tasting and it definitely warms going down. Though it isn’t an outstanding porter, it does represent the imperial style well enough.

I Drink Alone, and Sometimes, Not
I hit Lucky Strike Lanes for happy hour one afternoon and, in the process sampled some 2-for-1 beers that included Odell Brewing's Easy Street Wheat. The bartend-ress compared this one to Blue Moon, but Easy Street arrived smelling slightly alcoholic, so I’d describe it as Blue Moon’s slightly more aggressive sister, tasting more of wheat without the spice of Blue Moon. They may be related somehow, but they’re distinctly different. (For the record, I’d originally ordered an Odell’s 90 Shilling, but Lucky Strike evidently doesn’t carry that product any longer.) To follow up the Easy Street Wheat, I had a glass of Sam Adam’s October fest and marveled at the beauty of its orange color and nice caramel component. Boston Brewing rarely disappoints.

In another session, with my brother-in-law, we dropped in to Las Margaritas for a bottle or two of Lakefront Brewing's Pumpkin Lager. This one has more spice than pumpkin in the taste but it’s terrific. I made note in my beer notebook (per my brother-in-law’s instructions) that I was enjoying this beer as “a prelude to getting my ass kicked at pool,” which turned out to be a fairly accurate prediction.

Love in a Plastic Cup: Hotel Room Hook Ups
My very own, dear mother was attending the CCC reunion, too and, while I was imposing on my sister and her very patient husband, mom elected to roost at the hotel where the reunion was being held – with the potential for icy roads and the busy reunion schedule, I think that was a wise move on her part.

Knowing I’d have a convenient sampling room near the center of reunion activities, I snagged a few odd beers at a huge liquor store called Tipsy's Liquor World near the hotel. Here in quick riff fashion are those beers:

Fort Collins Brewery
Chocolate Stout
Roasted tasting with only a vague hint of chocolate. Pours dark opaque with a beige-brown head, it’s okay as a stout but weak as a “chocolate stout.”

Odell Brewing
Cutthroat Porter
Smells a bit like Deschutes Porter, and pours opaque with a beige head. Unfortunately, while it may smell like Deschutes Porter it certainly doesn’t taste as good. It finishes with a faint coffee taste. The low, 4.8% abv is a plus in my book.

Boulder Beer
Planet Porter
Poured opaque coffee brown with a beige head and a vague alcohol smell. No roasted, malted or hoppy component. Slightly warming with a hint of coffee at the finish

Great Divide Brewing
Saint Bridget’s Porter
Had no significant smell – perhaps coffee. Certainly had a distinct coffee taste and pours dark coffee color but not opaque with a yellow/beige head.

Tommyknocker Brewing
Maple Nut Brown Ale
Dark tea color with a robust head and a faint but noticeable maple smell. This one offers a good taste with “just enough” maple to make it a contender.

The Civilian Conservation Corps reunion wrapped up, I enjoyed a day or two with my sisters in the Denver area and then hopped the bird to fly back to the Arizona desert. It was a nice trip with just enough of the gold and amber stuff to knock the edge off. Life’s good. Now back to work. No really!

This post has been far too verbose. I’m going to tack on some photos I took during the visit and leave it at that for the time being. If you’ve read this far, you have the patience of a saint or the curiosity of a cat. God bless you.

Up next...Grand Canyon Beer with my nephew and "Closing the Book."

Old World Brewery in the News

2009-09-29T19:56:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken in the early days...back in June.

I stumbled onto a brief but nice article on Old World Brewery posted on
AzCentral.Com.

Seems they may finally be getting a bit of local recognition. I’ve been in there the past two Friday afternoons, about 4PM and found the front tasting room area nearly packed (granted it’s a small space, but the crowds have been steadily larger each time I visit).

This past Friday, I only stopped in long enough to fill a growler with their Irish Red to take home. It’s nice to have them so close to Beer Rang HQ.

Perhaps of greater use than the text of the article are the comments placed by readers. Most seem to bash the genre of music – hip hop – though the last time I was there when a musician was actually playing it was a single fellow playing classic rock on a guitar. He was stumped when I asked for a Merle Haggard song, but he was still pretty good. There are a couple complaints about the quality of the beer and even a quip about the hygiene of the place. I recall from my first visit – before they’d actually opened - that they purchased their brewing apparatus from a defunct brewpub in Missouri or Mississippi. I don’t recall anything about Katrina-salvaged kettles and I’d suspect if that were the case, their beer wouldn’t have measured up from day one.

Fact is, Old World’s beers evolve. Two weeks ago Matt made a note on the beer menu indicating that the Dark Knight was now rating a higher abv percentage than originally advertised. An early attempt to brew an IPA got out of hand as I recall but it was interesting to stop in from week to week and taste how the beer was developing and changing. To those who still crave consistency, my advice is for you to go down to the corner swill house and order a Coors, Miller or Pabst – just don’t expect the barkeeper to allow you to taste a free sample before you plunk down your bucks. So far the guys at Old World will set you up with a taste of anything you fancy trying before you pay for a full glass.

Heading for the Hills

I’m heading to Colorado next Saturday and I’m feverishly trying to map out a beer strategy in order to maximize my stay while still enjoying family and a cool annual gathering of Civilian Conservation Corps veterans. Don’t know if I’ll post anything before I head out, but I’ll fashion something once I return for sure.

Utah ReCap

2009-09-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

"...shot off a flare gun in the basement...religious documents hidden in the walls...no jail time." (Snippets of conversation overheard at a neighboring table.)

I’ll not bore you with much detail regarding our Utah trip except to say we didn’t really do all that much. (Certainly not as much as some folks, judging by what passes for casual conversation in Utah's brew pubs.) The big thing for Mrs. Beer Rant and I was to see our oldest daughter and our granddaughter, who's not even a year old yet! That was the fun! Some will recall from previous posts that a lot of my “vacation” time usually involves U-Haul trucks and bonding moments with my daughters. This Utah trip was no exception and I did manage to hurt my back in the process – just a bit – but as something of a reward, I was allowed to track down six examples of Utah-brewed beers during the trip. I’ll try to “tick” them off in something of a Quick Riff format for the sake of brevity.

Place: RedRock Brewery, Salt Lake City
Beers: Bamberg Rauchbier and Oatmeal Stout
The Bamberg Rauchbier arrived with a weak head but a nice brown orange color. Smells more sweet than smoky – perhaps malty, but the smokiness builds and there is a smoky taste up front when you drink it with a dry finish. A decent example of the style but not the best smoked beer I’ve tried.

The Oatmeal Stout was opaque with a sturdy head; it looked great. It had a thin mouth feel and didn’t strike me as being as distinctive as the Rauchbier.

Place: Desert Edge Brewery, Salt Lake City
Beers: Utah Pale Ale and Happy Valley Hefeweizen
The Utah Pale Ale arrived straight from the tap, a straw-wheat color with a medium head. The smell was of pine and grapefruit for sure. The taste was slightly sweet with a decidedly strong bitter grapefruit taste. Lacing in the glass was heavy and this one was much better than the beer I tried during my quick visit last year (the Latter Day Stout).

The Happy Valley Hefeweizen showed up a cloudy, light straw color with a taste that came across somewhat weak after trying the UPA.

Place: Iggy’s, Centerville
Beers: Uinta Cutthroat Pale Ale and Squatter’s IPA
Both beers arrived in the bottle so I poured them myself. The Cutthroat Pale Ale was sweet, malty smelling with heavy lacing, an orange-bronze color and a fizzy head. The taste was malty but overly light and thin; not as sweet as most pale ales I recall but definitely malty and good.

The Squatters IPA was a dark straw color and did not smell the least bit like I think an IPA should smell (but I’m not the beer expert). Frankly, it didn’t taste that much like an IPA to me either, but the 6% abv is evident as you drink it. A great beer but only a fair example of the style, I think.

If I had to pick winners from the trip, I'd have to say RedRock's Rauchbier, Desert Edge's Utah Pale Ale, and the Uinta Cutthroat Pale Ale.

Politics, Religion and Beer, Oh My!

As an added bonus, I picked up a copy of Beer in the Beehive by Del Vance, a book I’ve been looking for since first seeing it mentioned at UTAH BEER. As a student of history, I like the book a great deal and the illustrations are top notch. However there’s a political/editorial bent to much of the text that I don’t much enjoy so I’ll not go into a detailed review of the book, except to say, if you’re amassing a collection of books related to the history of brewing, Beer in the Beehive is a required addition. If you’re looking for the definitive history of Utah brewing, again, this is the book you must acquire.

Nein, nein, oh nein! A Retraction

2009-09-09T19:42:00.000-07:00

I created the posting label “Beer Jerk” for a reason, people. When I apply it to one of my blog postings, I mean to say that I’m being a beer jerk. Which is to say, the posting is probably off the mark.

