The garage is my fridge!

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.”

Weighing In. Weighing Anchor.

I’ve been on something of a tear with the new beers the past couple of weeks. I’ve racked up quite a slush pile of beer notes and comments. Here’s one for a beer I sampled back on May 6th: Liberty Ale, which is put out by the Anchor Brewing Company in California.

This beer is listed in Michael Jackson’s Great Beer Guide: 500 Classic Brews and I’m pleased to be able to add it to my list of “bagged” beers. You’ve all got a beer list, right? My list is basically anything from Jackson’s book and while I’ll never add all the beers in this book to my list of beers tried (since some of those listed are evidently unavailable now) I’m having a fun time tracking down those that I can find.

I’ve struggled with acquiring this beer for a year or more. Seems I never have the book when I see an Anchor Brewing product in the store and I could never remember which Anchor products are listed in the Great Beer Guide (Liberty, Old Foghorn and “Our Special Holiday Ale” are the beers listed in the book). I got lucky during a recent scouting trip and found six packs of Liberty at the local Trader Joes and the Old Foghorn at AJ’s Fine Food. Needless to say, I bought examples of both – life’s short friends.

I like beers with history and beers dedicated to history and while Liberty Ale only dates back to 1975, it came about in commemoration of Paul Revere’s famous ride in 1775. That’s pretty cool. I wonder what sort of drinking fellow Paul was.

The Tasting

Heavy smell of hops in the bottle, yielding a medium head from an under aggressive pour with light beading. Appears amber to dark orange in color with light lacing on the glass. A very dry beer with a simple beer taste (my novice taste buds fail me here). This beer just tastes like you’d think a beer would taste! I’ll be a customer again.

Don’t take my word for it

Anchor Brewing’s Liberty Ale page is here:
http://www.anchorbrewing.com/beers/libertyale.htm

Here’s the listing on Rate Beer:
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/anchor-liberty-ale/47/

The Disgruntled Chemist rates it 8 out of 10 here:
http://thedisgruntled.blogspot.com/2008/03/beer-blogging-anchor-brewing-liberty.html

Finally, the group at Beer Advocate
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28/665/

(I'm off for Grand Canyon tomorrow and will be gone a couple days - don't know what beer stories I'll pick up while I'm gone, but I'm hoping for the best.)

American Craft Beer Week and Other Stuff

Today begins American Craft Beer Week and I feel a bit like a minor league ballplayer trying to work his way up into the majors – perhaps trying too hard.

I selected a local beer to taste and review for this the first day of American Craft Beer Week, but let’s wait and get to that last. First some of the other stuff I’ve crammed into the last few days.

I’ve been hearing about a beer bar called Yard House, which has two locations in the greater Phoenix area. My son-in-law and I visited the one in north Phoenix this past Friday. I took the opportunity to carry – for the first time – my beer tasting notebook. First I ordered a pint of Old Speckled Hen. A rich cream ale, our server compared it to Boddington’s, which I’ve had in a can. Wow! This is a great beer. Smells of milk and fruit in the glass, with a thick head that leaves very heavy lacing.

We’d told ourselves that we’d have a pint apiece and be on our way. So, for the second round, I ordered a Left Hand Milk Stout, partly because I tend to like stouts and partly because it has a cool name. It wasn’t until later that I learned that this beer is brewed in Colorado. The beer arrived with a thick head of nearly two fingers, and smelling of chocolate. The beer tasted mildly of a chocolate milkshake or malt.

Both beers were outstanding, but of the two I preferred (by a narrow margin) the Old Speckled Hen. I dutifully jotted notes in my tasting notebook; we finished an order of onion rings, paid the tab and headed for home. (For the record, my son-in-law had something from Kona Brewing and a Killian’s Red.)

On Saturday the 10th, I tried a bottle of Four Peaks Brewing 8th Street Ale. It smells of grass and hops in the bottle. Light orange in color with a small but steady amount of beading. 8th Street Ale tastes slightly of caramel and has a weak finish. While nothing would please me more than to rave about this local beer, frankly it’s nothing to write home about. It’s a middle of the road beer that I might buy again if I were entertaining guests from out-of-town. I’ll try to get over to their brewpub and have a glass of this on tap to see if it’s better.

Mother’s Day dawned bright and hot. To save my bride the hassle of working in a hot kitchen I agreed to grill some chicken outside. I like a bit of a beer companion when I’m out there alone slaving under the ash tree. For this special Sunday, I selected a Liberty Ale from Anchor Brewing. I haven’t actually taken any tasting notes for this one yet – I’ve still got 3 or 4 saved for that. Suffice it to say this is a nice beer for a hot day and it complimented the grilled chicken nicely.

Which brings us to today, Monday, May 12, 2008, the first day of American Craft Beer Week. For the occasion, I selected a bottle of Oak Creek Brewing’s Nut Brown Ale. This is brewed in Sedona, Arizona. It smells of wheat bread and roasted nuts, pours a dark tea or coffee color with a thin, tan head and a little lacing. It tastes of nuts and coffee and finishes a bit dry with a coffee flavor that’s quickly gone. I’m glad to be able to give this local beer a definite thumb’s up – I’ll buy this again and I think this beer may be the excuse I need to finally visit Sedona after over 30 years in Arizona!

Don't take my word for it.

Here's a link to American Craft Beer Week.org: http://www.beertown.org/events/acbw/index.html

Here's how to find out more about Yard House: http://www.yardhouse.com/flash/default.asp

Old Speckled Hen got pretty good grades at Beer Advocate: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/203/637

Left Hand Milk Stout, likewise at Beer Advocate: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/418/3434

Here's the Left Hand Brewing site: http://www.lefthandbrewing.com/

Here's the Beer Advocate dope on 8th Steet Ale (looks like I'll have to try it as a draft product): http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2171/6815/?ba=PhxHorn

Here's the page for Oak Creek Brewing's Nut Brown Ale over at (yes, again) Beer Advocate: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/717/7133/?ba=FMetzger

Happy American Craft Beer Week! More in a day or so.