Housekeeping...

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

Beer Moment & Closing The Book

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!

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

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.

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.