Back in July I posted a short piece called Hot-Weather Ramblings that dealt with, among other things, an article in the July/August issue of Beer Magazine. In that posting, I characterized a particular article in that issue as “rather inept.” Well, the author of that article somehow stumbled onto Beer Rant. (Don’t ask me how; we’re located off one of the most remote back roads on the entire Information Superhighway.) He left a comment that was far more diplomatic than necessary, asking me to explain my characterization of his article as “inept” (or “rather inept”). Frankly, he had every right to call me out in stronger terms because after re-reading the article, I can’t find much fault with the content and were I to describe the article again, I’d certainly not call it inept, but perhaps “clumsy.” Understand, the article’s clumsiness is due entirely to issues related to layout and not due to content so the blame (if there is any) should fall on the magazine editor, not the author.

So, having inaccurately described Mr. Brooks’ article as “rather inept,” I’d like to point out the high points of the piece and hopefully describe the specific attributes that made the article clumsy in my opinion. The piece is broken down into about 18 sub-sections that cover a number of aspects of beer labeling policy and practice. I especially liked the section on measurements under the heading “Required Information.” The section entitled “The Long and Winding Road to Approval" is interesting and brought to mind the hoop-lah that attended Flying Dog’s slogan “Good Beer, No Shit.” The discussion of the differences between “alcohol by weight” versus “alcohol by volume” in the section “Fat or Heavy” was especially enlightening and finally, the explanation of the terms “out of code” and “gone bad” is good information for folks who wonder just how long a six-pack is allowed to sit on the shelf before being “recalled” by the brewer.

If I praise Mr. Brooks’ work to strongly now, it may come across as patronizing. All I can say at this point is that I was mistaken to describe his article as “rather inept” or “inept’ in any fashion. Upon a second reading I find that I’m most bothered by the fact that some of the text of his piece is barely legible because of the editor’s poor choice of background photographs. This probably won’t matter one bit, if, as Mr. Brooks mentions in his comment, the article is aimed at a “younger audience.” Kids today don’t know from subtly, nuance or turn of phrase; they’re probably just looking at the pictures, which makes the illegible text immaterial.

I want to thank Mr. Brooks for having left such an even-handed comment in response to my harsh criticism of his article – he certainly had every right to use stronger language. He strikes me as an even handed fellow and nobody with such a love of the common “French Fry” could possibly be all bad, right? Don’t believe me? See Mr. Brooks’ French Fry blog HERE!

Some recent label anomalies I've found:

When is a lager, not a lager? When you're in Texas. Then it's an ale!

Guess where was when I found this "unlawful to remove" sticker on a bottle of beer.

Flying to the Hive and Quick Riffs

2009-08-26T18:31:00.000-07:00

Gosh, where have the days gone? It’s still blazing hot here at Beer Rant HQ and the monsoons have brought us nothing save a bit more humidity that throws the whole “dry heat” chestnut on its head. Anyway.

I’m doing more beer drinking and not so much blogging. Beers sampled since the last post include Shiner’s Smokhaus, Breckenridge Summer Bright Ale, and Lagunita’s Lucky 13. I liked them all well enough and I suppose I’ll get ‘round to some notes at some point.

Big news right now is next week’s impending jaunt up to Utah and the area north of Salt Lake City proper. Now of course the purpose is to visit in-laws and kinfolk and to especially get a chance to see my oldest daughter and her daughter (who is grandchild number 3 out of a total of 4). However, there’s always the chance that I’ll break away from the crowd and have an opportunity to sample local beers. I never make hard and fast plans in this regard, because I’ve usually been disappointed with the outcome. Nevertheless, I’ve allowed myself the luxury of looking up the names and addresses of the various microbrew and craft brew outlets in the greater SLC area. One indispensable resource has been Mike Riedel’s terrific blog Utah Beer. Mike’s up on the latest local haps for sure, so I’ve used his list of promising beer purveyors to create a short list of places to visit if “setting and circumstance” permit. (Yeah, I worked in my catch phrase again. I’m done!)

What do I anticipate doing if the beer tour doesn’t pan out? My in-laws have a lovely finished basement with a large TV. I’ve got a stack of great books to read and I’ll take a few of them just in case. (I’m currently reading American Gunfight, which is about an attempt to assassinate President Truman in the 1950s. It’s good. I’ll probably wind up the trip reading Eisenhower’s Lieutenants. Life’s good, if the books are good, even if you can’t find great local beer.)

Okay. A quick riff or two, for old time’s sake, okay?

Shiner Smokehaus Helles Style Lager
Sampled on August 16, 2009
I’d been looking for this thing since it was released back in June. Mrs. Beer Rant tracked it down for me and heaven bless her for it. Pours slightly darker than a Bud/Miller/Coors lager. Smells like liquid smoke – somewhat chemical smelling and tasting. Initially does not taste like beer. Tastes a bit like flavored fruit beers that I’ve had – the added taste just seems a bit strange. I can see how beer drinkers might easily love or hate this. I like it just fine and was glad the missus picked up two six packs. (But just last weekend, I grabbed a six-pack of this, then reluctantly placed it back on the shelf of the local Total Wine outlet. I like it, but not enough to buy it in favor of some other new beer!)

Lagunita’s Lucky 13
Sampled on August 9, 2009
I like this company’s style, though I’m probably not hip enough to run with their kind. This beer labels itself as “a mondo large red ale.” It does pour a dark red color with a robust beige-orange head. This one’s sweet tasting without the alcohol bite I expected, though it has a medium to heavy mouth feel. The sweetness and a high abv percentage preclude this as a good session beer but it’s definitely a flavorful beer. The label includes a phone number (707-769-4495) to call the company. Go ahead, I dare you.

Next post will likely come after we get back from the Beehive State.

Kitchen Chemists: Samuel Adams 2008 LongShot Winners!

2009-08-07T21:39:00.000-07:00

Boston Beer (the Sam Adams folks, of course) do some terrific stuff to promote craft beer and entrepreneurship in the U.S., which is reason enough to plunk down your bucks now and then to support them. It’s even better when you plunk down your bucks and get some pretty tasty beer! A good example of Samuel Adams’ stewardship of craft brewing excellence is their annual Longshot American Homebrew Contest. The 2009 winners have recently been announced, but before they draw all the oxygen out of the room, let’s spare a moment for the 2008 winners.

The 2008 Longshot American Homebrew Contest winners have hit the market in a nicely packaged boxed six-pack. I snagged one at the local Total Wine last week and just finished the last one this evening. It’s a testament to my recent beer experiences that these three winners are in styles that a year or so ago, I knew absolutely nothing about – least of all if I even like an IPA or a Bock or a Wit. (I’m still not always sure, but I’ve generally figured out that I’m not a huge fan of wits, I like bocks if the alcohol content isn’t too high, and IPA’s are pretty darned good if done right.)

So, in a nutshell, here’s the dope on the 2008 Longshot winners.

Longshot Double IPA (9.0% abv)
Created by Mike McDole of California
From the label: Mike’s Double IPA showcases his appreciation for hops. In fact, he included seven different varieties of American hops, totaling over six pounds of hops per barrel. The hops add an intense floral and citrus aroma to this brew.
Quick, how many times does the word “hops” appear in that blurb?
Here’s how my beer notebook reads: Bottle one. Strong scent of pine/grapefruit. Robust head, golden orange color. Surprisingly roasted taste but extremely bitter. Bottle two. Almost a chemical or medicinal smell. Cloudy bronze-orange color. Thick mouthfeel with a noticeable alcohol bite. More orange tasting than grapefruit.
Here’s some interesting dope from a beer guru at Beer Advocate, regarding why the release of this beer (and it’s winning companions) was delayed.

Longshot Traditional Bock (6.8% abv)
Created by Alex Drobshoff of California
From the label: Alex’s brew is a bright copper colored German inspired bock with a complex, full-bodied mouthfeel. Hints of rich plum and cherry aromas pared with its toasty malt flavor make this a great beer to linger over on a cool evening.

“To linger over on a cool evening?” Really? Rules out most of Arizona this time of year.
Here’s how my beer notebook reads: Bottle one. Nice color – reddish bronze color. Thin head, medium lacing. Malty smelling. Strong malt flavor. Bottle two. Very malty smell after an aggressive pour. Dark bronze. Gives the impression of a higher abv than 6.8%.
Wanna visit Mike's FaceBook page?

Longshot Cranberry Wit (abv not listed)
Created by Carissa Sweigart of Massachusetts
From the label: Inspired by hometown ingredients, Carissa’s Cranberry Wit is spiced with a blend of cinnamon, orange peel, coriander and grains of paradise, and finished with a touch of cranberry.

Cinnamon, orange peel and coriander, oh my. I remember the last time I brewed with cinnamon and orange peel – oh do I remember. It wah nath-tee.
Here’s how my beer notebook reads: Bottle one. Only a faint smell of berry. Cloudy orange color. Medium thick lacing, rather thick mouthfeel. Berry taste is only a mild hinting compliment to this beer’s character. The finish can’t be described. Bottle two. Taste here is very subtle, nearly non-existent, which tends to make this a good hot weather session beer. Surprisingly dry and typically thick like Hoegaarden. Oddly this is the only one of the three that does not have an abv listed anywhere on the packaging.

Click HERE! to vote for Carissa in St. Louis Alive Magazine’s 2009 Sexy and Successful Contest. (You’ll have to scroll down to find Carissa’s entry.) She’s an attractive, successful woman who also knows how to fashion a tasty beer. C’mon, people!

I have a personal philosophy about judging the efforts of others, which can best be summed up in my attitude toward most renditions of the National Anthem (except those done by the odd Hollywood numbskull who intentionally sings it wrong and badly). I figure there’s no way I could ever do a very good job of singing the national anthem so I’m usually very forgiving when it comes to a missed note or a forgotten word now and then. I’ve got a tiny bit more experience in brewing than I do in singing the National Anthem – having brewed two batches of beer at home. One was a red ale that turned out okay and the other was a cinnamon monstrosity that took on the consistency of sewer pipe sludge and didn’t taste much better. So, I’m inclined to give all three of the 2008 winners a rousing hoo-rah. I liked all their beers well enough but I’d say I preferred the Cranberry Wit, perhaps simply because it was the lightest of the three and currently the temperature here is over 110. The Traditional Bock came in second and the Double IPA rated third. The DIPA was just a bit too jazzed up in the abv percentage for my tastes.

Now go out and find one of these nifty little six-packs before they’re all gone – the packaging says “enjoy before September 2009” so hurry…or expect to pick them up at a discount if the Sam Adams folks don’t collect up the past due stock!

And thanks to the folks at Samuel Adams, too!

Longshot? Long post! Gee whiz!

What To Serve at the Beer Summit...

2009-07-28T20:28:00.000-07:00

Beer Intelligence Briefing

(There is no hidden meaning here, folks. I'm just not that deep.)

While I refuse to delve into the politics of tomorrow’s so-called “Beer Summit” at the White House I’d like to offer my suggestions on what Mr. Obama might serve, based on recent new tasting notes from this here beer notebook of mine.

Full Sail Brewing
Recipe Number 03 Limited Edition Lager
I think it would be nice to knock back a few of these while sitting at a picnic table outside the backdoor of the White Hose. This is a sweet grainy smelling lager with a sweet, very faintly citrus taste. Not too bad and it probably wouldn’t upset the sensibilities of those gathered, who might already be partial to lagers anyway. (I’m just guessing.)

Lost Coast Brewery
Raspberry Brown
This number has a nutty fruit syrup smell and tastes like a raspberry candy bar with a roasted nut component. Surprisingly, the raspberry flavor isn’t overpowering but I don’t know that our White House guests would want to pound a bunch of these during their “Beer Summit.” (Which might be a clever way to dose them up on a single beer and send them quickly on their way so as not to clutter up the Rose Garden and the East Lawn.)

St. Peter's Brewery
Cream Stout
If the host isn’t worried about creating an international incident (ahem, pouring a "foreign" beverage at a beer summit, really), he should consider pouring this beauty. It’s very malty smelling, pours nearly opaque with a beige head and has a nice toffee flavor up front with a faint hint of licorice. Arguably better than the Guinness 250 I sampled earlier this year.

Boulder Beer Company
MoJo Risin’ Double IPA
This distinctly bitter brew might serve as a metaphor for the bitter divide that seems to separate so much of our society but since I’m not looking for metaphors, we’ll skip all that. This beer has a surprisingly thick mouth feel, and while the citrus or pine accents aren’t there initially, the pine notes do begin to come forward as the beer warms in the glass.

I like all these beers enough to offer my unqualified recommendation. Mr. Obama, if you’re reading this (and I’m sure you are), go ahead and offer any one of these fine beers to your guests tomorrow.

End of briefing.

Mentioned in dispatches...

2009-07-24T20:49:00.000-07:00

I sent a note to the folks at Midwest & Rocky Mountain Microbrews to let them know about my neighbors at Old World Brewery and they very graciously replied with a thanks and a note that they’d added me to their “links” page. That’s nice. Go visit their pages and see what they’ve got to share.

Weather here continues to be over 100 degrees with monsoon type humidity levels. It’s nasty and I continue to pine for the 40 to 75 degree weather in Colorado. Had a couple Deschutes Obsidian Stouts and a Deschutes Inversion IPA this evening while grilling pork ribs outside in the yard. Life’s not all bad, is it?

Like it or not, I’ve got a date with a broken garbage disposal tomorrow. It doesn’t matter what nice things they may say about you one day because the next day you’ll have your head under the sink, fixing something, right? Probably ought to stop at three beers tonight, huh?

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Soon as I fix this disposal, I can have the grandkids over! (That’s my real reward.)

Hot Weather Ramblings

2009-07-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

We had some fun at my nephew’s birthday party yesterday – he’s only a couple years younger than me, but he’s seen a lot more, I’ll wager. For the fun of it, I picked up some Boulder Brewing Never Summer Ale and some Deschutes Inversion IPA. Given that the room was filled with a bunch of displaced Coloradoans, I’m not surprised that the Never Summer Ale went over a bit bigger. Nevertheless, I’m left with a couple and I’m tossing them back as I jot this post.

I am surprised to see this is their version of a winter seasonal…wha’? It’s really good and I think I’ve blogged it before so I won’t go much into it except to say it’s malty, tastes like bread and finishes dry.

I just like the name – Never Summer Ale – because it conjures up images of a past life spent in Colorado, and a failed attempt at a second life there after military service. You can’t go back folks. But you can pine away, living off the false recollection of what a place was and will never be again. What I do know is that it’s hotter than hell here at Beer Rant HQ and it’s significantly cooler up in the high country in a little place called Clear Creek County, Colorado.

On the other hand, come December, some place with a name like “Winterhaven” will seem awfully nice, too. It brings to mind something that a very wise fellow told me when I was in the army: “As a rule, man’s a fool. When it’s hot, he wants it not, when it’s not, he wants it hot.” (That guy rose to the rank of major general. I think he’s pretty smart.)

Cut ‘em Some Slack
I think we give the macro brewers too much grief – they probably don’t notice anyway – but we’re a bit hypocritical when it comes to the standards we set for the Miller/Coors/Bud conglomerates versus what we let some of the small fry get away with. Budweiser was excoriated for calling one of their beers “drinkable” in a recent ad campaign. Well, since the advent of that little goof, and the resulting web explosion, I’ve begun paying more attention to what the so-called micro-and craft-brewers are printing on their labels. I see the same sort of inane glittering generalities on labels from craft brewers as well, including the likes of Dogfish Head, too, folks. They characterize their Indian Brown Ale as “clean,” which I take to mean it’s not brewed with water taken from the Ganges River. (C’mon folks. If we’re going to set a standard, let’s have it apply to everyone or just drop it.)

The Dating Game
Speaking of labels: the last issue of Beer magazine had a rather inept article explaining how to read a beer label. (Thank heaven those nice folks at Coors have come up with those temperature sensitive labels so we know when our beer is cold, and thank heaven for the editors of Beer magazine, who will help us decipher the mysterious world of beer labels.) One of the label characteristics covered in the piece was date stamping or freshness dating. Well, again, I’ve begun paying more attention to beer labels lately and I have to say that freshness dates only work if you (meaning the brewers) actually use them. I recently encountered a label (Lost Coast Brewing Raspberry Brown Ale) whereon none of the months of manufacture were “notched.” What am I to take this to mean? It’s a bit like buying a new car battery and not punching the month and year of sale. (Grease monkeys will know what I’m talking about.) Bottom line: Freshness dating is a joke, in both the macro and micro brewing worlds. If consistency isn’t the be all, end all of brewing and beer drinking, then why the hell do we even care when a beer was “born”? Likewise, if we’re going to have a dating system, then let’s stick to it.

Gosh. I didn’t really intend to go all Beer Jerk in this post. I’m really just cranky because of the heat. All the Never Summer Ale is gone. I’ve had a Deschutes Inversion IPA and a Michelob something-or-other and I’m feeling a little better now.

Happy Birthday Dane!

Beer Magazine: An Amateur’s Appraisal

2009-07-07T20:46:00.000-07:00

I’m sort of in the market for a decent beer-related periodical. I want a decent value for my buck and I’m hoping to find something that I’ll enjoy reading – if not cover-to-cover, then nearly cover-to-cover. I pick up the odd copy of beer magazines when I see them. I’ve got the March 2009 issue of All About Beer and the July-August 2008 issue of Draft.

More recently, I picked up the July-August issue of Beer. This is actually my second copy of Beer magazine; I have the September-October 2008 issue sitting on the shelf, too. There may be a couple reasons why I’ve got two issues of Beer when I’ve only got one each of the others: Beer is more widely available and their magazines always sport some hot chick on the cover. (Yeah, I notice these things.)

But frankly, I’m still trying to decide where to send my subscription money and that’s a conversation for another time. Perhaps when I finally decide, I’ll make a post that spells out the reasoning behind my choice.

Meantime, I’d like to touch briefly on the good and the bad in the current issue of Beer magazine. No question, Beer magazine is aimed at a younger demographic that mine. The text is full of references to testicles, tits, and farts. The article format is an odd hybrid of the old USA Today, block section, microwave-cooking style aimed at busy folks with short attention spans. Okay, that’s fine. I’ve got a short attention span but as I’m getting older, I find that an organized, coherent format is always reassuring.

In the current (July-August) issue, I especially liked the Beer Anatomy segment dealing with Rauchbiers, that smoky style of beer that reportedly originated in Bamburg, Germany, centuries ago. I’ve enjoyed every smoked beer I’ve tried so far but my list is fairly short (Aecht Schlenkerla, Alaskan Smoked Porter and Stone Smoked Porter come to mind and the only three I remember trying to date). This article was informative, with really good tips on serving temperatures as well as terrific background on the variations of smoked beers. Noticeably absent from their list of common smoked beers was Alaskan Smoked Porter. I’d be curious to know if a brewer’s advertising history has anything to do with their odds of appearing on such a list.

Other highlights: I always enjoy the advertising because it gives me a notion of what to expect in the way of coming attractions. I really like the Taste Test section because, in addition to rating beers, they’ve gone the extra mile and included maps indicating what beers are available in what states. I like the beer models, too.

Now the downside. (Where I go all Beer Jerk.) I’m not a writer so I’m probably the least qualified person to be giving writing tips or criticisms. On the other hand, I am an experienced reader, which should qualify me to point out pointless dreck when I read it. The article entitled “Beer Worth Waiting For” is a hopeless hash of haphazard hooey. The piece is evidently about special release parties that brewers throw to bring out their limited release beers, but it’s too inside baseball to be of any use to me. I’m probably not hip enough to understand some of the references but I think I’m more in the loop listening to an hour of Howard Stern than I was trying to read this nonsensical piece. I’ll just end it there and assume the author was drunk when she wrote the article, the editor was drunk when he accepted the article and that, in order to preserve the natural order of things, I should have been drunk when I read the article.

That’s it folks. You didn’t ask for it, but there it is. Based on style, content and format, I’d have to say that Beer magazine is not high on the list of beer magazines for which I’d pay to have a subscription, but I’ve yet to fully explore the other options. I’m hoping to get something that’s monthly, inexpensive, reasonably educated but not snooty. I’ll keep looking.

Lagunitas Little Sumpin' sumpin' Ale

2009-06-29T07:25:00.000-07:00

I’d planned to save this one for a post in praise of the “manager’s special” but since this is a limited release beer, I figure I may want to make note promptly, lest I lose track of this little gem and never get it done.

I’m also prompted into action by a nifty – and recent – post at Bobs Beer Reviews. (It’s like that feeling you get when you see your neighbor out mowing his lawn; you suddenly feel you should probably be doing the same. For the record, my neighbor’s lawns all look better than mine.)

I stumbled onto this beer amidst a cart full of orphaned singles at the local Sunflower Market. Thankfully, I bought two of them. Having never tried any of Lagunitas’ beers, I figured it best to start out small.

Here’s the dope on this Little Sumpin’ sumpin’Ale:
Smells like an IPA, and pours a gold bronze color with a weak head. Distinctly grapefruit tasting, and to me this is an IPA in taste and style. The rather high abv isn’t too noticeable and I deem this beer to be “very good.” I’ll buy this one again, if I can find it before it’s gone. Odds are, she’ll hop back into that sporty hot rod of hers and be down the road too soon.

Here’s what some other bloggers had to say about this seasonal tramp:

Beer Tastes

Daily Brew HaHa

WTF is Mick Drinking? (WTF, indeed.)

Finally, the Lagunitas website. Their page for Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ doesn’t refer to it as an IPA, but more than a few web references I’ve seen refer to it as an IPA, which is where I place this one on the style meter. (For those of you checking the gages.)

The air conditioning is out here at Beer Rant HQ. Don’t know how long Mrs. Beer Rant and I will remain here if the temperature keeps climbing. Weep for us, and then ask us why the hell we’re still living in the damned desert.

In Praise of the Gimme' Glass

2009-06-23T18:25:00.000-07:00

It seems that Odell Brewing Company has broken into the Arizona marketplace. Color me colossally clueless but I’d been lumbering along on the assumption that they were already here. Geesh. I’d sampled some of their beer while visiting my sister in Denver last year and I suppose I’d just figured I could find them back here in the desert any darned time I wanted.

My son-in-law and I made a quick jaunt to Sunflower Market the Saturday before Father’s day, hoping to score something strange for the weekend. My son-in-law is on a porter kick of late and I can’t say I object in any way. Shucks, when I was that age, living in a barracks on the edge of Texas, I took a shine to Michelob Dark and probably figured I was a real progressive! At least my young marine friend is branching out in ways I’d never dreamed of at that age.

Anyhoo, as we perused the beer cabinet, a couple of lasses beckoned us to their wobbly card table display by asking, “would you like a sample?”

Sample? Beer? Beer sample? Hell yeah said we!

Long story short: Hensley Distributing has evidently taken on Odell Brewing Company as a client. I bought a six-pack of the IPA and a six-pack of the Pale Ale while my son-in-law opted for the tried and true Deschutes Black Butte Porter…I told you he was on a porter kick.

In the end, our new friends from Hensley gave us each an Odell’s pint glass and after quaffing a few beers in mine, I’ll set it proudly on the shelf next to a few others, most of which I’ve paid for. Ah, there’s something special about free beer swag!

Maybe I'll actually get 'round to posting a review of the Odell beers we bought that day.

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-21T12:05:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post, really. Just to wish every dad out there a happy Father’s Day. And if you’re lucky enough to still have your dad around, be sure to hug his neck real tight and wish him all the best, too. We only get one dad; take good care of yours so he’ll last a long, long time.

I think I’m having Chamberlain Pale Ale and spaghetti with Italian sausage later today. It’s gonna be nice. Two daughters, three granddaughters and one grandson close at hand. (Oh, and a couple of son-in-laws, too. It’s their special day as well.)

Cheers!

(Love you and miss you, dad.)

Beer Moment: For Openers...So Long, Buddy.

2009-06-19T20:38:00.000-07:00

I spent part of last Saturday helping my best friend Jon load his possessions into a pickup truck for his move to Oregon. I’m sad to see him go, but happy that he’s moving to some place cooler and thrilled that he’s going to enjoy a vastly deserved retirement in close proximity to his son.

For fun, I brought a six-pack of Sierra Nevada Summerfest and a six-pack of Four Peak’s Kilt Lifter, mostly for his son and I, because Jon doesn’t drink much. The process of packing and sorting a lifetime of possessions was a bit stressful for Jon and I’ll admit he probably could have used more than just the swig or two of Summerfest that he had.

At one point as we stood in the driveway looking for a way to pop open one of the Sierra Nevada’s, my eye lit upon a nifty old bottle opener hanging in the shed. It proved handy and, having asked Jon if I could have it, and having been told that I could, I dropped the thing in my pocket. It’s cool. It’s a Schmidt’s Beer opener and it’s already proven its worth back here at Beer Rant HQ.

I miss my buddy Jon. I’ve already called him (at 12 noon I managed to wake him from a nap) to see how he’s doing and he seems to be unwinding from the packing and moving. Temperature there the day I called was in the 70’s. Must be nice.

The bottle opener now hangs in my garage and when I see it, or use it, I’ll think of Jon who’s living someplace cooler now and deserves every bit of happiness he can get. Hope he’ll keep a spot on the floor open for me if it ever gets too hot down here!

(The Kilt Lifter went back to Oregon with Jon’s son. I hope he likes it.)

The Macros Were Micros Once, Too.

2009-06-15T18:10:00.000-07:00

Let’s face it, beer is an acquired taste. I don’t recall anyone remembering their first stolen beer (c’mon, we all stole our first beer) as, “light, refreshing, with a thin but prominent mouth feel,” or “hoppy with a dry finish.” Only after we season a bit and after we start making a living so we can buy our beer do we somehow begin to think ourselves too good for the Coors and Millers of the world. Frankly, we transform into Beer Knerds or Beer Knazis.

I’ve already noted that the takeaway message I got from the documentary Beer Wars was that we all need to support our local craft brewers. The lesson fairly blared from the screen. But much more subtle and perhaps unintended, was the notion that the likes of Coors and Budweiser, Pabst and Miller all started out as microbreweries with one arm tied behind their back as their immigrant founders struggled to establish their place in the market, all the while trying to strangle the competition with the one free arm.

I helped put Miller Brewing where it is today but I rarely drink Miller these days. I was raised just up the road from Coors brewery in Golden, Colorado and they hold a special place in my heart, but again, I don’t buy as much Coors product as I used to. I rarely buy Budweiser because I never cared for Bud products and I think the current raft of Clydesdale horsey ads are stupid. Nevertheless, I do from time to time have the occasional bottle of macro-brewed product, usually because it’s being offered at a party or it comes at a ridiculously low price. I’m just not so proud that I’ll ever say, “I’ll go without before I drink a Coors, or a Miller, or a Bud.” Besides, under certain circumstances, it doesn’t matter what the beer is; even if it's not great, it’s just good enough.

Oregon and Bust

2009-06-10T20:20:00.000-07:00

Don’t expect much and you’ll never be disappointed. That’s the best piece of advice I never got growing up. Admittedly, my recent quick jaunt to Klamath Falls, Oregon and back was really for the purpose of helping a buddy of mine drive a truck back to the desert southwest, but as the time for our departure drew near, I found myself fantasizing about the new beers I would find and acquire, even allowing myself the delusion of thinking perhaps I’d be able to bring some Oregon beers back to Beer Rant HQ.

In the end, I brought back just two bottles of Oregon beer.

My original draft of this post was way longer, but I’m reminded of a new year’s resolution of sorts; I’d promised to be more, shall we say, “concise” in my posting.

So, here’s the quick dope on my trip to Oregon and back.

Had a Guinness and a hamburger at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport.

Got held up at the ticket counter in San Francisco, thus missing an opportunity to visit the Anchor Steam Brewpub in the terminal. Settled for a bottle of Anchor in the waiting area. (I paid about $7 USD for that damned bottle of liquid bread.)

Arrived in Klamath Falls about 10 PM on a Friday. My buddy and I located his son outside the terminal and we quickly decided to stop at The Creamery, a local brewpub. (Now here is where I must violate my new year’s resolution and go into painful, plodding detail, if only to shine the searing light of shame on the place that is “the creamery.”

The Creamery: Don’t Bother (Us)

We wound our way through the rain-dampened streets of town and pulled up outside The Creamery with its blazing neon cow sign. I fetched my beer notebook out of the back of the car and we ambled in, planning to have a snack and at least one beer.

We stepped inside to find the circular bar almost fully occupied and the place well lit, but from there things went downhill in a hurry. As we approached the bar, one of the patrons turned and muttered something ending in the word “closed.” I looked at him like an out of town idiot (which I was at that point) and he muttered again, “kitchen’s closed.”

Okay, no problem, we’ll have a beer. We continued to amble around the corner of the bar and the barman says he’s through serving for the night. It’s barely 10:30 at night on a Friday, people! I’m not enough of a prick to spout off stuff like, “I just flew in from Arizona to sample your beer!” or “I’m a beer blogger and I was expecting to sample some of your product!” It’s just not that critical to me at this point. My buddy and his son (who lives in Klamath Falls and thought the whole episode was ridiculous) wandered back out to his car, proceeded to a Safeway store that looked like something right out of 1970 where we bought a six pack of Full Sail Ale and a six pack of Widmer’s Drop Top Amber Ale.

So here’s where I go all beer-jerk.

If the beer produced at The Creamery is any good at all, I figure they have two options: 1. They need to shut down their storefront “brewpub” and start bottling right now. The owners need to stop pretending to be in the restaurant business, roll up their sleeves, acquire some bottling or canning apparatus and get that tasty beer out to the folks. (They also need to fire any dork barkeep who shuts down the operation at 10:30 on a Friday night.)
2. If their beer actually sucks, they need to get out of the business altogether because it’s pretty clear they don’t have the restaurant business model figured out and if their beer sucks…well, do the math. In the midst of a microbrew/craft brew renaissance they’ll never make it if they plan on catering simply to the good folk of Klamath Falls.

Do I sound bitter? Do I sound like a beer jerk? Darned right I am. I did travel quite a long distance – not simply to sample beer at a place called the creamery – yes I did. In the end, I managed to get back to Beer Rant HQ with two bottles of beer from Southern Oregon Brewing Company, one a nice pale ale and another called a gold ale. I’ll get around to posting comments on them shortly. I won’t be bothering with anything concerning the creamery again, unless it’s to pile on more ridicule. Yeeesh!

Quick Riffs: A Post Before Traveling

2009-06-03T17:35:00.000-07:00

I’m laying off the weekday sampling for the next little bit and bracing myself for a quick trip up to southern Oregon for the weekend. (Helping a buddy bring back a truck.) In the meantime, it seems a good time to dip into this slush pile of notes in the notebook to document some recent, noteworthy beer samples.

Boston Brewing
Samuel Adams Blackberry Witbier
Sampled May 24, 2009
I’d been keeping an eye out for this one for some time and then basically lost interest when my son-in-law (“the marine”) sent me an excited text message proudly proclaiming he’d found it in a local Albertson’s supermarket. My son-in-law has a beer blog too; it’s called A Journey Through Beer. He does a respectable job but remember he doesn’t post much because he’s busy defending our country.

Repeat offenders here will recall I’m no huge fan of wits, but anything new from Sam Adams is worth a try in my book. This one has a distinctly berry smell that is faintly like a breakfast cereal. Pours cloudy gold color with a decent white head, medium beading and medium lacing. The standard witbier spices (that I often detest) are there but they are mitigated if not complimented by the faint blackberry finish. Good stuff.

Sierra Nevada
Torpedo Extra IPA
Sampled May 9, 2009
I first read about this one on another beer blog – the name of which escapes me now. I stumbled upon it at the local Total Wine outlet and bought a bottle for the recent trip to Sierra Vista, but, having sampled so much (perhaps too much) of the local Tucson beers, the bottle of Torpedo stayed in the cooler and came back to Beer Rant HQ with me for sampling a few days later.

Piney and sweet smelling, orange-amber in color. Has a distinctly sweet and piney taste, too, but not noticeably citrus. The 7.2% abv isn’t out front as you might expect it to be and this beer might be the sort of beer that sneaks up on you…like a, well, like a torpedo.

Grand Teton Brewing
Bitch Creek ESB Ale
Sampled on April 27, 2009
This is another one that my son-in-law wrangled. A marine from his unit got wind that he’s becoming a bit of a beer freak and brought a six-pack of this beer for him to try. Semper Fi!

Pours dark amber color with heavy lacing. Has a sweet taste with a slightly thick mouth feel. A second glass revealed this to be more malty than hoppy and highly carbonated. There’s a taste of roasted nuts or bread there too with a sweet finish. Hard to find hereabouts and pricey from what I hear, but worth a try for sure.

That’s it for now. I’m currently really interested in a couple of beer blogs that originate in London. Hopefully I can get around to posting something about them. In the meantime, I’m off to Oregon Friday evening with a layover in San Francisco, then a drive back from Oregon via California and Nevada. I’m hoping to cast about for some good beers while I’m gone and will check the shelves of the stores when we stop for gas coming back to see what package product I can acquire as souvenir.

Thanks for visiting.

Bisbee Deferred: Barrio and Nimbus Brewing, Tucson, Arizona

2009-05-26T08:17:00.000-07:00

I traveled to southeastern Arizona earlier this month for a work-related conference in Sierra Vista. Johnny Southside was kind enough to let me ride with him and our plan was to visit a couple breweries in Tucson before proceeding to Sierra Vista where we would check into the hotel, dump our bags, then make a dash in to Bisbee to hit some of the pubs there. My hope was to score a sample of some local beers, including products offered by Electric Dave in the Bisbee area.

What’s that old Yiddish saying? “Man plans and God laughs.” We didn’t get to Bisbee as we’d hoped due to equipment trouble. Still, it was a worthwhile trip, with nice stops at two places in Tucson. Here’s the dope:

Our first stop was at Barrio Brewing Company in a gritty industrial area of Tucson. The old warehouse building is enough to make you want to come inside for a closer look, but add fresh, local beer and the draw is just too strong to resist! The exterior of the building seems largely unchanged from the days when it housed the Tucson Warehouse and Transfer Company. The loading dock has been cleverly converted for use as a patio and you’ve got to climb some steps to enter the front door. The music and atmosphere at Barrios are top-notch and when we visited, early afternoon on a weekday, the place was not especially busy.

Once seated we were quickly greeted by a waitress and we had our orders placed in no time. I liked the fact that all the available microbrews were listed on a chalkboard along with their respective abv percentages – that’s always a nice bit of information to display for weary travelers who might be planning to have only a single beer for the road.

With my lunch I had a pint of their seasonal Copperhead Pale Ale, which weighs in at 5.7% abv. It was darker than most pales in my experience with a faintly sweet smell. The Copperhead Pale was a bit dry and grainy tasting and altogether a worthy beer and a nice companion to the plate of tacos that I had.

Next, I sampled a pint of Barrio’s Red Cat Amber (which gets its name from the fact that Tucson is home to the U of A Wildcats, I guess). The Red Cat Amber was darker than the Copperhead Pale (rightly so) and seemed more hoppy to me, though their website indicates otherwise. It also had a slightly thicker mouth feel and struck me as closer to an IPA than the Copperhead oddly enough. The Red Cat was sweet and not as dry as the Copperhead Pale Ale.

Southside and I settled the tab, thanked the nice waitress – who’ll be celebrating a birthday soon evidently – and we proceeded down the road to our next stop.

Nimbus Brewing Company sits in a similarly gritty part of Tucson and is located not too far from Barrios – though you wouldn’t know it from the drive because streets and traffic in Tucson are a bit of a nightmare. The thing that sets Nimbus’ location apart – I think - is its proximity to Davis Monthan Air Force Base. (That, and the giant hand protruding from the front of the building…holding, what else? A beer.) Johnny Southside and I took a couple of seats on the patio where we could watch the A-10 Warthogs coming in on approach just across the railroad tracks. We ordered up a dose of onion rings from a scruffy-faced bartender and I had a pint of Porter that didn’t appear to be on the printed menu. (Nimbus offers six beers packaged in bottles for sale but there are more beers available at the brewery.) The porter looked, smelled and tasted just like a porter should in my book; faintly sweet tasting with a hint of chocolate. I’d give it high marks and only regret that it isn’t one of the beers they offer for sale in bottles. I bought a t-shirt as a souvenir of the visit and in short order we were back on the road, never suspecting for a moment that we’d never actually get to Bisbee on this trip.

Ah well, it all worked out for the best. We survived the trip, survived the conference and managed to sample some new beers from Arizona brewers. I can’t say that I find reason to visit Tucson very often – maybe once every year or so – but I’m going to make a point of stopping at either Barrio Brewing Company or Nimbus Brewing Company (or both) the very next time I do get down that way. Perhaps we’ll even get to Bisbee next time!

(For the record, we did attempt to purchase some Electric Dave beer while in Sierra Vista but the nice lady at the liquor store said his shipments don't come in regularly. Too bad. Sorry Electric Dave.)

Think Globally, Drink Locally and Don’t Steal Kegs!

2009-05-19T19:25:00.000-07:00

(For those in need of a refresher: I've become especially interested supporting and tracking the progress of a local brewery that recently opened within a mile of Beer Rant HQ. My point in this is to follow through on what I think was a central message of the documentary film Beer Wars. If we want good, fresh locally produced beers, then we'd better damned well be willing to support such efforts when we see them. I figure Old World is worthy of our time and at least a bit of our money.)

I stopped by Old World Brewery today after work to sample some more of their product and happily got more than I’d bargained for. But first, let’s talk keg crisis, shall we folks?

You’ll remember a year or so back the net was abuzz with talk of a worldwide hop shortage. The kind folks at Boston Beer were helping out some of their smaller competitors in the craft beer industry and it was a wonderful time for all, I’m sure. Fact of the matter is, from what I’ve heard, the hop shortage was somewhat overblown but tell that to a guy who’s paying nearly $1,500 for a box of pelletized hops – to say nothing of the fellow who has to pay for whole buds - the real thing. Well now it seems there's a whole new shortage to contend with.

The crew at Old World Brewery still has their work clothes on and they’ve wrangled a distributor to begin making their beers available to a larger audience. That’s great, right? Well, sure, but what do you put that beer in? Short of a canning or bottling system, you’ve got to keg that delicious brew for shipping to the mass market. Problem is, there seems to be a shortage of kegs – “cooperage” to quote Old World principal Perry Parmely. I guess every crack addled ne’er do well in the greater Phoenix area is snagging unguarded kegs and cashing them in at the scrap yards for their value in stainless steel. (About 45 bucks according to Perry.) Remember the days when people stole kegs to make gas tanks for their hot rods? Remember when people stole milk crates to hold their long-playing record albums? Remember when people knew what “LSMFT” meant? Geez, I’m becoming a living relic!

So, we’ve hit upon yet another obstacle that a fledgling brewer must face. Sure, you’ve got the beer all brewed and gently aging in the tanks, but how the hell do you get it down the throats of your adoring public? Not something I’d ever thought about much. Glad I don’t make the stuff. Glad I just drink the stuff.

If you’ve got a local line on a reputable supply of kegs, won’t you please contact the crew at Old World Brewery and let them know you heard about their dilemma here at Beer Rant?

Which brings us to the “more than I’d bargained for” part of today’s discussion. I’ve now officially sampled every beer on the Old World Brewery list AND I’ve sampled some of what will soon be their Voyager IPA, which is at just over the two-week stage.

Today’s pints were:

Peg Leg Pale Ale
I’d asked for this during my first visit a week or so back, but they were out of it at the time. Seems this one must be their most popular product. I got lucky today and it’s telling that Perry remembered that I’d asked for this one originally because he specifically asked me if I wanted to try it (see if that ever happens at a big chain pub or brewery). This pale ale pours with a quick head and very little beading. The taste is both bitter hoppy and sweet, which must hint at some sort of careful balance that my uninitiated palate is incapable of picking up. It’s also vaguely nutty with low carbonation. Bottom line: Peg Leg Pale Ale is a good one and a decent example of the style.

I queried brewer Matt Mercer regarding Peg Leg’s hoppiness, stating that I figured it to be as hoppy as some IPA’s I’ve tried. That’s when Matt gave me some of the dope on the Voyager IPA he’s currently got in the works. He disappeared for a moment and returned with a short but stout sample glass of the pending Voyager IPA. I sampled it gratefully and found it still retains some sweetness that should diminish in a few more days as the sugars work off. It’s cloudy and has a significant bit of yeast sediment still, and while it’s not ready for primetime, it’s getting there. I’ll be curious to see if it is in fact hoppier than the Peg Leg Pale.

Nitro Blonde
Pours a nice orange-gold color with about a finger width of head initially. The taste is grainy –or of grain, but not necessarily corn. It’s hard to place. This one tastes like Bud and Miller wish they tasted like.

I finished my Nitro Blonde, wrapping up my chat with the Old World Brewery crew. Seems to me they’re pretty serious about this whole brewing thing. I don’t imagine it will be too long before they’ve broken into the Phoenix area bar market. I did notice that they still haven’t gotten that sign hung up on front of the building, though Patrick and Perry both assured me that the sign is in fact in the building and waiting for the “sign guy” to install it. So, don’t say I didn’t tell you that Old World Brewery might be a bit hard to find. Guess you’ll have to earn it.

Meantime, here's a picture of the growler I bought at Old World Brewery last week - reportedly the first growler to be sold on premises.

Next time: I plan to give some details of a recent trip through Tucson and a visit to Barrios and Nimbus. Standby!

Old World Brewery: Phoenix, Arizona

2009-05-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

New Neighbor, Old World

Almost a month ago, I committed to visiting Old World Brewery before making another post here at Beer Rant. My purpose then was to follow through on what I think was one purpose of the documentary film Beer Wars: to promote local brewers. My vow, my promise, grew out of the fact that the night I attended the local screening of Beer Wars, I was almost completely disappointed by the reaction of the local brewing crowd. None of the folks I talked to at the local Rock Bottom Brewery or Yardhouse seemed to know anything about the event, despite the fact that both were located in the same complex as the theater that screened Beer Wars.

But as I stepped out of the theatre, largely satisfied with the film and dissatisfied with the poor local marketing, I was met by Patrick Fields, eagerly boosting his newly opened Old World Brewery. It seems that Mr. Fields and his upstart operation succeeded where the likes of Rock Bottom and Gordon Biersch, Four Peaks and Papago had failed, and as I took the business card from his outstretched hand, Mr. Fields very kindly acknowledged that he remembered me from an earlier visit to his establishment (weeks before, when the first batch of beer had yet to be served). Here’s a link to my original post regarding Old World Brewery.

It’s taken too long but I did finally manage to pay a visit to Old World Brewery this past Saturday and again yesterday, when I purchased what I’ll claim is the first growler of beer to be sold from their fledgling north Phoenix operation. I have to say that, despite some initial apprehension following my first pre-brewing visit, I’m completely impressed with their product and ecstatic at the thought of having a microbrewery nearly within walking distance of Beer Rant HQ.

What have I sampled so far? The Dark Night Porter (of course), the Irish Red Ale and the Old World Wit. How’d they stack up?

Dark Night Porter
Dark as you’d expect with a robust beige head. Initially smells vaguely of sour coffee but not in an unpleasant way. Tastes distinctly of coffee, vaguely chocolaty and faintly smoky when sampled on tap. From the growler, not nearly as heady but the coffee taste is right there and, on the second day, perhaps a bit more smoky and decidedly flatter as one might expect.

Irish Red Ale
Smells of sweet tea and pours a dark red color – almost too dark to be a red but still light enough to pass with heavy lacing in the glass. Sweet grain taste with this red and a mildly dry finish, I think.

Old World Wit
Pours a deep orange color that is cloudy opaque and very eye-catching. I characterize this one as a Hoegaarden that I can actually palate. By this I mean that the coriander and spice tastes aren’t so extreme that the beer tastes completely like a breakfast sausage. Frequent visitors will know that I’m no fan of wits but this one isn’t bad and it may be the ideal gateway beer for folks trying to jump off the Blue Moon bandwagon. The Old World Brewery brewer Matt Mercer tells me that this first batch turned out a bit more orange than they’d expected but I’d say it makes for a nice floorshow in any event.

So far, in four visits to Old World Brewery, I’ve met each of the principle players at least once; not something that’s likely to happen in the Coors tasting room. I have it on good authority- from someone who dared to briefly block his view at a Colorado Avalanche game - that Pete Coors is a real horse’s ass anyway. The fellows at Old World Brewery are not, as far as I can tell, horse’s asses.

Which brings this little story full circle, I hope. It would seem to me that the guys at Old World Brewery managed to see an opportunity that others missed when Beer Wars hit the screen for a single night last month. Maybe it was small potatoes and too insignificant for the likes of Gordon Biersch, Rock Bottom and so forth. What I do know is that someone at Old World Brewery thought enough to meet the beer drinking public the night Beer Wars was screened and, if I remember the crux of the film, that’s what it is all about.

If you live in the greater Phoenix area, find your way to Old World Brewery at 201 West Lone Cactus Drive, just south of the Deer Valley Airport. But look carefully; when I was there yesterday, they still hadn’t put up their sign, which was scheduled to be delivered today. Old World Brewery is working to earn your support.

Here’s their product list, so far:
Nitro Blonde, 4.2 abv
Old World Wit, 4.8 abv
Peg Leg Pale Ale, 5.2 abv
Irish Red Ale, 5.5 abv
Dark Night Porter, 5.8 abv

Beer Wars Recap

2009-04-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

I saw Beer Wars last Thursday. My son-in-law graciously served as my designated driver; he was on call as duty NCO at his unit and I suspect we were both silently praying that his duty phone didn’t ring during the movie! We were joined by one of my co-workers and his wife and, based on comments following the screening, it seems that everyone enjoyed the movie just fine.

I have a new appreciation for Sam Calagione at Dogfish Head Brewing. Even if I can’t say I like most of his beers, I do appreciate his work and what he’s trying to accomplish. Let’s face it, there’s something of the huckster in old Sam. I’ve sampled about half a dozen Dogfish Head beers and have only settled on two that I’d ever buy again with certainty (their Punkin’ Ale and their Chicory Stout) – I poured one of his raisin abominations down the drain and could barely finish something that was brewed with peaches. So what? I bought the beers at an inflated price because of their novelty and I’ll probably purchase other Dogfish Head beers in the future – again at a higher than usual price – and that will keep Sam and his folks forging along, so long as thousands of others buy into the same game that I’m buying into.

I was expecting more of a hatchet job on the Coors/Miller/Budweiser cabal, but the conspiracy theory in the movie seems to revolve around something called the “three tier system” and honestly, I drink too much to ever understand the intricacies of this monster, save to say that it props up the big breweries and makes it damned near impossible for smaller brewers to ever gain a foothold in the market.

I do think it’s worth pointing out that the giant brewers started out as microbreweries oh so many years ago. This point was touched upon during the panel discussion (that might just as well have been left off the schedule as far as I’m concerned) by author Maureen Ogle.

Here’s a real review of Beer Wars, which was posted by Chipper Dave over at Fermentedly Challenged.

My primary criticism is probably aimed at the local venue – perhaps it’s telling that I don’t even know whom to blame (maybe it’s that three tier system keeping the little man down). Marketing for this film seemed nearly nonexistent in the Phoenix area. I made a point of attending the Desert Ridge screening because I know that there are at least three brewpubs within walking distance of the theater. We stopped at Rock Bottom Brewery for dinner and I mentioned to our server that we were headed to see Beer Wars; he hadn’t heard of it and was shocked to hear that it was a one-night showing. Having finished our dinner and a beer, we walked over to Yardhouse which is literally within a stone’s throw of the theater’s front door (we could see the ticket window from our seats on the patio) and again, our server knew nothing about the screening of Beer Wars.

Just as I was about to give up on my local beer purveyors and their ability to get the word out about a decent enough beer movie, my hopes were raised as we walked out of the theatre. There, handing out business cards was Patrick Fields of the newly hatched Old World Brewery located just north of Beer Rant Headquarters. Recognizing him, I shouted “Old World Brewery” even before taking the card from his outstretched hand. He replied, “I remember you.”

I’ve posted something here about Old World Brewery recently (Click here to see it.) and you have my solemn vow, I won’t post another thing until I’ve visited Old World Brewery. He seems to be the only person hereabouts who managed to work in a local beer connection to coincide with the screening of the movie. The least I can do is go buy a couple pints at his establishment.

For the record, here’s a list of what I tried that was new last Thursday:

Desert Trail Pale Ale (Rock Bottom Brewery)
Orange-amber in color, this one smells as hoppy as some IPA’s. It has a slightly roasted taste with a hint of citrus like an IPA but more orange than grapefruit and not as dry as an IPA.

Anderson Valley Hop Ottin IPA
Arrived with a weak head and smelling of candy and definitely hoppy in the glass. This one tastes like a sweet breakfast cereal. Worth a second try when things are a little less hectic.

Avery White Rascal
Light yellow color with a fishy, smoky smell, this one reminds me too much of Hoegaarden – tasted like sausage. Why do I even bother with these white beers?

Stone IPA
I sampled this one at the Yardhouse after the movie because the movie included segments with the chief cook and bottle washer at Stone. Frankly I’ve always been put off by their “better than you deserve, too good for you” marketing jive, but I have liked what they produce and this IPA is no exception (I recall that I’ve had it before in bottles). It smelled like grapefruit and sawdust and tasted just fine to me. I’ll buy another some time.

Okay, that's it. Suppose I'd better get myself up to Old World Brewery for a taste now that they're up and running.

Beer Wars Coming To A Theater...Near Me!

2009-04-14T18:21:00.000-07:00

I purchased my tickets to see Beer Wars Thursday night at the Desert Ridge venue. Since there is a Rock Bottom Brewery, Yardhouse and a BJ’s brew pub all within walking distance of the theater, I’m going to arrange to take Friday off as a vacation day. Perhaps one of the smarter things I’ve done lately. It doesn’t hurt that my son-in-law has also graciously offered to be a designated driver (because he’s on call ).

Here's a link to the Beer Wars Movie website:
Beer Wars: The Movie

I owe a big tip of the trucker hat to Virgil over at Vbg-log for making me aware of this movie’s existence in the first place. If I have a crappy time, it’ll be my fault and not his.

2009-04-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

A Bobcat Walks Into a Bar…

Yeah, it’s a bad joke that probably ends up with Marlin Perkins and “Jim” arguing over who’s going to buy the next round.

In the real world, in the real Wild West, wild animals do still belly up to the bar I guess. In Cottonwood, Arizona, right up the road from Beer Rant HQ a rabid bobcat attacked some local saloon patrons. You can read the story here. I also see that a couple of news stories have already made the YouTube circuit and they include camera footage from the incident. Cool.

When A-1 Wasn’t Just a Steak Sauce…

I happened to snap a photo of a neat old beer sign while visiting another remote Arizona town a week or two back. A-1 beer has been out of circulation for years but this sign looks to be fully functional and in great condition, atop a pole outside a building in Aguila, Arizona.

I posted a piece about the A-1 women’s baseball team awhile back. You can see it here. You can also visit A-1 Beer Prints for a great history of A-1 beer. My last recollection of A-1, is drinking it warm out of cans that sported images of famous figures in western history. I think the mountain man Bill Williams was on the can I last had – wish I’d saved that can.

Four Peaks Brewing evidently offers their Sunbru Kolsch as an homage to A-1 beer but you’d be hard pressed to figure that out in looking at their literature. (Not much of an homage if you don’t tell people!) Maybe I just dreamt up that whole homage thing. Here’s my earlier take on Sunbru. I didn’t know of its link to A-1 at the time I wrote this post, so I’m more inclined to try Sunbru again and will next time I visit the Four Peaks outlet near me. (Probably should quiz the server to see what he or she knows about Sunbru’s connection to A-1. Probably get a blank stare…I’m used to that, I have kids and grandkids.)

But while we’re on the topic of Arizona sites, here’s a picture of the original Four Peaks covered in a dusting of snow.

(More) Last of the Winter Wine
As I compose this, I’m drinking what will likely be the last glass of Gordon Biersch Winter Bock until much later this year. The label indicates it was bottled on November 5th, 2008 and it has held up well these few months, squirreled away in a cabinet out in the garage. But, with temperatures here starting to climb, I’m not eager to let this one weather the elements for too long so the option was bring it inside or drink it now. I’ve been busy with a lot of things – not this blog, that’s for sure – and as a bit of a wind down, I’ve decided to drink it today.

Watch out for them bobcats.

Lump of Coal. How Ironic.

2009-03-09T20:16:00.000-07:00

File this under “Ungrateful Bastard” If You Like.

Where I work, there really isn’t such a thing as a “promotion.” If an opening occurs above you, you must apply for that job and interview alongside the myriad other desperate folk, eager to make their way in the organization.

I’ve been “promoted” a few times over the years, but I only remember my last real promotion. It must have been about 1986. I was in the hallway of a three-storey barracks building in far west Texas, making my way outside to stand in morning formation. My sergeant stopped me in the hall and said, “Smitty, you’re out of uniform.” (My goodness, doesn’t every platoon have a “Smitty”?) Panicked, I looked myself over and couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Smiling, Sergeant Nikita said, “You’re wearing the wrong rank. You’ve been promoted to E-4.” He then handed me two of his old Specialist-4 rank insignia. Ah, those were the days.

Well, I’ve been “promoted” in my current job, which is to say I applied for the job vacated by my now-retired supervisor and I’ve been chosen to take his place (big shoes to fill). Problem is, part of me is unhappy about the salary they’ve offered. The other part of me is telling the unhappy part of me, “Man up and be glad you’re not completely out of a job crybaby.” So I’ll let it go at that. Gee whiz.

In honor of today’s step up on the job, I finally popped open that bottle of Ridgeway Brewing’s Lump of Coal Stout. I’d like to say I was really, really impressed by Lump of Coal, but all I can say is that it’s the best of the Ridgeway products that I’ve had in the past few months.

Today’s tasting notes read thusly:
Dark coffee color, not opaque. Malt smell. Dry with a hint of chocolate but very faint. Medium to thin mouth feel.

I would also add that there’s a hint of licorice or other spice in the finish, especially as the beer warms in the glass. Not a bad beer and one that I’d be willing to track down next yuletide.

Guess I’ll finish up here, prepare myself for another week at work, and be glad for it.

Beers For Smart@ss: Pipeline Porter.

2009-03-06T15:53:00.000-08:00

I’ll try to keep this brief.

I have reports that Smart@ss is still on the no beer wagon. I’ve also heard that Smart@ss was recently wandering the aisles of a local liquor emporium, a dazed look on his face. I think Smart@ss needs a quick trip to Hawaii. Since I can’t spring for the cost of a flight to Hawaii, I’m springing for the price of a bottle of Kona Brewing’s Pipeline Porter. Who-hoo.

If you visit Musings of a Smart@ss (and I insist that you do), you’ll quickly figure out that he’s infinitely more intelligent than the head cook here at Beer Rant. (His comment about HopKnot IPA: They should come out with a beer that has no hops and call it Hop Not…who are the advertising wizards that came up with this one….I added that last part, sorry, I’m infantile.) You might also ask the question: if he’s such an articulate wordsmith when he’s been barred from drinking beer, what sort of writer, philosopher, scientist might he be when he’s on the brew? If you ask that question, log off and get the hell out of here! You think too much and ask too many questions and you’re spoiling the trip to Hawaii!

So, I’m thinking that Smart@ss has his smelly feet propped up on some convenient piece of rattan furniture on some glistening beach on “the big island” or the “second to largest island” or perhaps “that measly turd of an island that hangs out on the end of the chain,” I don’t know. It’s Hawaii for crying out loud! I don’t imagine the day is too hot or too humid since, though it’s relatively low in abv percentage, Pipeline Porter is probably best suited for a mild climate setting. The pour is coffee dark, the tan colored foam a beauty to behold. The smell is vaguely of coffee and chocolate. The taste is of roasted coffee with a slightly sooty finish. Smart@ss smiles, takes another drink and watches as the sun sets and the local surf folk amble up the beach retreating to their nocturnal haunts.

Cheer’s Smart@ss. Surf's up!

The Great Arizona Beer Festival is this weekend. I won’t be there. Why would I? Someone’s got to get Smart@ss back from Hawaii and he’s certainly not in any shape to fly the plane himself!! Geez! Do you people listen at all?

For a list of all the beers that have been “had” for Smart@ss, go over to Vbg-log where everything is way hipper than here at the Rant – he twitters! Hell I don’t even flutter anymore.

Not brief after all, huh? Suffah.

Working Class is Where You Find It: Steel Toe Stout

2009-03-02T07:18:00.000-08:00

For me there is something of a disconnect between a beer that is hard to find or high in price and the notion of a working class guy or gal plunking down their last crumpled up wad of one dollar bills for a six pack. I think on a national scale, this is an unlikely scenario and that folks we think of as working class are probably still supporting the brewing industry by their purchase of Pabst, Bud and Coors…and Miller…oh, and Schlitz. Man, there are a lot of truly working class beers out there when you get right down to it. So, let’s leave cost out of the equation for the purposes of this conversation and deal with the availability angle.

I might consider Ska Brewing Steel Toe Stout to be a working class beer if I’m pulling it off the cooler shelf at a corner market in Durango, Colorado, but I don’t think of it the same way when I’m buying it at a national liquor store chain in Phoenix. This notion figures closely with Stan Hieronymus’s recent piece “The Importance of Drinking Local” in All About Beer magazine. Mr. Hieronymus speaks of the special experience that comes, as a visitor, with stopping by a local establishment to sample locally produced beers. I guess I’m flipping this scenario on its head and pointing out that a working class beer really only caters to the working class of the region in which it is born and that once that beer leaves the neighborhood in the back of a truck, it becomes a different kind of beer for the masses. Not a bad thing, just a distinction, folks. (I don’t include the big brewers like Miller, Coors and so forth in that equation since they are all around a different animal and have been playing both sides of the working class/white collar fence for decades.) I suppose this is another aspect of what I've been referring to as setting and circumstance.

Hard-to-find working class beers probably grow out of the old days when there were more local brewers who catered to the local working folk. I believe that situation is coming back into vogue in places like Oregon and Colorado and perhaps parts of California. Local working men and women latch onto a particular local brand of beer that’s made by the brewpub or microbrewery in town or just down the road. These are truly working class beers in the original sense. I think where the disconnect comes is when a beer leaves it’s neighborhood and receives wider distributorship; it becomes too much of a novelty in the other places where it’s offered. You can’t be working class, rare and quirky at the same time and (though I’d promised to leave price out of this discussion) you definitely can’t be all those things and expensive.

What about the beer, dummy?

I can’t say that I was bowled over by Ska’s entry into the milk stout category; it was good enough I suppose. I'm partial to all stouts and porters anyway. My notes from last Friday state: “Dark coffee color, almost opaque. Quick tan head with medium lacing. Faint coffee taste, slight sour finish then gone.” I suspect that, served on tap in some dimly lit bar in southern Colorado, this stuff is dynamite. I'll buy this again, if the price is right. I also like Ska's website and suddenly wish I could be in Durango today – especially since it’s going to hit 90 degrees here at Beer Rant Headquarters this afternoon! Browsing Ska's other beers, I’m also feeling inclined to go out and find some of their imperial porter!

See you 'round the jobsite!

Too Much Information....

Which brings me to the whole “working class” handle. I wear steel-toed boots every working day of the week. (Those are my clod-hoppers in the picture.) Am I working class? I have a college degree and spend about as much time in an office as I do out in the field. Am I white collar? I was summoned to a state senator’s office to explain a constituent issue a couple years ago; does that make me white collar? I wore steel-toed boots during my visit to the capitol; does that make me working class? During the introductions, when I gave my name, the senator indicated that I was the guy on the hot seat. I looked around the table and then at the senator and said, “I think I’m the lowest paid guy here, so that makes sense.” Does that make me working class, or just stupid?